Yet another Galaxy S25 Ultra rumor brings bad news on the camera front and no screen size change
With the Galaxy S24 Ultra still looking like (easily) the best Android phone money can buy for most people less than four months after its commercial debut, longtime watchers of the mobile industry will probably not be shocked to see Galaxy S25 series rumors in full swing already.
No, we have absolutely no reason to expect Samsung's next big thing(s) to be unveiled by the end of 2024 (a year that's not even halfway done right now), but that's predictably not stopping the most prolific tipsters and leakers out there from doing what they do best.
Of course, some sources are more credible than others, which is why you might want to pay more attention to the latest Galaxy S25 Ultra rumor than similar reports and whispers from the last few weeks.
One "confirmed" tidbit and one strong possibility
Although Ice Universe (aka @UniverseIce) is (presumably) human and is thus subject to occasional error like all of us, we highly doubt that a detail "confirmed" by the generally reliable X insider could ever prove inaccurate. Especially when said detail was fairly easy to predict even for an everyday Samsung fan or mobile tech enthusiast with no knowledge of the industry's inner workings whatsoever.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra's 6.8-inch screen certainly fits that description, perfectly matching the size of the S24 Ultra's display, as well as that of the S23 Ultra's panel. Even the S22 Ultra and S21 Ultra back in 2022 and 2021 respectively offered 6.8-inch screens, so an upgrade or a revision of any sort in this particular department always seemed unlikely for Samsung's 2025 super-flagship.
On the camera front, however, a lot of folks may have expected... something different from the S25 Ultra, although "different" is not always a good thing. After all, a recent rumor suggested that Samsung was exploring the possibility of removing one of the S24 Ultra's four rear-facing snappers from its sequel, which was probably not the change you were hoping for.
The latest possibility "not to be ruled out" for the Galaxy S25 Ultra is that "everything will remain the same" as far as imaging capabilities are concerned, according to Ice Universe. This is viewed as "the worst" case scenario by the Samsung-specialized leaker, even though the Galaxy S24 Ultra is without a doubt one of the best cameraphones in the world today.
Obviously, there's always room for improvement in that field, and after the S24 Ultra unpleasantly surprised many hardcore Galaxy fans by reducing its predecessor's 10x optical zoom abilities to a maximum of 5x, we all hoped Samsung was working on a major upgrade for the S25 Ultra to offset that downgrade.
While you should never give up such hopes, Ice Universe is today advising prospective Galaxy S25 Ultra buyers to "be prepared for the worst", which sounds like a very sensible recommendation to apply to essentially all new smartphone announcements in this day and age.
Should you prepare for "the worst" in other departments too?
While very few S25 Ultra specs and features are "confirmed" at the time of this writing, things like battery capacity, screen resolution and refresh rate, as well as storage options, are unlikely to change much compared to what the S24 Ultra offers.
But Samsung may still have a few aces up its sleeve destined to make this bad boy a notable upgrade over its already phenomenal predecessor. We're talking first and foremost about a new and possibly vastly improved Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor that may or may not rival the raw power of Apple's next-gen A18 Pro beast.
The ultra-advanced AI skills introduced with the S24 series are also all but guaranteed to become... even more advanced, potentially helping you squeeze longer running times from an unchanged battery and better photographs from an unchanged quad rear-facing camera system.
Last but certainly not least, there's a possibility (or four) that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will look different from its forerunners in a couple of subtle but key ways, although it's obviously far too early to know exactly what design Samsung is leaning towards. After all, we are talking about a phone likely to see daylight a whopping eight months or so down the line alongside a "vanilla" S25 and a non-Ultra S25 Plus.
Things that are NOT allowed: