A major Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra clue just dropped

The Galaxy S27 Ultra is a future contender for our list of the best smartphones, and the latest rumours suggest it’ll be the most powerful Galaxy device yet.

While Samsung brought its own Exynos processors back into the spotlight with this year’s Galaxy S26 series, the Galaxy S26 Ultra stuck with Snapdragon – and early signs suggest that might not be changing anytime soon.

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A fresh hint spotted by SamMobile points to the Galaxy S27 Ultra once again leaning on Qualcomm silicon. The clue comes from Qualcomm, which recently posted a video celebrating 16 years of Snapdragon-powered Galaxy flagships – from the original Galaxy S right through to today.

It ends with a deliberately vague line – “and there’s so much more to come” – which isn’t exactly a confirmation, but it’s fair to interpret it as a nod towards future Samsung flagships continuing to use Snapdragon chips.

This all lines up with earlier reports suggesting that Samsung’s next Ultra model could run on Qualcomm’s upcoming flagship silicon – widely expected to be called the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro (model number SM8975). The standard Galaxy S27 and S27+ are still tipped to use Exynos in many regions, but the Ultra is currently expected to use Snapdragon globally.

If those chip rumours hold, there could be some serious performance gains on the table. Qualcomm is said to be prepping two versions of its next-gen processor – a standard and a Pro variant – both reportedly built on TSMC’s 2nm process, which could bring gains in efficiency and performance, though real-world improvements remain to be seen.

The Pro version in particular is expected to bring a beefier GPU, more cache, and support for faster next-gen memory like LPDDR6. There’s also talk of upgrades across connectivity, including Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0, alongside the usual flagship extras like advanced 5G support.

Of course, these are all rumours for now. Samsung isn’t expected to unveil the Galaxy S27 lineup until early next year, and chip strategies have been known to shift late in development – especially when Exynos is back in the mix.

Still, if Qualcomm’s teaser is anything more than clever marketing, the Galaxy S27 Ultra could comfortably become the most powerful Galaxy handset ever.

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Esat Dedezade Contributor

About

Esat has been a gadget fan ever since his tiny four-year-old brain was captivated by a sound-activated dancing sunflower. From there it was a natural progression to a Sega Mega Drive, a brief obsession with hedgehogs, and a love for all things tech. After 7 years as a writer and deputy editor for Stuff, Esat ventured out into the corporate world, spending three years as Editor of Microsoft's European News Centre. Now a freelance writer, his appetite for shiny gadgets has no bounds. Oh, and like all good human beings, he's very fond of cats.