Samsung Galaxy A27 loses microSD but gains six years of updates

Samsung's Galaxy A27 has leaked in full ahead of any official announcement, revealing a phone that trades some familiar conveniences for a new chipset and a long software lifespan. Press renders and a complete spec sheet surfaced via MyMobiles and leaker @OnLeaks, giving a clear picture of how the A27 differs from last year's A26 — and the changes cut both ways.

The hardware

The A27 gets a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display running at 120Hz in FHD+ resolution, with a punch-hole cutout replacing the teardrop notch of the A26. It's a cleaner look that's usually reserved for pricier Samsung phones. Under the hood, Samsung has moved away from its in-house Exynos 1380 and dropped in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 instead. That switch is notable — Snapdragon chips are less common in Samsung's budget A-series — though Gagadget EN notes Geekbench scores show the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 actually trails the Exynos 1380 in raw benchmarks, raising questions about real-world value at this price tier.

Configuration options are 6GB or 8GB of RAM paired with 128GB or 256GB of storage. The big catch: the microSD slot is gone entirely. The A26 supported cards up to 1TB — on a £300 phone, losing that expansion will sting for anyone who relies on it.

The camera and the trade-offs

The main 50MP camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS) carries over from the A26, as does the 2MP macro lens. The ultrawide, however, steps down from 8MP to 5MP, and the selfie camera drops a marginal notch from 13MP to 12MP. Neither downgrade is dramatic, but they follow a pattern of cost-cutting that memory price pressures appear to be driving across the A-series.

The 5,000mAh battery with 25W wired charging is unchanged. The phone ships with Android 16 and One UI 8.5, and Samsung is promising six years of OS and security updates — a commitment that still beats most rivals at this price, including Realme and Motorola.

Availability

The A27 was absent from Samsung's March 2026 A-series event, which included the A37 and A57, suggesting a deliberate delay to avoid internal competition. A UK launch is expected in the second half of 2026, with an estimated price around £300. No US or UK release date has been confirmed by Samsung as of May 2026.

The six-year update window is a genuine draw at this price. Whether the missing microSD slot and chip step-down outweigh it depends on what you actually use a budget phone for.