In a lot of parts of the world, people don't really get to see what else is out there. When they drop a ton of cash on an S25 Ultra, they treat it like the holy grail of tech. Since they’ve got no competition to compare it to, they just assume the photos it takes are peak flagship quality. You can’t really blame them—if there's nothing else on the shelf, how would you know any better? Check out this first shot, for example—S25 Ultra at 30x zoom. If you look at it by itself with zero context, it actually looks decent. The lines are okay, and while the details are a bit soft, you can still tell what’s going on. In that bubble, you’d think the 30x zoom is amazing. But the second you step out of that bubble and put it next to other phones, the illusion breaks. Look at this second photo from the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. At 30x, it’s night and day—way sharper than the Samsung, and that’s without even touching the AI enhance mode. It’s just fundamentally better, no contest. Honestly, we’re probably stuck waiting for the Galaxy S28 Ultra for any real change. There’s a good chance they’ll finally swap out that weak telephoto lens by then. As for the S27 Ultra? I’m calling it now: no sensor upgrade. It’ll just be some minor software tweaks, nothing revolutionary.