Last year, maximum screen brightness become a new dividing line between smartphone makers. Apple kicked things off, proudly proclaiming the iPhone 15 could hit 2,000 nits of brightness before Google upped the ante with the 2,400-nit Pixel 8 Pro.
This year, the Galaxy S24 Ultra hit 2,600 nits, before Google reached 3,000 with the Pixel 9 Pro. Apple, meanwhile, stuck with 2,000 nits for the iPhone 16 Pro. Now, despite an earlier rumor suggesting that Samsung wouldn’t be advancing on this with the upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra, it appears the company may be matching Google after all.
There have been so many Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra leaks that we already have a good idea of what the handset will look like, but Android Authority has been trying to eke out a few extra morsels via leaked files from an in-testing handset. And the most interesting of these is that the S25 Ultra will apparently be capable of hitting 3,000 nits in high-brightness mode, just like the Pixel 9 Pro (the piece actually says “lux” rather than “nits”, but that is presumably a typo given the figures involved).
While that’s still some way off the ludicrous 4,500 nits that OnePlus introduced with the OnePlus 12, it’s still extremely helpful for using the phone in bright, sunny conditions.
Another interesting find from the leaks: following a successful introduction to the Galaxy A55, the S25 series will support seamless A/B updates. This is a nice-to-have feature where the phone will download important firmware updates in the background before applying them on reboot, saving you a lengthy period where your phone is switched on but unusable.
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It’s not all good news, though. It appears that the S25 Ultra won’t support Find My Device functionality when switched off like the Pixel 9, as the site spotted a string declaring “ro.bluetooth.finder.supported=false”. That means that if a thief grabs your phone and then instantly shuts it down, you won’t be able to track its movements in real time.
Elsewhere, the leaked files confirm a few more nice-to-have details. The screen will retain the same 3,120 x 1,440 resolution as the S24 Ultra, for example, and the battery will maintain its 5,000 mAh capacity too. Excitingly, Android Authority’s digging seems to confirm that the phone will feature UFS 4.0 storage for faster file-transfer speeds.
The screen will retain the same 3,120 x 1,440 resolution as the S24 Ultra and the battery will maintain its 5,000 mAh capacity too.
All of this should be confirmed very soon indeed. The latest leaks suggest that Samsung is planning its next Unpacked event for Wednesday January 22, and we’re not only expecting to see three Galaxy S25 phones but potentially glimpses of the rumored Galaxy S25 Slim and Galaxy Ring 2 too.
With the OnePlus 13 getting its global release on January 7, it looks like two of the best Android phones of 2025 will be going head to head early, and we’ll be sure to tell you which is worth your money when we have the handsets in for testing.
