The Samsung Galaxy S25 series is finally here, and I’ve had some early hands-on time to unpack everything you need to know. With three new models—the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra—Samsung aims to cater to a wide range of users. In this review, we’ll break down the key differences between the models to help you decide which one is the right fit for your needs.
As expected, the Galaxy S25 series builds on Samsung’s legacy of premium design and powerful features, but don’t expect groundbreaking changes to the hardware this year. Instead, the focus seems to be on refining what already works, with incremental upgrades and improvements across the lineup.
From design and display to camera tech and battery life, I’ll cover everything you need to know about this year’s lineup. Whether you’re looking for a more affordable flagship or the absolute best that Samsung has to offer, there’s a Galaxy S25 device designed for you. Let’s dive in!
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Design and Build Quality
The design of the Galaxy S25 series maintains a familiar feel, especially with the S25 and S25 Plus, which closely resemble their predecessors, the S24 and S24 Plus. The main visual tweak lies in the camera rings, which are now slightly thicker. The most significant design update, however, is on the S25 Ultra. It abandons the boxy look of previous Ultra models in favor of flat sides and curved corners, offering a sleeker and more ergonomic feel. The corners are less curved compared to the S25 and S25 Plus, striking a balance between aesthetics and practicality.
This year’s S25 lineup is also thinner and lighter than ever before. Each model is 0.4mm thinner than its predecessor, with weight reductions of 5g for the S25, 6g for the S25 Plus, and an impressive 14g for the S25 Ultra, making them more comfortable to hold and carry.
All devices boast an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance, ensuring durability. The S25 and S25 Plus feature Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on both the front and back, paired with Armor Aluminum frames. For the S25 Ultra, Samsung takes it up a notch with a titanium frame, an upgraded material designed for added strength and lightweight construction.
The S25 Ultra also introduces Gorilla Armor 2 on the front, an upgrade from the Gorilla Armor seen in the S24 Ultra. While both generations feature anti-reflective coatings, Gorilla Armor 2 boasts improved durability, with claims of being 29% more resistant to fractures and 60% less likely to require screen repairs. The back remains protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for added toughness.
The S25 Ultra retains the embedded S Pen, but there’s a major change: it no longer includes Bluetooth functionality. This means you won’t be able to use it as a remote clicker or camera trigger, a feature that many users appreciated. Samsung hasn’t given a clear reason for this omission, but it may be a trade-off to keep the device lighter, as the Bluetooth-enabled S Pen requires a battery and wireless charging components.
The color options are equally appealing. The S25 and S25 Plus come in Navy Blue, Mint, and Silver Shadow, with exclusive Samsung.com colors like Blue Black, Coral Red, and Pink Gold. Meanwhile, the S25 Ultra has a titanium-themed palette, including Titanium Blue, White Silver, Gray, and Black, with exclusive options like Titanium Pink Gold, Jade Green, and Jet Black, all featuring color-matched frames for a seamless look.
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Display Specs and Features
The Samsung Galaxy S25 series features stunning displays that remain at the forefront of smartphone technology. All models utilize AMOLED technology with adaptive refresh rates of up to 120Hz, ensuring buttery-smooth scrolling and vibrant visuals. They also share the same impressive peak brightness of 2,600 nits, making the screens highly visible even in bright outdoor conditions.
The Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus maintain their screen sizes from last year, with 6.2 inches for the S25 and 6.7 inches for the S25 Plus. The S25 offers a Full HD+ resolution, while the S25 Plus steps up to Quad HD+ resolution, providing sharp and crisp visuals.
The S25 Ultra, however, gets a slight size bump this year, moving from 6.8 inches to 6.9 inches, thanks to slimmer bezels. With around a 15% reduction in bezel thickness, the Ultra’s display looks more immersive than ever. The bezels are symmetrical, adding to the sleek, polished aesthetic of the device.
While the displays are no longer using LTPO technology, they now feature Samsung’s latest HO 3.0 technology with MDN E enhancements. This new technology focuses on improved upscaling, offering up to a 43% boost in upscale content quality. Whether you’re watching videos, streaming content, or gaming, the displays promise to deliver a richer and more detailed experience.
From first impressions, the displays across the S25 series are nothing short of stunning. Whether you’re after the compact form factor of the S25, the larger canvas of the S25 Plus, or the ultimate big-screen experience with the S25 Ultra, there’s a screen for everyone. With top-tier brightness, adaptive refresh rates, and cutting-edge upscaling technology, the S25 series continues Samsung’s tradition of delivering best-in-class displays.
Performance and Chipsets
The Samsung Galaxy S25 series delivers a significant boost in performance, ensuring a smooth and powerful experience across all devices. A key highlight is that, for the first time, all S25 series devices globally are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite 4 Galaxy processor. This customized version of the Snapdragon 8 chip is slightly overclocked and includes exclusive features tailored for Samsung devices, promising top-tier performance.
All models—S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra—come equipped with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM as standard, marking an upgrade from previous generations, where base models often featured just 8GB. This ensures seamless multitasking and smooth performance, even on the most demanding apps.
Storage options across the lineup have been expanded. The S25 now offers 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB options, while the S25 Plus sticks to 256GB and 512GB configurations. The S25 Ultra stands out with 256GB, 512GB, and a massive 1TB storage option, catering to power users and media enthusiasts.
To handle the heat generated by these powerful components, Samsung has introduced larger vapor chambers in all models. The S25 and S25 Plus feature a 15% larger vapor chamber, while the S25 Ultra boasts a 40% increase. Additionally, a tailored thermal interface material (TIIM) ensures enhanced thermal efficiency, keeping the devices cool during intense use.
Performance improvements are impressive across the board. Compared to the previous generation, there’s up to a 40% improvement in the NPU, a 37% boost in CPU performance, and a 30% upgrade in GPU capabilities. Ray tracing sees a 40% enhancement, while the Vulkan API improves by 18%, making the S25 series a powerhouse for gaming, AI tasks, and general computing.
With these specs, the S25 series, particularly the S25 Ultra, is set to be one of the best-performing devices on the market in the months to come. Whether you’re a gamer, a multitasker, or someone who relies on high-end performance, the Galaxy S25 series delivers in every aspect.
Software & Updates
The Samsung Galaxy S25 series launches with Android 15 and Samsung’s latest One UI 7, delivering a refined and feature-rich software experience. Samsung’s commitment to long-term support is impressive, with seven generations of software updates and seven years of security updates, matching Google’s industry-leading promise.
One UI 7 is designed with Galaxy AI deeply integrated into its core. This AI-powered system enables smarter features like adaptive app recommendations, improved multitasking efficiency, and enhanced photo editing capabilities. Users can also expect better optimization for battery life and app performance, ensuring the hardware and software work seamlessly together.
AI enhancements extend to productivity as well. Features such as real-time language translation, predictive text improvements, and smart task scheduling make One UI 7 feel more intelligent and responsive to users’ needs.
This long-term software promise ensures that the S25 series will remain relevant and secure for years, making it a solid investment for those who prioritize longevity in their smartphones. Samsung’s focus on delivering cutting-edge AI-powered software elevates the overall experience and sets the S25 series apart from many competitors.
Connectivity
The Samsung Galaxy S25 series takes connectivity to the next level with Wi-Fi 7 support across all models, including the S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra. This marks a significant upgrade from last year’s Wi-Fi 6E support on the S24 series, delivering faster speeds and reduced latency for those with compatible routers.
Whether you’re streaming, gaming, or downloading, the enhanced Wi-Fi 7 capability ensures seamless performance and reliability. This universal feature across the lineup highlights Samsung’s commitment to future-proofing its flagship devices. If connectivity is a priority, the S25 series has you covered.
AI Features
The Samsung Galaxy S25 series packs an impressive suite of AI-powered features that elevate its usability and functionality across various scenarios. Let’s break them down:
Audio Eraser: This on-device tool enhances recorded video by isolating voices and reducing background noise like wind, music, or crowd chatter. It’s similar to features on Google and Apple devices, but its performance will be interesting to compare.
Generative Photo Editing: The AI-driven editing tools are more accurate, making object and person removal seamless. Testing revealed that removing elements like people from a photo produced surprisingly clean results.
Portrait Studio: This has been upgraded for faster and more precise on-device processing, improving portrait photos dramatically.
Drawing Assist & Large Language Model: The new enhancements allow users to create realistic images not just from sketches but also from text prompts. For example, typing “dog in an astronaut costume” generates a highly accurate visual.
Best Face: Perfect for group shots, this tool lets you swap individual faces in a photo to ensure everyone looks their best, similar to Google’s “Best Take.”
Live Translate: Expanded to support 20 languages, this feature translates in real-time, even during calls or when using Interpreter mode.
Browsing Assist: Now enhanced to summarize, translate, and even read out web pages aloud, offering hands-free convenience.
Now Bar: Positioned at the bottom of the screen, this feature acts like a more accessible version of the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. It provides quick controls for apps like timers, sports scores, or navigation without launching the full app.
Circle to Search: Enhanced recognition allows searches within images, videos, and sound on the device, similar to Shazam but more integrated.
Gemini & Bixby Integration: Combining conversational AI with natural language processing, this tool lets users perform complex tasks like scheduling events, adding them to a calendar, and sending updates—all in one command.
Now Brief: A proactive AI assistant that summarizes your sleep data, gives weather forecasts, sets reminders, and predicts travel times based on traffic, offering a highly personalized experience.
These features will be available across the S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra, with some potentially trickling down to older devices. Samsung has hinted that these features will remain free for S25 users until 2027, continuing its trend of generous feature support timelines.
Samsung’s AI enhancements aim to make everyday tasks more intuitive and efficient, solidifying the S25 series as a leader in smartphone intelligence.
Battery Life and Charging Speed
The Galaxy S25 series retains the same battery capacities as its predecessors. The standard S25 packs a 4,000mAh battery, the S25 Plus features a 4,900mAh cell, and the S25 Ultra offers the largest at 5,000mAh. However, with the introduction of the more efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset, users can expect improved battery life across all three models.
Charging capabilities also remain unchanged. The Galaxy S25 supports 25W wired charging, while the S25 Plus and S25 Ultra offer faster 45W wired charging. It’s worth noting that, as with recent Galaxy devices, chargers are not included in the box, so you’ll need to purchase one separately if you don’t already own a compatible charger.
Wireless charging is capped at 15W across the series, and there’s no official confirmation of support for the faster Qi2 wireless charging standard. However, Samsung has hinted at compatibility with MagSafe accessories when paired with a MagSafe-compatible case. This feature remains a bit unclear, and further testing will be needed to determine how well the S25 series integrates with MagSafe.
While the battery and charging specs may not bring drastic changes, the efficiency gains from the updated chipset should provide a noticeable improvement in daily endurance, making the S25 series a reliable option for power users.
Camera Specs
The Samsung Galaxy S25 series brings incremental but noteworthy upgrades to its camera systems, especially for the S25 Ultra. Here’s a breakdown of the camera specs across the lineup:
Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus
- Selfie Camera: 12MP with a new image signal processor (ISP) powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, promising improved selfies with better color accuracy and dynamic range.
- Ultra-Wide Camera: 12MP for capturing expansive landscapes and group shots.
- Primary Camera: 50MP, delivering sharp, detailed photos in various lighting conditions.
- Telephoto Camera: 10MP with 3x optical zoom and up to 30x space zoom for long-range shots.
While the hardware remains similar to last year’s models, the new ISP brings enhancements in image processing, offering better overall photo and video quality.
Galaxy S25 Ultra
- Selfie Camera: 12MP with the new ISP for enhanced selfies.
- Primary Camera: 200MP, retaining its exceptional detail and versatility.
- Telephoto Cameras:
- 10MP with 3x optical zoom.
- 15MP with 5x optical zoom, offering up to 10x lossless zoom and up to 100x space zoom.
- Ultra-Wide Camera: Upgraded to a 50MP sensor with a 34% increase in brightness and four times greater macro detail. This new ultra-wide camera also supports 8K video recording at 30fps, making it one of the most versatile ultra-wide sensors on the market.
New Features and Improvements
- Pro Visual Engine: Enhances image processing for more natural and lifelike portraits.
- Spatial Temporal Filter (STF): Exclusive to Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, it further improves image quality by addressing light and object awareness.
- 10-Bit HDR Video Recording: Enabled by default for richer colors and up to four times more dynamic range. Users can toggle this off if compatibility issues arise.
- Galaxy Log Mode: Aimed at professional users, it allows shooting in log for better post-production flexibility when using Pro Mode.
- Expert RAW Updates: New features like virtual aperture give users greater control over their shots by simulating depth-of-field adjustments.
Notable Ultra-Wide Camera Upgrade
The new 50MP ultra-wide sensor on the S25 Ultra is a standout feature. It not only improves macro shots with greater detail but also introduces 8K video recording capabilities, previously unavailable on the ultra-wide camera.
Samsung’s enhancements to the portrait mode include an object- and light-aware system, promising more realistic subject separation and depth effects.
In brief, the S25 and S25 Plus are reliable and versatile with minor updates, but the S25 Ultra truly shines with its advanced ultra-wide camera, improved zoom capabilities, and professional-grade features. For content creators and photography enthusiasts, the S25 Ultra is shaping up to be one of the best camera phones available. Stay tuned for in-depth comparisons to see how it fares against competitors!
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Pricing
The Galaxy S25 series maintains the same starting prices as its predecessor, the S24 series. The base Galaxy S25 starts at $800, the S25 Plus begins at $1,000, and the premium S25 Ultra is priced at $1,250. These prices apply to the base storage configurations, but Samsung often runs promotions, such as doubling the storage at no extra cost, which could add more value to your purchase.
If you’re considering purchasing, you might find additional deals and exclusive offers through affiliate links or Samsung’s own promotions, making it worth checking the latest options before deciding. With consistent pricing and competitive features, the Galaxy S25 series offers a balanced choice across its three tiers, catering to both budget-conscious buyers and those looking for a premium flagship experience.
Whether you prioritize affordability, balanced features, or cutting-edge specifications, the S25 series aims to provide options to suit a wide range of needs without deviating from its established pricing strategy.
Pros:
- Wi-Fi 7 Support
- AI-Powered Features
- Long Software Support
- Enhanced Camera Setup
- Performance Boost
- Sleek Design
Cons:
- No Bluetooth S Pen
- No Major Display Changes
- High Price Point
Conclusion
The Galaxy S25 series continues Samsung’s tradition of offering tiered options to suit different users. For most people, the base Galaxy S25 provides a solid balance of features, performance, and price. With its compact size and dependable specs, it’s a great all-rounder.
For those who prefer a larger display, better battery life, and a higher-resolution screen, the Galaxy S25 Plus is a worthwhile upgrade. It’s ideal for users who want a more immersive experience without going all out on premium features.
If you’re after the ultimate flagship experience, the Galaxy S25 Ultra delivers unmatched performance. With its S Pen, Gorilla Armor protection, improved cameras, and advanced telephoto and ultra-wide capabilities, the Ultra is tailored for tech enthusiasts and power users.
One major improvement across all models this year is the inclusion of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset, ensuring top-tier performance throughout the lineup. Samsung has done an excellent job of refining the S25 series to cater to various user preferences while maintaining consistent pricing.
So, whether you’re after an affordable flagship or the best of the best, the Galaxy S25 series has something for everyone. Which model suits your needs best? Let us know your thoughts!
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Common Questions:
1. Does the Samsung Galaxy S25 support Wi-Fi 7?
Yes, all devices in the S25 series support Wi-Fi 7, offering faster speeds and better connectivity, provided you have a compatible router.
2. Does the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra have Bluetooth functionality for the S Pen?
No, the S Pen in the S25 Ultra no longer features Bluetooth functionality, meaning it won’t act as a remote for your camera or other functions.
3. How many years of software updates does the Samsung Galaxy S25 series get?
Samsung promises seven generations of software updates and seven years of security updates for the Galaxy S25 series, ensuring long-term support.
4. What camera features are new in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra?
The S25 Ultra features a new 50MP ultra-wide camera, capable of shooting in 8K, alongside a 200MP main sensor and a 5x optical zoom for high-quality photography.
5. Does the Samsung Galaxy S25 have a headphone jack?
No, like most modern smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S25 series does not feature a headphone jack, relying on wireless audio or USB-C connections for audio.
6. Can the Samsung Galaxy S25 series shoot 8K video?
Yes, the S25 Ultra can shoot 8K video with its 200MP main sensor, and the new 50MP ultra-wide camera now also supports 8K video recording at 30fps.
Which Galaxy S25 model is best for gaming?
The S25 Ultra is the best for gaming, thanks to its larger display, better cooling, and slightly enhanced battery life compared to the base model.
How does the S25 series battery life compare to the S24 series?
While the battery capacities are similar, the S25 series offers better battery life due to the more power-efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset.
What promotions are available for the Galaxy S25 series?
Samsung often includes promotions like free storage upgrades or trade-in discounts. Check their website for current deals.
Which model of the S25 series is best for everyday use?
The base Galaxy S25 is ideal for most people, offering great performance, a compact design, and excellent value for the price.