The Galaxy S25 Ultra is lighter and brighter, but is it enough? S23 Ultra owners say no

It is a running joke that Apple releases the same iPhone every year. Samsung probably felt it was missing out, so it jumped on this train with its Galaxy flagships, releasing minor iterations every year. Samsung has recently released its Galaxy S25 series flagships, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra, in particular, feels just like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which in turn was quite similar to the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Galaxy S22 Ultra. It seems many of you agree with the sentiment, as a good majority of Galaxy S23 Ultra owners aren’t sold on the idea of the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

When comparing the Galaxy S23 Ultra vs the Galaxy S25 Ultra, we asked users if they would be upgrading.

About 54% of users polled are not considering upgrading to the Galaxy S25 Ultra under any circumstance. These users are satisfied with their current Galaxy S23 Ultra flagship and feel they can either get more mileage out of the phone or are looking at other options. Given that the Galaxy S23 Ultra had plenty of spec headroom at its launch, it remains a competent device since Samsung will be offering plenty more years of software updates.

A decent 21% of users polled are on the fence, exploring whether they can get a good enough trade-in value for their Galaxy S23 Ultra to make an upgrade to the Galaxy S25 Ultra worth it. Presuming the trade-in values aren’t to their liking, these users would not be upgrading; conversely, Samsung offers decent trade-in values, so these people might be looking to jump. Combined, a good 75% aren’t immediately jumping at the opportunity to upgrade, and that says something.

Only about 24% of polled Galaxy S23 Ultra users are convinced they should upgrade to the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Improvements across the two phones include a changed design, lighter weight, a brighter and less reflective display, a newer flagship SoC, and better periscope zoom and ultrawide cameras. At the same time, you lose out on Bluetooth features for the S Pen. These changes are enough to convince these users to spend money and get the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Irrespective of where you stand on the debate, there’s no denying that we aren’t getting revolutionary change from Samsung and Apple. It’s easy to argue that “phones have matured” to give both these companies a free pass for releasing the same phone every year, but one look at other OEMs will tell you that both have just become lazy. They’re following the formula of “not fixing what’s not broken,” choosing to reap the benefits of their brand goodwill and investing more in refining their experience rather than pushing the envelope of mobile technology. Hopefully, these companies feel compelled to catch up to innovation at some point in the future.