Samsung’s next flagship may be heading toward a major camera redesign. A new leak surrounding the Galaxy S27 Ultra suggests Samsung is preparing one of its biggest imaging shifts in years, centered around a larger 200-megapixel main sensor and the return of mechanical variable aperture hardware — a feature the company last used on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S10 series.
According to the leak, the Galaxy S27 Ultra could feature a new 1/1.2-inch 200MP sensor, significantly larger than the one used on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. That increase in sensor size would likely improve low-light performance, depth separation, and overall light capture, while Samsung is also said to be introducing LOFIC sensor technology for improved HDR handling and highlight retention. LOFIC — short for Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor — is designed to preserve bright areas in difficult scenes while maintaining shadow detail, something Samsung has already been pushing aggressively across its recent Ultra devices.
The most notable hardware change may be the return of a mechanical variable aperture system. The leak points to a range between f/1.4 and f/4.0, allowing the camera to physically adjust how much light enters the sensor depending on the scene. That could give Samsung more flexibility in daylight photography, nighttime shooting, and cinematic video capture, while also helping reduce overexposed highlights — an area where even the Galaxy S26 Ultra occasionally struggled in extreme HDR situations. The S26 Ultra already leaned heavily on computational photography and AI processing, but the S27 Ultra appears to shift part of that workload back toward physical optics.
Samsung may also simplify the rear camera setup. The leak claims the dedicated 3x telephoto camera is being removed entirely, with the main 200MP sensor expected to handle intermediate zoom ranges through high-resolution cropping. The remaining setup would reportedly include a 50MP ultra-wide camera alongside a 50MP 5x periscope telephoto lens. It’s a move that mirrors a broader smartphone industry trend toward fewer, but more capable, sensors rather than stacking multiple focal lengths with smaller hardware.
The strategy would also place Samsung closer to what Apple is rumored to be planning for the iPhone 18 Pro, where variable aperture and larger sensors are likewise expected to play a central role.
via Saurav