Galaxy S25 Ultra Review: Stellar, but extremely boring

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra will likely be one of the best smartphones of 2025.

It looks great thanks to its minimized bezels and more rounded design, feels solid, and snaps excellent photos that rival the Pixel 9 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro— it’s the complete package. On the other hand, the phone is nearly identical to the Galaxy S24 Ultra and embodies the rapidly plateauing high-end smartphone perfectly.

Any way you look at it, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a boring handset technology enthusiasts like myself don’t have many reasons to get excited about. There’s no flashy new feature this year like a questionably useful dedicated camera button, and while the design upgrades are welcome, they’re undeniably subtle. Oh, and those new AI features Samsung is pushing? They aren’t great.

But you know what? That’s okay to some extent. If you’re moving from a Galaxy S24 Ultra to the S25 Ultra, there isn’t a lot to get excited about here. But if you’re a Galaxy S20 Ultra, S21 Ultra, S22 Ultra, or even S23 Ultra user, you’ll really feel the upgrades here. And in today’s market where people are hanging onto their smartphones for several years before upgrading, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a top-tier package.

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Galaxy S25 Ultra

The highest-end variant of Samsung’s flagship smartphone lineup for 2025, the S25 Ultra ships with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a massive 6.9-inch display, and a quad camera setup.

Pros & Cons

• Stunning design
• Snaps great photos
• Minimized bezels look great

• Very similar to the Galaxy S24 Ultra
• Now Brief isn’t great
• Most Galaxy AI features aren’t useful

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Price, availability, and specs

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra starts at $1,300 and is available from several retailers, including Samsung, in silverblue, gray, black, whitesilver. This year’s Samsung Store exclusive colors include jetblack, jadegreen, and pinkgold.

The S25 Ultra features a version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite (3nm) chip specifically designed for smartphones. Samsung says this chip offers a 40 percent AI boost, a 37 percent efficiency improvement, and a 30 percent visual performance jump over the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip (check out my own Geekbench 6 benchmarks below). The phone’s AMOLED display measures 6.9 inches and has a 3120 x 1440 Pixel resolution. Finally, the device also features a 5,000 mAh battery that’s identical to the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s.

Regarding its cameras, the Galaxy S25 Ultra features the same array as the S24 Ultra, including an f/1.7 200-megapixel (wide) main shooter, an f/2.4 10-megapixel 3x (telephoto), and an f/3.4 50-megapixel 5x (telephoto). New for this year is the ultra-wide camera being kicked up to f/1.9 50-megapixel.

Galaxy S25 Ultra build and design

It’s still a familiar-looking Note with another name

This year, Samsung made minimal changes to the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s design. In fact, at first glance, it’s difficult to find any differences between the S24 Ultra and the S25 Ultra. Let’s start with the back first — the same rear camera array returns, and thankfully, there still isn’t a sizable bump under the lenses like with the iPhone 16 Pro and other smartphones, with each lens sitting independently. Instead, Samsung has added a subtly lined black rim around each lens, just like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6. Am I fond of this change? Not really, but it’s so minor I don’t really care, and I bet most people will feel the same way.

The edges of the Galaxy S25 Ultra are also slightly more rounded, giving the phone a friendlier, more iPhone-like look that matches the rest of the Galaxy S25 series and the Galaxy S24 line. It also struck me as odd that last year’s Ultra was a little more squared-off than the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+, but now, that’s no longer the case. I like this new look, but again, like a lot of things with the S25 Ultra, it’s a minor shift some people might not even notice.

The S Pen is back again and has a convenient slot inside the Galaxy S25 Ultra, similar to the now-dead Note line. However, this year, Samsung has ditched Bluetooth from the stylus, which means it no longer works with “Air Gestures,” including using the stylus as a remote shutter for snapping photos. This is a disappointing and perplexing downgrade to what is supposed to be Samsung’s top-tier smartphone. Realistically, most users won’t notice that change since Air Gestures aren’t that popular, but it doesn’t make it any less of an odd cost-cutting decision on Samsung’s part.

It’s worth pointing out that the Galaxy S25 Ultra is only “Qi2 Ready,” which, in the same vein as ditching Bluetooth from the S Pen, feels very weird. While the phone supports the new wireless charging standard, including faster wireless charging speeds, you need a Qi2-compatible case. That means if you want iPhone-like MagSafe-style magnetic charging, accessories, and faster wireless charging speeds, you’ll need a Qi2 case with a built-in magnet. This feels like an accessory cash grab on Samsung’s part, though there are already third-party cases available (check out the pricey but solid Casetify case below). Can we just bring Qi2 to every Android device already, please?

And that’s it — seriously. As far as design changes go, there really isn’t anything new about the S25 Ultra when you pit it directly against the S24 Ultra. I know we’re firmly in the era of iterative smartphone updates, but how similar both devices look is wild.

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Galaxy S25 Ultra display

The minimized bezels and bigger screen are its best new features

The screen is my favorite Galaxy S25 Ultra upgrade over its predecessor and earlier versions of Samsung’s Ultra-tier smartphone. Thanks to its nearly non-existent bezels, the phone’s 3120 x 1440 pixel resolution, 6.9-inch AMOLED display looks incredibly modern, especially sitting beside the Pixel 9 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro, its two key competitors in the US market.

Like in years past, Samsung’s screen prowess is on display here. This display looks absolutely fantastic. Everything from its bright, vibrant colors to its 2,600 nits of peak brightness and even its dynamic 1Hz – 120Hz refresh rate (which isn’t new, to be clear) is flawless. This is an expensive smartphone, but you get what you pay for in the screen department, with the display surpassing the Pixel 9 Pro/9 Pro XL and iPhone 16 Pro/16 Pro Max in terms of sheer quality. It’s truly the best smartphone display I’ve ever seen.

It’s worth mentioning that the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s smaller bezels have occasionally caused me to accidentally press the display with my palm when I’m holding it. It doesn’t happen often, but it can get annoying, so it’s worth noting.

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Galaxy S25 Ultra camera

The new ultra-wide camera is impressive

I’ve been pretty outspoken about my dislike for Samsung’s out-there photography and video post-processing. I’m just not a fan of blown-out highlights and vibrant colors that look like they were shot on another planet, but I understand why some people are — the photos can sometimes look very cool, after all. This aesthetic is toned down with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but I still miss the iPhone 16 Pro’s highly customizable Photography Styles and the Pixel 9 Pro series’ more grounded take on photos and videos. I’m hoping Samsung eventually brings a similarly intuitive feature to the Galaxy series that allows you to tweak photos exactly how you want before you shoot them.

On the hardware front, the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s lenses are identical to the S24 Ultra’s, including the f/1.7 200-megapixel (wide) and f/2.4 10-megapixel telephoto, with optical zoom maxing out at 5x (I still miss the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 10x optical zoom). The same f/2.2 12-megapixel camera is also back. New for this year is the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s f/1.9 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera, a step above last year’s f/2.2 12-megapixel shooter. I don’t shoot ultra-wide photos often, but the photos shot with the Galaxy S25 Ultra look great, offering more definition and improved low-light performance over the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Generally, if you like Samsung’s photography and video style, you’ll enjoy the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s cameras. Personally, I like Google’s and Apple’s more grounded take on smartphone photography, but it all depends on your preference. Any way you look at it, the Galaxy S25 snaps great photos and can even get clear shots when there’s ample motion in the scene, an issue I’ve encountered with past Galaxy S series devices.

There are also a few more pro-focused additions this year, including Log video support. This feature gives you a flat video profile while retaining information related to highlights and shadows, making it easier to tweak the footage precisely how you want. This feature is aimed more at filmmakers and creators than the average user, so it’s unlikely most Galaxy S25 Ultra users will take advantage of it.

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Galaxy S25 Ultra performance

All-day (and then some) battery is back

High-end phones (and most phones, for that matter) have featured power overkill for roughly half a decade or more, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra is no exception. This year, Samsung’s top-tier smartphone features a custom version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip alongside 12GB of RAM. Would I have preferred the device to offer 16GB of RAM given its “Ultra” moniker? You bet — but overall, the S25 Ultra is plenty powerful. Whether you’re running questionably useful Galaxy AI features, playing high-end games, or just watching the world end on social media, the experience is silky smooth.

For those that care about benchmarks, the Galaxy S25 Ultra hits an impressive 3,104 for single-core and 9,831 for multicore on Geekbench 6. I’ve also been impressed with the smartphone’s battery life. With average use, including a phone call or two, some camera testing, and scrolling social media, the S25 Ultra’s 5,000 mAh battery holds up like a champ, lasting well into the evening with 20-30% leftover on most days.

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Galaxy S25 Ultra software

The new Now Brief disappoints

Look, I get it. AI is a growth area for tech giants and is pegged as the next big thing. This industry moves in massive cycles and AI is just the thing right now. I’m also aware that all of this technology is very much a work in progress. With that out of the way, Galaxy AI still feels half-baked compared to Google’s and even Apple’s AI offerings.

This year’s marquee feature is the “Now Bar,” which shows up on the phone’s lockscreen, and the “Now Brief,” an AI-powered widget that lives on the home screen. The concept is that it pulls data from your phone, including your calendar, email, photos, and more, and delivers a snapshot of information you care about, all pulled from several apps.

After a couple of weeks and making a concerted effort to integrate Google’s app suite into Now Brief, it only shows me the weather, assumes I’m constantly traveling, and hasn’t even started pulling in news stories I care about. No other information has appeared in the widget, which is very disappointing. The idea of Now Brief is spectacular, and I genuinely think it could be the first example of smartphone-powered AI that fits into my life, but in its current state, it feels pretty useless. Hopefully, Now Brief will improve the more the phone is used. I’m also curious if this Galaxy S25 series-exclusive feature will make its way to earlier S series devices in the coming months.

Sticking with this theme, while the S25 Ultra’s cross-app functionality powered by both Gemini and Bixby is impressive (you can do a lot of this with other Android phones with just Gemini and Google, to be clear), it doesn’t always work reliably. For example, I asked Gemini to make a Google Calendar listing for an upcoming work event with my work email, and couldn’t differentiate between the two accounts I had signed in on the device. There’s potential here if Samsung can iron out the issues and make its AI agents more capable, but as it stands currently, it’s easier and far more reliable to perform tasks like this yourself.

On a more positive note, OneUI 7 looks great — it’s simplistic, stripped back, and features a revamped, easier-to-use camera app. It also kind of looks like iOS (sorry, Samsung fans), which, as far as I’m concerned, is a good thing. I have a lot of issues with Apple’s smartphones, but the clean layout of iOS 18 isn’t one of them.

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Should you buy the Galaxy S25 Ultra?

It depends on what phone you currently own

One of the biggest questions surrounding the Galaxy S25 Ultra is why you’d opt for it over the Galaxy S25 or 25+. Unless you’re really into the S Pen and snap a lot of telephoto shots, you could probably opt for one of Samsung’s very capable Galaxy S25 devices, depending on your display size preference. This year, the gap between Samsung’s other devices and the Ultra is tiny, similar to the Pixel 9/9 Pro and the iPhone 16/iPhone 16 Pro.

Whether the Galaxy S25 Ultra is truly worth it for you will depend on what Samsung device you’re currently using. Those rocking a Galaxy S24 Ultra won’t find much here, and the same can be said for Galaxy S23 Ultra owners to some extent. However, if you’re using an earlier Galaxy Ultra phone, like the S20, S21, or S22, you’ll get a lot out of the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Despite the minimal upgrades, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is one of the most solid all-around smartphones Samsung has released in years.

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Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

This device was provided to Pocket-lint by Samsung.