Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Expectations and Release Date       

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is set to be Samsung's next big flagship hitting the shelves in early 2025. For many Samsung Galaxy lovers, the luxury and premium quality the Galaxy S series Ultra model brings is fascinating. Since 2020 till date, Samsung has reserved its best S series specs for the Ultra models.  As a successor to one of the best Android phones currently available, the Galaxy S25 Ultra will have the tough job to recapture the magic by surgically implementing improvements and upgrades. Right now, even though it is still early days for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, we've got a grasp on a few key things about the phone. Following are the some of the important points:- 

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is expected to launch in early 2025, with an official announcement likely towards the end of 2024.

It will likely retain the 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display and Gorilla Glass Armour from the S24 Ultra.

The S25 Ultra is expected to run on Android 15 and feature AI capabilities by Google’s Gemini Nano 2.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is expected to feature a stronger titanium build, a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor, faster storage capabilities (rumoured to be 8GB/second), and possibly a larger camera sensor.

Now, let's delve deeper into all the expectations surrounding the upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra. You can also take a look at all the available information about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S25. We expect that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will feature a strong and premium titanium build, as well as double-down on Corning's glare-free glass at the front. Design-wise, it will likely reiterate the mostly flat design of its predecessor, with a built-in S Pen, and IP68 water- and dust-resistance. The display might stick to 6.8 inches and will almost certainly keep rocking a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with a super-smooth 1-120Hz screen refresh rate. Hopefully, Samsung will increase the maximum brightness even more for better visibility outdoors. When it comes to performance, it's almost a given that we'll find Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip powering the Galaxy S25 Ultra. There's always a chance this chip might only be in US units, leaving room for an Exynos version elsewhere in the world. Battery-wise, we hope to get better battery life out of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but we are not holding our breath for a much larger battery due to space restraints. We'd definitely welcome faster wired charging, but we might see the return of 45W charging support once again. We expect the Galaxy S25 Ultra to cost as much as the current model does. As a refresher, the Galaxy S24 Ultra starts at $1,300 for the 256GB version and goes up to $1,660 for the 1TB option. 

 In the current S24 Ultra edition, features like Gorilla Glass Armour and Titanium frame were exclusively used. All these have raised the anticipation for what the next Samsung Galaxy Ultra model, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, might bring. While the Galaxy S25 Ultra may not come out until at least early 2025, we’ve been treated to some leaks, rumours and compelling speculations. We can expect the Galaxy S25 Ultra to have a stronger titanium build, a newer processor, a larger camera sensor, faster storage capability, and plenty of Galaxy AI features, perhaps much more than we have seen in the Galaxy S24 Ultra. As the speculations heat up, here is everything we know so far.

New Features

The Galaxy S24 Ultra packed a lot of great features, which contributed to its launch momentum. So, we don’t see Samsung stepping down on improvements in its future generation of smartphones, most especially the ultra model.

Display

Aside from these new features, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is expected to come with a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, similar to the one in the Samsung S24 Ultra. Again, Gorilla Glass Armour, which was introduced recently in Galaxy S24 Ultra, may be retained in Samsung S25 Ultra. The resolution of this OLED display will probably remain at 1440 by 3080 pixels, delivering a very decent sharpness of over 500ppi, which means that you won't be able to distinguish between individual pixels. The display will also surely be super-smooth thanks to LTPO 3.0, allowing it to switch between 1 and 120Hz on demand. One of the best new features of the Galaxy S24 Ultra was the exclusive Gorilla Glass Armor, which mostly eliminated glares and as a result greatly boosted the outdoor legibility of the screen. A superb feature we sincerely hope makes a comeback. Display brightness is the new megapixel war with manufacturers constantly trying to outshine each other in terms of maximum brightness. With this trend showing no signs of slowing down.

Features and Software

Also, by the time the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra arrives in 2025, Android 15 will have been launched. So, we expect Samsung S25 Ultra to run on this new version of Android OS. In addition to this newer Android OS, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is expected to run version 2 of Google’s AI model, Gemini Nano. The first version is already powering the Samsung S24 series, so it’s safe to assume Gemini Nano 2 will be present to power the next generation of Galaxy AI features in Galaxy S25 Ultra. Galaxy AI will most certainty be present on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. By the time Galaxy S25 Ultra arrives, we should have witnessed the arrival of both Android 15 and the derived from it One UI 7. We might even see One UI 7.1 on the upcoming flagship phone. Details about either of these are scarce, but they should deepen the software's reliance on generative AI and machine-learning. The Galaxy AI that debuted with the Galaxy S24 series is certainly coming back with the Galaxy S25 series, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra will undoubtedly be the best way to experience Samsung's upcoming potential improvements to generative on-device and cloud-based AI. Galaxy AI is one of our favourite new features of this year's Galaxy line up, with almost unlimited potential for upgrades. Thanks to Samsung's new seven-year software support policy, we certainly know that the upcoming phone will be supported for seven years at least. This means the Galaxy S25 Ultra could be supported until 2032. This includes both major Android updates as well as security patches. 

Galaxy S24 Ultra vs Galaxy S25 Ultra

The Galaxy S24 Ultra ushered in many advanced features, but the Samsung S25 Ultra is poised to offer more. 

Camera

According to reports available, Samsung might put a 1-inch 200MP ISOCELL image sensor on the Galaxy S25 Ultra's main camera. In the world of cameras, the bigger the sensor, the better it is. Equipped with 0.8µm pixels, dual-pixel autofocus, and in-sensor crop zoom, this new ISOCELL sensor could potentially seriously improve the imaging quality and sharpness of the flagship, especially in non-ideal lighting conditions.  Samsung might stick with pretty much the same camera setup as the previous model. When it comes to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, it's safe to say that AI will have an even bigger part to play in mobile photography and videography. This year, Samsung went all in on AI and machine learning to step up its photography game with its top-notch camera phone. We can also expect the usual software tweaks and image-processing algorithm upgrades that come around every year. Thanks to those, we saw better low-light image quality, seriously upgraded image stabilization for shake-free shots and videos, improved portraits, and some slick up-scaling which gives us 100X Space Zoom, even without the 10X periscope camera. 

Storage

The Galaxy S25 Ultra could be the first phone to feature Samsung's UFS 4.04-lane storage chip, which could theoretically support nearly 8GB/sec, a nearly double the 4GB/s of the UFS 4.0 standard that's currently used on many phones. According to a Samsung roadmap, the faster storage is expected to be available in 2025. So, there's a chance that the next Samsung flagship could tap into this speedier storage. In our opinion, that would definitely amp up the device's performance, and it could also be a big boost for Samsung's on-device Galaxy AI. Otherwise, we don't expect any major shifts in the storage tiers that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will come in. We expect 256GB of storage in the base version, with 512GB and 1TB versions also available. 

Design

We don't expect major changes, but as usual, there will surely be some changes. The Galaxy S25 Ultra will stay in the same general ballpark as far as overall size is considered, but the frontal and side design could change. According to leaks, Samsung is allegedly considering four potential designs for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. While mostly similar, the prototype variants differ in terms of bezel thickness and frame curvature. The phone could either go the iPhone way and fully adopt a flat frame like the Galaxy S24/Galaxy S24 Plus, or remain similar to the Galaxy S24 Ultra model and boast a slightly curved frame.  However, just like its predecessor, the Galaxy S25 Ultra will most certainly feature a flat display.  One other thing we are pretty sure about is that Samsung isn't ditching the titanium frame. It was a major highlight of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, so we expect it to stick around for several future generations, too. Naturally, you can count on other staples like the built-in S Pen and IP68 water and dust resistance sticking around in the Galaxy S25 Ultra specs sheet.

Colours

Since Samsung produced its first-ever titanium frame on a phone, colour variations in their S series Ultra models have also increased. Samsung S24 Ultra was released in seven standard colours: Titanium Black, Titanium Yellow, Titanium Grey, Titanium Violet, Titanium Green, Titanium Blue and Titanium Orange. We have not heard any leaks regarding an additional colour, but can assume Samsung will likely retain these colours in the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Battery

Battery AI, Gemini Nano 2, and UI 7 on Android 15. Just like in the current Samsung S24 Ultra model, we expect artificial intelligence to be the heartbeat of most functions of the Galaxy S25 Ultra. This includes a feature called Battery AI, which aims to improve battery efficiency with AI integration, a rumour claims that there will be no increase in battery capacity in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra flagship phone. The S25U will still have a 45W battery and a 5000mah battery 100%. A recent report suggests that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will retain the same battery size and charging speed as its predecessor. Mainly due to space constraints. Yet, if the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 proves to be efficient enough, we might still see an improvement in battery life. Additionally, a new rumour suggests that Samsung might introduce a feature called Battery AI. This feature is said to provide an additional 5% to 10% of runtime to the phone. We hope Galaxy S25 Ultra features faster charging than the 45W wired one of its predecessors. While neither the Galaxy S24 Ultra nor the Galaxy S23 Ultra charged slowly (both top ip in roughly an hour or so), there's always room for improvement. Hopefully Samsung will consider adding faster wireless charging to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, too. Currently, the top Samsung flagship phone charges at up to 15W with an official charger. 

Hardware and Specs

As mentioned earlier, we are mostly certain the Galaxy S25 Ultra will come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip, which will be built by TSMC and will be announced later this year. We expect this one to be Qualcomm's first 3nm chip, matching the Apple A17 Pro in this coveted metric. Currently rolling under the "Tongzi" moniker, this chip will swap ARM's Cortex cores for Qualcomm's new CPU cores. As per the leaks, we might not see any efficiency cores on the chip, which will instead consist of two performance Phoenix CPU cores and six medium-performance CPU cores. The two performance cores on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 might be clocked as high as 4GHz. That would be a serious upgrade over the 3.3GHz of the Cortex-X4 of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Additionally, a leaked GeekBench 6 benchmarking test claims that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 has achieved 2845 points in GeekBench's single-core test and 10628 points in the multi-core one. That is much better than the 7249 score of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and the 7281 result that the A17 Pro chip of the iPhone 15 Pro Max has scored. This means the upcoming phone could be noticeably faster than its previous version. While Samsung typically equips its flagships with either Snapdragon or Exynos chips depending on the region, such a split has never occurred with its Ultra models. So, we think an Exynos-powered Galaxy S25 Ultra is just a mirage.

Expected Base Price

With the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Samsung could go one or two ways: either make it pricier or leave the price tag unchanged. Seeing how the current Galaxy Ultra model scored a $100 price increase this year, we find it a bit difficult to believe that Samsung will go for another price increase for a second year in a row. While the cost of raw materials may have gone up including the cost of the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset which Samsung uses in all the recent Galaxy S series Ultra models, Samsung may likely not increase the price of Galaxy S25 Ultra further, since they have already done so in Samsung S24 Ultra. If this is the case, then we expect Galaxy S25 Ultra to launch at $1299.99 for the 256GB of storage; $1419.99 for the 512GB of storage; and $1659.99 for the 1TB of storage.

Expected Launch Date

As we've seen in the past, it's sort of a tradition for Samsung to unveil its flagship series at the start of the year, with the company steadily shifting its device announcements earlier and earlier. Going by this, we expect to see the Samsung S25 Ultra launched in January or February 2025. No specific date is known yet, but we expect an official announcement from Samsung towards the end of 2024. Samsung usually launches its new smartphones around two weeks after their announcement. Depending on when the phone is unveiled, the release date can very well trickle into the month of February. 

Should you wait for the Galaxy S25 Ultra?

You should wait for the Galaxy S25 Ultra if you are using an older phone and have held off on upgrading to the Galaxy S23 Ultra or the Galaxy S24 Ultra. While it is too early, the potentially significantly improved performance is worth waiting for if you can wait until early 2025 to upgrade your device. You should not wait for the Galaxy S25 Ultra if you use a Galaxy S23 Ultra or a Galaxy S24 Ultra. Even if you use an older device, be it a non-Galaxy Android or an iPhone, nobody can make you upgrade if you're satisfied with your current device, and you don't intend to upgrade in early 2025.

Conclusion

Galaxy S series Ultra models are one of the best premium Samsung phones which keep Galaxy lovers awed in utility. Next year might still be months away, but the cravings, the appetites and the anticipation for the Galaxy S25 Ultra are undeniably high. We just hope that all the speculations on this premium phone come to reality. However, one thing is certain, we will have plenty of AI features coming on board. And maybe, a newer processor, faster storage, and overall, a stronger titanium build in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.