Last night, Samsung announced its latest Galaxy S25 smartphone series at its annual Unpacked event, and I was reporting live from the company's London HQ to bring you all of the exciting updates. I spent some time after the event getting hands-on with the latest S25 Ultra flagship, and experiencing some very cool demos from Samsung's experts – but while I had an amazing time at the event, I was still left wondering if the S25 Ultra is a worthwhile upgrade from my Samsung S24 Ultra.
Samsung set the bar super high at last year's unpacked event, with industry-leading AI developments and big flagship upgrades to rival even thebest iPhones for photography. It can't have been easy to try and top this already excellent technology, but I was hoping for a few more standout features from Samsung to make upgrading an obvious choice.
I've already priced up the trade-in cost of my S24 Ultra includingSamsung Student Discount, and it's a very tempting deal. If you're also on the fence about pre-ordering the S25 series, then let's go through my initial thoughts and first impressions of the S25 series, and whether or not you should upgrade.
If you're someone who shoots a lot of video content, then the S25 series' new AI Audio Eraser feature could be a tempting tool. During Unpacked, we were all bombarded with maybe too much information about upcoming AI tools and features for content creators, and as a serious Samsung fan, even I was bored.
But it wasn't until trying out some of these reported features that I realised their true power and potential. Take the Audio Erasure tool for example – Samsung staff had me enter a soundproof booth at the event where a mixture of loud music and audio was being played. They then asked me to record a video with the S25 while speaking over the top, and then showed me how Audio Erasure works to completely isolate my voice in the video clip with no other background sound.
Other features aiming to enhance video quality and editing with the S25 Ultra include the new Galaxy Log video function for creating flat profile portrait videos, as well as the ExpertRAW Virtual Aperture mode for enhancing background blur and tweaking depth of field in your videos.
New camera upgrades
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(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
As a photographer, the number one smartphone feature for me will always be the camera quality. I recently put together a camera phone shootout testing my S24 Ultra against the new Honor Magic 7 Pro, and the quality difference was splitting hairs. Smartphone photography is levelling up fast, and to be honest, I was expecting a little more from Samsung this year in regard to camera upgrades.
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With the S25 Ultra, we're getting a 50MP ultra-wide camera, which is an impressive boost against the previous 12MP quality that I'm used to with my S24 Ultra. But what else is new? There are some fun AI film camera filters available to use, and better object-aware detection tools for enhancing your subject, plus nightography improvements too.
I got to try out both the new Ultra-wide 50MP camera on the S25 Ultra, as well as its new portrait enhancements with the front camera – which can capture a much sharper shot than I'm used to with my S24 Ultra. But despite this, there remain to be very incremental upgrades in terms of specs between the S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra camera module for me to personally justify an upgrade.
Hands-on verdict – should you upgrade?
(Image credit: Future)
It was great to get a brief hands-on experience with the latest S25 series at Samsung last night, but I think to form a proper verdict and truly consider an upgrade to the S25 Ultra, I'd need at least a week of testing it to know how I feel and assess the general performance. In terms of design, these new handsets look stunning, feel very nice and premium to hold, and are more lightweight than their predecessors, so I have no complaints in this area.
As for the pricing, I like that the S25 series is priced exactly the same as Samsung's S24 series was at launch, and I've calculated that with a trade-in discount combined with Samsung's student discount, plus a coupon code, I'll only be paying roughly £450 to upgrade to the S25 Ultra. This is a very good price but still has me thinking if the minimal camera upgrades and enhancements I saw during Unpacked are enough to justify the cost.
I've priced up the S25 Ultra with student discount (Image credit: Samsung)
The big question: Should you upgrade? In my opinion, I think if you're a Samsung S24 Ultra owner like me, it might be a good idea to sit this year out if you're cautious of costs. Not everyone can afford to upgrade their flagship every year, but if money is no object then the benefits outweigh this greatly.
Beth is Creative Bloq’s Ecommerce Writer and has the fun job of finding you the very best prices and deals on creative tech. Beth kicked off her journalistic career writing for Digital Camera World, and has since earned bylines on TechRadar too. With a Masters degree in Photography, Beth loves getting to tinker with new cameras, especially camera phones, as the resident Samsung fan on the team. Her background working as a tester for CeX let her play around with all kinds of weird and wonderful products, including robots, and she’s recently gotten into 3D printing too. Outside of CB, you’ll find her gaming on her PS5, photographing local shows under the alias Bethshootsbands, and making TikToks of her dog, Tilly.
