Samsung might kill one of the Galaxy S27 Ultra’s rear cameras

Samsung’s Galaxy S Ultra phones have offered four rear cameras since 2021’s Galaxy S21 Ultra, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra also following this trend. Unfortunately, two sources have now claimed that Samsung could drop one camera next year.

Veteran tipster Ice Universe refuted an X user’s post claiming that the Galaxy S27 Ultra will have a second rear telephoto camera. Instead, the leaker says the upcoming phone only has a 50MP 5x telephoto shooter.

Korean outlet ET News corroborated this claim by reporting that the Galaxy S27 Ultra would indeed drop the 3x camera, citing industry sources. The outlet specifically says the phone will pack a 200MP main camera, a 50MP 5x telephoto camera, and a 50MP ultrawide lens. It adds that the Galaxy S27 Pro will offer the same main and ultrawide shooters, but will swap the 50MP 5x camera for a 12MP 3x shooter.

“The camera image quality has reached a technical saturation point,” a supply chain official was quoted as saying about the decision to drop the 3x camera. “It appears this decision was made to cut costs due to severe pressure on manufacturing expenses.”

This would nevertheless be a disappointing turn of events for the Galaxy S27 Ultra and Samsung. The 10MP 3x camera is absolutely ancient at this point, owing to the low-resolution sensor. Furthermore, the 200MP main shooter can capture a comparable level of detail at a 3x crop. However, the 3x camera’s focal length makes it more ideal for portrait photos than the 5x camera. Furthermore, the 3x shooter is handy for macro photos due to its low minimum focusing distance.

If anything, I expected Samsung to finally upgrade the 3x camera with a higher-resolution sensor (e.g., 50MP). This would’ve enabled 6x lossless-resolution zoom while also ensuring good image quality at interstitial zoom levels (i.e., 3.1x to 4.9x). In fact, many other Ultra phone manufacturers have switched to 200MP telephoto cameras.

This wouldn’t be the first time we heard about Samsung potentially dropping the 3x camera, as Ice Universe made the same claim in April. The tipster claimed at the time that the company would return to a variable aperture main camera instead. Either way, it seems increasingly likely that next year’s Ultra phone won’t have a 3x shooter.