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The S25 Ultra and the Truth About Modern Smartphones

Who needs a flagship?

7 min readApr 8, 2025
Image courtesy of the author

There are a couple of reasons I’ve dropped the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Not ‘dropped’ in the literal sense — I’m simply referring to my decision to abandon it entirely for the iPhone 16e.

There are a bunch of YouTube commenters who don’t believe I’ve actually done this. They cannot get their heads around why someone would switch from Apple’s flagship to a far lesser device. But I have — hand on heart. And I’m not going back, either.

Possibly ever.

The other reason for my Pro Max abandonment relates to this three-month later review of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

I always have a second phone on me. Historically, this has been a pain in the arse, but since switching to the iPhone 16e, the presence of the S25 Ultra in my other pocket has been a ‘perk of the job’, as they say. It satisfies my large display requirements and has a far better camera system than Apple’s entry-level phone.

But what is a flagship these days? With midrange phones being so damn good, what do you get if you spend above £1,000/$1,000?

Flagship design?

Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder, and I know you may not necessarily agree…

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Mark Ellis
Mark Ellis

Written by Mark Ellis

Tech reviewer. Join my free weekly newsletter for access to my Discord server 👉 https://newsletter.markellismedia.uk/subscribe

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