Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is here: slimmer, lighter, and with new 50MP ultrawide camera

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has arrived and it's everything we thought we'd get. It makes a great first impression thanks to a smarter design. Samsung rounded off the sharp corners to make the big phone more comfortable to hold.

This has shaved off some fat and the Galaxy S25 Ultra is both thinner (8.2mm vs 8.6mm) and lighter (218g vs 233g) than the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The phone still incorporates titanium in its frame (and all its colorway names) and lays exclusive claim to the new Corning Gorilla Armor 2, which is more durable than the previous-generation ceramic glass and still anti-reflective.

The display under that improved glass is seemingly unchanged - it's a 6.8-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with a 1-120Hz refresh rate, Vision booster, and Adaptive color tone.

Titanium Black, Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Gray, and Titanium Whitesilver

The Galaxy S25 Ultra packs a Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform for Galaxy with 12GB of RAM and a 40% larger vapor chamber for cooling. Samsung claims the chip commands a 40% faster NPU, 37% faster CPU, and 30% faster GPU than its predecessor.

The new 40% faster NPU enables a slew of AI abilities. You can summon Gemini by pressing and holding the side-slash-Power button. Circle to Search can now recognize phone numbers, emails, and URLs for quick actions. Multimodal AI agents interpret text, speech, images, and even videos for natural interactions - you can ask Gemini to find a specific photo in Gallery, for instance. Search is content-aware suggesting your next step - sharing a GIF, or saving an event.

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The Galaxy S25 Ultra has a Personal Data Engine that analyzes user data on the device and keeps it private within Knox Vault. There's even something called post-quantum cryptography to protect your data from threats that can arise from quantum computers in the future - neat!

Finally, Now Brief shows a summary of your day and is proactive with suggestions tailored to your needs and preferences throughout the day - you can get stock news, a weather forecast, events, travel info, etc - and you can find the Now Brief on your lockscreen now.

The AI suite is all part of Android 15-based One UI 7, which premieres on the Galaxy S25 series but will naturally make it to other Samsung phones down the road. Samsung pledges seven generations of OS upgrades and seven years of security updates with the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Let's talk cameras. The Galaxy S25 Ultra adds a new 50MP f/1.9 ultrawide camera to what looks to be an otherwise unchanged camera system - you get a 200MP f/1.7 main camera, a 50MP f/3.4 5x telephoto, and a 10MP f/2.4 3x midrange zoom. Upfront is a 12MP f/2.2 selfie camera.

Samsung touts its next-gen AI ProVisual Engine, which enhances shooting, viewing, and editing.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra now shoots 10-bit HDR videos by default (it was off by default in the S24 Ultra), and for the first time, Samsung offers a Galaxy Log - a wider color gamut recording mode for further, and more precise color grading.

Within Expert RAW, there's a new Virtual Aperture mode, giving you depth-of-field control.

Finally, Portrait Studio lets you create personal avatars using AI.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra comes Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Black, Titanium Whitesilver, and Titanium Gray, and in 12/256GB, 12/512GB, and 12GB/1TB configurations. Prices are €1,449/£1,249, €1,569/£1,349, and €1,569/£1,549 but as part of its pre-order bonuses, Samsung will double the base storage to 512GB at no cost.

Users will also get 6 months' worth of Gemini Advanced for free with a Galaxy S25 Ultra purchase.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra