For photographers, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra sits firmly in our list of the best smartphones for photographers, but then again, so did the previous version, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. The annual release cycle for new flagship smartphones generally has people rushing out to upgrade their devices. But is it always necessary?
I’ve used both of these phones at the same time across a number of different shooting scenarios to find out if upgrading is worth the expense or the hassle – you might be surprised by what I discover.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: Specs
I’ve lined up the key specifications both the S25 Ultra and the S24 Ultra in the table below. I’ve used bold to indicate where there’s been an improvement. As you can see it’s pretty slim pickings. In many respects, the set-up is identical, or as close to identical as you can get.
There’s four cameras for either model, with the newer S25 Ultra’s only improvement being to the ultrawide lens, which is now higher in resolution and wider in aperture than before. Otherwise, the device has been made slightly bigger – which you may not necessarily consider a good thing.
| Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra | Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra |
|---|---|
| 200MP f/1.7 main camera, OIS, 12MP output, 24mm | 200MP f/1.7 main camera, OIS, 12MP output, 24mm |
| 50MP f/1.9 ultrawide camera, 12MP output, 13mm | 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, 13mm |
| 10MP f/2.4, 3x telephoto camera, 67mm | 10MP f/2.4, 3x telephoto camera, 67mm |
| 50MP f/3.4, 5x telephoto camera, 111mm | 50MP f/3.4, 5x telephoto camera, 111mm |
| 12MP f/2.2 selfie camera, AF | 12MP f/2.2 selfie camera, AF |
| 8K 30fps | 8K 30fps |
| 6.9-inch 3120 x 1440 pixels, 2600 nits brightness | 6.8-inch 3120 x 1440 pixels, 2600 nits brightness |
| Samsung Galaxy AI, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite | Qualcomm Snapdragon Gen 3 |
| 31 hour battery life, wireless and Fast (45W) charging available | 30 hour battery life, wireless and Fast (45W) charging available |
| 256/512GB, 1TB storage | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB storage |
| 162.8 x 77.6 x 8.2mm, 218g | 162.3 x 79 x 8.6mm, 233g |
Indeed, both of these phones are on the large side, but at 6.9-inches, the newer S25 Ultra is about as unwiedly as they come. Personally, I would love to see a smaller Ultra model launched, but I’m still waiting for that to happen.
Samsung has changed the look of the phone a little bit too. The newer model has a slightly more chunkier appearance. I can’t say this is good or bad, as that very much depends on personal preference. Probably overall I prefer the new one, but it certainly wouldn’t be enough to make me consider upgrading if I was an owner of an S24 Ultra.
One negative thing to note however is that the bundled S Pen, which fits neatly into the bottom of both the S24 Ultra and the S25 Ultra has now lost some functionality which was useful for photographers. With the S24 Ultra, you could use the S Pen to remotely trigger the camera – useful for certain situations, such as group portraits, selfies and even low light shooting.
Now, Samsung has removed Bluetooth connectivity from the S Pen, so it can’t be used for that at all. That’s a big shame – and makes it actually a good reason to either stick with the S24 Ultra if you have one, or perhaps even consider buying the older model.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: Image Quality
I’ve taken pictures using both the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra across a range of different shooting conditions to get a better understanding of image quality from both.
Please note that in these sliders, the newer S25 Ultra is always on the left, and the older S24 Ultra is always on the right. Let’s get started with a “general” shot.
The “main” camera for the S25 Ultra is the same as in the S24 Ultra. As a result, these images shot at more or less the same time appear to be pretty much identical.
In this image shot with the ultrawide camera, the differences are hard to spot, even though the camera has been improved for the newer model. The S25 Ultra (left) has a higher resolution sensor (50MP) than the S24 Ultra (12MP). However, it’s worth remembering that even in the case of a 50MP sensor, the standard output is still 12MP. Even when zoomed in, I can’t particularly see more detail in the image taken with the newer model. The wider aperture may come in handy in lower light though – we’ll see that shortly.
The 3x cameras are the same between the S25 Ultra and the S24 Ultra – these two images are practically the same.
Again, using the same 5x cameras on both devices yields more or less identical results in terms of detail and colour.
With either model you can zoom to 100x using AI zoom. However, as I’d expect, in both instances, images shot using the 100x setting are garbage – it’s there for marketing purposes. However, images shot at 10x are pretty good, while even 30x (shown here) is pretty usable if you really want to get closer to a subject. However, there’s very little in the way of any observable differences between the two.
It’s disappointing that Samsung hasn’t improved its macro offering in recent years, to compete with the telephoto options provided by lots of the Chinese manufacturers. If Samsung could improve its macro performance, I think it’d be hard – if not impossible – to beat. As it is, both models are still using the ultrawide lens for close-up work. The results are fine, but there’s much better options elsewhere. In terms of the differences between the S25 Ultra and the S24 Ultra though, there’s nothing to see here.
In terms of low light, with the 1x camera, there’s not much of a difference to be seen – which is about what I’d expect. The colour from the S25 Ultra appears to be a little bit warmer, but again, it’s not something that I’d expect you’d really notice unless you’re looking at both images side by side.
There’s a bit more of an observable difference if you look at low light images shot with the ultrawide lenses. The wider aperture and higher resolution seems to have resulted in better detail and clarity for the S25 Ultra, but, really that’s because I’m looking at these images on a much larger screen than most people will likely ever see their own shots on. If you put both side by side on a phone screen, the differences are still pretty minimal.
In these two portraits, the results are fairly similar, with similar levels of detail, and both have nice, natural background blur. The S25 Ultra has a better colour – the S24 Ultra has come out a little greenish, but I don’t think you’d necessarily notice this if you weren’t comparing the two side by side.
The selfie camera between the S25 Ultra and the S24 Ultra has remained the same. Both produce pretty good results. The tones are perhaps ever so slightly warmer / better with the S25 Ultra, but there’s barely anything in it.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: Price and Value for Money
The Samsung Ultra phones have a reputation as being expensive, and that’s certainly true for both the S25 Ultra and the S24 Ultra. The RRPs of both are $1299/£1249 (256GB), $1419/£1349 (512TB) and $1549/£1549 (1TB).
That said, the S25 Ultra debuted at the same launch price as the S24 Ultra, so at least the prices weren’t hiked up like everything else seems to be.
At the moment, Samsung is still selling the S24 Ultra on its website, for the same price as it is selling the S25 Ultra. However, third party sellers have the S24 Ultra for significantly cheaper – you can save yourself some serious cash if you opt for the older model.
You can also save a good chunk of change if you pick up the S24 Ultra second-hand, too. And of course, if you already have an S24 Ultra, deciding NOT to upgrade at this point is a huge money-saver too.
If you’re coming from a much older model, you might consider it value for money to plump for the newest available model. But, otherwise it’s very poor value to upgrade with such minimal improvements seen.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: Verdict
With many of these vs pieces, it can be difficult to pick an outright winner, because often one device will excel in one area, while another will be better for something else.
Here, it’s hard to pick an outright winner because the devices are, to all intents and purposes, so similar that they might as well be the same product.
Image quality is excellent from the S25 Ultra, but it doesn’t beat the S24 Ultra in any meaningful way. If you’ve already got an S24 Ultra – keep it. If you have an older phone and you want to upgrade, consider the cheaper S24 Ultra rather than forking out for the “latest” and more expensive device.
It should be noted that this isn’t necessarily a big criticism of Samsung. The desire to upgrade is a big one, but it’s not great for the planet, and it’s certainly not very good for your finances. By keeping the S25 Ultra on such similar footing to its predecessor, the temptation isn’t very strong, and you can instead wait until a more meaningful upgrade makes an appearance.
What would you do though?
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