By now you’ve probably heard that the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra isn’t a dramatic departure from its predecessor. This is true, and in all honesty, it’s a little disappointing, especially if you were hoping for a bold leap forward. But let’s be clear, this is still an outstanding smartphone.
It has everything you’d expect from a premium flagship: a stunning display, top-tier performance, a versatile camera system, and a sleek design. The hardware and software maintain that high, premium smartphone standard and Samsung has added a few meaningful improvements this year as well.
At the same time, it’s fair to say this year’s changes feel more evolutionary than revolutionary. But rather than comparing the S25 Ultra to its predecessor, this review will focus solely on what it offers on its own merits.
The S25 Ultra still delivers that true flagship experience, it still feels like you’re holding cutting-edge technology in your hands, and it's still a great smartphone. But whether it’s exciting enough to justify an upgrade is another question entirely.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
|
|
Design
The S25 Ultra sticks to Samsung’s well-established sleek and minimalistic design. It’s still a big, blocky device, measuring 162.8mm in height, 77.6mm in width, and 8.2 mm in depth, with the camera bump increasing the thickness to 9.1mm, but this time around, Samsung has improved a few things to make it feel just that little more refined.
It’s made of Grade 5 Titanium, which makes the phone not only more durable but also slightly lighter, dropping from 233g to 218g. It’s not a massive change and chances are, you won’t notice it day to day, but it does add to the phone’s durability. You could always get yourself a case like this one as well. Samsung has also rounded the corners a bit and made it just a touch taller and narrower. These aren’t major changes, but they add up to a more polished feel overall.
The front and back are now covered with Gorilla Armor 2 glass, which Samsung claims offers even better scratch and drop resistance. And everything else is exactly where you’d expect it to be. The five-camera lenses blend nicely into the back of the device, the S Pen slot is neat and easy to access at the bottom, and the power and volume buttons sit on the right-hand side. It’s a tried-and-true design that, while familiar, maintains that premium feel.
Display
If there’s one thing you can always count on from Samsung’s Ultra range, it’s an incredible display. And the S25 Ultra is no exception.
The 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel is a little bigger than before, delivering HDR10+ support, a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and an excellent 2600-nit peak brightness. Whether you're outdoors in bright sunlight or watching HDR content, the screen remains one of the best on any smartphone.
Colours are rich and vibrant, blacks are deep, and the refresh rate keeps everything feeling smooth. Scrolling through apps, playing games, and watching videos all look fantastic.
Performance
At this point, flagship phones are so powerful that performance upgrades don’t always feel like game-changers, and that’s the case here.
The S25 Ultra is very powerful, but in real-world usage, there’s not a whole lot that requires this much power. For several generations now, Samsung’s flagship phones have been more than capable of handling anything that demands high performance. That said, if you’re a power user, the S25 Ultra is one of the fastest and most capable smartphones available today.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset powers the S25 Ultra, delivering impressive benchmark results:
- Geekbench 6 CPU Test:
- Single-core: 3131
- Multi-core: 9887
- 3DMark GPU Test:
- Score: 6100
- Average FPS: 36.53
These are fantastic numbers, and they translate to incredibly smooth real-world performance. Apps open instantly, multitasking is effortless, and gaming runs like a dream. Whether you’re editing high-resolution videos, running multiple demanding apps, or playing the latest games at max settings, this phone doesn’t break a sweat.
S Pen
Samsung’s S Pen is still here, neatly tucked into the bottom of the phone. Writing and sketching feels smooth and precise and for note-takers or digital artists, it remains an excellent tool.
All the standard features are here like Air Command, in which a suite of S Pen oriented shortcuts appear when using the stylus, Screen Write, which allows you to capture screenshots and annotate them directly, Smart Select, which allows you to clip and collect content from the screen and more. They all work well.
But this year, Samsung removed Bluetooth functionality from the S Pen. That means you can no longer use it as a remote camera shutter, a media controller, or a presentation clicker, which is disappointing.
For those who just use the S Pen for writing, this won’t matter. But for anyone who relied on those extra features, it’s a definite downgrade.
Cameras
The S25 Ultra boasts an impressive camera setup, with some of the best cameras on the market:
- 200MP Main Camera
- 50MP Ultra-Wide Camera (upgraded from 12MP)
- 10MP 3x Telephoto Lens
- 50MP 5x Periscope Lens
The new 50MP ultra-wide sensor allows you to take sharper images in the ultra-wide view, it offers better low-light performance and improved cropping flexibility.
The main 200MP sensor continues to deliver fantastic results, with sharp details, excellent dynamic range, and vibrant colours. And Zoomed photography remains a highlight, Samsung’s periscope lens system continues to be one of the best for capturing distant subjects. However, I would’ve loved a return to the 10x optical lens of the S23 Ultra.
AI Features
Samsung is leaning heavily into AI this year, introducing a range of smart features:
- Now Brief: Gives a quick summary of your day - weather, appointments, reminders.
- Audio Eraser: Removes background noise from videos while keeping important sounds intact.
- Cross-App Gemini Integration: Lets you chain tasks across multiple apps.
- ProScaler: Enhances image quality by sharpening details and textures.
These features work, and in certain situations, they’re genuinely useful. But they’re also highly specific, great if they fit into your workflow, but easy to forget if they don’t.
An issue I had was while AI assistants are definitely improving, they’re still not at the point where they feel completely natural to use. More often than not, manually doing a task is still faster than figuring out if AI can do it for you. I never really used Gemini Cross-App integration as it had a few hiccups, and as mentioned, simply doing it manually was much easier.
Battery & Charging
The S25 Ultra boasts a 5,000mAh battery that easily lasts a full day, even with heavy use.
It has 45W wired charging and 15W wireless charging and it now has Qi2 wireless charging support.
These are the same speeds Samsung Ultra devices have supported for the last few generations and a boost in wired charging would have been a welcome upgrade. To put that into perspective the OPPO Find X8 Pro supports 80W charging.
Verdict
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is, without a doubt, a great phone. It’s powerful, polished, and packed with high-end features. The display is outstanding, the cameras are versatile, and the performance is top-tier.
Samsung has delivered a solid, refined flagship, but the lack of major new innovations makes it feel like an incremental upgrade rather than a bold new step forward.
If you’re looking for one of the best smartphones you can buy, this is absolutely it. But if you were hoping for something groundbreaking, something that truly shakes up what a flagship phone can be. This might not be the one to blow you away.
