Skip the Galaxy S25 series: Now is the perfect time NOT to upgrade from your old Samsung flagship
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Have you patiently waited months to see what Samsung has been cooking with its latest flagship Galaxy series? Well, I have, and two days after the launch, I still can't wash away the sour note of the underwhelming Samsung Galaxy S25 launch.
Samsung's latest phones feel very lackluster in terms of improvements, both for current Galaxy flagship owners and neutral observers. The new devices are even more disappointing when you consider that Samsung has been feeding us the same phones for three-four years now, with only marginal upgrades.
With only minor refinements over the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S23 series, there’s little reason to rush into an upgrade to a Galaxy S25 Ultra, Galaxy S25 Plus, or a compact Galaxy S25.
There's a good chance your current Galaxy flagship is still more than capable. It offers mostly the same premium flagship features, AI features, and competitive performance, making now the perfect time to keep what you already have.
The safest upgrade path for Samsung
With the Galaxy S25 series, Samsung has taken the path of least resistance for its flagship phones. You can count most changes on one hand.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra redesign is possibly the most significant change, but it's still insignificant in the grand scheme of things. While I appreciate the lighter weight, the Galaxy S25 Ultra now looks like all other phones, and you can argue it even feels like it has lost some of its unique charm.
Sure, there's a new ultrawide camera, but since you still get 12MP photos by default, most people probably won’t even notice this change. The addition of 10-bit HDR and Galaxy Log video -recording seems tailored for the 1% of users that will potentially take advantage of these features.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus have gotten even fewer changes than the Galaxy S25 Ultra. More compact? Sure, technically they are, but even if you hold a Galaxy S24 and a Galaxy S25 in your hands, you might find it hard to notice a difference.
Like two peas in a pod, there are marginal changes that won't change the user experience––it will only make your older cases incompatible with the new models so you will have to get new ones.
The performance fallacy: How much power do we actually need?
Sure, the Galaxy S25 has pretty mind-boggling performance, thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset that powers the whole range worldwide.
Built on a 3nm manufacturing node, it's definitely a powerful chip that propels the Galaxies to the top of the synthetic benchmark scoreboard. Some proprietary features baked into the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy are nice, but I would argue that you should not feel pressured to upgrade for the sake of the better performance.
That's because performance on flagship phones is irrelevant these days. Most flagships, Galaxies in particular, have had capable hardware for years, so everyday usage hasn't been an issue, even on the once-dreaded Exynos models.
Any Galaxy flagship from the past three or four years will feel just as fast as the new Galaxy S25 or Galaxy S25 Ultra, and you won't be gaining much in everyday improvements. Social media, messaging apps, and YouTube will work identically as they do on an older Galaxy; spam email and notifications will arrive just as quickly.
The big outlier here could be gaming, where gamers could see some gains, but be honest with yourselves: is playing games on your phone a valid reason to spend actual money and upgrade for a few fps more? The gaming community might grab the pitchforks, but I have the answer for you––nope.
No notable software and AI features
As a person who tends to frequent tech-oriented news outlets and social media, the overall sentiment towards AI features these days seems to lean negatively, especially when AI takes a larger portion of a phone announcement event than the actual phone. People on the r/Samsung subreddit were racing to voice their disdain with the latest Galaxy Unpacked and how disappointing it was, and honestly, could you blame them?
Sure, the AI features announced alongside the Galaxy S25 series were cool, but here's the kicker: they aren't exclusive to the Galaxy S25 series. In fact, they are not even exclusive to Samsung phones. Any device compatible with Google's Gemini is getting the cool new cross-app features and functionalities any time now.
This made the Galaxy S25 announcement the perfect occasion for Google to announce Gemini features ahead of Google I/O later this year, and Samsung's new phones were sadly a casualty in the process.
What about Samsung's Bixby assistant? The company's own smart assistant has taken a back seat so far away from the center stage that it has actually left the building.
Actual downgrades
Did you know that the S Pen no longer has Bluetooth? The single defining accessory behind the Galaxy S Ultra and its whole reason for existence is getting downgraded with this ridiculous removal of an essential connectivity standard.
This means that you will no longer be able to use the S Pen to, say, use air gestures for controlling your device remotely, flip through presentations, control music, snap photos, switch camera modes, or zoom in and out with the S Pen; you can only use the stylus as a writing accessory.
That's a big letdown if I've ever seen one, and possibly an unfortunate sign that Samsung might be entertaining the idea of ditching the S Pen from its flagship phones. It might sound outlandish right now, but cost-cutting as it is, in the not-so-distant future the company might decide that the S Pen needs to go.
Following Apple's footsteps down to the T
Samsung regularly takes a lot of well-deserved flak that it blatantly copies Apple (well, at least from me). Still, I think that one aspect that doesn't get talked about enough is how hard Samsung is trying to emulate Apple's yearly releases and intergenerational upgrades.
And putting myself in the proverbial shoes of the Samsung Mobile CEO, why should I care to revolutionize and constantly reinvent my top products when my biggest competitor––Apple––is actually thriving when delivering the bare minimum of upgrades to its iPhones every year? That'd be a lesson learned, and I'd make sure my company strives to hit the price elasticity of my product, i.e., deliver the same slightly refreshed product every year until sales plummet down.
Sure, Samsung's latest phone release shouldn't be viewed in a vacuum or only compared to Apple. I feel it's pretty consistent with what other Android manufacturers have been doing in the past few years, with stagnant innovation and reiterative AI fluff that fails to stick to the wall.
Conclusion
Honestly, if you have a Galaxy phone released in the past two or three years (Galaxy S22 series, Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S24 series), don't bother upgrading unless you stumble upon a deal that's hard to miss. It's not worth it.
If you're migrating from an iPhone or using another Android brand, I'm also not sure if it's worth getting the latest Galaxy S25 series either. Finding a Galaxy S24, old stock or a second-hand one seems like a smart way to save.
It seems that in 2025, you might not be losing much by not getting the latest from Samsung.
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