I'm in the same boat. I have the S22 Ultra and plan on getting the S27 Ultra or whatever it will be named in 2027. The S22 Ultra will receive UI 8.5 as the last official software update since it's part of Android 16. I just received UI 8.0 on November 5, 2025. With that in mind, I believe the entire S22 series will probably have UI 8.5 by the summer or the fall of 2026. That would be good enough to hold me over to 2027 once the next generation of S27 series comes out in 2027. I would hold on to your S22 Ultra for another year. Hope that helps.
Interesting perspective. My S22 Ultra is paid off. 4 months ago and I wanted to treat myself with a new phone. I think I might wait until the S 26 Ultra comes out and then buy S25 Ultra when the price drops so I can buy the phone at the full price. The S25 Ultra will have 7 generations of software updates. So I will be cool with having S 25 Ultra for at least 4 years.
Listen...I hate to see people spend money when they don't have to spend money. Sounds like you already made up your mind on purchasing another phone. So you just finished paying off a phone 4 months ago for a phone you got 3 years ago and want to get back into making more payments for another phone 😲 (Not judging you). Your current phone STILL has software & security updates available for 2026 so there's really no need to upgrade. Keep in mind the 2026 models will look similar to the S22 models. If your current phone is in bad shape with screen cracks, horrible battery life, or any other malfunctioning situations then that's another story...by all means THEN it maybe time to upgrade. If that's not the story, why upgrade???
