The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is the most advanced smartphone Samsung has ever made. It's a hardware powerhouse, with some of the best specs you'll find in any phone, and is jam-packed with a full suite of inventive and useful AI right out of the gate (unlike a certain rival). It's a cutting-edge example of just how powerful phone tech can be.
For
- 12GB of RAM
- Includes an S Pen stylus
- Multiple zoom lenses
Against
- Cameras are relatively unchanged
- The AI doesn’t do as much as Samsung promised
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra remains an extremely solid smartphone, and one of the best Samsung has ever produced. It's a tiny bit smaller than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and misses out on the new ultra-wide camera, but make no mistake, this is still an extremely powerful handset. It even has Bluetooth S Pen capabilities that the Galaxy S25 Ultra misses out on.
For
- Top-notch performance and battery life
- Excellent cameras
- Titanium frame and durable Gorilla Armor glass
Against
- Big and heavy
- Great features are hidden beneath terrible menus
- AI features are often useless and cause performance delays
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is the most advanced smartphone Samsung has ever made, and perhaps one of the most advanced ever released to date. Samsung's latest top-tier handset is packed full of some of the very best hardware on the market, such as the class-leading Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and the iconic Samsung quad-camera system.
Naturally, keen Samsung fans and casual tech enjoyers alike will be wondering whether the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a worthwhile upgrade on its predecessor, the Galaxy S24 Ultra. After all, the Galaxy S24 Ultra holds or previously held spots in our lists of the best phones, best camera phones, best Samsung phones – the list of lists goes on.
At a glance, it may seem like the two phones are very similar, and in some ways they are. They're both large, powerful, titanium phones with top-end specs and beautiful displays. The quad-camera system carries forward from the Galaxy S24 Ultra to the Galaxy S25 Ultra with a minor update, as does the S Pen stylus with a minor downgrade. However, there are some key internal and external differences between the two, owing to the Galaxy S25 Ultra's refreshed design, larger display, and upgraded internals.
Whether you're a first-time buyer, Samsung Galaxy diehard, or just looking around, we've put together this guide to compare the two phones and determine what the real differences are between Samsung's two latest super-premium smartphones.
Samsung Galaxy S25 vs iPhone 16: specs comparison
This article contains a detailed breakdown of the specs and features of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra, but if you're short on time feel free to check out the chart below for a quicker specs breakdown.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra specs | Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra specs |
|---|---|---|
Display: | 6.9-inch AMOLED | 6.8-inch AMOLED |
Resolution: | 1440 x 3210 pixels | 1440 x 3210 pixels |
Refresh rate: | 120Hz | 120Hz |
Chipset: | Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy |
Rear cameras: | 200MP wide, 50MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto, 50MP 5x telephoto | 200MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto, 50MP 5x telephoto |
Front camera: | 12MP | 12MP |
RAM: | 12GB | 12GB |
Storage: | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
Battery: | 5,000mAh | 5,000mAh |
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: price and availability
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra was announced during a Samsung Galaxy Unpacked livestream on January 22 2025, and shipped on February 7. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra released on January 24 2024.
Price-wise, the Galaxy S25 Ultra costs $1,299 / £1,249 / AU$2,149 for the base model with 256GB of storage, rising to $1,419 / £1,349 / AU$2,349 for 512GB of storage, and topping-out at $1,659 / £1,549 / $2,749 for the model with 1TB of storage. That's the same as the Galaxy S24 Ultra when bought directly from Samsung, though as the Galaxy S24 Ultra is a year old now, you may be able to get a better deal at third party retailers and carriers.
As of February 7, the Galaxy S25 series' release date, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is still sold directly by Samsung, at full launch price.
As the highest-end model in Samsung's flagship range of phones, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is widely and readily available both from Samsung's online and brick-and-mortar stores and third party retailers. Getting ahold of one should be easy enough for anyone willing to stomach the four-figure price tag.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra succeeds and replaces the Galaxy S24 Ultra at the top of Samsung's smartphone lineup. However, getting your hands on a Galaxy S24 Ultra is still very easy, as Samsung still sells the phone directly. It's also in strong supply at third party retailers and carriers.
Regardless of any deals, though, these are some of the most expensive phones on the market, and there's no getting around paying a premium for either device. To the Galaxy S25 Ultra's credit, Samsung has not increased the price of the phone, which increases its value for money when new features are considered.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: design and display
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra marks the first significant redesign for Samsung's highest-end slab phone in three years. Any leftover design motifs from the Samsung Galaxy Note series – like the bulging rails and squared corners – are gone. This year's Ultra is much more reflective of the design language seen with the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus, but whether that's a good thing is entirely up to you.
Furthermore, the entire S25 series, including the Ultra, has received a new design flourish in the form of new black camera rings. This gives the Galaxy S25 Ultra a bolder look and adds contrast to the phone's rear panel. Internally, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a larger vapor chamber to facilitate better cooling.
Inversely, the Galaxy S24 Ultra sports rounded side rails, sharper corners with an unrounded display, and no additional housing around the cameras. With both phones nearing 7 inches in diagonal length, neither could really be called subtle, but the Galaxy S24 Ultra is certainly more muted and singular in its look, sharing less in common with its respective smaller siblings, the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus.
Both phones are made predominantly of titanium, and come equipped with the S Pen stylus, which has its own housing in the bottom of the phone. Controversially, the S Pen included with the Galaxy S25 Ultra loses the Bluetooth-based gesture and remote control functions offered by the Galaxy S24 Ultra's S Pen.
When it comes to the display on these two titanic phones, both sport 120Hz panels with a resolution of 1440 x 3120 pixels, with a maximum brightness of 2,600-nits. The only difference is size: the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a screen size of 6.9 inches, a tiny increase from 6.8 inches on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
As we recently reported, the larger screen found on the Galaxy S25 Ultra may not be as durable as the Galaxy S24 Ultra's, though we wouldn't recommend testing this.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: cameras
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra both sport powerful camera systems. The newer Ultra brings a small but significant hardware upgrade, and new AI and software processing, but both phones are an excellent choice for keen photographers and video fanatics.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra comes equipped with the same 200MP main camera, 10MP 3x telephoto camera, and 50MP 5x telephoto camera as its predecessor. The most significant upgrade to the Galaxy S25 Ultra's camera system is the new 50MP ultra-wide camera, a marked jump in resolution from the 12MP ultra-wide camera found on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Per our Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review, this should result in better low-light performance.
Otherwise, this is the same great camera setup as you'd find on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. The 200MP main camera is still detail rich, the telephoto zoom lenses are still some of the best on the market, and the post-processing is still a touch more aggressive with contrast and saturation than some of Samsung's competitors. Our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review found the phone's cameras to be extremely consistent in their output of great-looking images.
For video, both phones are capable of recording in 8K at 30 frames per second, or 4K at 60fps.
The S25 Ultra does come with some neat new AI tricks, though these are more so creative tools than they are photography aides. Sketch to Image can add photorealistic elements to photos based on doodles, and Generative Edit can remove unwanted elements from images.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra camera samples
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra camera samples
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: performance
Performance wise, both the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra will blaze through day-to-day tasks, media consumption and creation, and mid-to-high intensity gaming sessions. Both run One UI 7, the latest Samsung operating system based on Android 15. The differences between the two reflect growth in the available technology, as both contain some of the best mobile hardware available at the time of release.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra utilizes the class-leading – and possibly straight-up overpowered – Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset, a customized and overclocked version of the best Snapdragon chipset on the market. In benchmarks, the Snapdragon 8 Elite surpasses all current competitors, and in continuing the partnership with Qualcomm to supply Galaxy phones with a special "for Galaxy" variant Samsung has equipped its latest top-end flagship with even more power.
In real-world use, the Galaxy S25 Ultra lives up to these numbers – as our review attests, this is a snappy, responsive phone that also offers great battery efficiency (more on that in the next section).
The Galaxy S25 Ultra has a new hardware core called the Personal Data Engine, that facilitates and secures the phone's myriad new AI abilities. These include the new Now Brief reactive new feed and tighter integration between an updated Bixby and Google Gemini. The Personal Data Engine allows sensitive data to be stored securely on-device.
Though it lacks the Personal Data Engine, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is otherwise similar to its successor. Its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset is still blazing fast by contemporary and current standards, and is customized for the Samsung platform like the Elite chipset found in the S25 Ultra.
Both phones come equipped with the same 12GB of RAM regardless of storage configuration. That was an impressive amount for the S24 Ultra, but at the time of the S25 Ultra's release flagship phones with 16GB of RAM are becoming more common: think Google Pixel 9 Pro and OnePlus 13. Still, 12GB is more than enough for multitasking and AI tasks.
For actual practical day-to-day use, both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Galaxy S24 Ultra are well beyond the concept of "powerful enough". If performance is a big deal to you then neither will disappoint; what you're really weighing up is headroom and capacity for more demanding tasks in the future.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: battery
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra have the same battery capacity, support the same charging speed, and neither comes with a charger in the box. Despite these strong similarities, there are still a few differences to consider that may impact battery life.
So, about those identical batteries: both the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra come equipped with a 5,000mAh lithium-based battery, with support for 45W wired charging, 15W wireless charging, and 4.5W reverse wireless charging. Our Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review both gave out a 5/5 for battery: there's no real complaints to be found here.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset found within the Galaxy S25 Ultra is more efficient than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset used by the Galaxy S24 Ultra. This is due to its more modern architecture and 3-nanometer manufacturing process, and what it means for users is that the Galaxy S25 Ultra uses less battery life than the Galaxy S24 Ultra when performing the same tasks.
Looking beyond these two models, there are phones with larger cells, faster charging, and newer silicon-carbon technology, so if battery life is a major factor for you it could be wise to have a look at some of the other best phones on the market. That said, both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra perform well in the battery department.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is one of the most powerful phones ever released, with a class-leading Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a wide range of deeply integrated AI tools, and a camera system that still leaps over the competition in key areas like zoom and resolution. Samsung's latest top-of-the-line flagship is certainly an iterative upgrade on the previous-generation Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, but that doesn't mean the updates to the phone's design, camera system, and AI abilities are any less worthwhile.
If you just want the latest, greatest, and largest Samsung Galaxy phone ever produced, then the Galaxy S25 Ultra is your go-to. Its 6.9-inch display is the largest Samsung has ever fitted to a slab phone, and with seven years of promised software updates this is a phone that will continue to perform into the coming years.
The Personal Data Engine, a physical hardware core dedicated to AI and data security, means the Galaxy S25 Ultra is better positioned as an AI-centric device than its predecessor, though the Galaxy S24 Ultra still comes with a suite of Galaxy AI tools.
With that said, the Galaxy S25 Ultra replaces its predecessor as one of the most expensive phones you can buy, at a eye-watering starting price of $1,299 / £1,249 / AU$2,149. This high price, in combination with the relatively minor hardware jump from Galaxy S24 Ultra to Galaxy S25 Ultra, may have some buyers-to-be looking at last year's model with savings in mind.
We expect to see the Galaxy S24 Ultra available at third party retailers and carriers from anywhere between $100 and $200 cheaper than its launch price (which was the same as the Galaxy S25 Ultra) as the year continues, which is still rather expensive but at least closer to the competition. With its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Chipset, 12GB of RAM, and six remaining years of software updates, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is far from past its prime.
Honestly, there's not much in it. Either phone will bulldoze any kind of day-to-day task you throw at it, with enough hardware power to tackle media work and gaming, too. It really comes down to whether the Galaxy S25 Ultra's larger screen, new AI tools, and faster internals are worth paying full price for; if not, the Galaxy S24 Ultra remains an excellent choice.
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