Earlier this year we got Samsung’s annual release of their “S” model devices and one I was primarily focused on was the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. This is thanks in part to using last year’s model the S24 Ultra day in and day out for the most part. So, I was curious how good this heir would be dubbing it as the latest flagship.
Style
The S25 Ultra comes in looking like the S24 Ultra but once you will hold it some differences are noticable. For starters it’s slightly lighter at 218g and more curved compared to the boxier feature of the S24 Ultra. It just feels better in the hand and since I tend to rest the edges of the device in the palm of my hand while typing at times its more comfortable.
Display is a 6.9” Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with 120Hz refresh rate, 498ppi, and 2600 nits peak. So, the phone went up an inch but there is more screen real estate, but the overall body height looks the same. It utilizes Corning Gorilla Armor 2 and anti-reflective coating. The coating was a gem on the S24 Ultra and never used a screen protector on it and stayed intact. The same can be said for this model. In the first month or two I didn’t obtain any scratches. But given the opportunity, I did end up applying a ZAGG screen protector just in case.
Hardware
The Ultra series continues to be one of the most efficient devices out there and that’s thanks to its relationship with Qualcomm. Here you get a Snapdragon 8 Elite with an Adreno 830 GPU. Supporting that is 12GB RAM with variations of storage with 256GB, 512GB or 1TB. Like the S24 Ultra, it still has a 5,000mAh battery that has 45W wired and is QI2 Ready with 15W Wireless. I’d spend a great deal of playing games, multitasking on socials, and even rendering some videos via editing without much hesitation on this device. Sound pumps loud and full even playing content at max volumes through the speakers. Even being across the room, I can clearly hear conversations whether in a movie or show.
You get the S-Pen that was fun in various scenarios, but Samsung made the decision to remove Bluetooth and Air Gestures from it. This was done to make the S25 Ultra slightly thinner, but it has in the end alienated some fans who have grown accustomed to its marvelous features over the years. I didnt use them all that much quite frankly.
OneUI
Out the box you get OneUI 7 aka Android 15 on the Galaxy S25 Ultra bringing a nice clean user friendly interface and great ways to utilize Galaxy AI. Audio Eraser has been a fun tool to optimize your videos to your liking with its editing tools. As of now you can update to OneUI 8 aka Android 16 which brings better visibility for the UI and updates the useability which you can tell from how the icons and buttons are more fleshed out.
Going back to Audio Eraser, its pretty interersting to go back and tweak videos allowing you to increase, decrease, or even mute crowd noise, wind, or conversations.
Cameras
These four lenses on the S25 Ultra make it one of the best phones I have taken pictures with this year. This is thanks to its 200MP (wide), 50MP (periscope telephoto), 50MP (ultrawide), and 10MP(Telephoto) shooting options. Samsung managed to upgrade that periscope telephoto which was 12MP on the S24 Ultra. This helps with the 5x optical zoom giving you sharp shots even from far.
It does a decent job capturing images in lowlight settings and shine with optical lighting. Zoom is still king on here providing images that don’t look overprocessed or touched up heavily with AI like some phone makers. Selfie camera is still 12MP and can shoot up to 4K while the back can reach up to 8K if you desire and don’t mind eating up your space.
Everyday Usage
Like the S24 Ultra last year, I used the S25 Ultra much of the year even hesitating to eventually jump over to the Galaxy Z Fold 7. It has proved worthy of being my day to day covering any scenario I was in. Battery life didn’t need to be charged up all that much and I could go through my day not worried too often. Even if it being a tall phone, it still managed not to feel too bulky or large.
Verdict
S25 Ultra easily checks on the boxes for me in all areas. It has a solid build backed up by incredible hardware, nice to hold in hand with its refined corners, and its camera is just very versatile and great for various scenarios. While the Galaxy S25 Ultra can be expensive with its starting $1299.99 price tag there are opportunities to trade-in devices to shave some of that down.
You can check unboxing of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra on TikTok / Instagram
