The one thing we can say for sure about the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s price is that it won’t be low. Samsung’s S Ultra flagships have historically used the very best components and have recently come with exciting extras like Galaxy AI and a built-in S Pen for on-screen doodling. That all comes at a high price.
So what do we know about the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s price? While we won’t have a definitive answer until the phone goes on sale early next year, we have enough information to make an educated guess.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra price rumors: The best-case scenario
The very best that would-be buyers of the S25 Ultra can hope for is that things remain static for another year. As a reminder, that would mean the cheapest configuration would match the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which comes in at $1,299.99 for the 256GB version and rising to $1,659.99 for the 1TB model.
While this feels like wishful thinking for reasons we’ll get onto in a moment, there is one thing this optimistic take has going in its favor: Last year’s $1,299.99 starting price was itself a $100 price raise on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Samsung may conclude that fans won’t swallow two big increases two years in a row, and keep things as they are — possibly allowing other regions to subsidize the U.S. rate staying the same.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra price rumors: The worst case scenario
There are two reasons to think that, unfortunately, buyers may be on the hook for a higher price in 2025 regardless.
The first is inflation. It won’t have escaped anyone’s notice that the price of goods and services keeps going up, and while it’s slowed in recent years, there’s no reason to expect smartphone manufacturers like Samsung to be immune from the rising price of components.
The most prominent of these pricey internals is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC which is set to power all three versions of the Galaxy S25. Back in June, the analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimated that the new chip would be 25 to 30% higher than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that powers the best Android phones of the past year.
And of course the phone is more that just the processor. Having a stab at the material cost increase is the Weibo leaker Setsuna Digital, who predicted last month that the parts could come in $110+ more. If this is correct, and the most conservative price increase was all passed straight onto the consumer, that would leave the S25 Ultra starting at a massive $1,409.
But there are reasons to be skeptical here too. For one thing, Samsung’s scale means that it has immense buying power, and it could probably negotiate a volume discount with its suppliers.
Perhaps more importantly, a $1,409 starting price would make Samsung’s top handset $210 more than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and $310 more than the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL. No matter the merits of the Snapdragon 8 Elite (and there are plenty) that would be commercially risky.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra price rumors: Outlook
At the risk of sitting on the fence, the truth is probably somewhere between these two figures. Samsung is neither a charity, nor immune to the increased cost of doing business so a price rise seems very likely. On the other hand, a ~$100 jump for the second year running feels like too much.
All this considered, a starting price of $1,349 feels the most likely scenario. But we won’t know for sure until Samsung reveals the Galaxy S25 family — which will probably be towards the end of next month.
