Galaxy S26 vs Galaxy S25: Should you get a Black Friday phone deal now or wait for the new model?
The holiday season brings a dilemma for fans of Samsung flagship phones, and it has nothing to do with whether that festive sweater they plan on wearing is too over the top. Rather, the Samsung phone owner who’s held out this deep into the year without an upgrade has to decide whether to jump on a deal now or hold out for new Galaxy phones that will debut in short order.
Certainly, the abundance of Black Friday deals means it’s not difficult to find a discounted Samsung device. In fact, Samsung has just announced its own Black Friday offers, which include lower prices on both foldables and more conventional flagship phones.
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Why get a Galaxy S25
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Let’s resolve one point of debate first — any Galaxy S25 model is worth getting, especially if your current phone is more than a couple years old. The arrival of Galaxy AI has brought new capabilities to Samsung’s flagships, with some of those features still unavailable on older models. If you want the latest AI tools from Samsung, you should be using its latest flagships.
Not only do the Galaxy S25 devices fill out the top of the best Samsung phone options, some are among the best phones you can buy from any device maker. The Galaxy S25 Ultra, with its top-performing cameras and a battery life that beats all other Samsung phones, is the pick of the bunch. But the less expensive Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus models have their own charms, including long-lasting batteries in their own right.
I appreciate the fact that the $799 Galaxy S25 has a dedicated telephoto lens, something missing from the identically priced iPhone 17. And the Galaxy S25 Plus offers a 6.7-inch display while keeping its starting price under $1,000 — and that’s before you apply any Black Friday discounts.
What we expect from the Galaxy S26
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Samsung has a tough act to follow after the Galaxy S25, which may explain why the rumored S26 improvements don’t sound particularly revolutionary. The phones should retain largely the same design, though there’s talk some models like the Galaxy S26 Ultra may be thinner. The standard Galaxy S26 may offer a slightly larger screen.
On the display front, Samsung may adopt a new panel with improved brightness to match advances Apple and Samsung have made with their flagship screens. We’re expecting the upgraded Snapdragon 8 Elite 5 silicon to power Samsung’s new phones, but a persistent rumor has Samsung using its Exynos 2600 chipset in some models. Bigger batteries in the new phones could improve battery life, though the S25 lineup hardly lagged in that area.
Camera rumors have also been very thin. The Galaxy S26 Ultra had been tipped for a variable aperture feature, though leakers have started backing off that claim. One rumor has the base model’s ultrawide camera getting a boost, though not everyone buys that idea. A more likely change is a physically larger main sensor that captures more light.
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In other words, the changes likely to happen won’t be groundbreaking ones, and a Galaxy S25 owner may not suffer too much FOMO once the new phones come out. Of course, that all depends on what kind of new Galaxy AI features debut and how many wind up as Galaxy S26 exclusives.
There’s another potential Galaxy S26 complication. In the last two years, Samsung has shown off its new flagships in January, so anyone spurning Black Friday deals didn’t have to wait long for a new phone. The Galaxy S26 may be pushed back into February, though, adding extra wait time if you hold out for the latest release.
Galaxy S25 deals: What’s out there
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Turning to Samsung on a discount for Black Friday is a good place to start. The phone maker lets you save in two ways — first, with a lower price on its Galaxy S25 models and then with additional savings via a trade-in of your current device.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is a perfect example of Samsung’s approach. Samsung has cut the Ultra’s price by $350 to $949. But you can save up to $700 on top of that with a trade-in. (Newer models fetch the highest return.) For instance if you had a Galaxy S23 in good condition, Samsung would give you another $400 discount, dropping the cost of a Galaxy S25 Ultra to $549.
No trade-in to offer? Then you could be better off turning to a retailer, where you may find a larger discount. At Amazon, for example, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is $400 off, dropping its price to $899.
We’re focusing on the Galaxy S25 Ultra as it’s Samsung’s best phone and the most expensive Galaxy S model. But you can also get a 16% discount on the Galaxy S25 at Amazon. Deals on the Galaxy S25 Plus are harder to come by, but Samsung is selling the 512GB S25 Plus for $999, the same price as the 256GB base model.
Galaxy S25: Get the deal or wait for the S26?
Anyone who insists upon having new hardware on hand is going to want to wait for the Galaxy S26 no matter how tempting Black Friday offers tend to be. But for others who’ve held on to their current phone for two years or more, the savings floating around out there now may be worth skipping any hardware upgrades Samsung has planned for early next year.
I could be proven wrong, but the rumored hardware changes for the Galaxy S26 don’t sound like radical departures from what you’ll get now with the S25 models. The biggest changes are likely to be new AI features, and some of those could find their way to Samsung’s existing Galaxy S models.
As the most expensive model, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is probably going to see the steepest discounts. But if you can find a deal that drops the price of any S25 model by 25% or more, that’s worth grabbing, especially if you need a new phone.
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