The Galaxy S25 Ultra: More "S25", less "Ultra"

Without a shadow of a doubt, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is not just one of the most anticipated smartphones of 2025, but also one of the three or four devices that are going to dominate the flagship realm next year… and probably the year after.

Things couldn't be different, as Samsung is still the go-to brand for millions and millions of people out there, tech-savvy or not. I'm a big promoter of the Far East brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, OnePlus (and the rest of them) – they make mind-blowing flagships with killer specs – but people en masse favor Samsung. That's the power of the brand.

That being said, I want to point out that while the Galaxy S25 Ultra is going to be really capable, it's also headed in the wrong direction in a key area. I mean, the phone itself will be fast, reliable, powerful, and more, but when it comes to its exteriors… it doesn't take me to cloud nine.

Generally, I don't care that much about a phone's looks: flat or curved screen, ultra-thin bezels or not, wasp waist or a thicker frame… it's all irrelevant. What I want from a phone is to be reasonably fast (by my standards, that means flagship-level speeds), to offer a nice battery life (with fast charging), and to have a superb camera (possibly five superb cameras, thank you very much).

However, with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, I look at things a bit differently. I'm perfectly willing to accept flagship specs and flagship performance in a non-flagship body from any other phone, but Samsung's "Ultra" line – at least its last three iterations – were amazing on the outside. That's why I hate to see it go on the Galaxy S25 Ultra:

• Galaxy S25 Ultra is no longer the odd one out in the family, leaked image shows

I like to think out of the box… and I like boxes

As you probably know, the Ultra model in the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S23, and – of course – Galaxy S24 families was the distinct one. While the "vanilla" and the Plus-sized models were being nice, safe, and round, the three Ultra(s) were these rectangular, boxy, sharp-edged badass champions. These were handsets to cut your fingers on – or at least they looked like that.



Now, things are very much headed in the opposite direction. As pointed out in the aforementioned report, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is now getting closer and closer to its lesser siblings in terms of appearance. Gone are the sharp, aggressive lines and the edges that almost scream "kid-unfriendly".