Did You Pre-Order a Galaxy S25 Ultra or Galaxy S25?

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Whenever a new flagship phone launches, we’re always curious if the company who just announced it has properly sold to it to audiences like ours. We know how many of you love Samsung phones, especially the Ultra line, and that you typically upgrade each year because Samsung makes it worth doing so with high trade-in values. But does the Galaxy S25 launch feel different?

I ask because I wonder if Samsung did enough this year. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is without a doubt a flagship phone with great specs, new ultra-wide camera, a slightly refreshed design that got rid of its sharp corners, and a level of support that could last someone for years to come. For the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25+, Samsung didn’t really do much other than splash some new paint on last year’s designs and use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

For the most part, Samsung wants you to believe that hardware upgrades weren’t as important as the software they have spent years fine-tuning for this moment. Of course, I’m talking about AI and the never-ending pitch from so many companies that AI will change your life, for real this time. While it hasn’t up to this point, it may one day. I don’t know if the Galaxy S25 series marks the start of that or not (I’d lean towards it not), but that’s the idea here. The Galaxy S25 is not so much about the hardware as much as it is about AI.

If you were trying to decide to upgrade, I would tell you this. The upgrade deals are quite good and Samsung is offering $900 in trades, which is over the $750 they offered last year towards the Galaxy S24 Ultra. These launch deals are better than last year’s, for sure. And if you do, you get specs that are good enough that you don’t need to care about the AI stuff. You could, because maybe AI is your thing, I’m just saying that the phones should be excellent without.