Don’t buy the Galaxy S25 Ultra on Black Friday. Here are 3 reasons why


It’s been 10 months since Samsung Announce the Galaxy S25 Ultraand remains one of The best phones in 2025adhering to the likes of his competitors: iPhone 17 Pro Max and Pixel 10 Pro XL. In fact, the Galaxy S25 Ultra earned a CNET Editors’ Choice award because it’s truly one of the best phones you can buy. But that doesn’t mean you should now.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra wasn’t the upgrade I wanted for a $1,300 phone. Sure, it has the best screen on a smartphone, and its price will likely be discounted for the holiday season, but Galaxy S26 Ultra It should be here in a couple of months.

Given the iterative nature of this year’s upgrade, I expect Samsung to make meaningful additions to its flagship Galaxy S series in 2026. If you’re considering spending $1,000 or more on the Galaxy S25 Ultra during Black Friday salesI have three reasons why you should postpone your purchase and wait. If you can get one for hundreds of dollars off, I’m all about it less than $1000, Then I’ll forgive you – but I still think you should wait!

1. More precise design

Galaxy S25 Ultra digs into Brakhar's palm.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is uncomfortable to hold because its sharp corners dig into my palm.

Prakhar Khanna/CNET

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is one of the Best Android phones for the year 2025; However, carrying them can be impractical and uncomfortable. Samsung It went from a heavy design to a lighter one, but designed the Ultra in a way that was uncomfortable to hold. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has flat sides and corners that dig into my palm, which may not be a deal-breaker for some. However, the S26 Ultra is rumored to have a more ergonomic design, and hopefully won’t be the same “pain in the wrist” as the S25 Ultra.

I want Samsung steals some iPhone 17 Pro Max designs. I was happy to see the leaked renders of the Galaxy S26 Ultra Android addresses Which shows an improved design with more curved corners compared to its predecessor. At 7.9mm thick, the unreleased Ultra is said to be 0.3mm thinner compared to the 8.2mm thick Galaxy S25 Ultra.

The combination of a slim body and rounded corners can make it one of the most comfortable to hold around Phones in 2026 – Especially if Samsung manages to keep the weight at 218 grams.

2. Better offer

Person holding Galaxy S25 Ultra.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra has the best screen on a phone and it’s likely to get better.

James Martin/CNET

Samsung’s 2025 flagship has the best display on a smartphone. In his country reviewCNET’s Patrick Holland wrote, “This (thin frames), along with… Anti-reflective coating“The S25 Ultra’s screen is my favorite on any phone…using it outside to take a photo is great.”

Apple couldn’t match this quality with its new Ceramic Shield 2 anti-reflective coating on the device iPhone 17 a screen. But the Galaxy S26 Ultra will likely retain this unique ability and make it even better by upgrading the display panels.

Samsung will add new M14 OLED display panels (allegedly the same panels used in… iPhone 16 Pro And iPhone 17 series) on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, according to a report by ET News. This could make the screen brighter and more power efficient and add a new privacy feature called “Flex Magic Pixel” that uses artificial intelligence to dynamically control the screen’s viewing angles so that content displayed on the screen is unreadable to strangers in public places.

I’m looking forward to the Flex Magic Pixel because until now, I’ve had to add a privacy-focused external screen protector to prevent strangers from eavesdropping on my conversations in public. If I could enable it with one tap on my phone, it would be a much better experience than buying and installing a screen protector.

3. Much needed camera upgrades

Prakhar holds the Galaxy S25 Ultra in front of an array of colorful lights.

Samsung needs to upgrade its camera sensors to match the competition, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra may finally deliver.

Prakhar Khanna/CNET

The Galaxy S25 Ultra relied mostly on software improvements to improve camera performance, although it did get a new 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera. Samsung has been using the same 200MP primary camera and a 10MP 3x telephoto camera for two years now. While the main sensor is good for capturing detailed shots in 200MP mode, its telephoto cameras don’t match competitors like the Vivo X200 Pro or Oppo Find X9 Prowhich can take excellent zoom shots of up to 10x or 15x. In comparison, Samsung cameras produce noisy results, especially in low-light conditions. However, things may change in 2026.

While the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will have the same camera setup as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the leaker reports. Ice universe He says the 200-megapixel sensor could have an f/1.4 lens (versus the f/1.7 aperture on the Galaxy S25 Ultra), which would allow 47% more light to reach the sensor, as reported for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. ET News. If this is true, you can expect improved low-light camera performance on Samsung’s next flagship and a potentially naturally shallower depth of field in photos taken with it.

In another mailIce Universe said that the Galaxy S26 Ultra will upgrade the 10MP 3x Telephoto camera sensor to the 12MP Isocell S5K3LD sensor. It doesn’t seem Which Impressive because the Isocell sensor is actually smaller at 1/3.94 inch compared to 1/3.52 inch, but I’m hoping for better image quality from it.

The leaker also says that Samsung will change the f/3.4 aperture on the 5x periscope zoom camera to f/2.9 for better low-light performance. Overall, these upgrades seem minimal but promising. I expect the Galaxy S26 Ultra to offer better camera quality than the current generation model, and the wait should be worth it.

while Rumors Reports indicate that Samsung will retain the old 5,000 mAh battery in the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and it could support 60-watt fast charging, making it the fastest Samsung phone in terms of charging. Other rumored features include a dual-chip strategy (Snapdragon 8 Elite Generation 5 in the US and China, and with the Exynos 2600 chipset in other markets), 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra may seem like a great buy with a few hundred dollars off during the Black Friday sale, but the Galaxy S26 Ultra may be worth the wait. If we go by the rumors, we’re looking at a better display, a more ergonomic design, improved camera performance, and a faster charging battery.

The downside to all of this is that you may have to wait a few weeks longer than usual. According to A a report From a South Korean post (translated to English), Samsung will hold its Unpacked 2026 event on February 25, 2026 in San Francisco, instead of January like previous years. This would make the in-store launch date likely in March, a month later than the Galaxy S25 series went on sale this year.



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