Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Two-minute review
Is there such a thing as ‘ultimate phone design’? That was my first thought as I held the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and turned it over in my hand. Surely, it’s lost a bit of identity as it shed the last vestiges of Galaxy Note design and adopted the more familiar and blockier look of its Galaxy S brethren. The Galaxy S25 Ultra looks not only more like all the other S25 phones in the lineup, but more like an iPhone than ever before.
I don’t consider this mimicry. Instead, as I noted above, there may in fact be an ultimate smartphone design – and for the Ultra line this shift was inevitable. A moment of sadness, though, for the once-iconic Galaxy Note that owned the ‘flagship’ designation in both looks and functionality – it was the only smartphone virtually industry-wide that included an integrated stylus. Somehow, Samsung has managed this slimmer, lighter, and squarer makeover without losing space for the S Pen, which alone is an achievement worth celebrating.
When, however, people are done talking about the new design – including a slightly larger screen than the S24 Ultra – they’ll likely become obsessed with the deeply integrated AI experience.
With the S25 line, Samsung has effectively blurred the lines between Galaxy AI, Bixby system-level AI actions, and Google’s Gemini’s generative AI capabilities. And Samsung isn’t shy about presenting its partner’s capabilities. They’re accessible through a long press of the power button (or a press of the virtual home button), and while the connections between Gemini, Google’s apps, and Samsung’s apps isn’t always seamless and automatic, when it works, it’s smooth and quite useful.
There are promises in here of a deeper understanding of you by watching not just what you do on the phone but how Samsung-connected wearables like Galaxy Ring, Samsung Galaxy Watch, and SmartThings accessories gather data and understanding of your physical and smart home-based activities. Ultimately, that information is presented as part of Now Brief home screen widgets that give you, among other things, morning and evening briefs.
That tracking might sound scary if Samsung hadn’t worked closely with silicon partner Qualcomm to ensure that the Snapdragon Gen 8 Elite for Galaxy has a silicon core that’s devoted to your Personal Data Engine, and if it weren’t for Samsung’s liberal use of its Knox security both on the phone and across its ecosystem of devices.
In my time reviewing the S25 Ultra I saw some personal insights in my briefs, but not enough for them to be meaningful. I think this is the kind of feature that will bear fruit after weeks of using the phone and essentially training the AI to understand you.
AI can be found sprinkled throughout the system, including in photography, which is a good thing since Samsung has done little to upgrade the physical camera array. Of the five cameras (four on the back and one on the front) only one got an upgrade: the ultrawide, which is now a 50MP camera.
On the other hand, Samsung has upgraded its Pro Visual engine and, as a result, photography is generally even better than on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. And if your photographic skills aren’t up to snuff, you can now ask Gemini to suggest changes based on the quality of your own photos.
There are more powerful tools for generating AI images and making AI alterations to existing photographs. Sketch to Image is more powerful than ever, and I found that using the S Pen with Sketch to Image generated incredibly realistic AI additions.
Samsung’s AI integration also extends to sound. It can recognize music playing in a video or hummed by you, and it’s also adept at cleaning up messy audio in videos you shoot.
This is a better-looking, faster, smarter, and longer-lasting Ultra than any that’s come before it, and it still costs the same $1,299.99 / £1,249 in the US and UK, and even slightly less in Australia at AU$2,149. That’s a triumph right there. For existing Samsung Galaxy S Ultra fans, this is the ultimate Android.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review: Price and availability
- Price holds firm, slight reduction in Australia
- More screen for the same price
- Deals could save you a bundle
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra was unveiled at Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event on January 22. It’s available to pre-order now in a choice of four colors wherever you buy: Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Whitesilver, Titanium Grey, and Titanium Black; and three more that are exclusive to the Samsung store: Titanium Jadegreen, Titanium Pinkgold, and Titanium Jetblack.
The phone ships in either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB storage configurations, and every variant comes with 12GB RAM.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra will begin shipping on February 7 for the following prices:
| Storage | US price | UK price | AU price |
| 256GB | $1,299 | £1,249 | AU$2,149 |
| 512GB | $1,419 | £1,349 | AU$2,349 |
| 1TB | $1,659 | £1,549 | AU$2,749 |
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review: Specs
Here’s a look at the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s key specs:
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 162.8 x 77.6 x 8.2mm |
| Weight | 218g |
| OS | One UI 7, based on Android 15 |
| Display | 6.9-inch AMOLED, 120Hz |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy |
| RAM | 12GB |
| Storage | 256GB / 512GB / 1TB |
| Battery | 5,000mAh |
| Rear cameras | 200MP main, 50MP ultra-wide, 10MP telephoto, 50MP telephoto |
| Front camera | 12MP |
| Charging | 45W wired, 15W wireless |
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review: design
- Looks more like the rest of the Galaxy S-series crew
- Lighter and thinner
- Still accommodates the S Pen and 5000mAh battery
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra drops the Galaxy Note-esque look completely, replacing it with a look that reflects the Galaxy S aesthetic found across the S25 line, although it’s not an exact replica of those phones. Yes, it has a flat titanium band wrapping around the body, but the corners are slightly squarer than those of the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus.
Compared to the S24 Ultra, this phone is, at 162.8 x 77.6 x 8.2mm, slightly taller but also narrower, and thinner. It’s also considerably lighter, at 218 grams compared to the S24 Ultra’s 232 grams. That’s a difference I noticed when I held the phone in my hand – and, yes, that’s lighter than Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max, which weighs in at 227 grams.
I give Samsung credit here for making a lighter phone that somehow still has room for the 5,000mAh battery and to stow the S Pen.
Despite the significant chassis alteration, there aren’t a lot of other design changes. The volume rocker and power/sleep/Gemini button are in the same relative positions, while Samsung has shifted the antenna cutout from that side to the top of the opposite edge.
On the bottom is the same USB-C charging and data port, a wide slot for the base speaker (the other half of the loud and clear stereo speaker system is in a well-hidden channel at the top of the screen), the S Pen slot, and a SIM slot. That last slot is notable because while Apple’s iPhone line in the US only offers eSIM support, the S25 Ultra offers standard SIM and eSIM, and includes Dual-SIM support.
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While the S25 Ultra’s body is titanium (and rated IP68 for water and dust protection), the front and back are swaddled in Gorilla Glass Armor 2, which includes the extra protection of ceramic. However, while this material might protect the phone from drops, it’s still not scratch-proof, and even though I’ve taken extreme care with my review unit I’m still noticing some long scratches on the display. They’re not deep, and they’re only noticeable when the screen is off; still, I await the day when a smartphone manufacturer can deliver a truly scratch-proof display.
Overall, I like the new look and feel of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and I don’t mind that it’s lost a bit of its distinctive Note aesthetic. This is a big-screen handset that I enjoy holding and using.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Display
- Biggest Galaxy Ultra screen yet
- Responsive, bright and color-rich
- ProScaler technology
- No other display technology changes
If you’ve just read through the design section and assumed that a lighter, thinner smartphone might feature a smaller screen, you should be pleasantly surprised. Samsung has managed to make the Galaxy S25 Ultra screen 6.9 inches (diagonally); that’s 0.1 inches larger than the S24 Ultra’s screen, and it’s all thanks to a 15% smaller bezel surrounding the display.
This change to the screen size is almost the full extent of changes between the S24 Ultra and the S25 Ultra. It’s still a Quad HD+ display that’s capable of running at 3120 x 1440 pixels, which is higher-res than the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 2868 x 1320 Super Retina XDR display. You won’t see the S25’s Quad HD+ resolution, though, unless you dig into settings and switch from the default FHD+ resolution (2340 x 1080) – and there’s good reason to leave well enough alone, as the FHD+ resolution looks excellent in most situations, and you’ll get better battery life by sticking with the lower resolution.
This is still an adaptive display, auto-switching from 1Hz to 120Hz on an as-needed basis. Again, you can save a bit of battery life by switching to 60Hz, but the butter-smooth motion is, in my opinion, worth the tradeoff.
There is one notable update that’s not to the display itself, but the display is where you’ll see it. ProScaler is an image upscaling technology adopted from Samsung’s TV tech. The ability to upscale any lower-resolution content is powered by silicon, and might come in handy if, say, you’re playing an old game or watching an old video on the Quad HD+ screen
It’s a beautiful, perfectly flat screen, and unlike on the iPhone 16 Pro Max there’s no large island cutout for cameras, sensors, and information. Instead, there’s just a small circular cutout for the 12MP front-facing camera, and it’s not something you notice while watching movies, playing games, browsing the web, or engaging with Gemini.
Underneath the screen is an ultrasonic fingerprint reader. I initially only registered my thumb, but found that the scanner sometimes struggled to read my print. My skin is incredibly dry right now, so that might have contributed to the flakiness; later I registered multiple digits, and found better luck with an index finger. I also used a PIN and my face to unlock the phone.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: S Pen
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- S Pen still included
- Small but highly effective
- No more BLE support
The integrated S Pen looks, feels, and essentially works the same as the S Pen in the S24 Ultra but with one notable difference: it no longer has Bluetooth Low Energy support. This means that some of the long-distance remote-control features no longer work – you can’t use the button on the pen to, for instance, advance slides. Samsung told me they removed BLE support because so few people were using the related features, and I can say that I didn’t miss it in my tests.
In general, I’m a big fan of the S Pen. It’s thin and small, but a worthy drawing implement. I used it in Notes, Sketchbook, and Sketch to Image, and it’s also good for note taking – I was impressed by how effortlessly Samsung Notes could convert my scrawl to accurate text.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review: cameras
- Lots of lens choices
- Overall excellent photography capabilities
- Samsung still favors over-saturated images
- High megapixel counts result in exquisitely detailed imagery
At a glance, the Galaxy S25 Ultra camera array looks unchanged from the S24 Ultra’s, but Samsung has given the array a visual upgrade. All the lenses now appear to almost float above the chassis. It’s a neat effect, but for the most part it’s a skin-deep alteration, and Samsung has left almost all the camera specs unchanged.
Here’s what you’ll find on the S25 Ultra.
- Main camera: 200MP
- 5x telephoto: 50MP (also provides the 10x zoom through a sensor crop)
- 3x optical: 10MP
- Ultra-wide: 50MP
- Front-facing camera: 12MP
The only new camera of the bunch is the 50MP ultra-wide. More pixels here mean better low-light performance for ultra-wide shots and more detailed macro shots, as evidenced in my tests. This is mostly because the camera defaults to binned shooting, which means it’s combining roughly four pixels for each one in the final image. Similarly, you’ll do most of your 200MP main-camera shooting in a pixel-binned 12MP mode.
I shot a wide variety of photos with all the cameras, and broadly these are excellent lenses and sensors, able to capture a lot of detail and rich, vibrant colors. As is Samsung’s way, though, many of the images are over-saturated; a blue sky is too blue, and green leaves are deeply green. Portrait shots default to some beautification.
If you like absolute truth in your photography, this might bother you. I didn’t mind it, and I appreciated how some of the photos I took with the 200MP main camera had more detail in them than what I get with the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 50MP main camera.
I was especially impressed with the 50MP ultra-wide’s nighttime performance. Colors and details in challenging situations looked especially good, and the detail in macro shots more or less matched what I can get with the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s macro mode.
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The Samsung Galaxy 25 Ultra’s zoom capabilities are strong even without a dedicated 10x optical zoom. It’s been two Ultra generations since the Ultra line featured 10x optical zoom and I’m officially over it. I find the 5x zoom backed by a 50MP sensor sufficient, and the 10x zoom based on a sensor crop more useful. These days I tend to avoid the 30x and 100x Space Zooms because I just don’t know how much AI image guesswork they’ll introduce.
I was especially impressed with the job the 5x and 10x zoom did when photographing a busy woodpecker in a San Jose, California, park.
If I have one criticism of the Samsung Galaxy S 25 Ultra camera system it’s that there is some faint color bleeding between objects. It’s not in every image or widespread, but in one case I noticed that the green of a leaf was bleeding into the blue sky around it. I attribute this to the algorithmic Pro Visual engine, and I assume a tiny tweak could fix it.
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Most of Samsung’s efforts to improve photography revolve around software, and some of them can be found in Export RAW, a standalone pro-photography app that now offers virtual aperture settings. You’ll need to download Expert RAW and then enable the Lab features to try it.
With it, you can virtually adjust the aperture from f/1.4 to f /16. Lower aperture settings provide more of a bokeh effect, while higher f-stop values push the focus out past your subject so that the background is in focus as well.
Since smartphone cameras don’t have moveable apertures, this is a digital effect, and the quality of the bokeh might not be as dramatic or good as what you’d get from a pro-level camera with a physical aperture. In my experience, I found the effect somewhat lacking; it just didn’t appear to show the real range of a physical aperture.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: camera samples
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Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: software and AI
- Samsung is full steam ahead with deep AI integration
- It’s blurring the lines between Galaxy AI, Google Gemini, and Bixby
- Now Brief is a smart idea that starts with limited utility
- The full power of the onboard AI may take time to reveal itself
Samsung’s long and enduring partnership with Google and Qualcomm pays off in a rich and virtually unmatched system-level AI experience.
One of the hallmarks of this system is that it’s less about which AI is doing what than it is about execution and availability. You might be using Galaxy AI for one task, Google Gemini for a different prompt, and Bixby for a system-level query. The lines between these systems are blurred, as are those between apps built by Google, Samsung, and third-party companies.
Samsung likes to talk about AI agents, though I wouldn’t yet call this ‘Agentic AI,’ as most of the AI inside the S25 Ultra is not acting on your behalf without your intervention. But it doesn’t take much to launch relatively complex queries beyond a long-press of the power button (Gemini button) and speaking to the phone.
Interactions with Gemini and other AI can be as simple as pressing the button and asking a question about the weather, or as complex as “find me chilli recipes on YouTube and then collect them in a Note.” The prompt results in Gemini perusing YouTube, finding the recipes, and then collecting them in a Samsung Note.
This cross-app prompt functionality works with a small collection of non-Google and non-Samsung apps, including Spotify and WhatsApp. I asked Gemini to find science-related podcasts on Spotify and then make a list of them in Notes. Unfortunately, Gemini collected a list of links, and when I asked Gemini to please give me a list of names, it could not comply.
My other complaint with these cross-app connections is that nothing works unless you link apps like Spotify to your Google account.
Multimodal capabilities mean that the AI can react to everything from photos and videos to audio. Samsung, though, has some work to do on making these processes simple and seamless.
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When I wanted to get a calorie count from my burger, fries, and soda lunch, I started by holding down the Gemini button and then selecting the plus sign in the prompt field. Then I selected the camera, took a photo of my meal, and selected ‘Attach’. Then I pressed the microphone button and asked Gemini about the calorie count. The result was a detailed report on the caloric intake for my lunch (it was over 1,200 calories 🤦♂️). Gemini is a bit of a chatterbox; its answers are often so long that I lose interest and hit stop, although to be fair, the useful information is always within the first two or three sentences.
Similarly, I took photos of some of the unfinished ingredients at the burger shop and asked Gemini what I could make with them. It smartly figured that I could use all this to make cheeseburgers. Sure, that was the obvious conclusion for me, a human being, but it is impressive that an AI can figure that out with little additional context.
I also used the feature to identify various plants, and followed up with questions about how to care for each of them. In each case, Gemini maintained the context of our conversation.
One of the more exciting aspects of the S25 Ultra’s AI capabilities is its potential to learn about you and offer helpful daily guidance. This shows up as the new Now Brief widget on the home screen. At a glance, this might appear like a simple, albeit personalized widget with some information about your day. But it’s more than that, and may become more useful the more you use the phone, and the more Samsung devices you own.
Now Brief is tied to the new Personal Data Engine, a local bit of learning AI that’s housed in a special core on the Qualcomm Snapdragon Gen 8 Elite chip. The S25 Ultra uses that processing space to gather and analyze useful, and of course, encrypted, data and insights about you and then present it in Morning, Midday, Evening, and Late Night briefs. These include basic info like calendars, weather, and reminders. But they can also give you insights such as your energy score and, if you wear a Samsung Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Ring to bed, your sleep quality. Eventually, it’ll start offering suggestions on how you can improve these metrics.
Samsung’s mix of local encrypted data and occasional cloud-based AI (usually for the larger generative models Galaxy AI and Gemini sometimes need) mirrors what Apple is doing with Apple Intelligence; most of its AI is local, but it will sometimes send the data to its encrypted cloud or even, with your permission, pass it off to third parties like ChatGPT.
Samsung’s unfettered use of Gemini and easy blending of Bixby system features and third-party apps make Samsung’s AI offering feel more complete and comprehensive.
And while Apple is only comfortable letting people create cartoonish images of themselves and new genmojis. Samsung is pushing the boundaries of AI image generation. Since the introduction of Galaxy AI last summer, I’ve been adding uncanny, lifelike AI elements to original photos using Sketch to Image, and the S25 series proves even more adept at fictional creations.
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I used Sketch to Image to add a white mouse to a series of images. Using the S Pen, I sketched a simple line drawing of a mouse, doing my best to accurately position it on each surface. Then I let Samsung Galaxy AI do its work (a network connection is necessary for this function, which means the generation is likely happening in the cloud). The results were jaw-dropping – the only way you’d be able to know that the white mouse had not coincidentally appeared in each photo is the ‘AI generated content’ watermark on each image.
Drawing Assist lets me sketch anything poorly and generate watercolors, cartoons, pop art, 3D cartoons, oil paintings, and sketches based on it. I can also generate images from text and original photos. The sketch features do a nice job of turning photos into line drawings. The system can be a bit unpredictable, though. I entered the prompt “A bird flying over the Empire State Building” and the S25 Ultra’s Image Assist refused to generate an image because the “prompt might contain inappropriate content.”
More practically, Samsung’s Galaxy AI was effective at helping me clean up images using Generative Edit. It was effective at removing a man who chose to step into frame just as I was trying to run some nightography tests.
AI has helped Samsung add it own Shazam feature. If I’m watching a video with a song in it, I can identify it by pressing the virtual home button and choosing the note icon. This worked every time when I tried it with YouTube and Instagram Reels, and it was also able to identify any song I tunefully hummed.
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A more useful audio feature, in my opinion, is the new Audio Eraser. This is very similar to Apple’s Audio Mix tool. Both can identify, separate, and remove background noise in videos. Samsung’s version did an excellent job of removing all noise from a video I shot on busy street. Yes, if you remove all background noise the final audio can sound a bit unnatural, but I’m still impressed.
As a system, One UI 7 is cleaner and smarter than ever. Even Gallery has been given an AI upgrade, so it’s better at returning useful photo results. I can now select the search icon and then speak my query, with typically accurate results. I asked for photos of plants, and the S25 Ultra instantly returned all my photos that included plants.
I still prefer using Google Photos, which of course is preloaded on the system and can back up all your Galaxy S25 photos. If you let it do that, you’ll find no better image search engine.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Performance
- Fastest Ultra chip ever
- Personal Data Engine for core-deep AI support
- Super-efficient
Throughout my tests, I marveled at the Samsung Galaxy S 25 Ultra’s combination of power and efficiency. There was no task it couldn’t handle, and I found its AI capabilities speedy and effective. Much of this is down to the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Gen 8 Elite for Galaxy, which is backed by 12GM of RAM.
This isn’t just the fastest chip Qualcomm’s ever produced; it’s a custom version for Samsung. Geekbench 6.3 benchmarks show that the Gen 8 Elite for Galaxy has significantly closed the gap between Galaxy phone performance and iPhones running the latest Apple Silicon (Apple’s A18 Pro). In my anecdotal tests, Apple’s still in the lead, but our Future Labs results put the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra just ahead of the iPhone 16 Pro Max on multi-core tests.
Graphics scores are comparable to Apple’s, and real-world performance on games, productivity, and general use tasks do not belie those numbers.
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Perhaps more notable is that despite intensive use I’m seeing amazing battery life. Thanks is due in part to the Gen 8 Elite’s 3-nanometer process and the new 40%-larger vapor chamber that manages heat. It’s been paired with a new Thermal Interface material (TIM) which covers the CPU and is then covered by the vapor chamber.
As I mentioned above, this 5G phone supports dual SIM, and still gives you the option of using a physical SIM card. It also supports ultra-wideband (UWB), which could be useful for using the phone to locate those new Samsung SmartTags, and Wi-Fi 7, which should help future-proof your connectivity experience.
Sasmung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Battery
- Days of battery life
- Cool operation
Samsung rates the Galaxy S25 Ultra at 31 hours of video playback, and on mixed tasks I got well over 30 hours of battery life on a single charge. With a 65W charger, I fully charged the 5000mAh battery in one hour.
In our Future Labs test, the rundown ran 18 hours and 35 minutes when using the phone screen at the standard 60Hz refresh rate, and dropped to 17 hours and 15 minutes when using the more resource-intensive adaptive refresh rate. To put this in perspective, the iPhone 16 Pro Max managed 17 hours and 35 minutes in the same tests.
The phone supports 5W Qi-based wireless charging, and will work with Qi2-based chargers, though I don’t think it supports the latter’s 15W, faster charge times.
| Value | Samsung held fast on the Galaxy S25 Ultra price. it’s not a cheap phone, but design updates, integrated AI and inclusion of the S Pen make it good value. | 4.5/5 |
| Design | The Galaxy S25 Ultra is now fully part of the Galaxy S-series design family and that generally improves it. We have a bigger screen, thinner and lighter body, and we still have all the things that make an Ultra special, including the titanium, the S-Pen and a big-enough battery. | 4/5 |
| Display | The biggest Ultra screen ever. It doesn’t break any new ground on technology, but is still an excellent screen for all kinds of content and uses. | 5/5 |
| Cameras | There are a lot of lenses here and they’re backed by high-pixel counts that will result in extremely detailed photos. Samsung only updated one lens since the last Ultra, but choosing the ultra-wide was the right move, as it improves both ultra-wide and macro images. | 4.5 |
| Software and AI | Samsung’s and its partners’ commitment to deep AI integration is laudable, and it makes for the most frictionless AI experience I’ve found on any smartphone. It’s also backed by a solid and even more useful One UI update. And the AI experience will likely get richer over time | 4.5/5 |
| Performance | The S25 Ultra’s Qualcomm Snapdragon Gen 8 Elite for Galaxy is one impressive chip. It’s a near-perfect mix of performance and efficiency. | 5/5 |
| Battery | Best battery life I’ve seen on a smartphone. Days of use is within reach. | 5/5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Galaxy S25 Ultra review: Also consider
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Galaxy S25 Ultra | iPhone 16 Pro Max | Galaxy Z Fold 6 | Pixel 9 Pro XL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (at launch): | $1,299 / £1,249AU / $2,149 | $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,149 | $1,899.99 / £1,799 / AU$2,749 | $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849 |
| Dimensions: | 162.8 x 77.6 x 8.2mm | 163 x 77.6 x 8.25mm | 68.1 x 153.5 x 12.1mm (folded)132.6 x 153.5 x 5.6mm (unfolded) | 162.8 x 76.6 x 8.5mm |
| Weight: | 218g | 227g | 239g | 221g |
| Displays | 6.9-inch AMOLED, 120Hz | 6.9-inch OLED | 7.6-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED 2XInfinity Flex Display (2160 x 1856, 20.9:18), 374ppi120Hz adaptive refresh rate (1~120Hz)Cover: 6.3-inch HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display(2376 x 968, 22.1:9), 410ppi120Hz adaptive refresh rate (1~120Hz) | 6.8-inch 1344 x 2992 1-120Hz ‘Super Actua’ LTPO OLED |
| Cameras | 200MP main, 50MP ultra-wide, 10MP telephoto, 50MP telephoto | 48MP main (24mm, f/1.78), 48MP ultra-wide (13mm, f/2.2), 12MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom (120mm, f/2.8) | 50MP, f/1.8, 12MP, f/2.2, 10MP, f/2.4, 10MP, f/2.2, 4MP | 50MP, f/1.68, 82° FoV, 1/1.31-inch sensor w/ OIS, 48MP, f/1.7, 123º FoV, 1/2.55-inch sensor, ‘New’ 5x 48MP, f/2.8, 22° FoV, 1/2.55-inch sensor w/ OIS, 42MP, f/2.2, 103º FoV |
| Chipset: | Qualcomm Snapdragon Gen 8 Elite for Galaxy | Apple A18 Pro | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy | Google Tensor G4 |
How I tested the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
- I tested the phone for one week
- I took dozens of photos
- I played games and watched movies
- I checked email and worked in Slack
- I used AI features extensively
- Benchmark testing is for comparison, not scoring purposes
I started testing the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra from the moment Samsung handed me my test unit in San Jose, CA.
I’ve been using it as my everyday phone and for comparison with my iPhone 16 Pro Max. I tested all the cameras, connectivity, performance, battery life, and the rich and extensive AI capabilities.
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I connected the phone to Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro to listen to video, social media, and podcasts. I also connected the phone to a Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra to help it track my activities and, hopefully, enhance the Now Brief reports
First reviewed January, 2025
