4 things the Galaxy S25 Ultra needs to become 2025’s best phone

It might be difficult to believe if you’re familiar with how much I cover Apple’s iPhone, but there was a time when I preferred Samsung’s S series smartphones. Back in the day, compared to Apple’s offering, they featured what felt like a monumental jump in design and hardware every year, especially regarding camera performance. I know it was years ago, but remember the big leap between the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy S4? In 2013, it felt monumental.

But those days are long gone, with the South Korean tech giant instead content to release yearly iterative updates to its top-tier smartphone line, just like nearly every modern phone maker. Still, based on leaks and rumors, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is shaping up to be a formidable smartphone, especially if Samsung makes a few key upgrades to the flagship device. With only a few days until its official reveal on January 22nd, we won’t have long to wait to know for sure.

With all of this in mind, here are four upgrades I hope we see with the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

1 Please make sure that iPhone-like design revamp is refined

Based on leaks, Samsung is definitely on the right track

Ice Universe / Pocket-lint

I like the changes Samsung made to the look of Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 this year. The company’s more squared-off design direction gives the foldable smartphones an angrier, slightly more mature look. But, with the Galaxy S25 Ultra (and the rest of the Galaxy S25 line), rumors point to Samsung taking things in a different direction.

Along with reduced bezels and a slightly smaller size across the board, all Galaxy S25 devices (including the Galaxy S25 Ultra) are rumored to feature more rounded-off corners and rear camera bumps that look similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s. They’re independent and not sitting on a more significant bump and seem to feature the thin black rings I wasn’t a big fan of with the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Overall, though, I’m into the friendlier, obviously iPhone-inspired, softer edges, but like with all smartphones, I’ll need to get my hands on the Galaxy S25 ultra before passing final judgment.

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2 Please make 16GB of RAM standard

It’s 2025 — 12GB just doesn’t cut it on an Android phone anymore

Samsung / Pocket-lint

We know pretty much for sure that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, but how much RAM the smartphone will come equipped with is a different question. The Galaxy S24 Ultra featured 12GB of RAM unless you opted for the top-tier storage configuration, but with rumors surrounding Samsung’s Galaxy AI efforts being kicked into overdrive, it makes sense for the tech giant to increase the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s RAM to 16GB (for the record, I hope Bixby isn’t poised for a comeback).

Hopefully, this is true and all Galaxy S25 Ultra storage configurations, including 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB, come with 16GB of RAM. To be fair, my experience with all Galaxy S series devices has been smooth for several years, but more RAM is never a bad thing, particularly if you’re a big multitasker.

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3 The Galaxy S25 Ultra needs to start at 512GB of storage

256GB of storage isn’t enough anymore

OnLeaks / AndroidHeadlines

Yes, I know cloud storage exists — Google Photos/Drive are great, for sure. However, given how much Samsung’s top-tier flagship smartphone costs now, especially in the US, it feels ridiculous that the device has started at just 256GB of onboard storage for the past several years. I hope that this year, Samsung finally gives in and offers the base-tier Galaxy S25 Ultra with 512GB of storage.

A 256GB upgrade to the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s starting storage might not sound like a big deal, but double the storage can make a world of difference, especially when it’s already that low. This change is long overdue and should have happened several years ago as app and photo file sizes continue to increase.

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4 I want Photographic Style-like features

I use an iPhone 16 Pro as my daily device, and I know I’ll find it difficult to give up phone’s versatile camera settings

At least as far as the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera is concerned, I’m not expecting significant upgrades. This means we’ll likely see a 200-megapixel main sensor, a 50-megapixel 5x telephoto lens, a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto, and new for this year, an upgraded 50-megapixel ultra-wide. While the ultra-wide improvement is welcome, I find that I really don’t use the lens very often.

What I want from the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a something similar to the iPhone 16’s Photographic Styles. As a smartphone photography enthusiast, this feature is a complete game changer. It allows me to tweak photos exactly how I want, right down to the tone and overall colors of the images. In the context of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, I’d be able to more finely tune down the skin smoothing and out-there highlights that are so common with the tech giant’s flagship smartphones. This would definitely encourage me to reach for the Galaxy S25 Ultra more frequently when I leave the house.

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