The upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra has much to look forward to, but a new report suggests that it will be underwhelming in one particular area.

In the past, Samsung has been known to ship its Galaxy series with the best and brightest displays. Samsung's Galaxy S24 series featured the M13 OLED panel, which was the best available at the time. However, the iPhone 16 Pro and Google Pixel 9 were later launched with Samsung's M14 OLED panels, which are brighter and more power efficient. The Samsung Galaxy S25 series is expected to feature the same option, but recent reports suggest that may not be the case.

According to ET News (via Android Police), Samsung will continue to use M13-based panels in the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Ultra. According to this report, Samsung intends to upgrade the display every two generations going forward. This is reportedly due to the current performance of OLEDs and the saturation of the smartphone market; a post on X by Ross Young, CEO of Display Chain Consultants, seems to confirm this suggestion.

In our tests, the M13 OLED in the Galaxy S24 Ultra achieved a maximum brightness of 1,363 nits, while the iPhone 16 Pro with its new display peaked at 1,553 nits and the Pixel 9 Pro recorded a recorded a higher brightness. However, most average users will not notice such a difference in daily use.

In reality, as has been speculated, this is a cost-cutting measure to keep the Galaxy S25 series affordable. One of the problems is that the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip is said to increase the price of the phone. However, the chip's power could help the S25 compete with the iPhone 16 Pro, and leaked benchmark scores show it outperforming Apple's latest iPhone in multi-core scores.

For now, we must wait for the official release of the Galaxy S25 series. At that point, we will be able to test for ourselves whether this is a significant downgrade or if it will still make the best phones list.