Galaxy S27 Ultra has one job: Steal this genius feature from RedMagic
Samsung keeps playing Apple's game. It's time to play a different one.
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
RedMagic's trigger keys blend with the design and deliver an awesome gaming experience. | Image by PhoneArena
There's something quietly brilliant happening on the fringes of the smartphone world. While Samsung, Google and Apple battle each other over camera systems and AI assistants, a smaller Chinese brand called RedMagic has been doing something incredibly cool that most reviewers would hastily dismiss as niche.
RedMagic’s latest gaming smartphones, the RedMagic 11 Pro and 11 Air, come with physical, capacitive trigger buttons positioned across their right-hand sides. When one is playing a game on the phone in landscape orientation, these capacitive zones fall conveniently underneath the user’s index fingers, essentially serving as a gaming controller's trigger/shoulder buttons.
What's even cooler is that RedMagic’s software allows you to map these touch-sensitive zones to any on-screen element that you choose, making them extremely powerful and versatile.
Another cool thing is that on RedMagic’s phones, these keys sit flush with the phone's frame, like they've always belonged there. If you're a serious mobile gamer, you immediately understand the potential they unlock.
Why RedMagic gets it right
The capacitive trigger key of the RedMagic 11 Air blends perfectly with the phone's frame. | Image by PhoneArena
Unlike the typical gaming hardware aesthetic, which is extra loud, colorful and juvenile, the RedMagic 11 Air, for example, demonstrates that a phone can look unique, techy and reasonable all at the same time. It turns out elegance can be part of a gaming phone maker’s lexicon as well.
Notably, the capacitive trigger buttons on the RedMagic 11 Air are practically invisible to the naked eye. They blend into the chassis so naturally that if you didn't know they were there, you'd never spot them. But the moment you're in a game? They can very much transform the experience.
And the use case goes way beyond standard mobile titles. With emulators and compatibility layers like Winlator enabling PC-class games onto Android hardware, physical trigger keys are becoming less of a "nice to have" and more of an essential feature. Shooting games of all types become genuinely playable when you have physical inputs to work with. Gaming phone makers like RedMagic and Asus ROG saw the potential for a richer mobile gaming experience and invested accordingly to create solutions players would very much pay for.
Another shot of the RedMagic 11 Air's upper trigger zone. | Image by PhoneArena
Has Samsung forgotten its biggest fans?
Let’s be honest: Samsung is losing ground to Apple, and its current product strategy is seldom delivering the substantial results required by such a huge operation. Just look at the latest numbers from StatCounter and you’ll see Apple continuously gaining market share and Samsung struggling to keep its ground.
The Galaxy S lineup has spent the last few years trying to be everything to everyone – an especially well-rounded flagship for the general public. And while that’s a hill Samsung has successfully climbed to some extent, there’s already a king on that hill that will not be moved – Apple.
From Galaxy S27 Ultra to S20 Ultra – Samsung needs to make some bold statements. | Image by PhoneArena
What Samsung seems to have forgotten is that for years, one of its biggest advantages was its appeal to power users. Enthusiasts. People who wanted the most capable, most versatile Android experience available. That crowd hasn't disappeared. The mobile gaming audience alone is huge, and it's maturing fast. These aren't just people playing casual puzzle games on the bus anymore.
The Galaxy S27 Ultra could actually do this
A new ISOCELL sensor with LOFIC technology for dramatically improved dynamic range and a larger battery are also in the cards. All great stuff! But, also nothing that sound like a truly bold statement.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 illustration | Image by PhoneArena using AI
Sure, we have to be realists. Cameras sell phones. But here's the thing: with that kind of silicon under the hood, the S27 Ultra is going to be a gaming powerhouse whether Samsung intends it to be or not.
Apple made its decision with the Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 series. That feature is designed to appeal to mobile photographers – this is the niche Apple decided to stand behind, and good for them.
Samsung can apply the same approach, just aimed at a different crowd. Heck, Samsung, you can make trigger buttons act like camera shutters, if you wish. That way you can kill two birds with one stone.
The gaming audience is already inside Samsung's orbit. Some of them will be considering the Galaxy S27 Ultra for the beautiful, massive display and cutting-edge performance (among many, many other things). But it would take a bold statement, like integrating discreet trigger buttons, to really position the S27 Ultra as a gaming flagship.
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