Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra

If you’re looking for a new Android flagship phone, you might be considering a Samsung Galaxy. The S series models come in different variants, the Ultra being the high-end option. The latest model for 2025 is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and it comes at the same price as its predecessor, which is to say, it's still quite expensive. Considering how Samsung's S series has had incremental upgrades over the past few generations, the Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra suddenly becomes a viable comparison.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra can be found well-under $1,000 if you know where to look online. But does tthat mean it's good value? You can save big by going with an older flagship model if you're not really going to be using this phone to its full potential but still want something flashy. Both phones are undoubtedly some of the best Android phones you'll find. The question is, which one is worth the money?

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra: Looks and basics

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra looks more like its smaller siblings now than it ever has. Samsung has given it a fully flat frame for the sides, and the four corners have a more prominent curve, which should address our gripe about it digging into your palm when holding it. The display bezels are also slimmer, which has allowed Samsung to fit a slightly larger 6.9-inch screen in the same footprint. Our only gripe is that the frame is quite slippery, which means you'll most certianly need a case.

The S25 Ultra continues to use a titanium frame and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for the rear glass panel. The biggest design change, though, is the thickness and weight. This is the slimmest and lightest Ultra device yet, weighing 16g less than the S23 Ultra and about 0.7mm slimmer. This is accompanied by new colors, which include Titan Black, Titan Gray, Titan Silverblue, and Titan Whitesilver. Then there are Samsung's online store exclusive shades which are Titanium Jadegreen, Jetblack, and Pinkgold.

The larger display on the Galaxy S25 Ultra gets Corning Gorilla Armor 2 which is said to have 29% more resistance to fractures compared to the previous model. The new model also has a higher brightness rating, but most of the other specs are similar. This includes the QHD+ resolution, 120Hz dynamic refresh rate, and HDR playback capabilities.

The battery on the Galaxy S25 Ultra has the same 5,000mAh capacity as the S23 Ultra, but battery life is even better. Samsung claims the S25 Ultra is 40% more power efficient than its predecessor and that shows in real-world battery life. During our testing, we were comfortably able to use it for one whole day from 9:30 AM to around 11:30 PM, with 26% left to spare. This was after spending most of the day testing the camera.

The S25 Ultra supports Super Fast Charging 2.0 and Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 with the same rated speeds as its predecessor. It does support Qi2.1 magnetic charging, but only if you use Samsung's first-party case.

The good news this time is that Samsung hasn't increased the price of the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It starts at $1,299 in the U.S. and comes with 12GB of RAM. There are three storage tiers 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. With all the new AI features Samsung has included, I was expecting at least the higher storage tiers to get 16GB of RAM like its competitors.

Now, let’s look at the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. It comes with a polished metal armor aluminum frame with repurposed glass and PET film. Finished in Earth tones like Green, Phantom Black, Lavender, Cream, and Samsung exclusives Lime, Sky Blue, Graphite, and Red, you’ll get lots of fun color options with this phone.

The 6.8-inch 3,088 x 1,440 screen is Gorilla Glass Victus 2 as well, so it is nearly as durable in this respect. It also boasts a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The S23 Ultra has the same IP68 rating as the new S25 Ultra.

In his Galaxy S23 Ultra review, Android Central’s Nicholas Sutrich says the screen is “super bright and ultra-crisp” and loves features like Vision Booster that help boost it in direct sunlight. He does notice, however, that the raised camera lenses are dust magnets.

Equipped with a 5,000mAh battery, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra supports 45W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, and 5W reverse charging via Wireless Powershare. Sutrich said at the time of his review that battery life was the best he’d seen among flagship phones to date, easily getting two days per charge. However, the phone charges at a snail’s pace, which is the trade-off.

Available with a Samsung S Pen for doodling, taking notes, and highlighting, Sutrich likes that the edges are less curved than the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, so it’s easier to write close to the side with the S Pen. You’ll get 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB storage with no memory card slot for expansion. There’s also Bluetooth 5.3, stereo speakers, NFC, support for up to Android 17, and security updates through 2028.

Samsung currently only sells renewed S23 Ultras on its official site in the U.S., but you can find sealed units on Amazon going for about $830 with a wireless charger bundled. This model is hard to come by though unless you buy one via your carrier for a monthly subscription. Finding the higher storage tiers of the S23 Ultra is even tougher.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra: The specs

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Let’s look at the specs of these two phones in a side-by-side comparison.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra: Features, functions, and performance

Here’s where things get interesting. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra comes loaded with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which marks a significant jump in performance and battery efficiency. This chipset is also better equipped to handle complex AI features, more of which now run on-device on the Ultra. In our review, we didn't notice any sort of issues with performance, other than when trying to do emulation or running benchmarks. In fact, it shouldn't feel all that different to the S23 Ultra as that is still a very powerful phone.

Samsung calls it 'AI Agents,' which are more tightly integrated into One UI 7.0 and can perform tasks between apps on behalf of the user. You can trigger AI Agents with a long press of the power button and choose it from the new interface. The phone also features an enhanced Circle to Search, which can now recognize even sounds in videos, conversational search, and lots more.

Other changes to the interface on the S25 Ultra include Now Brief, which is something we ended up checking on a daily basis during our review. This gives you your Morning Brief before you start your day and an Evening Brief summarizing the day's events, reminders for upcoming events, and so on. Of course, you should also expect all the Galaxy AI features from the Galaxy S24 Ultra to make an appearance, too.

While the new AI features in the Galaxy S25 Ultra are great, they are more useful if you have an active lifestyle. On the other hand, if you work from home or don't travel a lot during the week, features like Now Brief are not that helpful.

Launching with Android 15 and Samsung’s One UI 7, the S25 Ultra will be getting seven years of OS upgrades and security patches. One of the biggest advantages of buying the latest smartphone is that you're guaranteed longer software updates. When you're spending north of $1,000 on a phone, you'd ideally want to get the most use out of it. The ability to get seven OS upgrades means you'll be able to enjoy all the benefits of future Android operating systems for a really long time.

One of the Ultra series' signature features is, of course, the S Pen stylus. The Galaxy S25 Ultra continues to rock it in a dedicated silo on the bottom of the frame, but there's one big change this time. The S Pen that ships with it no longer supports Bluetooth (or BLE), which means you won't be able to do Air Actions anymore or use it as a remote shutter for the camera. According to Samsung, usage of this feature was dramatically low at under 1% of all Ultra users. Apart from this, though, the S Pen will still support everything else.

Comparatively, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra arrived loaded with Android 13, but it is updateable to Android 15 and beyond (once the update rolls out), supported through Android 17 and up to 2028 with security updates.

It’s powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which is fairly powerful already but won’t be as powerful as the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It comes loaded with all the usual Samsung AI goodies, so you’ll still get a wonderful AI experience with this phone. However, some of the newer AI features will be restricted to later models.

The S23 Ultra has either 8GB or 12GB RAM, with storage going up to 1TB. Sutrich was pleased with the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra for gaming in his review, joking that it doesn’t “turn into molten lava” when he tries to play a game for more than 20 minutes. He lauds the chipset for doing a better job of cooling the phone, even when pushing mobile graphics to the limit.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra: How good are the cameras?

As the rumors suggested, the Galaxy S25 Ultra's ultrawide camera has been upgraded from 12MP to 50MP. Samsung claims this should produce more detailed macro shots and in our experience, image quallity is certianly improved thanks to the higher resolution. By default, images shot with this camera are pixel-binned down to 12MP. The higher resolution should also result in better low-light performance.

The rest of the sensors are similar to the S24 Ultra. You get a 200MP primary, 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and another 50MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom. The front camera is still 12MP, and it can shoot up to 4K videos. The rear main camera will shoot up to 8K 30fps videos.

Samsung claims videos recorded at night should be better thanks to a double-analysis noise removal system and custom Spatial-Temporal Filter (STF). You also get professional-grade features like Galaxy Log, which lets you shoot a flatter video for better color correction later, and exclusive LUTs (Look Up Tables) for precise controls over color and light for a distinct look. You can record and edit such videos right on the device itself.

The S25 Ultra's cameras are certianly a notch better than the S23 Ultra, especially the ultrawide. We'll also have our in-depth camera comparison with the S25 Ultra and its competitors, so you won't want to miss that.

As for the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, it comes equipped with a pro-grade camera system including a 200MP wide-angle lens, 12MP ultrawide, 12MP selfie, and a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and 10MP telephoto lens with 10x optical zoom.

It has features like nightography for better low-light photos, night portrait, astro hyperlapse, expert RAW mode, and multiple exposures. It’s expected that all these same features will carry over to the new phone as well.

You can read all about Sutrich’s experience with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra camera in his dedicated camera review for the phone. But to sum it up, he finds that the 200MP main camera yields photos with “exquisite detail,” but the shutter is slow to respond. And you’ll get inconsistent results, which might sometimes include a loss of detail or something blown out in a photo.

He does, however, love the front-facing camera, portrait mode, and macro camera, calling them the best in this respect of any Android phone he had tested to date (when the review was originally written back in 2023).

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra: Which should you buy?

If you've read through our comparison so far, you'll notice that deciding between the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra is actually easier now.

If you're someone who likes to get maximum value out of your purchase and don't intend on switching phones for the next five years, I'd recommend getting the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It's better than the S23 Ultra in terms of ergonomics, certain camera functionality, build quality, display brightness, software update longevity, and AI features. It's a big ask to fork out $1,300 upfront, but you'll have the peace of mind of getting updates and possibly new feature drops for years to come.

Conversely, if you like changing your phone every few years and are not too bothered about staying on the cutting edge of AI, the S23 Ultra is still be an excellent choice. The 256GB variant is down to around $800, and its S Pen has Bluetooth functionality if that's something you care about. You might want to keep an eye on the S24 Ultra too as it now dips to roughly the same price as the S23 Ultra, making it a better deal.