We’re just under a week away from the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra release day, and with that comes a choice many Android phonemakers will have to make: Will you buy the phone, or skip it and choose something else instead?
Frankly, for me at least, it’s a pretty easy decision to make.
The answer is a resounding no, and it’s all down to the fact that the Galaxy S25 Ultra is one of the blandest upgrades I’ve seen over the past couple of years. Beaten only by the iPhone 14, which was essentially an iPhone 13 with some very minor upgrades.
It's getting to the point where I’m wondering whether my money would be better spent buying a Galaxy S24 Ultra instead.
Galaxy S25 Ultra doesn’t feel like much of an upgrade
When you look at the Galaxy S25 Ultra specs, and compare them to last year’s model, there isn’t a whole lot of what I’d consider “new” stuff. The screen is marginally bigger at 6.9-inches, and the chipset has been upgraded to a newer and faster model. There’s also a version of Qi2, though it relies on a specialist case if you want the magnetic benefits.
Really the only major hardware upgrade is the 50MP ultrawide camera. That’s a useful upgrade, even if it is long overdue, and it’s going to help the Galaxy S25 Ultra claim a position on our best camera phones page. But it’s not the kind of upgrade that makes buying a whole new phone worthwhile.
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Galaxy S25 Ultra | Galaxy S24 Ultra |
| Starting price | $1,299/£1,249 | $1,299/£1,249 |
| Screen size | 6.9" QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display | 6.8" QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display |
| Refresh rate | 120Hz | 120Hz |
| Processor | Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy |
| OS | Android 15 / One UI 7 | Android 14 / One UI 6 |
| RAM | 12GB | 12GB |
| Storage | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
| Rear cameras | 200MP Wide, 50MP Ultrawide, 50MP 5x telephoto, 10MP 3x telephoto | 200MP Wide, 12MP Ultrawide, 50MP 5x telephoto, 10MP 3x telephoto |
| Front camera | 12MP | 12MP |
| Battery | 5,000 mAh | 5,000 mAh |
| Dimensions | 3.05 x 6.40 x 0.32 inches | 6.39 x 3.11 x 0.34 in |
| Weight | 7.68 ounces | 8.18 oz |
| Dust/water resistance | IP68 | IP68 |
| Colors | Titan Black, Titan Gray, Titan Silverblue, Titan Whitesilver | Titan Black, Titan Gray, Titan Violet, Titan Blue |
In fact there are a couple of places where the Galaxy S25 Ultra is either a downgrade compared to last year or still not on par with some of its main rivals.
The S Pen is proving to be the most infamous of these, with Samsung stripping out the Bluetooth functionality and related features from the stylus — claiming they weren’t popular enough to keep around. Samsung claims that a Bluetooth enabled pen will go on sale as a standalone product, but that feels like a price hike with extra steps.
Tom’s Guide Phones Editor John Velasco also pointed out that the loss of Air Gestures meant that the Galaxy S25’s desktop mode (DeX) isn’t nearly as useful this time around. So it’s no surprise that it hasn’t stopped a petition trying to return the decision from appearing.
Other notable omissions include any meaningful rise in wireless charging speeds, which is still stuck at 15W. The maximum amount of RAM available in the U.S. is also 12GB, despite rumors that a 16GB model could make an appearance. RAM is very important for on-device AI, and we’re seeing other Android flagships like the Pixel 9 Pro boost its memory up to 16GB. Given how much Samsung has emphasized AI in the Galaxy S25 series, it’s a massive surprise that the Ultra model now has the same amount of RAM as the standard and Plus models.
There’s more to a phone than mere hardware, and software does play a big part in what the device can do. Unfortunately it’s unclear whether the Galaxy S25 offers much that won’t also come to older phones.
How much of this software is exclusive?
Samsung has spent a great deal of time discussing how the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s software can benefit the phone and its users. AI in particular has been at the forefront of Samsung’s marketing, offering up a bunch of ways Galaxy AI is improving this year.
A big part of how Galaxy AI has changed involves the addition of AI agents, and multimodal capabilities that allow Galaxy AI to see and understand multiple kinds of input — including speech, text, images and video. All with the aim of making the process of communicating with AI more natural. It’s a big change for Samsung, even if these aren’t particularly unique capabilities.
For all the benefits Samsung has been lauding, it’s unclear whether these improvements are general upgrades to Galaxy AI — or features kept exclusively for the Galaxy S25 series. Samsung hasn’t been particularly clear on this point, and the last thing anyone wants is to pick up a new $1,300 phone only to find that all its best features are also available on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
On the one hand Samsung does have the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which promises to offer greater performance and helps power more advanced on-device AI processing. But on the other hand, we've already seen that some features, like the Now Bar, are already available as part of the One UI 7 beta — meaning it's available (in some form) on the year-old Galaxy S24 Ultra as well. Likewise improvements to Circle to Search and other Google-made AI features are likely to make their way to Pixels and other Android phones in the coming weeks and months.
Not knowing what the future holds for Galaxy AI, and other software flourishes, makes me even more hesitant to take the plunge and pick up a Galaxy S25 Ultra. We don’t know what One UI 7 has in store for older Galaxy phones, and if last year is anything to go by we could see a bunch of new AI features and upgrades make their way to older phones.
Heck, even the Samsung Galaxy A35 supports some Galaxy AI features — and that’s $900 cheaper than the S25 Ultra. And bearing all that in mind, it has me seriously doubting whether the Galaxy S25 Ultra is worth it.
Bottom line
If you have an older phone, or maybe even a mid-range model then perhaps the S25 Ultra will be a worthwhile upgrade. There’s a lot on offer here, and while it does cost a lot, I have no doubt that the S25 Ultra will be one of the best phones you can buy. But that doesn’t change the fact that this is a very disappointing upgrade, and it feels like Samsung hasn’t tried that hard to give us a substantial upgrade.
Whether its downgrades to the S Pen, minimal extra hardware, or software that could easily come to older phones in the near future, the Galaxy S25 Ultra doesn’t really seem to have a unique selling point. Worse still the rounded design means that it’s lost its visual distinctiveness compared to other phones.
If you’re spending $1,300 on a brand new phone, the last thing you need is either the same thing as last year, or something that doesn’t stand out against the competition. Unfortunately the Galaxy S25 Ultra seems to hit both those boxes.
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