As the Galaxy S25 series is about to debut in early 2025, Samsung is offering amazing year-end discounts on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. So, should you wait for the S25 Ultra, or does it make sense to get the S24 Ultra at a massively discounted price? Let’s find out.
Price and Availability
When writing this article, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (256GB) is available for $999 at the company’s official website. That’s $300 less than the phone’s launch price. But wait, that’s not all.
You can get the handset’s 512GB variant (that’s a lot of storage for most users) at the same price, i.e., $999. This accounts for a $420 discount on the launch price (almost 30%).
If you combine the available discount with one of the company’s offer programs, let’s say the education program, you can save another $100 on the 512GB storage variant, bringing the effective price of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to $899.99, without any trade-in or data pack bundles.
Please note that these discounts apply to the online-exclusive colors of the S24 Ultra. If you go with other colors, you’d have to pay around $100 more. If you ask me, you should get the S24 Ultra at the lowest price possible and then spend a few bucks on a good quality case (or a few cases if you’re into that).
Regarding the S25 Ultra’s price, it might bear a higher price tag due to the rise in manufacturing costs. We’ve heard that the phone could cost around $100 to $110 more than the S24 Ultra, making the baseline variant cost around $1,400.
S25 Ultra Might Come With a Similar Display
Coming back to the $1000 question: should you get the Galaxy S24 Ultra right now or wait for the Galaxy S25 Ultra? While it might sound enticing to wait a few weeks and spend on the S25 Ultra, there are a few things that you should consider, especially if you’re a price-conscious buyer who doesn’t want to go all out on a smartphone.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra has a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen that supports a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 2,600 nits. Covering the screen is Corning’s most advanced glass technology for Android phones; the Gorilla Armor glass not only protects from scratches and general wear and tear but also reduces the reflections for a better viewing experience.
If you isolate the display aspect, the S24 Ultra has one of the most gorgeous screens on a smartphone in 2024. In his review of the smartphone, How-To Geek’s Justin Duino praises Samsung’s panel quality, saying that “colors are vivid, the text is sharp, and movies look out of this world.”
But what about the S25 Ultra? It should come with significant display upgrades, right? Recent rumors suggest that Samsung will use the same M13 OLED screens on the S25 Ultra as the S24 Ultra. As a result, the peak refresh rate, brightness, and resolution will likely remain the same.
The only expected change is a marginal increase in size, as Samsung could include a 6.9-inch screen on the S25 Ultra (vs. 6.8-inch on the S24 Ultra). In my opinion, most people wouldn’t even notice the difference until they hold both phones side by side.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Will Age Well With Time
Yes, smartphone processors are getting more powerful and efficient with time, but there’s only so much you can do on the device. While most buyers aren’t able to utilize a processor’s maximum potential (which often shows up during demanding tasks like gaming or video editing), a capable chipset makes a smartphone age well with time, and that is precisely the case with the S24 Ultra.
At its core, the S24 Ultra runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, an octa-core chipset based on TSMC’s tried-and-tested 4nm fabrication process. Ranked sixth on the Nano Review’s most powerful smartphone processors list, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can handle everything you can throw at it, including gaming, photo/video editing, and graphic designing via offline apps, leaving heavy multitasking and app management aside.
Yes, the Galaxy S25 Ultra could feature the newer and better Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (3nm), but that doesn’t mean the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 isn’t any good. In fact, Samsung has promised to offer seven years of software (and security) support with the S24 Ultra, much more than the average smartphone upgrade cycle in America.
Even after the Galaxy S25 Ultra comes out, the S24 Ultra will continue receiving the new Galaxy AI features with the One UI 7.0 update (currently available in beta). There’s a possibility that Samsung could keep them an S25 Ultra exclusive for a while, but sooner or later, most cloud-based and the majority of hardware-based features should trickle down to the S24 Ultra.
The Quad-Camera Setup Is Among the Best on Any Smartphone
The Galaxy S24 Ultra has one of the most versatile and useful camera setups on a smartphone. With four rear-facing sensors, the handset offers multiple focal length (zoom) options, anywhere from 0.5x to 100x. Whether it is capturing portraits, super-zoomed pictures, or 8K videos (30 fps), the S24 Ultra can do it all.
Although the phone had a few camera-related issues at launch, Samsung has improved the overall quality and performance through software updates. Further, the upcoming One UI 7.0 is also said to fine-tune things.
The S25 Ultra is rumored to feature a 50MP ultra-wide camera sensor (that clicks pictures in 12.5MP using a 4-in-1 pixel binning technique), which will definitely add more details to the shots. However, beyond that, the purported smartphone’s camera setup should remain unchanged (minor tweaks aside).
Given that only one out of four sensors might receive an update, getting the S24 Ultra at a heavily discounted price is wiser.
Beside Charging Speed, the Battery Doesn’t Disappoint
The Galaxy S24 Ultra sports a 5,000 mAh, which easily lasts a day of moderate to heavy usage. Yes, the charging speed feels a bit slow, especially when compared to other Android flagships that boast over 100W wired charging rates, but it doesn’t feel absurdly slow, either.
As mentioned in our review of the smartphone, it misses out on the Qi2 wireless charging standard, which would have opened the door to the exciting magnetic accessories showcased at CES 2024. Still, in my opinion, it isn’t a dealbreaker. The phone also offers 4.5W reverse wireless charging, just in case.
How Can We Forget The S-Pen?
While all the other aspects of the S24 Ultra can be compared to other flagships, there’s one where the phone simply comes out on top: the S-Pen. The smart stylus not only helps take notes or create shopping lists but also acts as a remote shutter for taking pictures. You can also use it for the new Sketch to Image feature.
Who Should Get The S24 Ultra?
So far, we’ve talked about all the primary aspects of the S24 Ultra. The phone has an excellent screen, a capable chipset ready to receive the One UI 7.0 update, a versatile camera setup that’s getting better, and a solid battery life. Had I been in the market for a flagship smartphone with a budget of $1,000, the S24 Ultra would have been my top priority.
I’ll recommend that any S21 or S22 series user upgrade to the S24 Ultra without any second thoughts (given that they have the sort of budget and are looking to upgrade to a flagship smartphone). Even if you’re an iOS user who is willing to switch to Android, the S24 Ultra is among the best smartphones money can buy right now; the iPhone Pro Max users can also consider the phone.
Check out our detailed comparisons between the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Pixel 9 Pro XL to see how the phones compare.
