Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra: A Detailed Comparison
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is here, and as usual, it brings incremental upgrades over its predecessor, the S24 Ultra. While it boasts a new chipset, subtle design refinements, and a new camera, some features have surprisingly regressed. This comparison will help you decide if the S25 Ultra’s improvements justify its price, or if the S24 Ultra offers better value.
Size and Design
Both the S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra are far from compact phones, inheriting the Galaxy Note-like design philosophy. However, Samsung has managed impressive miniaturization with the S25 Ultra, reducing its width by 1.4mm and thickness by 0.4mm. While seemingly small, these changes noticeably impact the phone’s ergonomics. The flatter design — encompassing the display, rear panel, and sides — makes the S25 Ultra feel more comfortable and secure to hold. Ultimately, handling preferences might vary, so it’s advisable to try both devices in person before making a decision.
Both phones utilize Gorilla Armor glass and titanium construction. The S25 Ultra upgrades to the second-generation Gorilla Armor glass and grade 5 titanium, promising enhanced durability compared to the S24 Ultra’s first-generation Gorilla Armor glass and grade 2 titanium. Both models, however, maintain an IP68 water and dust resistance rating.
Color options are similar, with both models offering a standard range available from carriers and retailers, and a more exclusive selection from Samsung’s online store. While both include black and gray options, the other colors vary slightly between the generations.
A notable disappointment with the S25 Ultra is the downgraded S Pen functionality. While still providing excellent pressure sensitivity for writing and drawing, it loses support for air gestures and remote camera control, making the S24 Ultra’s S Pen superior in terms of features.
Display
The S25 Ultra boasts a slightly larger 6.9-inch display compared to the S24 Ultra’s 6.8-inch screen – a negligible difference. Both feature a 1440×3120 pixel resolution with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. Both lack Dolby Vision support, relying on Samsung’s HDR10+ standard. Both also feature 8-bit color depth, which, while good, lags behind some competitors offering 10-bit or even 12-bit options. Brightness performance is practically identical for both, reaching over 1400 nits with adaptive brightness and around 750-800 nits with manual brightness (with "Extra brightness" enabled). Both displays include anti-reflective Gorilla Armor glass, with the S25 Ultra using the second generation.
Battery Life and Charging
Both the S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra share the same 5000mAh battery capacity. The S25 Ultra demonstrates modest improvements in battery life across various tests, showing up to a 14% increase in video playback compared to the S24 Ultra. However, these improvements are minimal enough to be considered practically negligible in real-world use.
Charging speed is identical at 45W for both models; a speed that is considered average and not a major strength for either phone. The S25 Ultra does include a minor advantage with Qi 2.1 wireless charging support, enabling the use of magnetic cases and potentially automatic coil alignment with select chargers.
Speakers and Audio
Both phones utilize the same setup: one speaker at the bottom and a second, integrated earpiece acting as a top speaker. Our testing revealed identical loudness numbers for both. However, subjective listening tests suggested slightly fuller and more pleasant sound from the S25 Ultra’s speakers.
Performance
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, while the S24 Ultra features the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the top-tier processor of its year. Both are "for Galaxy" versions, implying marginally enhanced clock speeds compared to the standard versions, these differences are negligible in day-to-day usage. RAM is generally 12GB for both, but 16GB option may be found in certain regions for the S25 Ultra. Storage options are similar: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
Benchmark tests clearly indicate the S25 Ultra’s superior processing power, providing significantly higher scores and enhanced AI performance. However, the S24 Ultra’s performance remains very good, and with both phones backed by 7 years of software updates, their long-term viability is comparable.
Camera Comparison
Camera hardware and specifications on both devices are quite similar. The only significant difference is the ultrawide camera, with the S25 Ultra replacing the S24 Ultra’s 12MP unit with a 50MP sensor, maintaining largely the same physical size. The 200MP main camera and telephoto lenses are identical between the two.
Image quality shows only minor differences. The S25 Ultra’s main camera demonstrates slightly less sharpening and a more natural detail rendition than the S24 Ultra, with similar results across the other lenses at different zoom levels. Low light performance shows some more significant difference, but image comparisons tend to vary based on the shot.
Video recording capabilities are also very similar overall, with both offering 4K at 60 and 24fps across most lenses. The S25 Ultra adds 8K and 4K at 120fps on the ultrawide. While the S25 ultra also features 10-bit HDR video and a new Log video mode, these features are highly niche.
Verdict
Choosing between the S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra presents an unusual challenge. While the S25 Ultra boasts newer technology and minor performance improvements in various aspects including battery life, sound quality, and charging flexibility, the upgrades are mostly incremental. The significant drawback is the S Pen’s reduced functionality on the S25 Ultra. In several aspects, such as the ultrawide camera images, the S24 Ultra actually performed better.
Given that the S24 Ultra is arguably better in some areas while remaining largely similar in terms of user experience, its lower price point makes it far more appealing in this situation. This time around, the older model can be a surprisingly better value proposition.
Get the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra for:
- Latest AI enhancements
- More powerful processor
- Small improvements in battery life, speaker quality, and wireless charging
- A slimmer, potentially more durable design
Get the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra for:
- A more feature-rich S Pen (especially the remote camera feature)
- A surprisingly better ultrawide camera
- Very similar user experience overall
- Lower price
