While the upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra offers plenty to be excited about, a new report indicates it will fall short in one particular area.
In the past, Samsung was known for shipping the Galaxy series with some of the best and brightest displays. The Samsung Galaxy S24 series shipped with the M13 OLED panel which was, at the time, one of the best available. However, both the iPhone 16 Pro and the Google Pixel 9 were later released with Samsung's M14 OLED panel, which offers a higher brightness and better power efficiency. We would expect the Samsung Galaxy S25 series to come with the same option, but a recent report indicates this may not be the case.
Confirmed with materials suppliers that the S25 Ultra will use M13 rather than M14 materials for cost reasons.October 25, 2024
According to ET News (via Android Police) Samsung will continue to use panels based on the M13 for the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Ultra. The report suggests Samsung intends to upgrade its displays every two generations from now. This is reportedly due to the current performance of OLED and the saturation of the smartphone market. A suggestion seemingly backed up in a post on X by Ross Young, the CEO of Display Chain Consultants.
In our tests, we found the M13 OLED on the Galaxy S24 Ultra managed a max brightness of 1,363 nits, while the iPhone 16 Pro with the new display hit a peak of 1,553 while the Pixel 9 Pro hit as high as 1,938 nits. However, most average users won't really notice that kind of difference in day-to-day use.
The reality is that, as speculated, this is a cost-cutting measure to help keep the Galaxy S25 series affordable. Part of the issue is that the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chips will reportedly increase the phone's price. However, the power of the chip could help the S25 to stand against the iPhone 16 Pro, with leaked benchmark scores exceeding Apple's latest iPhone in the multicore score.
For the time being, we can only wait for the official release of the Galaxy S25 series. At that point, we will be able to test it ourselves to see if this is a major downgrade, or if the phones will still find a place in our best phones list.
More from Tom's Guide
