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Intro
Samsung has just announced the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Plus, and the company's top and mid-sized phones have never been closer to one another in terms of specs and features!
While each model has its audience, the spotlight inevitably falls on the Ultra model, Samsung’s crown jewel, packed with cutting-edge tech and premium features. It surely has the upper hand in some aspects, it's also true that the Galaxy S25 Plus is just a smidgen less impressive, but also more affordable, making it excellent value.
Yes, the Galaxy S25 Plus shouldn’t be underestimated. Positioned as the middle child in the lineup, it promises an appealing blend of performance, size, and value. Naturally, this raises the question: how does the Ultra, with all its grandeur, stack up against it more affordable peer?
Pre-order the Galaxy S25 Ultra for up to $1,250+ off
$399
99
$1419
99
$1020 off (72%)
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is officially here! You can now pre-order the mighty Samsung flagship for up to $1,250+ off at the Samsung Store! Eligible device trade-ins help you save up to $900, and you also get a $120 free storage upgrade. Additionally, you get up to $350 Samsung Credits.
The exciting Galaxy S25 Plus has finally been revealed. Pre-orders are now open, and you can pre-order a unit for up to $700 off at the Samsung Store with eligible trade-ins. There's an additional $100 Samsung Credit available, which includes your Reservation Gift.
A new look for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, thinner Galaxy S25 Plus
Almost similar in terms of size (Image by PhoneArena)
The Galaxy S25 Ultra has scored a pretty substantial redesign. Gone are the straight edges at the bottom that form a nearly perfect right angle. In their stead, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has curved corners. As a result, both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Plus now utilize the same design language, which is delivering a level of aesthetic consistency unseen before in the Galaxy S lineup.
Aside from this change, things haven't changed much: the Galaxy S25 Ultra still relies on titanium for the frame, just like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, while the front and rear plates use Corning's Gorilla Glass Armor 2, with Samsung's anti-reflective coating on.
Both are thinner than last year (Image by PhoneArena)
At the same time, the Galaxy S25 Plus still relies on Samsung's Armor Aluminum for the frame and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for the glass panels. No anti-reflective coating here.
Aside from the shape change, the Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with flat front and back Gorilla Glass Armor 2 panels, the beloved S Pen Stylus, IP68 water- and dust-resistance, as well as the titanium frame that was introduced last year.
The S Pen is the big difference at the bottom (Image by PhoneArena)
The titanium-clad Galaxy S25 Ultra also employ slimmer bezels in comparison with the Galaxy S25 Plus, which has allowed Samsung to actually deliver a slightly larger display on the Ultra, which now measures 6.9 inches across. The Galaxy S25 Plus skips this design change and doesn't come with a larger screen.
Size-wise, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is naturally the larger device, but it's worth noting that both phones are significantly more compact than their predecessors. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has been slimmed down to 8.2mm and 218gr, while the Galaxy S25 Plus measures 7.3mm thin and 190gr. Extraordinary!
The ubiquitous S Pen is once again making the rounds on the Galaxy S25 Ultra as well, while the Galaxy S25 Plus naturally doesn't get this extra.
Both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Plus employ the same flat design style with a single display punch hole for the camera. IP68 water and dust resistance are available on both the Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra. No extra buttons here, these are not iPhones!
In terms of colors, the Galaxy S25 Ultra will come in Black, Gray, Silver Blue, White Silver, while the Galaxy S25 Plus will sell in Navy, Ice Blue, Silver Shadow, and Mint colors. We expect some exclusive hues to be available on Samsung.com.
Colors-wise, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is available in Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Black, Titanium Whitesilver and Titanium Gray, while the Galaxy S25 Plus comes in Navy, Silver Shadow, Icyblue, and Mint. As usual, we expect some cool exclusive colors to be available on Samsung.com.
Display Differences
Gorgeous AMOLED displays (Image by PhoneArena)
Thanks to some pretty excessive bezel-slimming, we get a larger 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, with HDR support, super-smooth 1-120Hz refresh rate, as well as the useful anti-reflective coating which minimizes glare in a passive way. The peak brightness remains at 2,600 nits, just as much as the previous Galaxy S24 Ultra, so no bump in this vital area.
The Galaxy S25 Plus also get a 2,600-nit display, but the size remains consistent with last year's phone, it's a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display at the front with HDR support, QHD+ resolution, and super-smooth 1-120Hz refresh rate. Sadly, we get no anti-reflective coating here, as that remains a staple of the Ultra flagship.
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Samsung has partnered up with its TV division to bring a pretty decent new feature to all its flagships. A new ProScaler feature will enable content upscaling and promises up to 40% less artifacts when viewing such content on your phone. To top things off, Samsung has also made both displays more power-efficient thanks to a new mobile Digital Natural Image engine.
Biometrics-wise, both devices come with the standard ultrasonic fingerprint scanner built right into the display, and a picture-based face unlock.
Performance and Software
Qualcomm's finest on board
Both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Galaxy S25 Plus come with the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip, an overclocked and fine-tuned 3nm chipset, a first for Samsung. Fortunately, the company will be outfitting all Galaxy S25 devices in all regions with this Snapdragon chip, which will deliver uniformity in terms of performance and features across the board.
With the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, Samsung promises 37% CPU and 30% GPU performance increase, as well as 40% improvement in NPU performance for on-device AI calculations.
While it may sound that the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Plus will have similar performance, the reality is that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will certainly come up on top due to a much larger vapor chamber inside, which will dissipate heat more efficiently than the Galaxy S25 Plus and theoretically deliver better performance.
Both phones arrive with 12GB of RAM in all storage variants, which are 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, while the Galaxy S25 Plus comes with 256GB and 512GB variants.
Software
Both devices come with One UI 7, which is based on Android 15 and comes with some significant visual and functional changes that elevate the overall user experience. You can read more about it in our One UI 7 preview right here.
Samsung has introduced some pretty big new additions to Galaxy AI. The standout feature here is the Gemini-powered cross-app actions, enabling the on-device AI to interact with multiple apps and perform cross-app tasks based on a single natural-language request. For instance, you can ask your Galaxy to find your favorite sports team’s schedule and automatically add each game to your calendar, complete with reminders.
This functionality, reminiscent of what Apple’s updated Siri might offer soon, reportedly integrates with all installed apps and adjusts their settings as needed to achieve your intended result seamlessly.
Another highlight is the Now Brief, which provides a tailored summary of your daily activities, dynamically adapting based on the time of day and other contextual factors.
The Now Bar, located at the bottom of the lock screen, offers a snapshot of live activities, charging status, now-playing details, and other mini widgets—akin to the Dynamic Island widgets on the iPhone.
Naturally, Google’s Gemini is at the core of these enhancements, along with the improved Circle to Search feature. This now incorporates “Action Chips,” which serve as smart shortcuts to relevant functions. For example, circling a phone number allows you to call it instantly, while circling an address lets you navigate to it via Google Maps—making these interactions faster and more intuitive.
Both devices will get seven years of major software updates––those two Galaxies will be supported until 2032.
Camera
The Ultra is making moves
With the Galaxy S25 Ultra, we get few changes in hardware. The same 200MP main camera, 50MP telephoto with 5X zoom, and 10MP 3X telephoto cameras are making the rounds; new here is a 50MP ultrawide camera, an upgrade from the 12MP on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Despite the specs bump, we still expect the camera to output pixel-binned 12MP photos with superior sharpness and low-light performance. Sadly, this upgrade isn't slated for the Galaxy S25 Plus.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S25 Plus once again comes with a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultrawide, and a 10MP 3X telephoto, just like its predecessor.
A common new feature on both new phones is actually embedded into the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset, which comes with a new ProVisual Engine, the backbone of the software image-processing that's largely responsible for how photos and videos turn out. The new engine brings updated image-processing algorithms, which reportedly produce photos with less noise and motion blur, as well as better details. Cool!
Only the Galaxy S25 Ultra can pride itself with a major camera hardware change (Image by PhoneArena)
Other changes include a new Virtual Aperture feature in the Expert RAW camera mode which allows F1.4 to F14, giving you greater control over background blur and sharpness for more customized shots.
Video recording has also seen notable improvements. Both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Plus score upgrades from 8-bit HDR to 10-bit HDR video capture, delivering richer colors and enhanced dynamic range. Additionally, the introduction of Galaxy Log video capture allows for greater flexibility in color grading during post-processing.
On-device AI has been harnessed for the new Audio Eraser tool, which lets you control six different types of sounds in your videos. This makes it possible to isolate or enhance specific sounds while minimizing unwanted background noise.
Generative edits and the object eraser have also been refined to ensure cleaner results, eliminating the creation of unwanted artifacts during edits.
We can't wait to run the new phones through the paces of our new Camera Test.
Battery Life and Charging
Once again… no changes
… but the battery life might still be better, right? (Image by PhoneArena)
Both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Plus boast the same batteries as their predecessors, 5,000mAh and 4,900mAh, respectively. Just a tiny difference between the two phones, which speaks rather well for the Galaxy S25 Plus. While we've officially hit stagnation here (lithium-silicon batteries are already pushing 6,000mAh on some phones), we have high expectations for the battery life.
That's in part due to the new more efficient displays, as well as the faster and therefore more efficient Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip. We definitely expect better battery life on the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Galaxy S25 Plus, but it remains to be seen by how much. Fingers crossed!
When it comes to charging, both phones score 45W wired charging and Samsung's 15W fast wireless charging. Yes, those are the same charging speeds as the past few generations; take that as you will.
200MP main 50MP ultrawide 50MP 5X telephoto 10MP 3X telephoto
12MP front
50MP main 10MP ultrawide 12MP 3X zoom
12MP front
Battery
5,000mAh
4,900mAh
Charging
USB-C 45W wired 15W wireless
USB-C 45W wired 15W wireless
Summary
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is the best one around, but the Galaxy S25 Plus is also a smart choice (Image by PhoneArena)
Samsung gives us "more of the same" with the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Galaxy S25 Plus, while simultaneously improving some of the key areas that usually matter… and that's not bad, not bad at all!
After all, Samsung has been figuratively killing it with its flagship in the past few years and seemingly feels quite comfortable releasing consistently great phones, arguably the best Android ones you can get your hands on. Sure, one might argue that the company is no longer bold and its flagships are nowadays boring, yet we can't argue that Samsung has been continuously perfecting the formula.
As to which one should you get, that's entirely up to your size and feature needs: the Galaxy S25 Ultra is definitely the upper-tier and more feature-rich phone, with more head-turning aspects to it that will make it that much more premium than the Galaxy S25 Plus.
With unchanged prices, the Galaxy S25 Ultra starts at $300 more than the Galaxy S25 Plus, making the latter a better-value device. Still, there's no denying that the Galaxy S25 Ultra is among the hottest phones right now.
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Peter, an experienced tech enthusiast at PhoneArena, is captivated by all things mobile. His impartial reviews and proficiency in Android systems offer readers valuable insights. Off-duty, he delves into the latest cryptocurrency trends and enjoys sci-fi and video games.
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