For a few years, Samsung has sometimes been one of many first Android telephone makers to ship a scorching new machine with the most recent Qualcomm chips firstly of the brand new 12 months. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra leads to an unenviable place in 2025, although, because it follows on the heels of the OnePlus 13, RedMagic 10 Pro, and Asus ROG Phone 9, all of which have proven stable developments to their very own product strains and simply how succesful the brand new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset is. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra could also be one of the best that Samsung can do, however it actually has to knock it out of the park to remain on the high of the smartphone class, particularly when its $1,299 beginning value is the best of those 4 gadgets.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Design and Features
Samsung has made among the most vital design adjustments for the Ultra line in a number of years with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and but it nonetheless appears to be like fairly same-y. The new design has curved corners and flat sides – a shift away from the angular corners and rounded sides of predecessors. But the Galaxy S25 Ulta stays a big slab. The again of the telephone is basically featureless save for the three giant and two small bumps for the digital camera array and laser auto-focus system.
While I can’t say the colour isn’t fairly, it’s not jaw-dropping. OnePlus is on the market etching wooden grain into the again of its OnePlus 13, RedMagic is doing all types of daring craziness (together with frost-like geometric patterns and see-through panels), and Samsung simply has flat, muted colours. This is coming from the corporate that launched the S20 with a vibrant again panel that supplied a detailed approximation to a bubble catching the daylight. Sure, Samsung’s going with supposedly strong Gorilla Armor 2 glass on the back and front and titanium within the body of the telephone, however these lend little to the visible enchantment of the machine, and to my data, none of them stop the telephone from shattering on concrete like all flagship telephone on the market.
The digital camera setup on the again of the S25 Ultra can be a curious and worrying selection. While the structure is acquainted, every of the bigger bumps now has a small reduction on the backside – assume the pipes in Mario video games. This would possibly present ever-so-slightly extra visible intrigue, however the potential of those gaps to collect particles is all however assured, and on the off likelihood one thing obtained beneath there with a little bit leverage, I’d count on some harm to the digital camera itself.
The one factor setting the S25 Ultra other than its competitors is the S Pen, which nonetheless has a little bit slot on the backside fringe of the telephone. It tucks away conveniently, and comes out with a delightful little pop. And it offers responsive stylus inputs for handwriting and doodling with far better accuracy than a finger can handle. This 12 months, Samsung took away the Bluetooth connection to the telephone, which enabled some further options, like the power for the S Pen to function a distant digital camera shutter button although. I’m reminded of when Samsung dropped the SD card slot from its telephones – certain, most individuals may need not been utilizing it, however that didn’t make it any much less handy to have. And on that observe, I assume I shouldn’t be stunned that Samsung consists of only a single SIM card in its tray. It helps two eSIMs, however extra is all the time higher in my guide, and Samsung might have provided extra.
Beyond the stylus and minor aesthetic selections, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is very similar to all the opposite flagship smartphones on the market. It’s large (6.41 x 3.06 x 0.32 in), weighty (218 grams), a little bit arduous to make use of one-handed, and constructed properly. You’ll get IP68-grade water and dirt safety, which is about pretty much as good because it will get, although OnePlus went above and past this 12 months by including IP69 safety that may maintain up in opposition to scorching water jets in addition to submersion.The anti-glare end does an amazing job reducing down on reflections with out impacting picture high quality from the show. Beyond that, although, the S25 Ultra’s display screen isn’t blowing the competitors out of the water.
Samsung matches in a superb show. The display screen stretches 6.9 inches throughout and has a pointy 1440×3120 decision. The display screen can attain a peak 120Hz refresh price however can drop down as little as 1Hz to preserve vitality. It’s brilliant and vibrant, making it a pleasure to look at exhibits and flicks or play video games on. The show is paired with potent audio system as properly, which offer clear stereo audio and sufficient quantity to take heed to podcasts whereas tackling chores or having a shower.
Samsung continues to situate a fingerprint scanner beneath the show, and it proves fast and dependable for unlocking the telephone. Facial recognition can be supported.
The general high quality of the Galaxy S25 Ultra isn’t stunning. Samsung is aware of the right way to make an amazing telephone, and this line is supposed to be the cream of the crop. But it feels only a bit much less particular this 12 months as a result of it hasn’t completed a lot to vary from prior years whereas its opponents have. Sure, it has the S Pen, albeit considerably neutered this 12 months. Sure, it has Samsung DeX, giving it the power to work like a transportable laptop, however that functionality might not be distant from seeing broader availability on Android gadgets. And AI options are rolling out so quick and free that none of them appear distinctive to any given telephone, regardless of how a lot Samsung hypes their capabilities.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Software
The Galaxy S25 Ultra launches with Android 15, and Samsung continues to vow seven years of Android OS and safety updates, which is nice to see from a tool as costly as this. Samsung nonetheless offers a versatile tackle Android with its One UI, supplying you with loads of instruments to tailor it to the feel and appear you favor. While I haven’t discovered something objectionable about Samsung’s strategy to the working system, I proceed to be irked by Samsung’s makes an attempt at locking down the ecosystem. Samsung has a handful of default apps that exchange typical Google apps you’d discover on virtually every other Android telephone, akin to Chrome and Calendar. Samsung then makes use of its first-party apps to combine some options, like its AI summarization of internet pages or its potential to have AI examine your calendar for occasions. If you need to benefit from these options, you find yourself caught with Samsung’s apps, and that may imply an enormous ecosystem shift.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Gaming and Performance
While the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra could have a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip akin to that in different latest Android flagships, Samsung’s is a particular model with souped up cores. It options six cores operating on the similar 3.53GHz as its opponents however two cores are boosted to 4.47GHz, up from the 4.32GHz you’d see in others just like the OnePlus 13. It feels like a minor distinction, however it is sufficient to give Samsung a slight efficiency edge. In Geekbench 6’s single-core CPU take a look at and Vulkan GPU take a look at, the Galaxy S25 Ultra provided the quickest speeds I’ve seen from an Android telephone. It edged out the OnePlus 13, RedMagic 10 Pro, and Asus ROG Phone 9 in these checks by as a lot as 6% and solely fell to the ROG Phone 9 within the multi-core take a look at by 0.27%.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra additionally had spectacular GPU efficiency leads to 3DMark. But that is additionally the place the cracks began to indicate. For one factor, it didn’t handle to leap forward of the Asus, OnePlus, or RedMagic in these checks. In some circumstances, it was even methods behind, particularly since RedMagic mainly proved itself practically magical with how a lot efficiency it might eke out of the GPU. But the larger drawback for Samsung was its potential to maintain.
Invariably, after one benchmark run, the efficiency of the S25 Ultra would throttle for subsequent runs, generally by upwards of 20%. Of the Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered Android telephones I examined lately, the S25 Ultra additionally carried out the worst within the Steel Nomad Light stress take a look at, which runs the benchmark 20 occasions in a row. In this stress take a look at, the S25 Ultra began with a excessive of 2611 factors however dropped promptly to 2116 factors for the second run, then fell into the 1800s and ultimately bottomed out at 1279 factors. By distinction, the RedMagic 10 Pro and Asus ROG Phone 9 had been each capable of stay above 2150 factors for all 20 runs. The OnePlus 13 additionally noticed its outcomes solely sink as little as 1662 factors. Samsung could also be throttling extra aggressively, with efficiency dipping even earlier than the chipsets inner temps exceed 40 levels Celsius. Samsung’s telephone could keep cooler in consequence, however all of those telephones are getting uncomfortably scorching by the top of the stress take a look at. And I’ve seen the S25 Ultra warming up merely whereas I’ve been shopping the net – one thing I didn’t discover from these different telephones.
All that is to say the Galaxy S25 Ultra is an extremely performant telephone, and it feels lightning quick in on a regular basis operation. But it appears to wrestle with warmth, and its potential to function a top-tier gaming telephone will probably be impacted by this. It will probably be a powerful gaming telephone for individuals who need to dip their toes once in a while, however it received’t be the supreme possibility.
The networking velocity of the S25 Ultra at the very least doesn’t encounter compromises. I might see speeds over 400Mbps on T-Mobile’s networking in testing, and the telephone helps Wi-Fi 7 for the most recent Wi-Fi networks.
Battery life is stable, simply lasting via a day of heavy use or two days of average use. But the 5,000mAh battery isn’t all that spectacular when the OnePlus 13 is packing in two 3,000mAh cells and the RedMagic 10 Pro has bumped as much as 7,000mAh. Even the charging speeds Samsung affords are on the sluggish aspect with simply 45W wired charging and 15W wi-fi charging
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Cameras
Samsung was by no means going to fail to impress with the sheer specs of its digital camera system on the Galaxy 25 Ultra. It packs a strong array of sensors with a variety of focal lengths. Here’s what you’ll discover:
- 200MP extensive, f/1.7, 1.12-micron, 1/1.3”, OIS, EIS
- 50MP ultrawide, f/1.9, 0.7-micron
- 10MP telephoto, 3x optical zoom, f/2.4, 1.12-micron, 1/3.52”, OIS
- 50MP telephoto, 5x optical zoom, f/3.4, 0.7-micron, 1/2.52”, OIS
- 12MP Selfie, f/2.2, 1.12-micron, 1/3.2”
For all of its technical prowess, the Galaxy S25 Ultra digital camera system manages to nonetheless really feel a bit bland. Perhaps it’s because Samsung has a colour filter system akin to Apple’s Photographic Styles. You can apply these whereas capturing or after the actual fact, however with the digital camera operating at its defaults, I felt lots of the photographs I took merely lacked punchy distinction and vibrancy, to not point out the heat I’d gotten used to on the OnePlus 13. The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s fundamental sensor snaps very sharp, detailed photographs, however there’s a distinction between that and a photograph that appears good.
The ultra-wide digital camera definitely helps squeeze lots into the body, however it does so at the price of noticeable distortion. Looking at a collection of ceiling photographs I took, the equilateral hexagon sample on the ceiling confirmed all-too-obvious elongation when snapped with the ultra-wide. Some textures exhibit sharpening artifacts that make them look barely extra processed than the principle sensor, and this breaks down the consistency between the 2 sensors. In sure eventualities, akin to excessive shut ups, the S25 Ultra prompted me to make use of a spotlight help instrument which really swapped from the principle sensor to a cropped view of the ultra-wide, and the result’s a drop in high quality – not what I’d need from a instrument meant to be useful.
Samsung has some robust zoom prowess right here combining each a 10MP 3x sensor and 50MP 5x sensor. The 3x tightens in on topics properly whereas maintaining them a lot sharp. The 3x sensor even proves sharper than cropping in on the 200MP fundamental sensor. I’ve seen some sudden shifts in how the digital camera system desires to deal with lighting when switching between the principle and 3x telephoto, although, and it once more hinders the general digital camera expertise.
I really like that Samsung features a 5x optical sensor on the S25 Ultra. Though I don’t adore it as a lot because the 10x it may need included. Going again to have a look at photographs I took utilizing the 10x sensor that was on the S21 Ultra and S22 Ultra, it doesn’t seem to me that Samsung has made significant enchancment on its potential to get near far-off topics by switching to a 5x optical sensor after which cropping to get nearer. The 5x optical sensor on the telephone now does job getting near the standard of the previous 10x when zoomed in, however it might have simply been that a lot neater to see it begin at 10x after which have the potential to succeed in even farther out.
Now, because it stands, Samsung remains to be readily successful the telephoto battle, because the 5x sensor right here plainly beats the Google Pixel 9 Pro’s and the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s personal 5x sensor. It’s day and night time when evaluating their potential to seize correct element on a far-off topic. This is probably the one edge the Galaxy S25 Ultra is maintaining on the OnePlus 13 as properly, because the latter telephone doesn’t get a lot precise element when zoomed in very far past 6x. OnePlus nonetheless has a knack for making a picture that pleases the attention with bolder distinction and colour on these super-zoomed photographs, however Samsung’s potential to get precise element is unmatched right here – too unhealthy OnePlus didn’t borrow the Oppo Find X8 Pro’s 6x telephoto sensor.
The selfie digital camera on the telephone is completely respectable, however identical to its companions on this telephone, it doesn’t dazzle. The selfie digital camera captured lifelike, if a little bit dry, colours and respectable sharpness. OnePlus and Google simply present higher trying selfies.
