Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs S24 Ultra : What’s Upgraded?

Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 Ultra, launched and i had a bit of hands-on fun time with it ahead of the launch to see how it compares with the previous S24 Ultra.

First of all, the Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with the same storage options as before: 256 gigs up to a tasty terabyte. All these models come with the same price tag as the previous S24 Ultra. There hasn’t been a price hike for 2025. That’s definitely a relief as they weren’t exactly cheap to begin with. And if you pre-order any of them via Samsung, you’ll get double your storage.

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Design and Durability

The design of the Galaxy S25 Ultra has been tweaked and refined compared with the previous model. Bezels have shrunk down they’re now 15% slimmer than before although the screen has expanded into that available space. So, the S25 Ultra is a similar width and height to the old model and Samsung has managed to make it a wee bit lighter for this generation as well. It’s now 218gram a whopping 15gram lighter than before.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra now has more rounded corners, which is a massive relief because the Galaxy S24 Ultra was far too pointy. Using this thing one-handed was about as comfortable.

Although one design refinement that not everyone will enjoy is the fact that those camera lenses now have big, thick bezels similar to Samsung’s bendy phones. It’s a minor gripe at best, though, and the good news is that all four of the Galaxy S25 Ultra colors are actually pretty banging. You’ve got titanium silver, blue titanium, white silver titanium, gray titanium and titanium black.

You’ve also got yourself three online exclusives, which I haven’t had a chance to check out. These are titanium jade green, titanium pink gold, and titanium jet black, which I’ve been assured is so black that even Batman would vibe with it.

Front of the Galaxy S25 Ultra is protected by Gorilla Glass Armor 2, which is slightly more anti-reflective than the previous generations. It’s still fantastic at reducing glare under strong lighting and apparently even harder than the previous generation as well. Although Samsung, in our hands-on session did not allow me to hurl it about the place to test that out.

Apparently, that titanium frame is even tougher than before—those molecules are more tightly packed, like commuters on a London tube. And apparently, it’s a good bit of armor too, around the rear action. As for the water resistance, well, it’s fully IP68-rated, just like the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Display And audio

The QuadHD Plus Dynamic AMOLED panel hasn’t changed too much from the previous generation at all, although here on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, it’s slightly bigger at 6.9 inches versus 6.8. This is once again a very bright and rather poppy display. Of course, full color customization is available in the display settings and this can boost low-resolution video to make it look extra crispy. This is especially obvious when you’re streaming low-resolution YouTube clips at 480p or whatever.

The LTPO tech is slightly upgraded as well, but certainly, just from a ‘watching a bit of Netflix or whatever’ viewpoint, you won’t notice much difference at all between the S24 Ultra and the S25 Ultra especially if you’re already watching quite high-resolution content. Likewise, there’s another powerful set of stereo speakers, which are just as strong on the S25 Ultra as the previous generation.

Performance

Performance is provided by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite although it is the 8 Elite for Galaxy model, which means that Samsung and Qualcomm have collaborated to slightly pump it up with some overclocking and all that good stuff. Standard Snapdragon 8 Elite is an absolute powerhouse.

So, we can see absolutely anything out there—the likes of Waves bumped up to the highest graphic settings, running at 60fps would be perfectly fluid. The Galaxy S25 Ultra should hopefully remain cool under pressure as well, even if you’re gaming for an hour, two hours, however long.

Thankfully, Samsung has boosted the vapor chamber size; it’s now 40% bigger than the S24 Ultra. That should hopefully keep the smartphone nice and cool. But hey, check back for my full in-depth Galaxy S25 Ultra review to see how it really holds up to a bit of Waves and Genshin action.

Battery

For the battery, it’s once again a 5,000 milliamp capacity cell and again you’ll have to wait for my review to see if we’ve had any increase in battery life whatsoever. Samsung reckons you’ll get an extra hour of video streaming from the S25 Ultra on a full charge compared with the S24 Ultra. That’s thanks to efficiency gains from One UI tweaks and also the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is slightly more efficient than the previous 8 Gen 3 that powered the S24 Ultra.

Sadly, for anyone who was hoping the S25 Ultra might charge up a bit faster than the S24 Ultra, it’s 45W wired charging once again and 15W wireless charging. Although you do now have CH2 support, which means you’ll get some snazzy magnetic wireless charging accessories.

full support for reverse wireless charging if you need to power up your earbuds, your smartwatch, or one of your various accessories on the move.

OneUI 7 And AI features

The Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with Samsung’s One UI 7, offering seven years of OS and security updates, aligning with Google’s support promise. Its AI features are deeply integrated, powered by the Snapdragon Elite NPU, allowing most tools to work on-device without cloud communication.

Notable features include AI Select, which anticipates user needs like turning video snippets into GIFs, creating wallpapers from photos, or translating text. Cross-app AI actions can suggest recipes based on fridge contents or summarize YouTube videos, with support for Google, Samsung, Spotify, and WhatsApp apps at launch.

The Now Brief Tool provides morning, midday, and evening summaries, covering sleep stats, schedules, traffic updates, step counts, and even interesting photos from your day. The intelligent lock screen displays real-time info like sports scores and appointments, minimizing screen time.

Lastly, Circle to Search allows users to add events to their calendar by circling promos, with more third-party app integrations expected over time.

The Galaxy S25, as usual, comes with Samsung’s S Pen stylus, which is very similar to the previous generation. Currently concealed in a corner orifice, it’s light and comfortable to grip. The only real difference is that Bluetooth support has been removed for the S25 Ultra, so you can no longer wave it around or perform Harry Potter-style gestures.

Cameras

The camera tech on the new phone is very similar to the S24 Ultra with the same 200MP primary shooter, 10MP and 50MP telephoto shooters, and 100x space zoom. The only update is a 50MP ultra-wide-angle shooter replacing the previous 12MP one. There’s hope for improved low-light performance with pixel binning for brighter and more detailed 12MP snaps. The phone also has the same 12MP selfie camera.

The camera app has been tweaked and users can create and save their own filters. In pro video mode, users can film in log and edit on-device with a virtual aperture for adjusting the bokeh effect. Low-light video is improved with collaboration with Qualcomm. Editing features include an audio eraser for background noise  AI Best Shot mode for selecting the best expressions, more accurate object removal, and the ability to add elements to photos by drawing them. These features work surprisingly well but are not always perfect.

Conclusion

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra brings mostly software-based updates, especially with AI tools, but doesn’t offer enough significant improvements over the S24 Ultra to justify an upgrade for current owners. The hardware remains largely similar, with only slight enhancements like better battery life. The Snapdragon 8 Elite chip is powerful, but the S24 Ultra is still powerful enough for gaming.