Samsung has just unveiled the Galaxy S25 series of smartphones, and as usual, there’s one device that outshines the others. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has arrived, and it’s pretty impressive.

Samsung’s most cutting-edge flagship, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, has finally been unveiled alongside its non-Ultra siblings, the Galaxy S25 and the Galaxy S25+. Powering the Galaxy S25 Ultra is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, a variant of the Snapdragon 8 Elite custom-made for the Galaxy S25 series. This is not a new thing—we’ve seen Samsung and Qualcomm partner on Samsung-exclusive variants of Snapdragon chips, and they’re usually higher-binned, so these are, at least on paper, the best you can get on an Android phone.

The phone comes with a choice of either 256GB or 512GB of storage, as well as up to 12GB of RAM. Battery needs are served by a 5,000 mAh battery, as usual, which supports 45W charging for quick top-ups.

The camera is usually the strongest point in the Ultra range, and this one also delivers. The main lens is still 200MP, but we have a 50MP ultra-wide lens for a change, a notable upgrade from the 12MP lens on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The device now also defaults to 10-bit HDR recording, providing four times richer color expression. Low-light video capture has also been significantly improved this generation. According to Samsung, the S25 Ultra analyzes movement and time to reduce noise more effectively.

The first change you might notice is the design. Since the Galaxy S22 Ultra was introduced, the range’s design has barely changed, with completely squared corners to complete a no-nonsense, professional look. It was what the Galaxy Note range was doing before it was ended, and the Ultra range was made into a spiritual successor of the Note series from 2022 onwards, so the design was basically identical. Here, though, we have slightly rounder corners—still not as round as those in the regular S25 phones, but just round enough to make old cases not compatible.

The back camera setup looks identical, though, and we still have the S Pen right where we expect it to be—we just don’t have the sharp device corners we used to have before. That’s probably for the better. The sharp corners look good, but they contributed to making the device more unwieldy than it actually was. The design also incorporates durable titanium and the new Corning Gorilla Armor 2 for its display, which offers advanced drop protection, anti-reflection surface treatment, and scratch resistance.

Speaking of the display, it’s 6.9 inches and has a 3120 x 1440 resolution. The screen with the rounder corners makes the device just a tad taller than its predecessor, but also less wide. It’s still not a one-handed phone, but I guess if you have a really big hand, it could be easier than trying to handle an S24 Ultra.

Just like the Galaxy S25 and S25+, the phone is powered by One UI 7, based on Android 15. The new version of Samsung’s third-party skin comes with improvements to its Galaxy AI suite of AI features. It adds things such as AI Select, which lets apps directly interact with each other and suggest you follow-up actions—it’s great for situations where, for one, someone sends you a wedding invite and you need to put it on your calendar. It also features post-quantum cryptography, a new encryption method that’s supposed to be resistant to quantum computing when they eventually get to the point where they can bust open regular encryption methods.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra starts at $1,299.99 and is available for pre-order in Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Whitesilver, Titanium Gray, and Titanium Black, with other colors exclusive to Samsung’s website including Titanium Pinkgold, Titanium Jetblack, and Titanium Jadegreen. It’s considerably more expensive compared to the regular Galaxy S25 phones, but the good part is that it’s relatively easy to save on it. You can get $50 off if you reserved your phone through Samsung’s website (shame on you if you didn’t because we actually told you to do it), and you can get up to $1,250 off with an eligible trade-in.

Samsung is also introducing the New Galaxy Club early upgrade program, allowing users to upgrade to next year’s Galaxy device by either paying off your remaining installments or give you a credit for 50% of next year’s phone’s MSRP. This program is priced at $8.33 per month for the S25 Ultra, so it’s a nice thing to have if you tend to upgrade to the latest Samsung phone every year. If you want to look at carriers, Verizon will give you $1,000 off the Galaxy S25 Ultra if you trade in your device and you get the Unlimited Ultimate plan, while AT&T will give you a free phone if you trade in and sign up for an eligible plan.

Source: Samsung, AT&T, Verizon