Though people have been holding on to their phones longer to get the most out of their purchases and because new features haven’t been compelling enough to upgrade, that could be changing, according to a new report from Ookla that focuses on Samsung devices.

The research firm says that consumers had been previously hesitant to upgrade may be looking to do so now in an attempt to stay ahead of tariff-related price increases. Ookla adds that consumers may be tempted by offers seeking to get them to switch providers. Re-evaluating their mobile service provider could also prompt a device upgrade.

The report on Samsung devices suggests that consumers with older 5G phones may want to consider upgrading to the company’s new S25 model. Regardless of the mobile provider someone is using, the Samsung devices — the S21 Ultra to the S25 Ultra — are faster by at least 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) in median download speed on the new phone, according to the report.

The research firm also noted that all of the median download speeds — on AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon — are far more than are needed for just about any typical mobile application or use case. However, network speeds in the aggregate are indicative of the overall network capacity and its ability to serve all its customers, not just an individual.

“Bigger is better when it comes to device performance on wireless networks (as long as you are fine with the bigger size and bigger cost),” the research firm said in a press release about the Samsung report. “The S25 Ultra outperforms the download and upload speeds of the S25 and S25+.”

The Samsung report added: “While T-Mobile’s deeper spectrum advantage is evident across all of our Speedtest users performance results, each carrier categorically demonstrates better performance on the Galaxy S25 Ultra than any earlier models. So, even if you’re not interested in switching providers, there is still meaningful improvement in the network experience to be gained by staying on your current network.”