Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra reviewed: slick and future-friendly

Samsung’s big phone for each year is the “Ultra”, but is this year’s take all that different from last year’s, and is the Galaxy S25 Ultra the ultimate embodiment of everything you’ll want in a phone for time to come?

Phones tend to come in sizes big and small, but chances are if you’re looking to spend premium dollars on one to hold you for a period of years (more than one), you’re probably looking at a big model.

A larger screen, a bigger battery, and often the best cameras in the business are what sizeable phones are known for, which these days tend to sit in somewhere between 6.7 and 7 inches. The bigger it is, the bigger the battery, which is one of the features you pay for, but so are those enormous cameras, which often provide as many as four cameras to work with.

This year’s latest to match those needs is another in the long-running Samsung Galaxy S range, as we round another year and add yet another number to the offerings.

Now in the S25 — because it’s 2025 — the sizeable “ultra” model is armed with more best-in-class technology to keep you going for longer. Is it the best phone around, and is it worth upgrading to?

Design

Several generations into Samsung’s flat-frame approach — which clearly isn’t the only company to try it — we’re now seeing it go properly flat. Last year, there was a slight curve, while this year the look is pretty much flat.

And while it’s easy enough on the eyes and properly minimalist, we actually preferred the curve Samsung achieved in last year’s frame. It was minimalist and different enough to clearly not be like the iPhone. This year, however, and similarities to Apple’s equivalent can’t be ignored.

It’s a nice enough design for sure. Minimalist and simple, but last year was just that little bit more unique and individual, which is a trait Samsung misses out on this year.

Outside of that frame, the minimalist style is really easy on the eyes. This may as well be a titanium frame wedged between two pieces of glass, with the camera etched out on the back.

It’s a truly minimalist phone made for maximum use.

Measuring 8.2mm and weighing 218 grams, it’s also comfortable in the hands, but just a little on the slippery side, so grab a case. You’d hate to let this thing become shattered glass on either side.

Features

The biggest change may well be inside the phone, with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite inside, paired with 12GB RAM and either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage.

Android 15 is ready on this phone out of the box, and you’ll also find an assortment of wireless connections ready for use, too, covering 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be WiFi 7, 5G, Bluetooth 5.4, GPS, Near-Field Communication (NFC), and Ultra-Wideband radio technology, the latter of which is there for finding things with Samsung Smart Things.

You can expect four cameras on the rear of this phone, found with a 200 megapixel F1.7 wide camera, 50 megapixel ultra-wide with F1.9, 10 megapixel 3X optical at F2.4, and a 50 megapixel 5x at F3.4. Meanwhile, the front sees a 12 megapixel F2.2 selfie-camera.

Samsung also includes IP68 water resistance, a fingerprint sensor in the screen, facial security via the camera up front, Qi wireless charging with some degree of Qi2 support (kind of), the included S-Pen stylus, plus a 5000mAh battery, all found under a 6.9 inch 3120×1440 Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED screen running at 120Hz and protected by a variant of Corning’s Gorilla Glass.

There are some updates there, for sure.

In-use

Samsung may well have updated the hardware, but the software experience is mostly the same, as One UI rounds another number and turns seven.

Interestingly, there seems to be less bloatware and forced Samsung apps loaded on from the beginning, meaning if you want apps such as Samsung Health (if you have something like a Galaxy Ring) or Samsung’s voice recorder, you will need to grab them from the Galaxy Store. That in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, with Samsung delivering a fairly bloat-free experience, much to this reviewer’s surprise.

It means the S25 Ultra may suit owners of a previous Pixel, as these are folks who prefer a stock experience.

Make no mistake, the Galaxy’s One UI isn’t a stock style of Android, but it’s not far from it, and does include some extra niceties you may find interesting.

AI as an operating system

One of the main features Samsung talks up is the idea of AI as the operating system, an idea which works a lot better in theory than it does in practice.

You can start to talk to your Galaxy phone with Google Gemini and get it to do things, but you’re probably much faster simply holding, touching, swiping, and commanding it the way you’re used.

There’s a new recap of everything with a briefing available day and night, but it’s typically not much more than weather, photo moments, and Spotify. It’s not the big promise of AI to change your life that you may be expecting, but rather just a bit of software spectacle.

Initially, it just doesn’t feel like an exciting idea, and will be one of those things that may grow on you, but probably needs more time in the oven cooking.

Other AI features

Of course, there are other AI features awaiting on the handset, some left over from the S24 Ultra, and some brand new. Like those old features, the new ones may not set your eyes on fire, or even get you to use them more than once.

For example, there’s an AI assist drawing tool which is kind of like the Samsung equivalent of the old (and seemingly broken) Silly Times app on the iPhone. Simply put, draw something in the most basic way and have AI interpret the results.

It’s fun for passing the time, and kids will love it, handy if you need a creative time waster for the family while you’re sitting there waiting for something to happen. You do need an internet connection for it to work, though, even if some of the AI on the handset can be processed on the phone (not this app, though).

Other AI features are also here, such as AI rewriting of messages, AI summaries, AI transcriptions from call recordings, and AI language translation, largely reusing the special features from last year’s introduction of AI that you may or may not have cared about then.

The S-Pen stylus

Along for the ride for another generation is the Galaxy S-Pen, Samsung’s stylus that gives you the ability to quickly take notes, draw, or just generally click that phone’s pen mechanism at the back and annoy your coworkers.

While it is clearly still a part of the design, it does seem this year like the S-Pen plays a lesser part of the Galaxy Ultra experience. Samsung has removed the Bluetooth from this generation of the S-Pen, so it doesn’t play nicely with remote controls on this version of the phone.

Also very few 2025 upgrades really make sense for use with the S-Pen, and while it’s a nice inclusion, it could end up being one of those things that’s handy to have and yet doesn’t get used. We have to wonder how long until Samsung makes the S-Pen an optional feature, much like it is on the Galaxy Z Fold.

Performance

One area you will care about is how the phone runs, because performance is an area that just delivers. Given what’s inside, you shouldn’t be surprised.

Everywhere around the world, Samsung’s S25 Ultra is equipped with the latest flagship chip from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and it is understandably speedy.

Testing the hardware, you’ll find benches that fly past competitors and clearly give owners of this phone an edge for some time to come.

Even comparing the phone to previous other Ultra handsets provides a clear reason to upgrade, provided it’s not from the last generation.

Moving from the S24 Ultra to the S25 Ultra would probably be a bit of a waste, as not much has changed in the performance department, or even anywhere else.

Mobile performance is equally strong, offering fast 5G when you’re in reach of a decent tower.

Our speeds tested in Sydney, Australia on the Telstra Wholesale Network by way of Mate, a smaller virtual operator, didn’t see mind-blowing speeds, but it was enough to show us the phone is fast.

Camera

The camera is where another change has occurred, but much like the chip, it’s not a staggering one.

Much like the previous couple of generations, Samsung’s 200 megapixel sensor is back for another round, accompanied by a new 50 megapixel ultra-wide with macro support, plus a 10 megapixel 3x camera and a 50 megapixel 5x camera. And overall, the combination is still solid.

Images look great in daylight, with typically crisp and clear images, particularly at standard focal lengths for the camera lengths on offer by the S25 Ultra, while night time images aren’t bad, either. Depending on your light, you can expect an either a little softness or obvious pixelation and granularity, largely based on your environment and lighting, but the results aren’t bad.

Macro images don’t seem quite as sharp as some of the competition, however, while long zoom lengths can really let you see the limit of AI processing for images.

Take these pictures of a rosella (bird), where the standard 6X focal length is sharp, while the more extreme zoom that uses a combination of digital zoom and AI upscaling leaves you with overly smoothed image without any sense of detail and a little too much clarity. You won’t find a close-up result that always nails it, and the same is true for portraits.

Portrait photos aren’t bad on the S25 Ultra, and you can certainly get some great shots from this four camera system.

However, you may find the edges of hair are often too sharp compared to the rest of the softened background, with the portraits often paling in comparison for how the phone cameras on either the Pixel range or iPhone models are built.

Even editing portraits after you’ve taken them feel limited by comparison. You can make edits and change the background focus, but it’s not quite as clever as what you experience on the iPhone.

One thing does stick around, however: Samsung is keeping its AI moon training for another generation, allowing you to use its artificial intelligence-based moon training to capture a close-up shot of one of the planet’s favourite celestial bodies.

You’ll need to zoom in quite close to let it work its magic, though it does make for a nice trick, all the same.

Battery

One area that hits most of the marks is the battery life, achieving a solid day and a half easy, and stretching into two depending on how much you use the phone on each.

That’s about normal for the “Ultra” range of Samsung phones, and keeps idea going that the bigger the phone, the more likely its battery will be equally strong. Real world use of nearly two days isn’t bad for a flagship, but with screen time usage higher than our usual run of four hours.

That’s a decent outcome for today’s phones.

There is perhaps one area that is a surprising omission: Qi2.

What is basically “MagSafe for Apple and Android alike”, wireless magnetic Qi2 charging has been floating around since the end of 2023, but has yet to appear in Android flagships, popping up only in the mid-range HMD Skyline last year.

Unfortunately, that remains consistent in the S25 Ultra, because while it is technically a Qi2 ready handset, there’s not much magnetism for the Qi2 standard at all.

Tested with an Anker Qi2 power bank, there’s a slight magnetism, but it’s not enough for a hold. You can feel it when you hold both devices to each other, but the moment you let go, the S25 Ultra just slides off.

Thankfully we did this test over a bed, otherwise our S25 Ultra review unit would have looked a little worse for wear immediately after.

Value

The omission of Qi2 for another year is a bit of a surprise, but the price sure isn’t. This is a flagship phone, and possibly the flagship Samsung, at least until August or September when the next foldable arrives to take over from the Z Fold 6.

As such, the S25 Ultra is high-priced, startIng from $2149 for the 256GB model, and fetching as high as $2349 for 512GB and $2749 for a 1TB phone.

It’s pricey, that’s for sure. You get a lot of phone for the price, but it’s definitely not an inexpensive bit of hardware, clearly.

What needs work?

But while the price is high, the biggest dilemma for the S25 Ultra is that it doesn’t really feel like anything has truly changed.

The S24 Ultra was such a win for Samsung’s phone design and feature set, and really aimed to bring the whole phone package together in a beautifully minimalist and premium way.

And in that S25 Ultra, there’s more of that, but not a lot in a game-changing way.

Yes, it’s an improvement. The problem is it’s not much of one. Last year’s S24 Ultra was such a stellar package that this year’s feels like a bit of a bump and that’s pretty much it.

It’s a little like The Simpson’s joke of having a new hat. There’s not much that’s different beyond the spec change, slight design change, and minor camera change. It may as well be the technological equivalent of a new hat.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

While the changes are minor and clearly not for anyone with last year’s phone, or even possibly the S23 Ultra before it, folks with slightly older variations may want to consider a move to the new model.

The screen is slick, the design is nice, and the camera this year in comparison to much older models is improved upon, even if there’s not a major leap in the space of a year.

That shouldn’t come as a major surprise to anyone: it’s getting more and more difficult for companies to deliver a leap ahead year on year. For owners of phones more than two or three years on, the Galaxy S25 Ultra will feel like something different, even if it’s less the case for seasoned reviewers like this one.

For all phone owners, though, what Samsung is delivering is also a message. The Galaxy range has never been more pulled together and tighter in what it represents: a slick and future-friendly phone experience.

It may not be exciting, but it could be just what you need for the next few years. Recommended.