Here’s galaxy S27 plateau design owes a huge debt to Apple

The design of the Samsung Galaxy S27 series is starting to come into focus through various leaks, and two of the four will take a leak out of Apple’s Pro book.

We’ve seen some fairly crude renders of the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra already, hinting at a new design that looks suspiciously like the iPhone 17 Pro.

Now serial Samsung leaker Ice Universe has posted an image that all but confirms the tribute. It shows cases for each of Samsung’s forthcoming Galaxy S27 range: the Samsung Galaxy S27, S27+, S27 Pro and S27 Ultra.

It’s the latter two of those that are of most interest. While the Samsung Galaxy S27 and S27+ look a lot like their predecessors, the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra and the brand new Samsung Galaxy S27 Pro (which is essentially shaping up to be a smaller Ultra) are taking a different direction.

They match up with the renders posted recently on Android Headlines.

Is Samsung’s design plateauing?

The width-spanning rectangular camera module looks a lot like the so-called “camera plateau” that Apple introduced with the iPhone 17 Pro.

We should probably also nod to the Xiaomi 17 Pro models here (including screens), given that they arrived around the same time, but it’s clear which manufacturer Samsung would have had its eye on here.

Xiaomi

Will this have any practical ramifications for the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra/Pro’s photographic skill? That remains to be seen, but there’s a chance it could be implemented to make sense for a meaty new camera system.

It’s rumoured that both phones will feature just a single telephoto camera, though the Ultra may be the only one to go all the way to a 5x optical zoom.

Another, potentially more likely reason for this camera redesign could be Qi2 compatibility. Samsung’s vertical camera stack makes it somewhat awkward or impossible to fit certain magnetic accessories, which would be dealt with neatly under the new design.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

Of course, this would also mean that only the Galaxy S27 Ultra and S27 Pro are in line for MagSafe-style wireless charging capabilities, which would be a shame, though they would finally be Samsung’s first phones to do so.

As things stand, Google’s Pixel range is still the only mainstream Android phone range to support Qi2 magnetic charging (though Motorola is rumoured to join the party soon). It’ll be nice if Samsung can join in, in whatever form.