The new Samsung smartphones ship, officially, on Feb. 7, 2025, so I was quite surprised to receive email that ours would arrive today. They did—the S25 for my wife and the Ultra for me.
The company makes yearly upgrades too easy, with launch trade-in and other offers. My S25 Ultra is the 1TB model, for which Samsung shaved $1,140 off the price, bringing the total to less than what I paid for the same capacity S24 a year ago. The same goes for the S25: Less than the S24, with $550 discounted. Annie has the model with 256GB storage, which is the maximum available.
If not for the launch incentives, we would wait another year. That said, subtle but meaningful improvements—Galaxy AI among them—made the choice easy. I preordered the Ultra before Samsung finished the Unpacked keynote on January 22 but waited two more days on the S25. That makes their arriving the same day even more surprising.
Neither is powered up yet, although the Ultra is charging. First impressions are forthcoming.
The Featured Image comes from the S24 Ultra, which has been a fantastic joy to use. I am loathe to surrender it. But the deal is to do just that. Vitals: f/2.2, ISO 100, 1/125 sec, 13mm (film equivalent); 4:16 p.m. PST, today.