The iPhone-like Galaxy S25 Ultra is going to get humiliated by Honor… once again

What’s “bad” is that Samsung will be reportedly using the same battery capacity for the S25 Ultra as its predecessor. The battery from the Galaxy S24 Ultra has a rated capacity of 4,855 mAh, which matches the capacity listed for the Galaxy S25 Ultra battery in some recent certification findings.This might support the rumor that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will feature a slimmer design. If Samsung indeed decided to make the 2025 flagship thinner and more streamlined, there might not have been enough space to accommodate a larger battery pack.

Can’t Samsung just… avoid making the S25 Ultra thinner? It’s not like the Korean company is forced to do so, right?

Wrong.

And, as if things weren’t bad enough already, it’s because of Apple. It appears that Apple is pushing the trend for slimmer phones in 2025.

If the rumors turn out to be true, and there are plenty of those, we just might get something called iPhone 17 Slim\Ultra\Air. Whatever the moniker, it will be different from the rest of its siblings in the iPhone 17 lineup in one way: it will be super-thin. Nobody knows how much exactly, but it’s possible that we get a ~5mm thick iPhone in 2025.

I won’t be discussing whether super-slim phones are great or not: my colleague Daniel delved into the matter recently and produced this fine piece:

Instead, I’m focusing on the battery of the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the ways it will make it possible for a certain Far East company by the name of Honor to obliterate Samsung’s 2025 champion.

The clever freezer experiment

I can’t help but recall this one experiment that involved just three key ingredients:
A popular YouTube vlogger conducted a freezing endurance test, pitting the Honor Magic 6 Pro against the Galaxy S24 Ultra to evaluate battery survivability in harsh conditions:

As you can see, both devices were placed in a freezer set at -7 degrees Fahrenheit (ca. -22 °C) with an initial charge of 59%. After 20 hours, the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s battery had dropped to 34%, while the Magic 6 Pro still had 40% left. After 48 hours, the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s battery was completely drained, but the Magic 6 Pro maintained an impressive 33%.

Even more remarkable, after five days in the freezer, the Magic 6 Pro was still running with over 10% battery remaining.

I mean, come on!

So, Samsung wants to use the same battery for the Galaxy S25 Ultra?! Oh, well…

Truth to be spoken, it’s not just about the Honor’s battery capacity, although the Magic 6 Pro packs a 5,600 mAh capacity one, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra is rated at 5,000 mAh.

Nope. There’s more to it than that.

The kind of battery sorcery that makes this possible

The Honor Magic 6 Pro didn’t just win the freezer competition. Before the ice showdown, Honor actually sent its 2024 flagship on a 3-hour flight to near space. After reaching an altitude of over 16,000 feet (ca. 5 km), where temperatures are extremely low and typically detrimental to battery life, the Magic 6 Pro was parachuted back to Earth with 86% of its battery remaining.

The secret lies with the Magic Pro 6’s second-generation silicon-carbon battery that can be compared to Tesla’s advancements in the electric vehicle industry.

This new silicon-carbon battery offers exceptional battery life and performance, especially in cold conditions. By transitioning from traditional graphite to silicon-carbon materials, the anode’s capacity is significantly increased, providing up to 10 times more capacity.

This advancement also addresses volume expansion issues with innovative solutions. The new battery technology boasts improved power density and fast-charging capabilities, with a 6% increase in power density compared to graphite batteries.

The last time Samsung made an Apple move, things went terribly wrong

I’m also going slightly mad because of Samsung’s way of doing things.

If the Galaxy S25 Ultra does arrive in a thinner body in the same year as Apple’s ridiculously thin iPhone 17 Slim\Ultra\Air, this won’t go unnoticed.

We just saw what happened with the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and the latest Galaxy Watch that were unveiled at the Galaxy Unpacked event in July:

Samsung Electronics’ Chairman Lee Jae-yong, typically known for his calm demeanor, was notably upset with the company’s mobile division. He has ordered a reevaluation of its leadership, following accusations that Samsung’s recent products, such as the Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Watch Ultra, closely resemble Apple’s designs.

To be honest, it’s not just Samsung that got heavily inspired by Apple’s smartphone. The recently-released Pixel 9 has never looked more like an iPhone: just look at its frame, for crying out loud!

Is Samsung unable to achieve technological breakthroughs, or it just doesn’t want to?

At the end of the day, we’ve got to ask ourselves if Samsung – the go-to phone brand for an unimaginable number of people across the globe and a true technological giant – is simply unable to make a battery like the one found in the Honor Magic 6 Pro.While I can’t answer with a 100% certainty, my answer is:

After all, it’s got plenty of money, experts, know-how, experience, and everything else needed. It’s nice being a giant.

The reality is that Samsung probably doesn’t care to put such a durable battery in the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Look, Honor has some pretty decent – and some amazing – phones for people to buy. However, it doesn’t have Samsung’s reach and popularity. So, it has to pack some mind-blowing tech in its phones, in order to get people’s attention.

Samsung, as I just mentioned, already has plenty of that (the globe’s attention). So Samsung doesn’t feel the need to pack cutting-edge novelty technology in its flagships. Sad, but true.

I was going to end this with the rather gloomy existential dread of a line: “It is what it is!”, but I decided to do so on a positive note. After all, it’s Friday!

Despite the Galaxy S25 Ultra‘s seemingly disappointing battery pack, I’m sure its display will be amazing: the one on the Galaxy S24 Ultra surely was!