When Samsung launches the Galaxy S27 Ultra early next year, the flagship phone could be much different phone compared to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. A slew of rumors and confirmed news in the last few days revealed one massive upgrade and at least two potential downgrades.
First, the upgrade with the rumored debut of a silicon-carbon battery in the S27 series. This news isn't totally surprising as Samsung finally put this newer battery technology in the recently launched Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra.
The rumor comes from two different sources: The Galox on X and YouTuber TechDroider. Both claimed that the S27 Ultra will get a 5700 mAh silicon-carbon battery.
If the battery rumor is true this would be the first capacity upgrade to the Ultra model since the Galaxy S20 Ultra. That's seven generations of phones with essentially the exact same battery.
While Chinese phone makers have been pushing silicon carbon battery equipped devices since 2024, Samsung has taken a more conservative approach.
“We have been testing silicon batteries for quite some time. We’re looking at being very — I wouldn’t say conservative — but more taking it one step at a time," Samsung's Jay Kim — the executive VP of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series — told Tom's Guide Mark Spoonauer.
Still, the new battery bumped the Z Fold 8 Ultra up to 5,000 mAh, a big boost from the 4,400 mAh lithium ion in the Fold 7.
It doesn't necessarily mean Samsung was always going to put a silicon-carbon battery in its main phone line but signs are looking good.
Worse cameras
One of The Galox's rumored specs is a 50MP 5x telephoto lens and a second telephoto camera in the S27 Ultra. However, regular Samsung leaker Ice Universe threw some water on the rumor claiming that there will be no second telephoto camera.
If true that would be a downgrade from the current setup which features a 200MP main, 10MP telephoto, 50MP periscope telephoto and a 50MP ultrawide. Per Ice Universe, the S27 Ultra would drop the 10MP telephoto lens.
At the same time, Ice put up another post asserting that Samsung is using inkjet printing technology to make the camera module thinner. This could make the camera array smaller overall.
One of the flaws of the S26 Ultra is its massive camera bump, which makes it impossible to set the phone down flat anywhere. As an S26 Ultra owner, it's one of the more annoying aspects of the phone.
If I'm being honest, I'd rather have the smaller camera bump than an extra telephoto lens.
Beyond that, both The Galox and TechDroid suggested that the camera array could spread across the entire width of the phone mimicking what Apple did with the iPhone 17 Pro models. If the S27 Ultra is missing the fourth camera, it seems the iPhone and Galaxy phones will be nearly indistinguishable.
Higher prices
Unfortunately, next year's Galaxy S27 Ultra is likely to be more expensive. Samsung managed to keep the starting price of the S26 Ultra at $1,299 the same as the S25 Ultra.
However, late last week, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon confirmed to CNBC that it will increase prices for its Snapdragon silicon. This means the costs will be put on smartphone makers like Samsung, which can't even get its own memory division to lower prices for the mobile division.
“Cost went up, prices are going to go up,” Amon told CNBC. Amon specifically blamed the supply constraints on memory for the increase. He did say the price increase was "temporary," but with the AI-driven RAM crisis not expected to abate until 2028 at the earliest, it's not clear how long this "temporary" hike will last.
Still, it means the next Samsung phone will likely be more expensive.
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