{"id":829,"date":"2025-02-03T01:20:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T01:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/?p=829"},"modified":"2025-02-03T01:20:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T01:20:43","slug":"i-wont-be-upgrading-to-samsung-galaxy-s25-ultra-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/2025\/02\/03\/i-wont-be-upgrading-to-samsung-galaxy-s25-ultra-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"I won\u2019t be upgrading to Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra \u2014 here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra just doesn’t cut it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankly, for me at least, it\u2019s a pretty easy decision to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer is a resounding no, and it\u2019s all down to the fact that the Galaxy S25 Ultra is one of the blandest upgrades I\u2019ve seen over the past couple of years. Beaten only by theiPhone 14, which was essentially aniPhone 13with some very minor upgrades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s getting to the point where I\u2019m wondering whether my money would be better spent buying aGalaxy S24 Ultrainstead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

>>>EB-BS928ABY Battery for Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galaxy S25 Ultra doesn\u2019t feel like much of an upgrade<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Here's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a quick design comparison between the new Galaxy S25 Ultra (left) and last year’s Galaxy S24 Ultra (right). Notice the smaller bezels and more rounded corners on the S25U.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the Galaxy S25 Ultra specs, and compare them to last year\u2019s model, there isn\u2019t a whole lot of what I\u2019d consider \u201cnew\u201d stuff. The screen is marginally bigger at 6.9-inches, and the chipset has been upgraded to a newer and faster model. There\u2019s alsoa version of Qi2, though it relies on a specialist case if you want the magnetic benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Really the only major hardware upgrade is the 50MP ultrawide camera. That\u2019s a useful upgrade, even if it is long overdue, and it\u2019s going to help the Galaxy S25 Ultra claim a position on our best camera phones page. But it\u2019s not the kind of upgrade that makes buying a whole new phone worthwhile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/td>Galaxy S25 Ultra<\/strong><\/td>Galaxy S24 Ultra<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Starting price<\/strong><\/td>$1,299<\/td>$1,299<\/td><\/tr>
Screen size<\/strong><\/td>6.9″ QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display<\/td>6.8″ QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display<\/td><\/tr>
Refresh rate<\/strong><\/td>120Hz<\/td>120Hz<\/td><\/tr>
Processor<\/strong><\/td>Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy<\/td>Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy<\/td><\/tr>
OS<\/strong><\/td>Android 15 \/ One UI 7<\/td>Android 14 \/ One UI 6<\/td><\/tr>
RAM<\/strong><\/td>12GB<\/td>12GB<\/td><\/tr>
Storage<\/strong><\/td>256GB, 512GB, 1TB<\/td>256GB, 512GB, 1TB<\/td><\/tr>
Rear cameras<\/strong><\/td>200MP Wide, 50MP Ultrawide, 50MP 5x telephoto, 10MP 3x telephoto<\/td>200MP Wide, 12MP Ultrawide, 50MP 5x telephoto, 10MP 3x telephoto<\/td><\/tr>
Front camera<\/strong><\/td>12MP<\/td>12MP<\/td><\/tr>
Battery<\/strong><\/td>5,000 mAh<\/td>5,000 mAh<\/td><\/tr>
Dimensions<\/strong><\/td>3.05 x 6.40 x 0.32 inches<\/td>6.39 x 3.11 x 0.34 in<\/td><\/tr>
Weight<\/strong><\/td>7.68 ounces<\/td>8.18 oz<\/td><\/tr>
Dust\/water resistance<\/strong><\/td>IP68<\/td>IP68<\/td><\/tr>
Colors<\/strong><\/td>Titan Black, Titan Gray, Titan Silverblue, Titan Whitesilver<\/td>Titan Black, Titan Gray, Titan Violet, Titan Blue<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The S Pen is proving to be the most infamous of these, withSamsung stripping out the Bluetooth functionalityand related features from the stylus \u2014 claiming they weren\u2019t popular enough to keep around. Samsung claims that aBluetooth enabled pen will go on sale as a standalone product, but that feels like a price hike with extra steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aria also pointed outthat the loss of Air Gestures meant that the Galaxy S25\u2019s desktop mode (DeX) isn\u2019t nearly as useful this time around. So it\u2019s no surprise that it hasn\u2019t stopped apetition trying to return the decisionfrom appearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019re seeing other Android flagships like thePixel 9 Proboost its memory up to 16GB. Given how much Samsung has emphasized AI in theGalaxy S25series, it\u2019s a massive surprise that the Ultra model now has the same amount of RAM as the standard and Plus models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s more to a phone than mere hardware, and software does play a big part in what the device can do. Unfortunately it\u2019s unclear whether the Galaxy S25 offers much that won\u2019t also come to older phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

>>>EB-BS926ABY Battery for Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus 5G<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much of this software is exclusive?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Samsung has spent a great deal of time discussing how the Galaxy S25 Ultra\u2019s software can benefit the phone and its users. AI in particular has been at the forefront of Samsung\u2019s marketing, offering up a bunch of waysGalaxy AI is improving this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2014 including speech, text, images and video. All with the aim of making the process of communicating with AI more natural. It\u2019s a big change for Samsung, even if these aren\u2019t particularly unique capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all the benefits Samsung has been lauding, it\u2019s unclear whether these improvements are general upgrades to Galaxy AI \u2014 or features kept exclusively for the Galaxy S25 series. Samsung hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand Samsung does have theSnapdragon 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 theNow Bar, are already available as part of theOne UI 7 beta\u2014 meaning it’s available (in some form) on the year-old Galaxy S24 Ultra as well. Likewise improvements to Circle to Search and otherGoogle-made AI features are likely to make their way to Pixels and other Android phones in the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heck, even theSamsung Galaxy A35supportssome Galaxy AI features\u2014 and that\u2019s $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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you have an older phone, or maybe even a mid-range model then perhaps the S25 Ultra will be a worthwhile upgrade. There\u2019s 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\u2019t change the fact that this is a very disappointing upgrade, and it feels like Samsung hasn\u2019t tried that hard to give us a substantial upgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t really seem to have a unique selling point. Worse still the rounded design means that it\u2019s lost its visual distinctiveness compared to other phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re 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\u2019t stand out against the competition. Unfortunately the Galaxy S25 Ultra seems to hit both those boxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra just doesn’t cut it We\u2019re 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\u2019s a pretty … Continue reading I won\u2019t be upgrading to Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra \u2014 here\u2019s why<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-samsung"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}