Samsung unpacked Galaxy S25 Ultra with new aesthetics, which makes it the best Ultra-model released to date; however, its story is not limited to the design and this review will give you in-depth insights of its key upgrades as well as capabilities.

Introduced on January 22, the launch schedule is pretty identical to last year’s S24 series, but its new design language makes a big difference for in-hand experience.

Not to say that Samsung hasn’t tried this before because S24 Ultra has been a great example of the company’s changing ideas. Thanks to that, we have something new in hand this year.

A major focus on this device goes on the software, One UI has never felt so smooth, and it makes the whole deal even better. So, let’s take a look at this Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review.

Design

With the S22 Ultra, the Galaxy S-series adopted a Note like design. For those who are new, the Note series had a full rectangular design, including sharp corners. The S23 Ultra and S24 Ultra also brought similar traits.

The S25 Ultra has new optimizations, its angles are gone, sides are flat, and its appearance is modernized. This subtle change in the outer region sets the phone different from its predecessors.

This shift also has user experience with a weight reduction, the phone sits well in the palm for one hand and two hand experience. Increasing longer operational time without any discomfort.

It is using Titanium body to improve the stability and provide a stronger grip. The rear side catches very few fingerprints, and the rear color changes appearance based on the light direction.

The cameras are arranged in two columns. The first contains three lenses, and the second has a camera, an LED flash, followed a laser AF. The cameras are enhanced with larger crowns.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Display

This flagship sports a 6.9-inch screen with quad HD+ resolution, and 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The display provides smooth and visually appealing content.

Amid an increased screen, the reduced bezels and the round corners create a seamless integration with the frame. Eventually, this seamlessness brings a unique full-screen view for on-screen content. Full-screen apps such as Games look better on the S25 ultra compared to previous devices.

Throughout my time with this phone, I’ve not a single issue with gestures, taps, or response delay. Its touch experience is slightly different and causes no accidental touches thanks to the flat frame.

Performance

Samsung packed this phone with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (3nm technology) and its benchmark performance for single-core and multi-core are higher than Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

That brings us to the real-world performance, and I’ve to admit that the chip’s gains are true. S25 Ultra offers the smoothest device interactions and the fastest response I’ve ever tested in any Android phone.

This statement has some aspects that aren’t only based on the benchmark numbers.

For example, many Android phone makers uses the latest Snapdragon processor to pose superiority on benchmark platforms. When it comes to their in-hand experience, the software and hardware don’t get along quite well. But that’s not the case with the S25 series.

It appears that the chip is well tuned for the software and its reflects during interactions. Touch, swipes and scrolling operations feel very smooth on the adaptive refresh rate.

I tested stock and Google apps and the load time is faster than S24 Ultra or any previous S-series phone. In this case, I’ve to talk about the Gallery app.

This is one of the most improved apps in S25 Ultra, which is no longer limited to image viewing and editing. The app now utilizes a more powerful object eraser.

The transition from image viewer to the object eraser is seamless, and things happen in the same way if you decide to revert. That also goes for image editing, the efficiency in moving forward and jumping back is on the next level.

That’s not it, the real-time hands-on with the camera app has also blown me away. The new distraction-free settings menu and settings fly out animation makes it smooth.

The flagship utilizes the chipset’s performance when needed, including resource allocation. With that said, the gaming on this phone holds you back at no spot, no lags, no disturbance and just a pure gaming experience.

Its teardown revealed a larger vapor chamber, which keeps the phone cool during an intense gaming session. It plays a critical role in keeping the performance optimum in a longer run.

S25 Ultra (Source – Jerryrigeverything/YouTube)

Battery

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is a large phone and its battery capacity makes a place in one of my most focused region. This premium device is expected to offer longer battery life, and it actually does.

In my average usage including YouTube, online article reading, messaging over Telegram and WhatsApp, a few camera shots as well as one or two 30-minutes gaming sessions, it has survived through a day with ease remaining 30-40% power in the tank.

The phone doesn’t let the battery drain a bit. In the case of intense gaming or YouTube video playback, you will still find the backup pretty satisfying. In a continues online video playback against S24 Ultra, the phone showed its true capability and here you can check the complete results.

The phone comes with new battery protection settings that let you select the max charging level to preserve its cells for a longevity. The device supports 45W wired superfast charging 2.0, and it refills the battery capacity pretty fast.

My only complaint with the S25 Ultra is the capacity, Samsung should’ve chosen at least 5,500mAh battery, so I don’t have to charge this phone at least for 24 hours with heavy usage.

Still, I’ll rate the battery performance best in Samsung’s all flagships.

Software

S25 Ultra has One UI 7, its newest and most improved software edition. These aren’t empty words, Samsung has really done some unimaginable things with the One UI version.

I’ve been one of the earliest One UI 7 beta testers on S24 Ultra, and smooth interactions stands on the next-level.

However, the new model gives the smoothness a new direction with better software and hardware optimizations. The new app icons and UI changes look better on its edge to edge screen with the bright screen.

From the lock screen, home screen, settings all the way to apps, the system animations are physics-based to react in-line with the user’s interaction.

One UI 7 offers separate notifications and quick settings panels, and you can switch between them with a simple left or right gesture.

Features such as Live notifications get you real-time information from continuously updating apps. You can see such notifications on the status bar and notifications panel with an immersive UI.

For example, the live notification shows you live scores on the home screen, and you can expand the scores into a full-size widget to see more statics. Another tap on the widget will take you to a detailed online page with all of its information.

The natural language search in the Gallery and the Settings is a user-centric feature to help find the right thing by explaining what actually need.

Natural Language Search (New)

Samsung has also added Now Brief to S25 devices, but its current version requires a lot of improvements to make it look interactive. Overall, One UI 7 running on S25 Ultra upgrades the in-hand experience, which was lacking in previous devices.

Another thing to mention is that the S25 series comes with 7 years of OS and security updates.

AI

Smartphone makers are continuously evolving generative AI technologies, and the S25 series is no exception. In fact, Samsung has presented an entire suite of generative AI with the S25 devices, but here’s what I’ve found after spending more than a month in regular use.

Samsung’s Galaxy AI brings call assist, writing assist, interpreter, note assist, transcript assist, browsing assist, photo assist, drawing assist, audio eraser, photo ambient wallpaper, now brief and health assist. These are some highlights because the natural language search and AI filters are also uses the phone’s AI power.

Drawing Assist Text to Image

The writing assist tools are working accurate for Grammar and spelling checks, change writing tone, generate text summaries, write a new piece of text with text description and translate words. Occasionally, it shows network issue, depending on the internet connection.

Note Assist, transcript assist and browsing assist provide text summaries for supported apps and services. The Samsung browser enables web page summary in a few bullet points to highlight important information.

Drawing assist creates generative images in different styles, and you can turn raw sketches into a full flown picture.

The Audio eraser first landed on the S25 series, and it works accordingly to serve its name, but the distance between the subject and camera matters while using this AI capability. For people who like personalization, the photo ambient wallpaper is a great addition.

What impressed me the most

The photo assist section has a new object eraser with powerful removal and patching. The feature is not new, but Snapdragon 8 Elite’s computing power makes a big difference in spotting the selected object, removal and, filling the area with matching content. The feature has its drawbacks, but that goes only for complex scenes and objects.

My device review for Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra found interpreter as the most improved AI feature. It can process any supported language and conduct a natural conversation between two persons.

To be mentioned, S25 Ultra has an improved the Bixby UI, but it’s replaced by the Google’s Gemini-powered assistant. The Gemini app also comes pre-installed in case you need exclusive generative AI assistance.

Circle to search has also expanded its scope for visual search on the smartphones. To conclude, I will say that the Galaxy AI features for the S25 Ultra doesn’t differ from Samsung’s promotional content.

Camera

The Galaxy S25 Ultra equips a 200MP main sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide angle, 50MP telephoto with 5X optical and a 10MP 3X optical zoom camera.

The camera is one of the core aspects of this flagship, and it reflects on the image quality. I’ve kept the phone for the past two months and captured many pictures. This has helped me to collect some intel, as shared below.

Note – The images below are taken with default camera settings, to reflect a consumer-based experience.

Wide-angle

The app will give you a 12MP resolution by default, it can be switched to 50MP and 200MP. The camera is optimized for 2X (default) zoom and pictures captured at this level provide accurate colors, light, and texture.

With scene optimizer disabled, I captured light and dark color flowers in different light conditions. The goal here is to show how the camera reacts to the environment while ensuring image colors and quality.

The images show that the camera kept up with the photography scenarios, including changing light. This is close to what we see through eyes without any artificial change in the appearance. You may also notice that the background blur in some images is not influencing the subject’s color.

Edge detection

The edge detection is remarkable in adequate light without killing the image details.

Texture

This direct sunlight shot shows the accuracy to maintain the texture while keeping the subject’s color as accurate as possible.

Telephoto zoom

Its 3x telephoto camera works great to reach closest to an object without worrying about the quality.

If you like to go further, the 5X, 10X and 30X modes maintain quality while covering a good distance, but that cannot be said for the 100X. Furthermore, the stabilization works well through 30X.

2x and 3X zoom

Camera app

One UI 7’s new camera app improves the photography and videography experience. New and existing users will have a good camera session with this device. New filters give you more room to tweak image properties and adjust an object’s appearance.

Videos

The video quality is impressive and if you have this device, I suggest you to try the nighttime videography.

Thermal

My review reveals that the new thermal protection in the Galaxy S25 Ultra also contributes reduces heat generation while recording 4K and 8K videos, kudos to Samsung for this subtle improvement.

S-Pen

The Galaxy S25 Ultra continues its signature S-Pen, this accessory is optimized in size, which is slightly larger than its counterpart in S24 Ultra.

Meanwhile, its functional capabilities are removed from the device due to Bluetooth’s absence. We don’t know the reason behind this step, but it may not come back in the future.

So, you can no longer perform air gestures or click to execute any supported operation inside the device. Still, you can jot down notes, create sketch to turn them into AI images, or try new drawing moves with the Penup app.

Conclusion

With each passing year, Samsung keeps on improving its flagship, and the S25 Ultra is the perfect example of such efforts. We’ve seen numerous news articles and tech YouTubers talking about its design and calling it the same as the previous device.

But, I think, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has broken this thought bubble by achieving a more consumer friendly form. Its camera quality is also improved thanks to the new ISP, and it is more efficient.

Still, the software and user interactions have come as a top performer. Samsung’s One UI never felt so smooth and responsive in the past, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra takes this experience to the next level.

The new AI features are the cherry on the top to give extra capabilities to do more within the device.

There’s a wide discussion on the similarities between the S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra. If you own the former, you skip the new model because most of its features will arrive on your phone with the stable One UI 7. However, people seeking a new flagship or the ones who want to upgrade from an older flagship should grab the S25 Ultra, which sums up its price.

That concludes my review of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and I highly recommend you to top this phone over any other Android alternative.