Samsung’s rumoured Galaxy S27+ downgrade would be a step too far
The Galaxy S27 series rumours are coming thick and fast now – but this might be the worst one yet.
All four upcoming handsets – the Galaxy S27, S27+, S27 Ultra and brand-new S27 Pro – have reportedly received China’s MIIT certification (via Abhishek Yadav), paving the way for a launch early next year.
However, it also reveals a concerning missing feature on the Plus models. While UWB (Ultra-wideband) has never made its way to the regular model, Samsung looks like it’ll be ditching support on the S27+, too, reserving it for Pro and Ultra models.
I don’t have an issue with some features being reserved for more premium models, but this isn’t the way to do it.
An anti-consumer upsell
UWB is nothing new. It’s been available on flagship phones since 2019, with Samsung getting in on the act a year later.
Since 2021, every single Samsung Galaxy S Plus phone has had built-in UWB. It’s the perfect companion for the company’s Galaxy SmartTag Bluetooth trackers, allowing for precise, real-time directions when your items are nearby.
Also, if you have a modern car or other product which uses smart locking, UWB will unlock it as soon as it detects your phone in the vicinity. It’s a relatively niche feature, but after you’ve got used to it, it’s a quality-of-life upgrade you don’t want to lose.
Samsung
Which is what makes its expected removal on the Galaxy S27+ so frustrating. Actively removing features that users have come to rely on is a cruel way to try and convince them to pay more. If I owned the S26+, it’d make me determined to skip the ‘upgrade’ that could make my phone less convenient to use.
With the expected introduction of the Pro model and a bloated S27 lineup, I wouldn’t be surprised if the S27+ is the last of its kind.
A potential performance trade-off
For the first time in years, could the entire Galaxy S27 series miss out on the absolute best Android performance?
According to Korean publication Seoul Economic Daily, Samsung has set Qualcomm an ultimatum: either fix the reportedly overheating issues affecting the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip, or the S27 phones will use Samsung’s own Exynos 2700 instead.
Luke Baker
For what it’s worth, Qualcomm doesn’t believe the overheating is a widespread issue, describing the reports as “inaccurate” in a response to 9to5Google.
Despite Qualcomm’s might in the mobile chipset industry, losing Samsung’s next generation of flagships would be a huge blow. Keep your eyes peeled for what happens next in this one…
Back on track?
By Samsung’s recent standards, the Galaxy S26 series launched late. It wasn’t unveiled until late February, while it was mid-March before early adopters could get their hands on one.
It doesn’t look like that’ll be repeated in 2027. Established Samsung leaker ‘yeux1122’ claims in a post on Korean network Naver that the S27 series is “currently scheduled for release next January, or February at the latest”.
If accurate, it’d almost certainly be earlier than the S26 phones, and return to the schedule we’d seen in previous years. Until this year, the Galaxy S flagships hadn’t launched later than 9 February in a calendar year since the Galaxy S8 series all the way back in 2020.
Luke Baker
Going back to its familiar launch window would make a lot of sense for Samsung, and allow it to hit the ground running as the flagship phones to beat in 2027. Let’s just hope it doesn’t compromise on performance or ditch any more features we’ve come to expect, eh?
