S25 Ultra is a huge let down

[TheBudda]

What are Samsung thinking and doing in 2025? it's now only and all about money, when it never was before! I've used the Samsung Galaxy series since the S2! New launch was every 2 years, used to have huge hardware upgrades etc etc! You know! 

Now we get a new phone launch every year with stupid horrible colours on the phone, with our S Pen Bluetooth gone and the colours of the SPen are horrible, performance is barely better than my S22 Ultra!! We get an overclocked CPU, still only 8 gig of ram, the silver rings around the cameras are cosmetic *****, dust and other debris can easy drop under them, I could type much more but I'll just leave it at etc etc etc!! Samsung have sold out of the black S Pen, that shows how popular they are and people are NOT happy!! 

Oh it will cost you £50 for. Black S Pen!! Disgusting behaviour by Samsung. To me Samsung are ripping off their loyal customers with a huge let down. I can NOT see me buying another Galaxy series phone. Samsung have and are going backwards every year! Well, to what they used to be!!

[samfan124325]

Case of cost cutting programme at samsung been on past few years. Money being redirected to other projects such as vr headsets and folding devices. And just incremental updates due to phones being more expensive than 10 years ago. So people don't upgrade every year and don't need to with updates guaranteed currently upto 7 years. S25 has caused some controversy but still sold in record numbers so losing the odd customer won't even be noticed by the company.

They are in danger of becoming complacent and by relying on AI features to sell phones is a shaky strategy especially if you plan to charge customers for use of said AI features.

I liken them to Nokia at there height in 2009. They thought they were too big to fail. But they did backed the wrong OS matched with an unfinished hardware platform in the N97. And there collapse was spectacular. Sure they are back now but a shadow of who they were.

I'd love to go back to how they did it when I had my S2 but it's not gonna happen tech moves on customers demand more from there phones. Something has to give or be let go to make it happen. In another 10 years phones like this will be in museums and we might all have implants anyway. Progress or downward spiral and control of society you decide lol

[johnz237]

Hi! Welcome to the Samsung Members community!

I can see where you're coming from regarding the release of a new phone every year. But I understand that their competitors do it, too.

In my opinion, from a tech perspective, the phone has drastically improved.

This is S25U vs S24U:
39% faster in the single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3147 and 2271 points.

44% better performance in the AnTuTu Benchmark (2816K versus 1954K) + shows 8% longer battery life (28:34 vs 26:30 hours).

The newer chip has a 30% faster CPU, 37% faster GPU, and 40% faster NPU speeds compared to last year's flagship. So, compared to the S22 Ultra, I highly disagree, on a hardware level.

In my opinion, this is incredible in just one year.

Their biggest focus is on AI, which I find fascinating—useful? I guess that's in the eye of the beholder.

I'm not a huge fan of the rings on the camera; I love how they look, but you have a point about dust; I have noticed this.

I assumed the white S Pen was a design choice rather than a lack of stock.

[Thomas André]

You have missed the plot. 

[Thomas André]

Agree with all of the above. But regarding the camera rings, yeah a little dust can be collecting but easy to get cleaned with a little soft brush or microfiber cloth. And the extra ring is adding additional protection for the lenses compared to the s24 and down. So no longer need for does odd camera protections that reduce the picture quality. 

And the missing bluetooth support for the spen is no loss for the vast majority of users. And you can easily use gestures or voice commands to take a remote picture. Or the same support with a Galaxy ring etc. Plus you can use any stylus pen without any issues. Pluss it's less likely to cause any issues with magsafe accessories  

[johnz237]

Good response! Very true on the S Pen. I was part of the majority who wouldn't use the Bluetooth pen feature and believe it was more of a niche addition

[BandOfBrothers]

Hello 👋 @TheBudda 

Welcome to the Samsung Community Forum. 

I appreciate the escalation of chatter after the various durability tests made on the Samsung Galaxy s²⁵ Ultra etc. 

The rings are guards for the camera lenses and as such will do their job ~ well unless a person intentionally gets a Stanley Knife and use force to remove them. 

Even jerryrigeverything said they won't just come off. 

I've had multiple cases on my Samsung Galaxy s²⁵ Ultra with no issues with the rings. 

I agree with the sPen colour and would have liked a colour coded version to match the phone. I'm using the Titanium Black version. 

Ive never used the Bluetooth option in the sPen and instead one of the other various remote methods to take a photo. I can appreciate for those that did this would be a possible deal breaker. 

I'm using the Ultra option with 12Gb of Ram which is what your Ultra will have , however as these phone's use Ram resource exceptionally well I've never known an issue. 

Ram+ is an option which is the 8Gb your seeing which can be used to bolster the Ram of the phone. 

I do hope your still interested in a Samsung phone when the time comes. 

If i can be of any further help please don't hesitate to ask  😎 

[TheBudda]

I'm 66 years old, now retired, disabled and mostly housebound after a lorry crash in 2007, international lorry driver for 30 years, also I'm a system administrator for Debian and Ubuntu for 30 years, lorry driving paid the most lol It cost Samsung just a few dollars to get the phone made, more so when you order in the crazy amount of units that Samsung would order. I understand what your saying though 😉

[TheBudda]

The CPU shouldn't be overclocked, simple! Overclocked CPU will fail much faster, and 8g of ram is old now, and should be 16g IMO

[TheBudda]

Okay