Samsung seems ready to ditch the individual floating camera lenses it used across recent Ultra flagships. A fresh wave of protective accessory leaks suggests the upcoming Galaxy S27 Ultra will feature a unified rear camera island, but the newest case designs are raising a bizarre technical question about where key sensors—including the AF laser—actually sit.
According to tech tipster Ice Universe on X, four increasingly precise case iterations give us our clearest look yet at the phone’s back panel. While early protection covers only featured wide, generic cutouts, the latest accessories reveal exact placements for the internal lens array.
How progressive case leaks fixed early CAD errors
Early factory CAD renders for Galaxy S27 Ultra cases left a lot to interpretation. They show two vertically stacked primary lenses alongside an elongated section without specifying what sat inside. The first case leak merely exposed the rough boundary, while the second defined the primary camera cutouts. The third case outlined the larger camera island but left the inner layout of the right-hand vertical oval a complete mystery.
The fourth case model finally answers those structural questions. It confirms that the top of the vertical oval houses the phone’s third telephoto camera, while a noticeably smaller circular opening sits directly underneath for the LED flash. This precision refines earlier fan concepts that guessed how the secondary camera housing would fit together.
The missing laser autofocus puzzle
Accounting for the telephoto lens and LED flash introduces an unexpected hardware puzzle: there is no visible slot left for the laser autofocus sensor. Previous leaks suggested that the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra would pack the third camera, LED flash, and Laser AF hardware together within this specific oval section.
This missing cutout does not mean Samsung stripped autofocus hardware from its next flagship, though. The company could easily position the laser AF sensor behind translucent glass, integrate it directly into an existing camera housing, or hide it beneath a different part of the rear panel. As accessory molds refine heading into launch, upcoming cases should clarify whether Samsung redesigned its autofocus array or simply hid the hardware under the rear glass.
