This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
As someone who has access to some of the latest and greatest flagship phones, I get to choose which one I’d like to use on a daily basis.
And if my time in 2023-2024 was more or less evenly split between the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Pixel 8 Pro, the one phone that stayed on my desk gathering dust was the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Ironically, I do believe Samsung’s most premium slab phone strikes a nice balance between the other two - it has excellent battery life and a powerful chip (which isn’t the case with the Pixel 8 Pro), but it offers the flexibility and AI tricks of Android the iPhone simply can’t match.
However, in the end it came down to two things - design and camera. And this is where the Galaxy S25 Ultra can make up some ground and win me over.
Galaxy S25 Ultra redesign focused on ergonomics can make all the difference this year, but I also want a camera with more character, Samsung!
Galaxy S25+ (left) and Galaxy S25 Ultra (right). The Galaxy S25 Ultra's design falls somewhere between the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Ultra.
As far as design goes, I don’t dislike the way the Galaxy S24 Ultra looks - in fact, I love the orange-ish color I picked.
But it’s all about the way the Galaxy S24 Ultra feels… to hold. Which is why the leaked Galaxy S25 Ultra renders make me rather excited.
To get to the point, I find the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s design to be extremely unwelcoming in general, but especially for someone with small hands.
It’s a large phone, which already makes it hard/impossible to use with one hand. However, it is the shape of the phone that makes it an ergonomic nightmare. More specifically, the thick frame, which comes to a sharp corner on all four edges and digs into your hand.
Therefore, the slight curves we see on the Galaxy S25 Ultra renders (and the screen) might look meaningless, but I’m positive they’ll make a great deal of difference when it comes to holding the phone.
And although you can’t really tell from looking at the renders, it is also expected that the frame will be thinner, which should reduce the overall size of the phone.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera needs three things to leave iPhone, Pixel, and Xiaomi behind: Less aggressive image processing; much improved video quality, and pro-grade, fun camera “filters”
That's how I Leica it, Samsung.
As for the camera… Well, I simply find the iPhone 15 Pro Max to be the more reliable shooter. Especially when it comes to video.
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As for the camera side of things, I’m hardly a fan of Samsung’s image processing, which leans on extreme HDR, giving photos the familiar “smartphone camera look”.
On the other hand, the video taking and editing experience on the Galaxy S24 Ultra is also inferior to that on the iPhone 15/16 series. Low level of detail, bad low-light performance, and a less capable Cinematic mode all make the Galaxy S24 Ultra the lesser “pro” smartphone camera for video compared to the iPhone.
So… I can only hope Samsung has worked on the camera of the Galaxy S25 Ultra to make it more flexible and competitive.
Apart from the overly processed photos and OK videos, the S24 Ultra’s camera lacks the character offered by the likes of Xiaomi, Vivo, OnePlus and even the iPhone 16.
The reason is that all of these phones have developed special photography modes (in collaboration with legacy brands) that give your photos a unique look and feel - whether it’s Leica, Zeiss, Hasselblad, or Apple’s upgraded Photographic Styles.
It might seem like a small thing, but it’s a perfect way to make phone cameras fun again. Not to mention, Apple’s Photographic Styles are baked into the actual photo you are taking - not just filters.
On top of that, the ultimate flexibility factor is that the iPhone 16 series lets you change the Photographic Styles after the fact, which means you don’t even need to think about “messing up” your photos when taking them - you can’t really get it wrong.
All in all, it’s that lack of pro-grade creative control that puts the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s camera below that of the iPhone 16 series for me - as well as below the likes of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and Oppo Find X7 Ultra. And the Galaxy S25 Ultra is Samsung’s golden opportunity to even the playing field. Especially given the power of the Snapdragon Elite chip, which must be of great help when it comes to image processing.
Galaxy S24 Ultra is already almost perfect - the Galaxy S25 Ultra doesn’t need much to become my go-to Android phone
Apart from the above-mentioned shortcomings, I’d actually say the Galaxy S24 Ultra already does everything else really, really well. For example:
I already love the anti-reflective display, which (for whatever reason) is still exclusive to Samsung’s top flagship phone nearly a year after launch
I also love the plethora of AI features Samsung and Google are giving me, like Circle to Search, Sketch to Image, and Samsung’s excellent Summarizing feature (which works only on the Samsung browser, so let’s fix that?)
The S24 Ultra also has great battery life, so an extra hour or two would make the S25 Ultra only better; that being said, I don’t expect Samsung to utilize the new Si/C battery technology, and shock everyone with a 6,000 mAh battery; of course, this would be the dream scenario but given how conservative the company has gotten when it comes to hardware upgrades, I don’t see that happening
In terms of performance, benchmarks already show that the Snapdragon Elite chip is probably the most powerful SoC in any phone right now, which means the S25 Ultra will be class-leading in that regard; on top of that, leaks suggest One UI 7 should be “the smoothest version of One UI ever” - fingers crossed
Heck, I even liked using the S Pen on the S24 Ultra, and this is something I never thought I’d say in a million years - and it’s all thanks to the Sketch to Image AI feature, which lets you draw “fake” objects on top of your photos; it’s a lot of fun
And of course, there’s the wild promise of 7 years of software updates - there’s no way to fact-check this one right now, but I guess it’s good it’s there
Perfect timing? I’m losing faith in Apple, and Galaxy S25 Ultra might be the first premium Samsung phone I’d enjoy using
Samsung's top flagship used to be much more enjoyable to hold than the iPhone. Let's like... totally go back to that!
All in all, as someone who’s been using the iPhone 15 Pro Max, Pixel 8 Pro, and Galaxy S24 Ultra during the past year, and currently on my trusty iPhone 13 mini and Pixel 9 Pro Fold, I really do believe the Galaxy S25 Ultra might be the phone that converts me into a more active Samsung user.
As I mentioned, I refuse to use the Galaxy S24 Ultra daily due to how uncomfortable it is, and the slight ergonomic redesign of the Galaxy S25 Ultra might just be enough to make me use this phone on a daily basis.
A special Leica-like camera mode that makes photos coming from the Galaxy S25 series more exciting and video quality closer to that of the iPhone would be the cherries on top. But I’m sure Samsung has more surprises - especially in the area of AI.
Let’s not forget the Galaxy S24 series launched with a ton of exclusive AI features developed in collaboration with Google - features even Pixel phones didn’t have at the time. And that’s exactly an area where Apple is really lacking behind right now - especially if you’re an iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Pro user.
Samsung, it’s the perfect time to steal my heart.
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Martin, a tech journalist at PhoneArena, brings a unique blend of humor and insight to his work. His fascination with smartphones began with a Galaxy Young and evolved through a series of trades and upgrades, making him a self-proclaimed smartphone nerd. Martin's content often combines current analysis of market trends with historical references and future predictions. Whether it's a deep dive into technical issues or a first-person commentary on industry events, Martin's articles are designed to inform and engage. His critical perspective is driven by genuine curiosity and a desire to keep readers informed, not by any corporate sponsorship.
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