Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs S24 Ultra: what’s new?

Does Samsung’s newest model step things up?

Samsung has kicked off 2025 by releasing a whole host of new products, including the Galaxy S25 / S25 Plus, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The latter’s previous iteration, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, was created to rival its competitors at Apple and Sony with oodles of AI features, bright screen and a new processor.

All of these appear to have been carried on to the S25 Ultra, with a selection of upgrades to boot. If you are unsure whether you need to upgrade your model, you’ve come to the right place. We have broken down every aspect of both the S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra to help you make an informed decision. So, does the S25 Ultra look like it will be the cream of the crop? Let’s find out.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs S25 Ultra: pricing

It’s good news for UK customers, as the retail price of the S25 Ultra will stay the same as the S24 Ultra at its release. We are still waiting on international pricing, but we will keep you updated as soon as we know.

The prices of all models and configurations of Galaxy S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra can be found below:

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Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs S25 Ultra: design

Our senior staff writer Lewis Empson got the chance to see the new model up close at Samsung’s launch earlier this week. He noted that where the four-star rated S24 Ultra has quite square corners, the new S25 has a more rounded look and a flatter design overall. The S24 was the first Ultra model to be built with titanium (much like the iPhone 15 Pro models), and the S25 Ultra has continued to follow this trend. It says this material is its go-to because it can increase grip to prevent drops, as well as improve durability so that if it does hit the floor it is less likely to be damaged.

The S24 Ultra utilises Corning Gorilla Armour glass, which doubles up to increase scratch resistance and reduce screen reflectivity by up to 75 per cent. But the S25 Ultra has been fitted for the armour’s upgraded display, which is 29 per cent more effective at reducing scratches and fractures. Samsung also uses titanium in the frame of both models, but the S25 Ultra has managed to trim 15g off the S24 Ultra’s 232g.

If you were unsure if the S25 Ultra was made of titanium, Samsung ain’t going to let you forget with its aptly named range of colours. You can get the new model in Titanium Black, Titanium Grey, Titanium Silver Blue, and Titanium White Silver.

Those aren’t the only upgrades the S25 Ultra has been afforded in terms of looks. The new model has 15 per cent smaller bezels (the frame that surrounds a phone’s screen) compared to last year’s design which has resulted in a 0.1-inch increase in screen size.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs S25 Ultra: features

Like most tech brands in the last few years, one of the biggest features Samsung is touting at the moment is its AI abilities. When we reviewed the S24 Ultra, we said that the AI features were “genuinely useful”, so it’s reassuring to see that all of them have been continued into the new model. There are a huge number of AI features integrated into the S24 Ultra. There are almost too many to talk about, including real-time texting and calling translation between 13 supported languages, intelligent voice note transcription, typing revisions based on different tones/scenarios and smart summarisation of documents and recordings, to name a few.

The S25 Ultra has kept these features and is even set to include upgrades to the photo editing tools including a more effective Generative Fill tool thanks to an on-device large language model.

We were impressed with the S24 Ultra’s punchy and sharp camera performance, and it seems the S25 Ultra is only going to improve on what we liked. It has a new 50MP ultrawide camera joining the existing 200MP main, 10MP telephoto and 50MP periscope lenses. Both models have a 12MP front-facing camera.

The two models have a special 'For Galaxy' version of Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, and 12GB of RAM available. There’s the UI 7 operating system running on top of the standard Android 15, as well as seven years of software support.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs S25 Ultra: picture

At 6.9 inches, the S25 Ultra’s screen is a whole 0.1 inches bigger than the previous Ultra’s display.

The two phones’ have the same levels of peak brightness, clocking in at an impressive 2600 nits. With the S24 Ultra it proved a good level for viewing in bright sunlight, so we can only imagine the new model will be the same. Also, they both have Dynamic AMOLED displays.

One thing that has particularly piqued our interest is the new ProScaler feature. This can upscale lower resolution content with (reportedly) 43 per cent more detail, which is an important addition considering many mobile versions of streaming apps tend to stream at lower resolutions, and none that we’re aware of support Quad HD resolution.

It’s worth noting that both phones are HDR10+ compatible, which is ideal for watching Amazon Prime Video and YouTube, but less ideal for Dolby Vision-specific streaming apps like Netflix and Disney Plus.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs S25 Ultra: sound

During the testing process of the S24 Ultra, we found that it delivered an energetic performance with hints of warmth and impressive clarity. However, we said it lacked some subtlety compared to competitors such as Sony Xperia 1 V.

There is not much to go on yet in terms of the S25 Ultra’s audio quality as we didn’t get to hear it in optimal conditions, nor did we get to use headphones with the device. So, for the moment, it is a bit of a mystery and you’ll have to wait for our full review to come out. We do know, like the S24 Ultra, that it does have Dolby Atmos over its speakers and headphones.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs S25 Ultra: early verdict

While we haven’t had the chance to spend some extended quality time with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, its array of useful AI features and bright screen seem extremely promising.

We rated the S24 Ultra highly with four stars after the testing process for its punchy screen and high-quality build, so we will eagerly be awaiting the day we can give the S25 Ultra a proper look.

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And here is our in-depth review of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

This is what we thought of the Sony Xperia 1 VI