Key Specs
| CPU | Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy (3 nm, up to 4.47 GHz) |
| Memory | 12GB LPDDR5 RAM 256GB/512GB/1TB Storage |
| Display | 6.9’’ QHD+ Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X, Variable 120Hz |
| Camera | 200 MP, f/1.7, 24mm (wide), 1/1.3″, multi-directional PDAF, OIS 10 MP, f/2.4, 67mm (telephoto), 1/3.52″, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom 50 MP, f/3.4, 111mm (periscope telephoto), 1/2.52″, PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom 50 MP, f/1.9, 120˚ (ultrawide), dual pixel PDAF, Super Steady video |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.4, USB Type-C 3.2, Up to WiFi 7 |
| OS | Android 15, OneUI 7 |
| Battery | 5000 mAh, 45W Fast Charging 25W Wireless Charging |
| Available Colors | Titanium Silver Blue, Titanium Black, Titanium White Silver, Titanium Gray, Titanium Jade Green, Titanium Jet Black, Titanium Pink Gold |
| Retail Price | 12GB+256GB : RM 5999 12GB+512GB : RM 6599 12GB+1TB : RM 7799 |
Video First Impressions
What’s It Like To Use?
The Galaxy S25 Ultra right out the bat is definitely like a soft update to the S24 Ultra, with a handful of improvements that are more prominent on the software side, while in terms of hardware remains mostly the same, except for the chipset, ultrawide sensor, Spen and build material. Samsung maxes RAM out at 12GB across any device, so the S25 Ultra is not different from that treatment, along with up to 1TB of storage.
As for design, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is thinner by 0.4mm and lighter by 15 grams, which does make it easier to hold for long periods of time. As for the hold, the boxy phone has gotten softer around the edges, now with more added roundness to make it less sharp. Despite that, the phone is able to stand on its own with very little effort, and no longer sharp enough to cut through my pockets.
The camera layout remains unchanged, taking the minimalist vertical stack once again, but now with thicker lens rings for added protection. Protecting these assets are Corning Gorilla Armor 2 sheets, on both front and back.
Frankly, the Galaxy S series would not be changing design language any time soon, and I firmly believe it is because it is up to a point now where both Samsung and the consumer understands that it’s a tried and tested design that hardly needs a change.
Apart from the hardware changes and how it affects the final user experience is the software. The Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with One UI 7.0 out of the box, which makes it Android 15. The new One UI 7.0 is more than a new coat of paint, presenting itself to be filled with rounded, geometric shapes, which gave me the impression of simplicity and convenience. On the deeper spectrum, One UI 7.0 puts its focus on where it matters the most : AI and its further integration into the user experience.
Galaxy S25 Ultra will also get Samsung’s standard commitment to updates, which is 7 major Android Updates and 7 Years of security updates.
It’s no new identity, One UI is still One UI, and what you loved then, you will continue to love here still, just with more AI. It’s still just as buttery smooth, and elements do look noticeably a little sharper and deeper in color, it’s as though it had undergone some contrast therapy and I’m honestly all for it. After all, apart from colors and sharpness, an equally important aspect for a good screen is visibility.
Even though the Galaxy S25 Ultra is lighter and somewhat smaller, a 6.9″ screen was still able to be fit into the slimmer profile, adding slightly more real estate and reduced bezels. As with S series screens throughout the years now, it’s still a variable LTPO panel that moves between 1Hz-120Hz to reduce power consumption. Colors are once again gorgeous, with deep inky blacks and punchy color rendition. Work and Entertainment here is still without a doubt a solid and smooth experience.
The Works
The Galaxy S25 Ultra, like its predecessors are the only real choice when it comes to consistent productivity. A feature rich Notes app takes care of all information, right down to AI helping you think, summarize and format your data into more organized pieces. The Spen is still just as responsive in drawing as much as note taking, still retaining its ability to employ AI to turn drawings into generated artwork, and written doodles into text. This still gives you multiple ways to get your work done and created.
AI Focus Point Once Again
Samsung has been putting their foot down towards AI, taking a stance that AI is really the future over just major hardware upgrades every year. The headliner feature is the Now Brief, a dedicated, AI-power dashboard that sends you “Briefs” throughout your day, pulling your calendar appointments, the weather, and other updates based on your background apps. Personalized insights are in the mix as well, so if you’re on a Samsung Wearable, your Energy and Sleep Scores can be displayed keep you more self aware.
The brief isn’t stagnant, and will change throughout your day, such as the Evening Brief, which will show you the events and tasks you’ve completed, followed by remaining energy, tomorrow’s alarm and even a quick slideshow of all the photos you’ve taken today, which is kinda handy.
You can even ask the Now Bar (where Now Brief resides), to keep track of events such as sports games scores, and even notify you if your favorite artists and content creators have new content released, which is a major stride!
Keep This Widget On Your Homescreen!
Cross-App Action
This time, AI takes a more conversational approach, which I feel is direct progress from contextual, where AI would just pick up keywords from your vocal prompts to perform those tasks. Now, you can instruct AI to perform a chain of tasks across different apps, with the most commonly used example being looking for a location and then having it sent to a friend. In this example, AI should be looking the location up on Google Maps, and then have its location link sent to your friend on WhatsApp. This is the way forward to an approach towards AI being a real companion that’s capable to manipulating multiple settings and apps on your device to deliver a desired outcome.
Send Your Favorite Song / Playlist on Spotify to a friend on WhatsApp anyone?
SuperCharged Circle To Search
Circle To Search gets an upgrade too, now being able to analyse your entire screen’s content, including audio, which would be useful for people looking for a specific song from a TikTok video that doesn’t have its data listed out.
The S Pen
Yes, the S Pen does factually take a dip in the functionality department, which is quite a bummer for some. It no longer has Bluetooth, and therefore no more Air Gestures, and the beloved remote shutter feature that I believe many people have used. I am still yet to fully grasp the reasoning behind this move, as the company believes that a lot of people actually don’t use these features, and therefore have ultimately removed them in favor of simplicity and slight better power savings. Frankly, I’d gladly take that power hit in favor of more functionality. In both a happy and sad situation, it is confirmed that Samsung will be selling a separate S Pen WITH Bluetooth to cater to those who needs it.
This gives the power of option to the end user, since it is indeed going to be a separate purchase.
Battery life is also improved thanks to an increased capacity, and on a busy day it’s easy to take between 7-8 hours of screen on time. That’s pretty much a full day for busy bees, and you don’t even need to use workarounds like Power Saving mode to reach these numbers which is to be expected thanks to a more power efficient chipset that’s even smaller at 3nm.
For those who are less busy, expect to go home after a long day with even up to 40% left in the tank. As for charging , Samsung is still a staunch believer in 45W safety, so wired charging takes up to an hour-ish using the sold-seperately Samsung 45W charger.
| Game | Activity | Highest Temperature |
|---|---|---|
| ZZZ (MAXED OUT) | Hollow Zero session @ 50-60FPS | 44°C |
| RIPTIDE Renegade (Highest Settings) | Solo Racing @ 119 – 120FPS | 40°C |
| Mobile Legends | Ranked Matchmaking @ 60 FPS (5 matches back to back) | 40°C |
While I no longer see the Galaxy S25 Ultra to be a gaming phone, it’s still a flagship capable of delivering solid performance depending on the title. While I also tested the likes of Genshin Impact, 30 minutes of open world questing and dailies proved to still be a chore for even the latest chipsets. While it can maintain 60 FPS in most areas, it would still dip to 50s’ when I unleash crowd-clearing ultimates, which are full of particles and effects. Simpler titles were too easy for the Galaxy S25 Ultra to run, with only Zenless Zone Zero and Genshin Impact peaking thermals up to 45 degrees.
These temps are only seen during gaming. Other tasks such as heavy AI work, constant video recording, photo-taking would no result in the same temperature range, which is great considering I live in Malaysia where the hottest days average about 36°C
Quad Camera Setup, Improved Image Quality
The Galaxy S25 Ultra doesn’t tout many upgrades on top of its already capable and consistent setup. The new kid on the block is a 50MP ultrawide unit replacing the 12MP shooter as seen on last year’s unit. It also gets a brighter aperture too, f/1.9 from f/2.2, which will directly prove itself to be ideal for lowlight photography.
What’s retained is the main 200MP sensor f/1.7, 3x Optical 10MP telephoto in f/2,4, and the 50MP periscope telephoto with 5x optical zoom with a f/3.4 aperture.
The improvements in image quality this time around comes from the Snapdragon 8 Elite For Galaxy’s ISP and better AI post processing clean-up, which I was honestly quite impressed with.
Main Sensor
Even when it’s still last year’s sensor, the Galaxy S25 Ultra produces clean and sharp shots thanks to the new ProVisual Engine, which delivers on its promise of better post processing through faster and efficient computational capabilities. Colors are more natural, as observed on the subject’s washed-out blue shirt, while his socks are in a brighter hue. The zebra crossing’s yellow has faded over the years, and the image does it justice by keeping it that way.
The shutter speed is also praiseworthy, delivering solid images free of blurring caused by constant movement, as observed on the 2nd image, with a group of people crossing the road, while an onlooker turns back to look at our boys in white.
While brands are focusing on improving camera hardware, Samsung this time around puts focus and faith in their AI capabilities for images in post-process. I see the results to be overall good, with little to no imperfections, with the its best highlight being color rendition which takes a more natural approach, aiming to be more “As seen from the eyes”.
Portrait
Portrait shots fared fairly decent, with good detail, colors and highlights. Subject seperation did well too, it managed to capture tough areas like open fingers, though a veil of sotness does seem to want to blanked the entire photo, including the face of the subject as well as the hair. It’s no big deal, but it’s hard to identify the style Samsung was going for when it came to portraits. I mean, the colors I would say are pretty natural, yet this softness is the kind I really see on older real cameras. Perhaps it’s to replicate that experience, which I would totally be okay with considering sharpness isn’t everything, nor should it be a contest (some brands still don’t take the hint).
Either way, portrait is reliable, and I will be taking more portraits and leaving them here to make sure I’m not second guessing myself.
Zooms
With a dedicated telephoto and periscope sensor offering optical 3x and 5x zooms respectively, the Galaxy S25 Ultra keeps the crown of being one of the most well equipped camera smartphones in the market, offering lossless image quality with a reasonably fast shutter speed and good detail. Even in complex environments with greens, wood and even birds, the optical zooms definitely proved itself just as it did back on the S24 Ultra, with the added benefit of a more powerful ISP to clean things up after.
Space Zoom
Yes, Space Zoom is still a thing for Galaxy devices, offering up to 100x digital zoom across great distances. Once again, these are digital zooms, which means they are images taken from the main sensor and then cropped inwards, and then finally cleaned up by AI.
Based on my observation, the approach for optimizing zoom quality is the same as I did back on my S24 Ultra. Honestly, you just don’t need to be too far from your target to take shots of this quality. The diminishing returns start when your target is too far apart from you. The target building I was aiming at is about 5KM away from me, and not only were the wordings legible but also free from aggressive oversharpening that AI usually likes to do during their clean-up process.
Still, the sweet spot for nice zoom shots is between 10x, 30x and 50x, while 100x is still better reserved for observational purpose aka (I want to see whats over there).
ULTRAWIDE
The ultrawide camera delivers consistent results with HDR performing well in most scenarios. Color balance remains consistent between the main and ultrawide cameras, creating a cohesive look in photos. Of course, photos pack lots more detail now, since it’s a new 50MP shooter.
Distortion control is reliable as always, prioritizing symmetry and making sure nothing looks too warped out. HDR also does a commendable job, with all areas looking as lit as intended, without any elements blowing out, such as the sconce lights, the retail store signs, and finally the sky beaming down through the glass roof. I only noticed extremely might fringing on the 2nd test image, on the signage, a mild warp that can easily be forgiven.
It’s honestly just refreshing to see secondary sensors getting major upgrades, and if Samsung keeps this up, perhaps the 3x optical might get a bump too in the future, making everything 50MP across the board except for the 200MP main of course!
Selfies
Front facing photos are taken care of using the tried and true 12MP f/2.2 shooter on all previous models till now, complete with dual-pixel PDAF. 12MP sensors make it great for low-light as well, and no form of quad-bayer nonsense is in the mix, leaving with you sharp images of your face, with some leeway for detail for your surroundings.
It proves itself once again in an enviroment consisting of mixed lighting, which I imagine would be the situation most people would be in, and not just pure daylight. I am still able to see my dining room, even with minimum dimness from the lights. On a post-process level, I don’t see much push to force more exposure into the shot, which makes sense considering all that would do is invite noise and make people focus on the background rather than my face.
In portrait mode in mixed lighting once again, where only one side of my face gets the majority of the day light, I still can see my pores, my beard getting the individualized strands the definition it deserves, but also excellent subject seperation, from ears to the hair on my head. My best guess is that the consistency from the rear camera system in this respect has also moved to the selfie camera, and therefore I can still say that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
The Verdict
I have to say, it’s a hard fact that the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a refinement upgrade from the S24 Ultra, packed with more AI smarts, a new chip, camera sensor in a lighter body. While the S Pen Bluetooth will surely be missed, it’s still the same reliable phone you remember from last year, made faster.
It is also however, a phone deserving of someone who will put the work in. AI is only put to work if you work, and that means being discipline enough to input your tasks, appointments and interests for it to study about you. It’s also a new habit to pick up, and it will in turn shape how society uses their smartphones. Samsung’s just made it harder to change to another brand once you start.
On another note, Galaxy S24 Ultra owners can stay put and wait for the update if the chip doesn’t matter much to you. Those from generations before, come on in, the water’s fine.
