Here Are Some Reasons Galaxy S25 Is A Good Upgrade, And Some Reasons It's Not

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The Galaxy S25 Ultra is technically Samsung’s best phone ever made, and it brings loads of AI features to the consumer. However, it doesn’t look incredibly different from other generations in specs and appearance. Given that, here are a couple of reasons you might want to pick one up, as well as a couple of reasons you might want to hold off on upgrading to the Galaxy S25.

Why you should buy the Galaxy S25

Technically, it is a better phone

The Galaxy S25 Ultra, along with the S25 and S25+, is equipped with a few familiar specs. That includes a similarly sized display at a similar display resolution, 12GB of RAM, and a 5,000mAh battery. On the surface, it really all looks the same except for some rounded corners on the new one.

However, Samsung is surprisingly bad at advertising the real differences. The first, obviously, is that the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC is running the Galaxy S25 series. This means it can handle AI better than the previous version. On top of that, the new 5,000mAh battery has a different design with supposedly better heat management, which means it lasts longer compared to the previous version.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra also has a different, more advanced screen than the one before it. Again, Samsung didn’t really mention this during the event. It’s still an LTPO AOMED 2X display, but it’s a version that can take advantage of Samsung’s new image engine for what the company claims is better fidelity. All of that is packed under the second iteration of Corning’s Gorilla Armor, which adds some extra strength and tones down reflections further.

Another improvement is the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s new 50MP ultrawide lens. This is a small change, but it adds a little weight to the wide-angle functionality for users who need to fit more in the frame. The rest of the array is pretty similar, if not identical, to the S24. With that, the company also added a LOG function for better color correction. This is a great add, bringing the Galaxy S25 up to par with more professional cameras. It’s a rare feature to find on a smartphone, with the iPhone’s Pro series being the only other notable option.

It might also pan out that Samsung doesn’t bring the new AI camera features to the Galaxy S24, though it’s hard to argue either way without knowing for sure.

Galaxy AI is finally getting good

Samsung spent a lot of time diving into the new and existing parts of Galaxy AI, and it finally seems like the company’s AI suite is getting better and might be worth an upgrade to the S25.

For one, real-time translation has support for 20 languages, which is a pretty good step in the right direction. The tech is impressive in itself, but it only works if a large portion of users can take advantage. Bringing it to more languages is the way to do that. To that point, the Galaxy S25 series can also create full transcripts of calls from the call screen.

Samsung also announced that Now Brief and Now Bar would be coming to the Galaxy S25 series on launch. The Now Brief takes everything Galaxy AI thinks you’ll need to know and delivers it in one quick summary. That includes meeting reminders, notifications, and weather information. This tool will likely only add more context as One UI improves, but the feature is incredibly helpful to have on hand.

The Now Bar is an added companion to that. It’s targeted more toward sports fans and offers live stats and Google Maps notifications, but it’ll likely have much more functionality with future upgrades.

All of that is powered by what Samsung calls the “personal data engine,” though it’s a lot less sinister than it sounds. It’s essentially an improved way for Galaxy AI to determine what you’re interested in. This is a case of “the more you use it, the better it gets.”

It’s also worth noting that the Galaxy S25 series will get all of the One UI 7 features we know about, like Circle to Search and Gemini. It also brought up new ways to search your phone with natural language, like searching for an image by asking, which is cool to see. You may never use that feature, but it proves that Samsung’s AI engine is evolving on the S25.

Seven more years of updates

Another small reason it might be worth upgrading is the longevity of the Galaxy S25 series. Samsung is handing out another seven years of updates — both security and OS upgrades. Of course, one could argue that the previous version had seven years, and one would likely upgrade before then anyway.

Why you should wait on the Galaxy S25

It’s essentially the same phone over again

I’m aware I made the point that the Galaxy S25 and S25 Ultra are better phones, but as a whole, there isn’t too much of a difference between this latest model and what came before. The new SoC is really good, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is perfectly fine for most users. On top of that, the Galaxy S25 Ultra does not take on more RAM, unlike the S25 and S25+. The lack of upgrades there makes it harder to justify the jump.

The only big jump that matters more than anything is the battery upgrade, and even then, it’s a little early to tell what that performance jump looks like. If it’s big, then that may be worth it on its own if a decent upgrade deal is involved, which Samsung usually does a decent job of during the pre-order phase.

Galaxy AI is not limited to new phones

It’s worth noting that some of these, if not all, will come to the Galaxy S24 series and maybe even earlier models. Samsung wants a lot of users to experience Galaxy AI, and with the S24 series debuting a lot of the company’s first big tools, it would stand to reason these features will trickle down to those older phones.

Samsung hasn’t made a public note on this, and it’s hard to tell what would be brought to the S24 and earlier. Still, it’s safe to assume some big Galaxy AI features will overflow, and some probably won’t.

There are better options out there

If you’re in the market for an upgrade, other OEMs are developing devices that build on Google’s AI with proprietary models, all while packing exceptional hardware. The OnePlus 13, for instance, offers a great hardware and software experience, which can’t be said for every manufacturer. On the other hand, the Pixel 9 series is still one of the best Android lineups around, and it gets access to some of Samsung’s co-op features with Google before the Galaxy lineup does.

The Galaxy S25 is a good phone, but other options with different selling points exist.

You do you

On paper, the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra are good phones. Some might say Samsung has actually almost perfected hardware, though that may be a stretch. The sentiment remains that Samsung’s Galaxy S25 phones are good, and while the S25 series doesn’t dramatically differ from the phones that came before it, they’re still pretty great devices with solid hardware and some of the best AI on the Android market — something worth upgrading to. Of course, you’re probably not missing out on much if you’re using an S24.