Samsung ’s Galaxy S25 Ultra is here to take on the 2025 flagship market – but is it worth elevate from the still - equal to Galaxy S23 Ultra ?
TheSamsung Galaxy S25 Ultraboasts an all - new looking at that brings it more in line with the eternal sleep of the Galaxy S collection alongside upgrades to camera engineering , processing power and charging speeds that allow it to better compete in the 2025 market .
However , despite its freshen look , theGalaxy S23 Ultrais still a open smartphone in its own regard , and one that pit the S25 Ultra in several cardinal areas .
Whether you ’re view an upgrade or want to save a turn of cash on aflagship smartphone , here ’s how the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra compare to the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in everyday role .
Spec comparison
Pricing and availability
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra starts at £ 1,249/$1,299 with 256 GB of storage , though it ’s available with up to 1 TB of storehouse if 256- or 512 GB is n’t enough for your needs . It ’s uncommitted to buy right now from Samsung and third - party retailers following an early February 2025 launch .
The Galaxy S23 Ultra , having been released back in 2023 , is now way more low-cost than its £ 1,249/$1,199 launch RRP . It can be found at the like of Amazon for as short as £ 679/$795 , offer a healthy bank discount compare to its New sibling .
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra ’s combining of curved edges and pointed corners was a staple of the top - death telephone ’s pattern for years , preserve with the S24 Ultra the following class , but the S25 Ultra has bucked the trend with an entirely Modern form gene .
We praise the S23 Ultra ’s design when we review the smartphone back in 2023 , noting how the curving edges helped the extra - large telephone set sit more well in the helping hand , though it did feel boxy compared to similarly - sized phones like theiPhone 14 Pro Maxwith those pronounce corner .
It also did n’t touch the relaxation of the S23 collection , which adopted the more New compounding of rounded corners and flat edges .
The same ca n’t be said with the Galaxy S25 Ultra , however . Samsung has at last unified the design of the entire Galaxy S25 range with the Ultra model feature the same rounded corners and mat edge as its siblings , micturate for a more premium bet overall when equate to the S23 Ultra .
It also proffer way better purchase on the monotonic sides than its curved sibling , though the onetime mannikin is marginally more comfortable to hold up as a result .
There are also minor tweaks to other areas of the design , including new bezels on the rearward cameras on the S25 Ultra and the use of Ti in spot of aluminium , but for the most part , it retain the magnetic core Galaxy DNA .
Both smartphones offer IP68 dust and weewee resistance to keep your phone safe during trips to the beach , though the S25 Ultra ’s Gorilla Armor 2 glass security is more durable than the S23 Ultra ’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 .
Winner : Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
Screen
The core screen experience is pretty similar when comparing the two Galaxy flagship , with both offering Samsung ’s impressive Dynamic AMOLED 2x screen technical school with an LTPO - enabled 120Hz refresh rate and a pixel - packed QHD+ resolve – but there are subtle differences between the two .
That starts with the sizing of the CRT screen ; the S25 Ultra feature a 6.9 - inch screen despite measure in at like property to the S23 Ultra , thanks primarily to its ultra - slight bezel . Even equate to the S23 Ultra , these bezels are impressively thin , bring to the overall immersion and chip in it an ultra - premium look .
The S25 Ultra is also the first Galaxy Ultra in quite some meter to have an entirely monotonic display , compare to the curved edges on offer from the S23 Ultra . The S23 Ultra ’s curvature is n’t egregious , but you ’ll likely already have a preference on whether you like flat or curved screens better .
That does mean that swiping in from the side of the screen is a minuscule dainty on the curving S23 Ultra , however , compared to the slightly sharp-worded whizz you ’ll get from the S25 Ultra ’s flat edges .
The anti - reflective software of the S25 Ultra could be a dealbreaker for some though ; we found the anti - meditative property of the screen to be particularly telling even when compare to similarly premium smartphones . The S25 Ultra does n’t completely negate these reflection , of course , but it ’s right smart less detectable , even when chew over a source of spark like a lamp .
That said , regardless of the model of Ultra you have , you ’ll be get a top - tier screen experience with plenty of detail , vibrant colour and cryptic blacks , idealistic for both scroll through TikTok and playacting games .
Cameras
Both Galaxy flagships provide telling camera public presentation , with both feature the same 200MP main camera that delivers consistently telling shots in both well - lit and depressed - twinkle scenarios , though there are differences on offer when it comes to the secondary camera setup .
The Galaxy S23 Ultra has a combination of telephotograph lenses , offering 10MP 3x and 10x hitman to boost the earphone ’s rapid climb capabilities . We found the combination ready to hand to exit the gap , but the combining of depleted resolution and minute apertures meant they were n’t great once easy levels set out to drop .
There ’s also a 12MP ultrawide that , like the telephotograph electron lens , offer great carrying out during the day but put up in the evening with a lack of detail compared to the main sensor .
The S25 Ultra search to ‘ fix ’ the lowly camera setup of its predecessor by ditching the 10MP 10x telephotograph for a boosted 50MP 5x periscope lens . This helps the S25 Ultra provide good - quality shot between the 5 - 10x where the S23 Ultra struggled with its 3x sensor , while the periscope pattern of the electron lens have in mind that carrying out is substantial manner beyond the 10x mug too .
Both are capable of those touch Samsung moon shot , but when it comes to shooting anything else , the S25 Ultra ’s zoom lens delivers better solvent .
It ’s a exchangeable news report with the upgraded 50MP ultrawide , the only real hardware change on offer from this year ’s flagship , massively boosting the performance of the ultrawide sensor , especially when it do to down in the mouth - light picture taking .
The S25 Ultra also declare oneself more advanced video capability including the ability to fool in Galaxy LOG , though this is avowedly a rather niche lineament that only consecrate videographers will dabble with .
Performance
If there ’s one area where the update Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultrareallypulls away from the S23 Ultra , it ’s the operation department . We ’re spill about an abnormally large leap in execution here , mainly down to the use of the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy .
It boasts the same Orion mainframe computer architecture as its screen background - focused Snapdragon X Elite and offer around 40 % better performance than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy – and eventhatwas faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy set up in the S23 Ultra .
permit ’s get specific here ; while the S23 Ultra scored 1489 and 4527 in Geekbench 6 ’s single- and multi - core tests severally , the S25 Ultra handle 2886 and a thumping 9515 . When it comes to more CPU - heavy undertaking , the S25 Ultra has over double the power of the S23 Ultra .
It ’s a similar story in the GPU department too , with the S23 Ultra grading 3766 in the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme test while the S25 Ultra wangle an telling 6680 .
In everyday use , it ’s a fiddling strong to enjoin the difference between the two devices . Both offer placid , speedy mundane performance , though the S25 Ultra should load apps a little faster and propose better skeleton pace in demanding plot . A large vapour bedchamber allow the S25 Ultra to stick around cool than the S23 Ultra in longer gaming sessions too .
The 8 Elite also avail power the on - equipment AI experience – which we make out to briefly .
Finally , the Galaxy S25 Ultra offers up to 16 GB of RAM compare to the S23 Ultra ’s 12 Great Britain , though both extend the same 256 GB , 512 GB or 1 TB of storage .
Software and AI
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra primitively shipped with OneUI 5 based on Android 13 before stimulate OneUI 6 sometime after the launch of the Galaxy S24 range last year .
We were a adult fan of the software system at the time , praise OneUI ’s simplicity of use , though the amount of Samsung - branded apps was a little much , with several Google dupe that served very little purpose – something that has n’t changed with subsequent OneUI firing , much to our reviewers ’ humiliation .
The Galaxy S25 Ultra , on the other bridge player , ships with Samsung ’s novel and shiny OneUI 7 ground on Android 15 . It ’s a more material update than late iterations of Samsung ’s UI , add with it redesign icons , new animations , a unexampled split quick ascendence design and much more that our reader praised .
Then there’sGalaxy AIto deal . This year ’s S25 Ultra bring with it young additions to the already spacious roll of AI features include Now Brief , a sassy Gemini that can perform multi - app function and new on - equipment AI processing capableness .
However , in testing , we feel that the new AI features were n’t rotatory , with the Now Brief ’s limited information being a special dashing hopes of ours . Despite Samsung ’s call of pulling data from various rootage on your earpiece , our reviewer consistently only saw basic entropy like weather condition and calendar events .
Plus , with the S23 Ultra catch many of the S24 Ultra ’s Galaxy AI features in the OneUI 6 software system update , it ’s possible that the S23 Ultra will realise many of the same AI capability when it receives the OneUI 7 update in the coming months – albeit belike cloud - found rather than on - equipment .
The Galaxy S25 Ultra excels when it descend to long - terminal figure support , however . The latest flagship is slate to get a walloping seven OS upgrades that ’ll take it through to OneUI 14 base on Android 22 , while the S23 Ultra only gets four OS rise .
consider it has already had an rise to OneUI 6 and we ’re awaiting the upgrade to OneUI 7 , there are only two major O upgrade left for the S23 Ultra – mean it ’ll stop getting OS upgrades in just a brace of age .
Battery life
Despite the two - multiplication gap between the two smartphones , both the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Ultra provide the same combination of a 5000mAh barrage fire and 45W degraded charging .
With that in mind , it should arrive as no surprise that both smartphones offer similar battery longevity , with neither struggling to get us through an average Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ’s use in testing . That ’s with power - sapping feature like the QHD+ resolution combat-ready , for citation .
Neither is what we ’d describe as a two - day gadget , however . The S25 Ultra finishes a full day with around 20 - 30 % left in the storage tank , while the S23 Ultra wraps up with around 30 - 40 % .
That enunciate , Samsung has improved the efficiency of its 45W excite over the past few genesis , as we found out in examination . The Galaxy S25 Ultra reached 70 % bang in just 30 minutes of institutionalise , compared to the 51 % from the Galaxy S23 Ultra . It also achieved a full charge in 62 minutes , a humongous 29 bit quicker than its herald .
Both also come with the same 15W wireless charging support , though the Modern S25 Ultra technically supports Qi 2.0 despite not volunteer built - in magnets – there are third - party cases for that instead .
Final thoughts
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is clearly the more capable of the two phones , with a heavy screen , better cameras , way upright carrying out , tenacious software program promise and improved charging speeds – but is there really enough here to excuse an upgrade from the S23 Ultra ? I ’m not so sure .
Yes , the S25 Ultra is technically more able in most regard , but the S23 Ultra comes pretty close in fundamental areas like display tech , camera and battery life . That have in mind the experience might not be as transformative as one might expect when actuate from one to the other .
That enunciate , if you ’re on more of a budget , the ignore Galaxy S23 Ultra might serve your pauperism well .
For more smartphone inspiration , take a look at our excerpt of thebest smartphones .
