The Galaxy S27 Ultra may fix my biggest Samsung complaint, but I’m worried it’ll create a new one

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A smartphone’s design can genuinely make or break whether I want to use it. I know, I know, you should never judge a book by its cover, but a phone is different. It’s something I’m going to look at every single day, probably hundreds of times, so yes, looks matter to me.

But there’s another side to that. I also don’t want to keep buying and using what feels like the same phone over and over again, and that’s increasingly how I’ve felt about Samsung. I’ve been using its phones, especially the Ultra models , for the past four or five years, and while Samsung has refined the formula with each generation, the overall design has barely advanced.

That’s exactly why the leaked Galaxy S27 Ultra renders immediately caught my attention. For once, Samsung seems willing to mess with a formula it has relied on for years and try something noticeably different. And after all the grief I’ve given Samsung for recycling the same designs year after year , I genuinely never expected to say this: I like where Samsung seems to be headed in 2027, even if I’m not completely sold on it yet.

Android Headlines and OnLeaks have revealed the Galaxy S27 Ultra from pretty much every angle, and I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking at these renders. The more I look, the more I like what Samsung seems to be doing. Not because I think the S27 Ultra looks incredible, but because, for the first time in a while, I don’t feel like I’m looking at the same Galaxy Ultra all over again.

Most of that feeling comes from the cameras. Those three camera rings in a line we’ve become so used to are no longer sitting on their own. Instead, Samsung appears to be adding a raised section underneath them, which immediately gives the back a different look. Two cameras sit together, while the third is part of a longer, pill-shaped section alongside the flash. And yes, it’s difficult to look at this without seeing a bit of the iPhone 17 Pro Max and OPPO Find X9 Pro in there.

And Samsung may have a good reason for this change beyond simply giving the S27 Ultra a new look. A larger camera section potentially gives the company more room to play with, whether that means bigger camera hardware, better cooling, or finally making magnetic charging work properly. If I have to live with a slightly busier-looking back in exchange for Samsung having more freedom to improve what’s inside the phone, that’s a trade-off I can get behind.

I’m keeping my expectations in check, though, especially when it comes to the cameras. The telephoto still looks fairly small in these renders, so a bigger camera section doesn’t necessarily mean we’re getting massive hardware upgrades across the board. For now, what excites me more is simply being able to look at a new Galaxy Ultra and immediately feel like I’m looking at something new.