Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs S25 Ultra

Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra is the 2026 flagship, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra is the phone it replaces — now considerably cheaper. As is often the way with Samsung's Ultra line, the newer model is a careful, confident refinement rather than a clean-sheet redesign, so the two share a great deal. The real question is whether the S26 Ultra's handful of genuine upgrades are worth a significant price premium, or whether last year's model is the value buy. Here is how they compare, drawn from independent expert reviews of each, with current UK prices.

At a glance

The Galaxy S26 Ultra (around £1,129.00) is lighter, faster and charges much quicker, adds a clever privacy screen and brightens the main camera. The Galaxy S25 Ultra (around £649.00) matches it on the essentials — the same size screen, the same battery capacity and a very similar camera set — for a lot less money. If you want the newest hardware and the fastest charging, the S26 Ultra is the better phone; if value matters, the S25 Ultra is hard to beat.

Check the Galaxy S26 Ultra price on Amazon · Check the Galaxy S25 Ultra price on Amazon

Design and weight

Both are big, premium phones, but the S26 Ultra trims things down. It weighs 214 g — 4 g lighter than the S25 Ultra's 218 g — and adopts more rounded corners in place of the older model's flatter, more angular frame, making it the slimmest Ultra yet at 7.9 mm thick. The S25 Ultra is no slab either, at 8.2 mm, and its titanium build still feels superb in the hand. The differences are small and mostly about feel: the S26 Ultra is a touch more comfortable and modern-looking, while the S25 Ultra keeps the sharper, more industrial Ultra silhouette.

Screen

The headline change is on the S26 Ultra's display. Both phones use a 6.9-inch AMOLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate and excellent brightness, but the S26 Ultra adds a hardware privacy filter built into the screen — a first for a smartphone — that lets you see the display clearly while stopping people beside you from reading it at an angle. It is a genuinely useful trick on a train or a plane that the S25 Ultra cannot match. Otherwise the two screens are very close, and both are among the best you can buy.

Performance and software

The S26 Ultra moves to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 "for Galaxy", paired with an Adreno 840 graphics chip, and it is quick — noticeably so in the most demanding tasks. The S25 Ultra runs the previous Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is still a supremely fast chip that handles anything you throw at it. In day-to-day use both feel instant; the S26 Ultra simply has more headroom and leans harder into on-device AI, arriving on the newer One UI 8.5 where the S25 Ultra launched on One UI 7. Samsung supports both with years of updates, so the software gap will narrow over time.

Cameras

On paper the camera systems are strikingly similar. Both carry a 200-megapixel main sensor, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide, a 50-megapixel 5x telephoto and a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto — the same four-camera layout. The S26 Ultra's advantage is in the main sensor, which gains a brighter f/1.4 aperture for better low-light capture, plus a new ultra-stabilised video mode that lets it stand in as an action camera. In good light the two take very similar photos; the S26 Ultra pulls ahead after dark and for video. If photography is your priority the newer phone is the better tool, but the S25 Ultra remains a top-tier shooter.

Battery and charging

This is the S26 Ultra's clearest practical win. Both phones use a 5000 mAh battery — Samsung has kept the same capacity — so all-day endurance is similar. The difference is refuelling: the S26 Ultra finally moves to 60 W fast charging, filling up in around 48 min, where the S25 Ultra is capped at 45 W and takes closer to an hour. If you charge in short bursts, the newer phone's quicker top-ups are a real, everyday convenience.

Price and verdict

At the time of writing the Galaxy S26 Ultra is around £1,129.00 and the Galaxy S25 Ultra around £649.00, though both vary by seller and storage — the older phone in particular is now heavily discounted, which is what makes this decision interesting.

Buy the Galaxy S26 Ultra if you want the latest and best: the lighter body, the faster chip, the privacy screen, the brighter main camera and much quicker charging. It is the more complete phone, and the 60 W charging and privacy display are features you will actually use.

Buy the Galaxy S25 Ultra if value is your guide. It gives up the privacy screen, some charging speed and a little camera polish, but keeps the same big 6.9-inch screen, the same 5000 mAh battery and a nearly identical camera set for hundreds of pounds less. For most people, last year's Ultra is the smarter buy — unless the S26 Ultra's specific upgrades genuinely matter to you.