Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Samsung’s latest flagship is here! The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is undoubtedly a stunning phone, with the largest display of any Samsung Galaxy device to date, the latest Snapdragon processor, and an impressive spec sheet. The S24 Ultra was released at the end of January 2024, meaning it’s not even a year old yet. It remains a solid option, packing many of the same specs as the S25 Ultra, for a great price.

How do these two devices compare to one another, and if you’re already the proud owner of a Galaxy S24 Ultra, is it worth upgrading to the S25 Ultra? We pitted both devices against one another to find out which one comes out on top — and which you should spend your hard-earned cash on.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: specs

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: design and display

These two devices look pretty identical, though there are some minor differences. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s profile is 0.4mm thinner than the S24 Ultra, and it’s 15 grams lighter, too. Both devices have the same Titanium frame, with a selection of standard colors and online-exclusive colors you’ll only find on Samsung’s website. The corners of the S25 Ultra are softer and more rounded than the S24’s angular, notebook-like corners, too, which may make it feel more comfortable in hand, depending on your preferences. In addition, the width of the S25 Ultra’s body is a couple of millimeters narrower, with the S Pen holder at the edge of the phone’s base.

Onto the displays: The S25 Ultra sports a larger 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display compared to its predecessor’s 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X offering. It’s the largest display on any Galaxy smartphone to date and has 15% smaller bezels that help it to feel like less of a behemoth; otherwise, its specs are pretty similar to the S24 Ultra. Both displays pack a 3,120 x 1,440 pixel resolution, up to 2,600 nits of peak brightness, and an adaptive 1 to 120Hz refresh rate, with support for HDR10+. The S25 Ultra also features ProScaler which Samsung says provides clearer, more vivid viewing.

When it comes to durability, both devices have Gorilla Armor glass protecting the display. The Gorilla Armor 2 on the S25 Ultra is marginally more resistant to damage than the original Gorilla Armor on the S24 Ultra, while its anti-reflection surface treatment makes it even easier to see the display in bright sunlight.  Both devices pack an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

We’ve awarded this round to the Galaxy S25 Ultra for its larger display, slimmer, lighter body, and slightly tougher Gorilla Armor glass — but there’s not much to set the two devices apart.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: performance

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip. This chip is built on a 3nm process and is the fastest processor available to date from Qualcomm. The “for Galaxy” part of the moniker means the chip is slightly overclocked, compared to the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.

According to Qualcomm and Samsung, it boasts a 37% faster GPU, 40% faster NPU, and 30% faster CPU than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy that powers the S24 Ultra. Both devices have 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage space, while the S25 Ultra packs a larger vapor chamber and new thermal interface material (TIM) for improved cooling — great news for gamers.

Though the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is powered by the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, performance is still no slouch. In our review, we noted no significant issues making calls, using apps, or carrying out basic tasks on the phone. When it comes to gaming, our reviewer spent over 30 minutes playing demanding titles like Asphalt 9: Legends and the phone barely got warm — in fact, it never got too hot to handle, even during benchmarking stress tests. One minor annoyance we noted was that holding the phone in landscape mode while gaming or viewing videos made it too easy to accidentally cover the speakers. Overall, though, we deemed the S24 Ultra’s performance to be excellent all around, even while gaming.

The S25 Ultra just takes the crown here thanks to its more powerful chip, but in daily usage, most people probably won’t see too much difference between the two devices.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: cameras

Both the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the S24 Ultra boast the same camera array with one exception: the 12MP ultrawide lens on the S24 Ultra has been replaced with a 50MP sensor on the S25 Ultra. Other than that, you get a 200MP main sensor with OIS, 50MP periscope telephoto with 5x optical zoom, 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and 100x Space Zoom, with a 12MP front-facing camera, across both devices.

We haven’t spent enough time with the S25 Ultra to fully assess the cameras, but Samsung promises sharper, more detailed night photos and nightography video. The 50MP ultrawide lens delivers four times more detail than the 12MP ultrawide sensor on the S24 Ultra, and the next-gen ProVisual engine ensures “next-level camera quality” across the board. Of course, you also get access to Galaxy AI’s editing tools.

The S24 Ultra’s cameras impressed us in our review, with the main and ultrawide cameras taking punchy, colorful photos that not only look great on social media, but also contain plenty of depth and detail for editing. Low-light images are bright and detailed, but in ambient light, there’s quite a bit of noise, resulting in photos looking bright but lacking atmosphere and realism, an issue that also plagued the S23 Ultra. Another S24 Ultra camera feature our reviewer didn’t like was “focus enhancer” mode, which is automatically activated during close-up shots and makes it impossible to achieve images with any discernible depth of field.

On the video side, there’s UHD resolution, 8K at 30 frames-per-second (fps) and UHD slow motion video capture at 120fps, as well as the AI-assisted auto slow-motion mode which lets you tap and hold on video shot at normal speed to slow it down, with the missing frames filled in by AI.

On paper, it should be easy to give this to the S25 Ultra for that upgraded 50MP ultrawide shooter. Until we’ve spent more time with the S25 Ultra’s camera, however, this remains a tie.

Winner: Tie

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: battery and charging

Both devices are identical across the board on paper when it comes to their respective batteries and charging credentials. Both phones pack a beefy 5,000mAh battery, 45W fast charging, and 15W wireless charging, plus reverse wireless charging for your earbuds and other accessories. Samsung claims the S25 Ultra offers up to 31 hours of video playback time compared to the 30 hours on offer from the S24 Ultra.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra will easily see you through two full days of use, according to our review, and with light use, this could be stretched even further. Though we haven’t spent as much time yet with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, battery life should be similar, perhaps even slightly better thanks to the gains from the faster chip.

Both phones take around 70 minutes to reach full charge from empty, but there’s no charger in the box, so for the fastest speeds you’ll need to invest in a compatible 45W adapter.

We’re calling this around a tie, but may update it once we’ve spent some more time with the S25 Ultra.

Winner: Tie

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: software and updates

Out of the box, the Galaxy S25 Ultra runs One UI 7 based on Android 15, while the S24 Ultra runs One UI 6.1 based on Android 14. Samsung’s One UI features plenty of customization options including AI-generated wallpapers. Galaxy AI features and tools are included with both devices — though, as we noted in our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review, this isn’t a reason to buy either phone.

Galaxy AI across both phones includes tools like Circle to Search, Samsung’s take on Google Lens, and Generative Edit, which works similarly to Google’s Magic Eraser to remove unwanted elements from your photos using AI. Other features like Live Translate and Interpreter are tools you’ll likely use less often, while our reviewer felt Chat Assist, which is designed to provide suggestions to give your typed messages a different tone, was awful in its current iteration.

Two new features for Galaxy AI on the S25 Ultra are Now Bar and Now Brief. Samsung says Now Brief is designed to help you organize your day, with a personalized brief of everything from the weather and traffic updates to appointments, meetings, and news. It also shows your sleep data and Energy Score from Samsung Health — though you need to utilize Samsung’s own calendar so appointments show up. It’s useful to get a brief of your day on one page, but not a ground-breaking feature. The Now Bar also gives you a personalized mini-brief from your lock screen, acting as a handy reminder of appointments or meetings — plus, it lets you control apps running on your device, including the music player, timer, and stopwatch. Whether these features will remain exclusive to the S25 series or be rolled out to the S24 Ultra in a future update remains unclear.

Samsung has promised seven years of security updates and OS upgrades for both devices, which means the S25 Ultra’s final OS update will be Android 22, likely in 2032. The S24 Ultra’s final OS update should be Android 21.

This round is another one that’s too close to call, as which device you choose largely depends on how much you want the latest Android 15 and Galaxy AI features, like Now Brief — though these may come to the S24 Ultra in future.

Winner: Tie

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: price and availability

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of onboard storage. It’s currently available to pre-order from Samsung.com, starting from $1,300 for the 256GB model. Currently, the 512GB model can be picked up for the same price, with the 1TB model on sale for $1,420.

The S25 Ultra is available in four standard colors: Titanium Black, Titanium Gray, Titanium Silverblue, and Titanium Whitesilver, as well as three online-exclusive colors only available from Samsung: Titanium Jetblack, Titanium Jadegreen, and Titanium Pinkgold. The phone goes on general sale on Friday, February 7, and will be available from Samsung.com and most other major online retailers.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra also packs 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. It’s currently available to purchase from Samsung.com, Amazon, and most other major online retailers. Pricing starts from $1,300 for the 256GB model, rising to $1,420 for 512GB of storage. The 1TB model is available from $1,449. It is available in four standard colors: Titanium Black, Titanium Gray, Titanium Yellow, and Titanium Violet, as well as three online-exclusive colors only available from Samsung: Titanium Blue, Titanium Green, and Titanium Orange.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: verdict

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra are both epic smartphones, with not much separating the two. Deciding which phone to invest in may come down to your budget, color preferences, and desire to own the latest, greatest Galaxy device.

We’ve decided against crowning either phone as the winner, and instead called this a tie, for now. Once we’ve spent some more time with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, this verdict could easily change.

Ultimately, both phones cost around the same. The S25 packs a larger display, a more powerful processor with enhanced cooling features for gaming, an upgraded 50MP ultrawide camera, and a few extra Galaxy AI features that may or may not come to the S24 Ultra in the future. The s24 Ultra holds its own with a perfectly powerful processor that can handle the latest games without overheating, a beefy 5,000mAh battery with 45W fast charging, excellent cameras, and a slew of Galaxy AI features that you might love — or may rarely use.

We’re on the fence about which of these phones is the better buy and it’s a case of personal preference here. If you simply must have all the latest features, with bells and whistles, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is the one to go for — and it will receive updates until 2032. If you’re happy to have a powerful Galaxy phone that’s an excellent daily driver, without the latest processor or most groundbreaking features, the S24 Ultra is an excellent buy.

Pre-order the Galaxy S25 Ultra:

Buy the Galaxy S24 Ultra: