As one the first major phone releases for 2025, the Galaxy S25 Ultra continues to prove it’s one of the best camera phones around, thanks in part to its assorted upgrades and better low light performance. About a month ago on a clear night, I started to capture some astrophotography shots with my Galaxy S25 Ultra to see how it’s improved over the Galaxy S24 Ultra — but I soon came across an odd problem.

After snapping a handful of snapshots of my favorite deep space targets, like the Great Orion Nebula, I noticed a peculiar characteristic that appeared in some of my shots. Apparently there was a Galaxy S25 Ultra camera glitch that caused photos in night mode to develop these weird white bands and artifacts. They looked horrible, so I stopped right then and there to save myself from freezing outside.

Since that encounter, I was told from Samsung that a software update would be rolling out soon to address the glitch. After a couple of weeks, it finally landed, so I quickly installed the update and proceeded to use the next clear night to take astrophotography shots with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Here’s what I found out.

If you’ve been following my other astrophotography shootouts, like the ones I've performed with the Pixel 9 Pro XL, OnePlus 13, and iPhone 16 Pro Max, then you know the necessary gear you need to get the best results. You’ll definitely need a phone holder/cradle and a tripod in order to keep the Galaxy S25 Ultra as still as possible while it’s shooting astrophotography.