I like the Galaxy S25 Ultra far more than I expected to
Samsung's newest flagship has finally landed in stores and it would be easy to look at the Galaxy S25 Ultra as nothing more than an iterative upgrade that brings a few small upgrades to the table. However, as Andy covered in our Galaxy S25 Ultra review, to do so would be to do a disservice to the overall experience.
While reviewing the Galaxy S25 Plus — which offers a lot but failed to meet my expectations — over the past two weeks, I've also been using the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It turns out that while Samsung's middle-of-the-road flagship didn't quite hit the mark, its flagship sibling has left a mark on me.
Why? It would be easy to think it was due to the quadruple camera's big 200MP main sensor, new 50MP ultra-wide angle lens, and dual telephoto lenses complete with 3x and 5x optical zoom. It turns out that this isn't the real reason.
This is why I'm enjoying the Galaxy S25 Ultra far more than I expected.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra epitomizes several years of refinement, with Samsung continuously tweaking the size to make it thinner and lighter. Previous versions have featured subtle changes, but Samsung has almost created the perfect-sized big phone.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is just 0.4mm thinner and 16 grams lighter than the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but this has a huge impact on the overall feel and ergonomics. Whereas previous versions have felt too heavy for daily use, especially when using one of the best cases, the Galaxy S25 Ultra still feels lightweight and comfortable to use.
Using the official Kindsuit vegan leather case shows just how much better this year's build is, as it still feels lightweight and comfortable to use. It's still a considerably large phone, and I prefer the overall size and form factor of the Galaxy S25 Plus, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra is extremely comfortable in the hand.
When looking for a new smartphone, there are a few areas that are key to most people. The battery life, overall performance, display quality and camera tend to rank the highest, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra nails three out of four here.
One UI 7 delivers one of the fastest experiences you'll find on a phone The battery life and performance are exceptional and two weeks in, the phone still shows no signs of slowing down. The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor delivers a lot of the heavy lifting, but many of these performance gains have also come from the optimizations in the software. Simply put, One UI 7 is Samsung's best-ever software and one of the fastest experiences you'll find on an Android phone.
These optimizations also lead to exceptional battery life. For most of my time with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, it has been a multi-day phone capable of lasting two days on a full charge. When pushed heavily, this does drop considerably, but it's always made it to the end of the day with battery to spare despite at least seven hours of screen time.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra delivers the best battery life ever on a Samsung phone, and it's bound to satisfy even the most demanding users. When you need to recharge from full, it takes between 60 and 70 minutes, which is one of the fastest on a Samsung phone. It also supports Qi2 wireless charging, but I wish you didn't need to buy the magnetic charging case separately and that it offered faster speeds.
Unfortunately, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra delivers a fantastic display and performance experience, it falls a little short in the camera. This is less to do with the phone itself, but rather the quality of the competition. In particular, the OnePlus 13 and Oppo Find X8 Pro have both proven to be better than Samsung's flagship at the highest zoom lengths.
That said, the Galaxy S25 Ultra does have an updated 50MP ultrawide camera and the quad-camera array is an extremely versatile shooter capable of taking great photos in most conditions. The updated ultrawide delivers more detail than the 12MP before, whilst the 3x and 5x telephoto lenses still take good photos overall.
The versatility of the camera is not just in the hardware, but also in the options that are present in the camera itself. In particular, Samsung has the best portrait mode on any phone, as it offers a range of different effects and options. I am still a huge fan of Color Point — which keeps the subject in color while making the background grayscale — but the various other effects are also fantastic. Like previous Samsung phones, you can change the effect, as well as the extent of it, after you take a photo.
It would be easy to just focus on the positives, but it's worth mentioning that there are a few other drawbacks that may prove to be a dealbreaker. The biggest drawback for me is the camera, and while it's a great camera on its own, it's a surprise that Oppo and OnePlus have been able to beat it, despite Samsung's highlighted 100X Space Zoom feature.
Then there's the S-Pen and while it's still extremely capable, Samsung has shot itself in the foot by removing Bluetooth from the S-Pen. This means that features like Air Actions — which I particularly enjoyed on previous Ultra phones — and the ability to remotely control the camera are both missing. Samsung says that less than 1% of users use these features, but I do miss them even though I barely use them.
Despite these drawbacks, I've enjoyed the Galaxy S25 Ultra far more than I expected. It's proven that many years of refinements can result in an extremely polished smartphone, but at the same time, I think it's time for Samsung to evolve its entire smartphone lineup.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra can still mostly compete with the best phones, but I'm not sure I will be able to say the same unless the experience has evolved considerably. For now, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is probably worth buying, as long as you're not expecting a vastly different experience.
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