The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra are separated by one generation, but today’s used-phone market puts a surprisingly neat number on that gap. SellMyPhone’s current comparison pages show leading offers of roughly £388 for a working S24 Ultra and £487 for a working S25 Ultra – a difference of about £99.
That creates an interesting question for anyone who buys premium Android phones: is moving one generation forward actually worth the money, or does the used market show that the cheaper previous flagship is still doing most of the same job?
£99 is the resale gap, not the upgrade cost
The £99 figure tells us how the market currently values the two used devices relative to one another. It does not mean an S24 Ultra owner can move to an S25 Ultra for £99, because the purchase price of the replacement also matters. But it does tell us something important: both handsets still retain substantial value.
An owner considering whether to sell my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra can currently recover close to £400 before buying anything else. That makes the net-upgrade calculation much more useful than staring at the retail price alone.
What one generation buys you
The S25 Ultra is newer, so it benefits from another year of hardware refinement, software life and market desirability. Yet an S24 Ultra remains a modern premium Android phone with a large high-refresh display, strong cameras and performance that is unlikely to feel slow in ordinary use.
For many people, the practical difference between two consecutive Ultra generations is far smaller than the difference between either phone and a mid-range handset. That is why annual upgrading can be such an expensive habit: the new phone may be better without being hundreds of pounds better for your own usage.
The resale market rewards the newer phone – for now
SellMyPhone’s S25 Ultra page shows a current leading offer around £487, roughly £99 above the S24 Ultra snapshot. Owners can check the live S25 Ultra market rather than assuming the manufacturer’s trade-in value is the ceiling.
As time passes, both figures will move. Another Galaxy generation pushes each handset one step further down the hierarchy, while condition, storage and recycler demand can produce large differences between individual quotes.
Three better questions than ‘which is faster?’
- What does the newer model fix that annoys you about your current phone?
- How much cash can you recover from the old phone today?
- After subtracting that resale value, are the improvements worth the remaining cost?
The used market is a useful reality check
Specification comparisons tell you which phone is technically superior. Resale prices tell you what the market is willing to pay for that superiority once the launch excitement fades. Looking at both produces a much saner upgrade decision.
For an S24 Ultra owner whose phone is still excellent, keeping it may be the best-value option. For someone already determined to upgrade, recovering close to £400 while the handset remains desirable can make more sense than waiting for another generation to arrive.
