Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra / Google Pixel 8

The Samsung Newsroom release is dated 23 January Korea time; the event was 22 January in US time.

Samsung notes memory options may vary by market and usable storage is lower because of preloaded software. There is no card slot.

Storage options vary by region and channel; there is no memory card slot.

Samsung quotes 40% NPU, 37% CPU and 30% GPU gains over the previous generation. This version is tuned for Galaxy with higher clocks than the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite.

The vapor chamber spreads heat from the chip into the body, helping clocks hold longer in extended gaming.

The viewable area is smaller than the diagonal because of rounded corners and the camera hole. Refresh that drops to 1 Hz saves power on static content; Vision Booster adjusts tone mapping in bright light.

Google quotes 1400 nits for HDR and 2000 nits peak; contrast above 1,000,000:1. Because the corners are rounded, the visible area is slightly smaller than the 6.2-inch rectangle.

Used on the front only. Corning says it survived drops of up to 2.2 m onto a concrete-like surface in internal lab tests; this is not a durability guarantee for any given phone.

Titanium is used only on the frame, excluding the volume and side keys.

Per Samsung, 3× and 5× are optical; 2× and 10× are “optical quality” zoom made by sensor cropping. OIS is optical image stabilisation.

There is no telephoto camera; 8x zoom is software-based. Autofocus on the ultrawide enables Macro Focus shots.

Log records a flat profile for colour grading; results depend on the editing workflow. Audio Eraser can reduce layers such as voices, music, wind and crowd separately in videos.

Editing features such as Audio Magic Eraser require the Google Photos app.

The 45 W adapter is sold separately. Samsung quotes up to 31 hours of video playback. Wireless PowerShare charges earbuds or a watch from the back of the phone.

27 W is measured with the Google 30 W USB-C Charger (USB-PD 3.0 PPS) and gives about 50% in 30 minutes; the adapter is sold separately. 18 W wireless needs the Pixel Stand (2nd gen); Qi EPP chargers give up to 12 W.

According to Android Central’s one-year report, the phone received One UI 8 (Android 16) ahead of schedule.

5G/LTE availability depends on market and carrier.

Water resistance is not permanent and may diminish over time.

Colour availability varies by country and carrier.

IP68 (IEC 60529) applies when the device leaves the factory; Google notes the phone is not waterproof or dustproof and resistance is not permanent. The aluminium in the housing is 100% recycled.

Google provides seven years of Android OS, security and Pixel Drop updates from when the device first became available on the US Google Store.

It is listed as Wi‑Fi 6E in Japan and Wi‑Fi 6 in Taiwan, Singapore and India. The model for Europe and other markets is GPJ41.

eSIM depends on the carrier and country.

The USB-C cable in the box is USB 2.0.