Goodbye, all these Note vestiges, and good day to new, or a minimum of extra constant, design language. The all-new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra lastly appears to be like like part of the Galaxy S Family, sharing the identical flat band wrapping round its physique.
For this newest flagship, Samsung has recast the Galaxy S25 Ultra within the picture of its siblings whereas sustaining that Ultra aptitude with premium supplies, the biggest display, and, sure, the built-in S Pen.
Like the remainder of the road, the S25 Ultra now options Qualcomm’s finest cellular CPU, the 3-nanometer Snapdragon Gen 8 Elite for Galaxy, which guarantees to be sooner and extra environment friendly than something the Galaxy S line has run earlier than. Samsung instructed us that is truly a customized model of the processor, however didn’t go into element.
While we’ve not but had the time to benchmark the brand new telephone – we’ll be doing that for our full assessment – the corporate did word that the NPU might be 40% sooner, the CPU is, as they measure it, 37% sooner than the final Ultra, and the GPU is, they promise, 30% sooner. Even ray tracing will get a lift with Samsung’s benchmarks discovering it 40% higher than the S24 Ultra’s Ray Tracing capabilities. Put one other approach, this is perhaps an excellent gaming smartphone.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on assessment: Price and availability
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra was unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on January 22. It’s accessible to pre-order now in a selection of 4 colours: Titanium Silver Blue, Titanium White Silver, Titanium Gray, and Titanium Black.
The telephone ships in both 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB storage configurations, and each variant comes with 12GB RAM.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra will start delivery on February 7 for the next costs:
| Storage | US worth | UK worth | AU worth |
| 256GB | $1,299 | £1,249 | AU$2,149 |
| 512GB | $1,419 | £1,349 | AU$2,349 |
| 1TB | $1,659 | £1,549 | AU$2,749 |
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on assessment: Specs
Here’s a have a look at the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s key specs:
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 162.8 x 77.6 x 8.2mm |
| Weight | 218g |
| OS | One UI 7, based mostly on Android 15 |
| Display | 6.9-inch AMOLED, 120Hz |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy |
| RAM | 12GB |
| Storage | 256GB / 512GB / 1TB |
| Battery | 5,000mAh |
| Rear cameras | 200MP essential, 50MP ultra-wide, 10MP telephoto, 50MP telephoto |
| Front digital camera | 12MP |
| Charging | 45W wired, 15W wi-fi |
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on assessment: design and show
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra appears to be like and feels good, and whereas some may desire the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s extra rounded styling, the S25 Ultra is 15% lighter and, because of this, feels higher within the hand. It’s additionally nonetheless rated IPX68 for water and mud resistance.
Samsung has principally chosen to go away the display know-how as it’s. Covered in additional scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass Armor 2 (the earlier mannequin had the primary technology of Armor glass), the show nonetheless has a pointy and pleasing QHD+ decision, however it’s barely bigger than the S24 Ultra’s at 6.9 inches as a substitute of 6.8 inches diagonally. Samsung did this not by making the telephone bigger, however by shrinking the bezel by 15%.
It’s nonetheless an adaptive refresh display, shifting easily from 1Hz to 120Hz on an as-needed foundation. New to the display know-how is ProScaler, which truly comes from Samsung’s TV line and upscales lower-resolution content material. This is a {hardware} replace that won’t filter right down to earlier fashions.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on assessment: cameras
While the digital camera array has been redesigned, and the three rear lenses now virtually float above the telephone physique, two of the three cameras are unchanged from the S24 Ultra: the 50MP 5x zoom and the 200MP huge essential digital camera. New to the trio is the 50MP ultra-wide. Shooting macro photos in 12MP binned format, I may already see the standard distinction and was particularly impressed with the extent of close-up element I may seize. The front-facing portrait digital camera is unchanged from the S24 Ultra. It’s nonetheless 12MP, and in my transient hands-on time it did a superb job of capturing portrait-mode pictures.
I’m a bit dissatisfied that Samsung didn’t convey again its optical 10x zoom from the S23 Ultra, however the 10x zoom that crops in on the upper pixel depend zoom will most likely fulfill most individuals.
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Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: battery and efficiency
Battery dimension is unchanged from the S24 Ultra, however Samsung says we should always anticipate higher battery life from the Galaxy S25 Ultra because of the Snapdragon Gen 8 Elite’s 3-nanometer course of and the brand new 40% bigger vapor chamber that Samsung has paired with a Thermal Interface Covering (TIM). The TIM sits proper on high of the CPU, and the vapor chamber is on high of that to ship extra environment friendly warmth dissipation, which may lengthen higher battery life. Speaking of the battery, Samsung says the telephone is “Qi2 appropriate”, however that help will not be constructed into the telephone; in different phrases, the telephone will work with an exterior accent that helps the up to date wi-fi charging system.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: software program
Perhaps the most important improve over the S24 Ultra is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s spectacular AI capabilities. This is greater than only a Galaxy AI improve; Samsung has infused AI all through the system, and given it broader capabilities that span throughout Samsung and Google apps. The firm is looking it Cross Action Apps.
Smart choose is, properly, smarter now, with the power to acknowledge on-screen parts after which make solutions about what you may need to do, AI-wise, with the picture. For occasion, it may counsel a straight generative edit or making a GIF.
Circle to Search is now aurally succesful, with the power to determine sounds in a video. It’s additionally adept at naming that tune. I pressed the house button, tapped the brand new music word icon, and started buzzing Hot to Go by Chappell Roan. The AI received it proper, mentioning the music video from YouTube in Google search. It did equally properly with my horrible hum of Fly Me to the Moon. The recognition is not immediate; you need to know quite a lot of bars, and the software program will immediate you to “preserve going” as vital.
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AI-assisted search is now extra agnostic. I long-pressed the house button and requested pure language questions on journey and shopping for a brand new vacuum. In every occasion, the system used Google Gemini to faucet into YouTube and Samsung Notes. It discovered what I used to be on the lookout for on Google’s service, dug into movies to search out the main points that mattered to me, made summaries, and saved them in Samsung Notes.
These Gemini Live and Bixby enhancements can entry all native Samsung and Google apps. Plus, Samsung plans to launch the APK in order that different third-party firms can turn into a part of the Galaxy AI ecosystem. At launch, it will characteristic built-in Spotify and WhatsApp help.
Samsung has additionally enhanced a lot of its generative picture instruments. I took a photograph, and drew a marquee to pick and take away all of the background individuals within the shot with a single faucet. I may faucet one other icon to shortly see the unique picture. The Galaxy S25 Ultra did a very good job, even neatly eradicating shadows.
Other pictures options have additionally been given a generative-AI sheen. Portraits can now immediately be was wonderful pencil sketches, and those I generated seemed nearly as good as any sketch portrait that may seem in The Wall Street Journal. Seeing the standard made me a bit unhappy for the soon-to-be-unemployed sketch artists world wide – though I felt a bit higher once I took one other portrait, however in much less dramatic mild, and the sketch seemed nothing like my topic.
There’s additionally a robust new AI audio cleanup software referred to as Audio Eraser, which I used to take away distracting background noises from an interview – I may do it on the fly within the video playback, and tone the background noises down or as much as my style. When I totally eliminated the background noises, although, the principle audio sounded a bit synthetic. This is much like the Audio Mix instruments Apple launched with the iPhone 16 Pro, however with fewer audio presets, and I can’t say for sure but if it has extra restricted capabilities till I get to spend extra time with it.
Sketch to picture, which I used to entertaining impact on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 final summer time, is now multi-modal, which implies you can begin with a photograph, draw on that, and have the generative AI do its picture magic. You may use textual content prompts to regulate the picture, though I did not get to do that characteristic in my transient hands-on time.
Even Samsung’s picture library app, Gallery, has been given a mind transplant, and now allows you to search by voice. I requested it to indicate me photos of “wine” and shortly received a gallery of pictures of wine bottles.
One UI overhaul
One UI 7, a three-year-long undertaking for Samsung, has had an entire makeover. I typically like One UI as a result of it’s lengthy been one of many least overbearing Android overlays, and based mostly on my transient have a look at it, I believe One UI 7 continues this development.
There’s additionally a brand new Now Brief widget, which makes use of on-system AI to find out about you and provide you with morning and night briefs that may provide help to handle your days and nights. There’s health-related data, upcoming schedules, your power rating, sleep high quality, climate, reminders, and extra. The connections to a few of Samsung’s different units, just like the Galaxy Ring are spectacular – in case you personal all the most recent Samsung gear, the S25 Ultra might be an much more worthwhile improve.
What’s attention-grabbing right here is how Samsung is managing this non-public information regionally, utilizing one thing referred to as the Personal Data Engine. Through this the telephone sends your information to an onboard core that may use AI to grasp and act as AI brokers in your behalf. None of your information, which is protected by Samsung’s Knox safety, is shared with the cloud or with apps. It’s the type of perception Apple has been promising us with Apple Intelligence however has thus far did not ship.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on assessment: S Pen
The S Pen continues to be there, however Samsung has eliminated Bluetooth LE help as a result of, it instructed us, nobody was utilizing it. Its essential perform was to allow you to make use of the pen as a distant management for capturing pictures or controlling shows. I doubt I’ll miss it. Otherwise, the S Pen’s operation is unchanged – I drew with it a bit on the S25 Ultra and was impressed with the responsiveness.
Finally, the excellent news is that the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra prices the identical as its predecessor, beginning at $1,299 for 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage (you’ll be able to go as much as 1GB). That’s nonetheless a hefty worth, however you must anticipate some early promotions to decrease the pocket ache, and trade-in offers are sometimes wonderful.
