Black Friday is behind us, but today is the tech buying day of the year. Cyber Monday offers can be even better than we
saw last week - for example, the Pixels are $50 less. Samsung is running its own promo campaign with deep discounts too.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra remains a unique productivity tool with its built-in S Pen and DeX support. You can use the
USB-C for wired video out, but wireless screen casting works too, so the Ultra is pretty versatile. And right now
Samsung US is offering both discounts and free storage upgrades.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Google Pixel 10 Pro XL
The Ultra is also the best Samsung camera phone at the moment. The 2026 model is coming in a few months, but rumors
about it temper expectations for major upgrades. This generation, Samsung upgraded the ultra-wide camera to a 50MP
sensor, up from 12MP on the S24 Ultra (here’s how the two phones compare). The phone already has a large 200MP 1/1.3”
sensor in the main and two telephoto cameras: a 50MP 5x/111mm periscope and a 10MP 3x/67mm medium-range telephoto
There is a way to get additional discounts - you can check whether you are eligible for the Samsung Offer Programs here.
The programs are available for educators and students, first responders and healthcare workers, military personnel and
government employees, as well as qualifying employees from 1,000+ participating companies. In the case of the S25 Ultra,
it brings an additional discount of $153.
The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL benefits from Google’s experiments in UI design, messaging, AI and more. Its hardware,
however, suffers from the underperforming Tensor G5 chipset – it’s nowhere close to the performance of the Galaxy’s
Snapdragon 8 Elite. And Google is working with Samsung on building out Android 16’s native desktop experience.
Pixel cameras had an aura around them – they pulled off miracles with aging hardware. Now the Pixel 10 Pro XL has
competitive hardware with a 50MP 1/1.31” main, 48MP 5x/113mm periscope and a 48MP ultra-wide. Photos still have that
“Pixel feel” to them, though they have fallen behind the market leaders in terms of quality. Luckily for Google and
Samsung, the best of the best aren’t available in the US.
There are other things to consider – the Pixel 10 Pro XL had the brighter screen when we tested it (reaching 2,340 nits,
compared to 1,417 nits for the S25 Ultra), but the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra had better battery life (14:49h vs. 12:29h
Active Use score). The Samsung also charged to 100% faster (0:59h vs. 1:22h).
The Google Pixel 10 Pro has the same chipset and cameras, so the same considerations apply. The phone is equipped with
one of the brightest displays we have ever tested and it measures 6.3” in size. The relatively large 4,870mAh battery
doesn’t last as long as we would have liked with a 12:06h Active Use score. The slow charging doesn’t help either.
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