The phone that's supposed to think for you has outsourced the thinking to you.
Each generation of a flagship device carries with it an implicit promise — that the premium paid is not merely for components, but for a vision of what technology can become. Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra, released in early 2025 at $1,299, arrives as a capable but quietly diminished heir to that promise, its hardware refined in small ways while its defining features are steadily removed and its artificial intelligence stumbles at the tasks it was meant to perform. The Ultra line once stood apart as a statement of ambition; now it risks becoming indistinguishable from the crowd it once led.
- Samsung has staked the S25 Ultra's identity almost entirely on Galaxy AI, yet the assistant hallucinates flight details, fabricates recipe ingredients, and fails tasks a basic web search resolves in seconds.
- The Ultra's historic differentiators — the 10x zoom, the Bluetooth-enabled stylus, the bold distinctive design — have been quietly stripped away year after year without meaningful replacements.
- Hardware gains are real but modest: a better ultrawide camera, improved low-light video, more comfortable curved edges — incremental refinements that feel like maintenance, not innovation.
- AI features are not exclusive to the S25 Ultra and will roll out to older Galaxy devices, erasing any software-based reason to upgrade, while Samsung hints these features may require a subscription after 2025.
- The Ultra line is drifting toward commoditization — still among the best phones available, but losing the intangible quality of feeling special that once justified its place at the top of the market.
There is a telling moment early in a week spent with the Galaxy S25 Ultra: standing at the stove, you ask Gemini to find a flight's arrival time without a confirmation number. It fails, twice. A quick Google search delivers the answer in seconds. The phone built to think for you has handed the thinking back.
This matters because Samsung has bet the S25 Ultra almost entirely on artificial intelligence. The hardware is barely changed from last year — modest spec bumps, softer corners, nothing that demands a second look. That would be fine if the software transformation were real. But Galaxy AI is not holding up its end. Gemini adds calendar events correctly, which feels impressive until you recognize it as the bare minimum. Ask it to pull ingredients from a YouTube recipe and it invents them. Give it a confirmation email and it sends your flight to the wrong city. The assistant hallucinates with the calm confidence of something that doesn't know it's wrong.
Beyond the AI, the Ultra has been quietly losing what made it special. The 10x zoom became a 5x last year. This year, the stylus shed its Bluetooth air-gesture capabilities. The design, once unmistakably its own, now has curved corners and straight sides like every other modern flagship. It is more comfortable to hold — and looks like everything else.
The hardware improvements that do exist are genuine: the ultrawide camera jumps to 50 megapixels with a wider aperture, performing meaningfully better in low light. Video processing more cleanly separates moving subjects from static backgrounds. The display's antireflective coating makes it exceptional in sunlight. These are real, if incremental, gains — the kind noticed after days of use, not the kind that justify $1,299.
The AI features scattered through One UI 7.0 — a daily summary called Now Brief, a Dynamic Island-like Now Bar — borrow visibly from iOS and will arrive on older Galaxy phones later this year, making it nearly impossible to identify what sets this device apart. Samsung only guarantees these features remain free through the end of 2025.
The S25 Ultra remains one of the best phones available. Its screen, cameras, and performance are beyond reproach. But the Ultra line once meant something more than capable — it meant singular. Each successive generation has felt slightly less like that. If the pattern holds, the Ultra risks becoming just another large, expensive Android phone. For now, it still earns its place. But the direction is clear, and it is not pointing upward.
There's a moment early in the week with Samsung's new Galaxy S25 Ultra when the phone's supposed intelligence becomes a liability. You're standing at the stove, browning beef, needing to know when a flight lands. You have no flight number, but Detroit to Seattle doesn't run that many direct routes in a day. You press and hold the power button, summon Google's Gemini assistant, and ask it to find the information. It can't. You ask again, more insistently, with some heat in your voice. Still nothing. Within seconds of opening Google yourself, you have the answer. The phone that's supposed to think for you has outsourced the thinking to you.
This moment matters because Samsung has staked the entire S25 Ultra on artificial intelligence. The hardware is barely different from last year's S24 Ultra—some slightly bumped specs, subtle design tweaks, nothing that would make you look twice. The company didn't need to reinvent the wheel; the S24 Ultra was excellent, as was the S23 before it. But that also means Samsung is asking you to pay $1,299 for a phone that's supposed to be transformed by software and AI smarts. The problem is that Galaxy AI, for all its promise, isn't holding up its end of the bargain.
The S25 Ultra has lost something harder to define than specs. The Ultra line used to mean everything-but-the-kitchen-sink—the stylus, the enormous screen, every camera Samsung could fit, every feature cranked to maximum. Over the past few years, though, Samsung has been quietly removing things without replacing them with anything compelling. Last year, the 10x zoom became a 5x. This year, the stylus lost its Bluetooth smarts, the air control features that let you use it like a magic wand. The phone used to look strikingly different from every other device on the market. Now it has curved corners like everything else, straight sides like everything else. It's more comfortable to hold, sure, but it looks like every other modern phone from the front. The principle stings more than the practicality.
Gemini, the new default assistant, shows promise in fragments. Ask it to put an event on your calendar based on what's on your screen, and it works—the date, time, and location all correct, which feels almost magical until you remember that's the bare minimum. Ask it to generate a list of videos on a topic and add them to a note, and it only adds the headline text, not the links. Ask it to find a specific espresso martini recipe on YouTube and pull the ingredients, and it will confidently give you ingredients that have nothing to do with the video it supposedly referenced. When you ask about a flight leaving San Francisco and give it your confirmation email, it insists your flight is leaving from San Jose. The phone makes things up constantly, with the confidence of something that has no idea it's wrong. It makes you think twice about trusting it with anything that actually matters.
Samsung has scattered AI features throughout the operating system. There's something called Now Brief that summarizes your day and surfaces information based on your calendar and location. It lives on the home screen and pops up on the lock screen when there's something new. In practice, it mostly surfaces political news headlines you didn't ask for and don't want. The new One UI 7.0 borrows heavily from iOS—split quick settings, a Dynamic Island-like Now Bar—which isn't inherently bad, but it makes the S25 Ultra feel less like Samsung's vision and more like Samsung following the crowd. None of these features are exclusive to the S25 Ultra anyway. They're coming to older Galaxy phones later this year, which is good for those users but makes it nearly impossible to see what sets this phone apart from the rest of the S25 line or from Android competitors. There's also fine print suggesting these AI features might not stay free; Samsung only guarantees them through the end of 2025.
The hardware improvements that do exist are real but modest. The ultrawide camera is now 50 megapixels with an f/1.9 aperture, and it genuinely performs better in low light—you can see more fine detail, and the system can use lower ISOs to maintain brightness while keeping noise down. Low-light video processing has been refined to better distinguish between moving and static subjects, which shows up clearly in side-by-side comparisons with the S24 Ultra. The screen's Gorilla Armor 2 protective layer and antireflective coating make it one of the easiest phones to use in direct sunlight. The curved corners and straight sides make it more comfortable to hold than the previous boxy design. These are genuine improvements. But they're incremental, the kind of thing you notice after a week of use, not the kind of thing that justifies the price or makes you feel like you're holding something special.
Battery life is fine—you'll usually finish the day with around 60 percent remaining, which is good but not remarkable for a flagship in 2025. The phone supports Qi2 wireless charging, but only with a special magnetic case; the magnets aren't built into the phone itself. It's a reasonable compromise for people who always use cases, but it's a small disappointment for anyone who doesn't. The processor is a Snapdragon 8 Elite tuned for Galaxy phones, and it handles everything smoothly, though there's no meaningful difference from the same chip in a OnePlus 13.
The S25 Ultra is still one of the best phones you can buy. The screen is excellent, the cameras are among the best in the business, and you'll struggle to find a task that challenges it. All of that has been true of the last few Ultra phones, and it's true of this one. But there's something intangible slipping away. The Ultra used to mean you wanted something special, not just something good. This phone feels a little less special than the S24 Ultra, which felt a little less special than the S23 Ultra. If Samsung keeps cutting features without adding anything meaningful in return, the Ultra could become just another big phone. For now, it still feels like something worth wanting. But the trend is clear, and it's moving in the wrong direction.
Notable Quotes
The reason to buy a Galaxy S-series Ultra is because you don't want something that's just good; you want something that's special. This phone feels a little less special than the S24 Ultra did.— Reviewer's assessment of the S25 Ultra's diminishing appeal
Samsung says few people used those features, and on balance, it's no great loss. But it's the principle more than anything that stings.— On the removal of the stylus's Bluetooth capabilities
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does it matter that the stylus lost its Bluetooth? Plenty of people don't use those features anyway.
Because the Ultra is supposed to be the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink phone. When you start removing things without adding something better, you're eroding the whole reason to buy it. Samsung said few people used those features, but that's not the point. The point is that the Ultra used to feel like it had more.
But the camera improvements are real, right? The ultrawide is genuinely better in low light.
It is. You can see more detail, and the processing is smarter. But it's the kind of improvement you notice after a week, not the kind that makes you feel like you're holding something special. It's progress, but it's incremental progress on a phone that costs $1,299.
What about the AI? Gemini can do some things across multiple apps now. Isn't that new?
It can, and sometimes it works. But it also makes things up constantly. It told me my flight was leaving from San Jose when I gave it my confirmation email saying San Francisco. It pulled ingredients for a recipe that had nothing to do with the video it supposedly found. You can't trust it with anything that matters.
So the AI isn't ready yet.
Not even close. And that's the problem, because Samsung is betting the entire S25 Ultra on it. The hardware is barely different from last year. If the AI doesn't deliver, what's the reason to upgrade?
Will these AI features stay exclusive to the S25 Ultra?
No. They're coming to older Galaxy phones later this year. Which is great for those users, but it means there's nothing special about the S25 Ultra anymore. You could buy the S25 Plus or a Pixel 9 Pro and get almost the same experience.
What would make this phone feel special again?
Something that actually justifies the price. Right now, Samsung is asking you to pay for features that don't work and hardware that's barely different from last year. The Ultra used to mean something. It's starting to feel like just another big phone.