The best Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra model could be exclusive to Asia

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra from the back with S Pen mostly withdrawn

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

A source claims the rumored 16GB Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra will only be available in Asia
We've also seen new imagery of the Galaxy S25 Ultra and its S Pen
These pictures hint that the S Pen might not support Bluetooth

We’re now just a couple of days away from the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S25 series, so unsurprisingly there’s an influx of last-minute rumors and leaks, with the latest being a suggestion that if you’re reading this you probably won’t be able to buy the best version of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

According to leaker @chunvn8888, the long-rumored 16GB model of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra will only be sold in China, South Korea, India, and Vietnam, leaving the rest of the world with only a 12GB version.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra already has 12GB of RAM, so that would mean no upgrades in this department for most of the world. The rumored move to 16GB was one of the biggest upgrades we were expecting for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, so this would be disappointing. As ever, we’d take this with a pinch of salt, but the source has a reasonable track record.

So it's confirmed that the 16GB S25U is exclusive to the Asian market only. China, South Korea, India, Vietnam will have far from my knowledge. Looks like Asians like us are eating good one more timeJanuary 20, 2025

A downgraded S Pen

That’s not the only disappointing Galaxy S25 Ultra news either, as we’ve also seen seemingly official marketing images showing the S25 Ultra and its S Pen, and they hint at a lack of Bluetooth for the stylus.

Shared by @DalgleishGX and reposted by Tarun Vats on X, these images highlight things you’ll be able to do with the S Pen, including sketching and note taking. However, what there’s no mention of is things like gesture controls, or being able to use the pen as a camera remote or to take screenshots.

These are things the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s S Pen can do, but they require Bluetooth, and we recently heard that the S25 Ultra’s S Pen might lack Bluetooth.

Upcoming Galaxy S-pen 👀 pic.twitter.com/fYzKxxx69tJanuary 19, 2025

So while these images don’t confirm that Bluetooth and the features it enables are absent, they do suggest it might be the case.

Text on one of these images also mentions that the S Pen has 4,096 pressure levels, which is the same as the previous model, though the tip is listed as 1.5mm, making it larger than the 0.7mm Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra one. So that might lead to improvements in some ways.

As for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra itself, these images show exactly the same design that we’ve seen many times at this point, including slightly curvier corners than the S24 Ultra, tiny bezels, and a metal frame.

Hopefully the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra will still impress, whether or not this latest information is accurate, but we’ll find out soon, with Samsung set to unveil this phone on January 22.

TechRadar will be reporting live from the event, but if you want to tune in yourself, here’s how to watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025. And for more details of what to expect, check out all of our Samsung Galaxy Unpacked coverage.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.