Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Review: Everything You Need to Know

Samsung's Ultra line is the strangest product in consumer electronics. Every year it ships with the most advanced hardware in the Android world, gets reviewed politely, and then quietly outsells most of the products that get more attention. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is the same story, with a few important wrinkles that justify a fresh look.

We've been using one as a daily driver for about a month. Here's what's changed, what hasn't, and whether it's worth the $1,300+ asking price. If you want the bare specs, the Galaxy S25 Ultra product page has them. This article is about how it actually feels.

Design: a refined slab

Samsung quietly fixed the corners. The S24 Ultra had aggressively sharp 90-degree edges that dug into your palm during long calls. The S25 Ultra rounds them just enough to be noticeable, while keeping the flat-edge industrial look that distinguishes the line. The titanium frame is back, the back is still glass, and the whole phone weighs 218g — heavy, but no heavier than the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The included S Pen still slots into the bottom of the chassis. Samsung removed Bluetooth from the S Pen this year (the old S Pen could be used as a remote for the camera shutter or PowerPoint slides), which is the kind of small downgrade that gets buried in a press release. If you used that feature, you'll miss it.

Display: as good as displays get

This is the strongest part of the phone. The 6.9-inch QHD+ LTPO AMOLED is the brightest screen on any phone right now — 2,600 nits peak in HDR, 1,200+ nits sustained at full screen brightness. In direct sunlight, it's the only phone that doesn't make you squint. Indoors, it dims down to 1 nit for night reading. The 1Hz-120Hz LTPO panel saves real battery on always-on displays.

We have nothing critical to say about this display. If display quality is your top priority, this phone wins.

Camera: still the best zoom on a phone

The 200MP main sensor is unchanged from last year, which is fine — it was already the best high-resolution main sensor in the business. The interesting changes are around it:

• The new 50MP 5x telephoto is sharper than the old 10x periscope at most realistic zoom distances.
• The 50MP ultrawide is finally sharp enough that you don't need to crop it heavily.
• Samsung's image processing has gotten less aggressive — skin tones look more natural, sky colours less saturated.

In daylight, this is a tie with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. In challenging light, Samsung's tendency to over-sharpen still shows up. At long zoom (anything past 20x), nothing else comes close. If you take a lot of long-zoom photos — kids' sports, concerts, wildlife — this is the only phone in the conversation. Compare it directly with the iPhone on our iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Galaxy S25 Ultra page.

Performance: Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy is the fastest Android chip you can buy. Benchmarks are within rounding error of Apple's A18 Pro. In real use, you'll never see the limit — every game runs at maximum, every app opens instantly, multitasking is fluid. The phone gets warm under sustained load (sustained 4K video recording, intense games) but doesn't throttle the way the S24 Ultra did.

12GB of RAM is the floor; the 16GB option is overkill but useful for the on-device Galaxy AI features.

Software: One UI 7 is the best Android skin

Samsung's One UI 7 is the most polished Android skin shipping today. The customisation options are still vast (transition animations, lock screen widgets, Good Lock modules) but the defaults are tasteful in a way they weren't five years ago. Samsung promises seven OS updates and seven years of security patches — the longest commitment in Android, matching Google's Pixel line.

DeX desktop mode, which turns the phone into a desktop computer when you connect it to a monitor, is genuinely useful for the people who use it. Most people don't.

Battery life: a reliable day-and-a-half

The 5,000 mAh battery hasn't grown, but power efficiency on the new chip is better. We're getting 7-9 hours of screen-on time in mixed use. Fast charging is 45W wired (30 minutes to 65%) and 15W wireless. Samsung still doesn't include a charger in the box.

This is class-leading by Samsung's standards but not by Chinese-flagship standards — phones from Vivo, Honor, and Xiaomi charge twice as fast and have larger batteries.

What's missing

A few things that should be on this phone aren't:

• Qi2 wireless charging. The S25 Ultra uses standard Qi at 15W, not Qi2 with magnetic alignment. Apple's MagSafe ecosystem is now dramatically more polished.
• Truly fast wired charging. 45W is fine. Other Android brands ship 100W+.
• A good fingerprint reader. Samsung's ultrasonic in-display sensor is still slower and less reliable than the optical readers in cheaper Chinese phones.

None of these are deal-breakers. All of them are surprises in a $1,300 phone.

Should you buy it?

You should buy the Galaxy S25 Ultra if:

• You're already on Android and want the best one without compromise.
• You take a lot of zoom photos.
• You want a giant, bright screen.
• You'll actually use the S Pen (most people don't, but the people who do, really do).

You should not buy it if:

• You're on iPhone and trying to switch — the iPhone 16 Pro Max is the easier comparison.
• You don't care about long-zoom photos (a Pixel 9 Pro gives you 80% of the experience for less money).
• $1,300 makes you wince. The Galaxy S25+ is genuinely 90% of this phone for $300 less.

Verdict

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is a refined, mature flagship. It doesn't reinvent anything, but it fixes most of last year's small annoyances and keeps the things Samsung is uniquely good at — the display, the zoom camera, the S Pen, the software customisation. If you're shopping in this tier and you're not on iPhone, this is the phone to beat. Score: 9.0/10.