Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review
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- Phone Shop Guy
- Fv1
- 2 hours ago
Struck gold with the new design? It's f*cking hideous! The square form factor is what made the Ultra stand out, and it looks so much better, the S25 Ultra looks cheap and tacky
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- Tiramisu
- mGu
- 25 Feb 2025
Samsung Needs to Stop Handicapping Its Own Flagships
Samsung has been making some questionable decisions when it comes to its own flagship smartphones. It's frustrating to see them develop cutting-edge technology, only to hold it back from their own top-tier devices while supplying it to competitors. Take their camera sensors, for example. The ISOCELL HP9, one of their latest and most advanced 200MP sensors, was given to Vivo for its flagship X100 Ultra. Meanwhile, Samsung's own Galaxy S25 Ultra is still using the aging ISOCELL HP2, a sensor that first debuted in the S23 Ultra. Why is Samsung deliberately putting older hardware in its most premium phone while letting a rival brand showcase its best innovation?
It doesn't stop with cameras. Samsung is a leader in display technology, manufacturing the best OLED panels in the world. Yet, when it came to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, they used an M13 panel instead of the M14 panel that they supplied to Apple for the iPhone 15 Pro models. Why would Samsung offer its best display to Apple but not use it in its own ultra-premium flagship? A $1,300 phone should have the absolute best hardware available, especially when it's coming from a company that actually makes that hardware in-house. But instead, Samsung seems to be treating its own phones as second-class citizens while giving other brands access to superior components.
And to make matters worse, Samsung even removed Bluetooth functionality from the S Pen on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, stripping away key features like air gestures and remote camera control features that were once considered selling points of the Ultra series.
It's a real shame, considering Samsung used to set the bar for premium smartphones. The Galaxy S series was known for pushing boundaries, introducing new camera tech, the best displays, and cutting-edge features. But lately, Samsung seems more interested in playing it safe, keeping costs down, and maximizing profit rather than delivering the best possible experience. Their strategy feels increasingly like Apple's recycling hardware and giving incremental upgrades rather than true innovation.
For a company that prides itself on being a technology leader, this approach feels like a major step backward. If Samsung continues down this path, hardcore fans and tech enthusiasts might start looking elsewhere maybe to brands like Vivo, Honor, or Xiaomi, which are now pushing the limits of smartphone technology more aggressively than Samsung. It's time for Samsung to put its best technology into its own phones first and stop handicapping its flagships in favor of corporate deals and cost-cutting.
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- Anonymous
- Ibx
- 25 Feb 2025
Does it have a user replaceable battery, expandable memory and headphone jack like my Nate 3?
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- Anonymous
- ap8
- 23 Feb 2025
Oliver , 19 Feb 2025Dex and s pen 🖊 bixby and de beautiful display that is what... moreAll useless features that use for couple of days then forget it
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- Oliver
- xjH
- 19 Feb 2025
EugenM, 11 Feb 2025Samsung is killing Samsung Dex because of S25 Ultra Is s... moreDex is one of samsung best features
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- Oliver
- xjH
- 19 Feb 2025
Dex and s pen 🖊 bixby and de beautiful display that is what makes samsung phones stand out from other phones so samsung should put more effort on does not AI
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- Oliver
- xjH
- 19 Feb 2025
The shape of de galaxy s24 ultra makes it look deference from any other phone it makes it stand out and dats one of de reason dat make it de best smartphone of 2024 samsung should put more effort on what makes de galaxy phones deference from other phones like dex make dex more powerful and makes it have update like de good luck app 2 de s pen 🖊 put more features on it like a little touch pad dat can control de scrolling of de phone 3 make bixby more useful 4 make face unlock more secure
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- -JJ-
- pVt
- 17 Feb 2025
Telling bone, 15 Feb 2025Did you read about the new failed drop test...just wondered 🤔Hi,
In last 5 years I have dropped my phone once :) .. it was actually 16 pro (naked..no case) which I dropped on the day I pre-ordered ultra 25 :D .. very little dent on the bottom right which had zero effect on its sale on the 2ndary market ;)
couldnt be happier about ultra 25 .. that sammy screen + snapdragon performance is insane combo!!! best phone ever and by a mile! complete package! huge screen, good camera, insane smooth performance!
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- Telling bone
- R5v
- 15 Feb 2025
-JJ-, 12 Feb 2025iOS / Apple fanboys perspective here --> To anyone t... moreDid you read about the new failed drop test...just wondered 🤔
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- Anonymous
- rK@
- 14 Feb 2025
i bought it
its feels flimsy
spen downgrade why why why
my suggestion look elsewhere if you need a phone
sami you better get your act together for s26 ultra or you will go nokias way
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- Anonymous
- MFe
- 13 Feb 2025
DeepIn2U, 12 Feb 2025Bruh ... did you ACTUALLY record having a public telephone ... moreIf I'm not mistaken, the city in the photos is Sofia, Bulgaria. And there are no laws there against telephone booths inside houses ;-)
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- Anonymous
- CLt
- 13 Feb 2025
ThunderCrackR, 13 Feb 2025Wtf guys, you removed my comment pointing out the new charg... morelmfao
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- ThunderCrackR
- mrs
- 13 Feb 2025
Wtf guys, you removed my comment pointing out the new charging mode which allows the phone to charge at maximum speed using the 3A cable inside the box and edited the review to say:
"With further testing, we found out"
Not nice.
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- DeepIn2U
- EUk
- 12 Feb 2025
Bruh ... did you ACTUALLY record having a public telephone booth inside your personal or business unit at 7:13 to 7:15mins of the review video?!
Not sure where you live, but MOST cities would've found this illegal EVEN if nobody uses Telephone booths, its property of the city and local telco.
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- Drizzle
- jGf
- 12 Feb 2025
Note7 owner, 30 Jan 2025OnePlus 13 is the clear winner this year! Agreed. OP13 is so much better in so many ways
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- -JJ-
- pVt
- 12 Feb 2025
iOS / Apple fanboys perspective here -->
To anyone thinking about buying s25u I highly recommend going for Titanium JetBlack s25u. Rephrasing the great Jadakiss - all matte black everything, no gloss! MVP! one of the nicest builds ever made! I switched from iPhone 16 pro and couldn't be happier! Reminds me of the Phantom Black s23u, but that one had glossy sides, so this one trumps it! Before going for s25u, was thinking about 16pro Max as I wanted a bigger screen, but 16pro max just feels way too heavy and impossible and difficult to operate as its mid-top heavy vs s25u which just sits perfectly in hand! and the screen of s25u with its anti-reflective filter is just beyond amazing, small camera cut-out makes this a pocketable mini-ipad. AMAZING!
This year is the first time since iPhone 12mini (before having pixel 2,3,4,5 and I was iphone user (12mini, 13mini, 13pro, 14pro, 15pro, 16pro) that I just did not like the stock/default pictures coming out of iphone camera..i just didnt like 6 out of every 10 pics I took. Either standard/gold/amber whatever I just didnt like the photos coming out of it. Before going for Titanium JetBlack s25u, I had s25u Titanium Gray for 24hour testing and with that one I loved pretty much 9.5 out of 10 pictures taken, especially selfie cam and the warm pics coming out of it. Beat my 16pro to pieces, but that just me I guess!
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- xPandamon
- JHj
- 12 Feb 2025
Varyar, 09 Feb 2025I am using s25 Ultra for exactly a week as my daily driver.... moreThe S23 Ultra doesn't even have OneUI 7 yet. Besides, I cannot confirm a bunch of the stuff you wrote. It stays cooler than my old S23 Ultra and in any game I threw at it, performs perfectly, no stutters or overheating whatsoever.
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- EugenM
- sph
- 11 Feb 2025
Samsung is killing Samsung Dex because of S25 Ultra
Is samsung for real? The main advantage of a Samsung phone is that we can finally have proper access to our phones content, screen, apps, etc... through wifi, something that is impossible otherwise!
Why on earth is Samsung killing an awesome and much needed feature like this making it just another android brand with their own boring take on android ui?
Link to Windows is a pathetic joke and does not do 10% of what Samsung Dex uses, for the following reasons:
1) You cannot view your screen in landscape, you cannot even view your screen in portrait without it being a blurry ugly mess for that matter and you are greated with extremely low fps, but what about desktop mode view you ask? Well... let me tell you that is completely gone aswell!
2) You cannot do interactions between your phone and your pc seamelessly without some stupid 100 file limit, Samsung Dex also has a file limit of 10x over that! And let's not forget getting those selected is an incredibly boring and time consuming process, something that is not an issue with Samsung Dex at all click the first, go down to the last you want, shift click that, drag and drop into your PC explorer and wait a few seconds/minutes to copy an entire selection of up to 1000 files! Which brings me to the next point:
3) You cannot use multi select features such as ctrl or shift + click, or ctrl+c or ctrl+v, etc... like you can on Samsung Dex.
4) You cannot copy any single file larger than 512mb! Which means, do you want to backup a video, project or any large file? Tough luck.
4) Phone Link is buggy, it freezes randomly, it's low quality programming and nowhere near Samsung Dex.
How on earth is then Samsung claiming that Link To Windows is a replacement? It's like saying your bicycle is a replacement for your car.
I'm already dissapointed with the SPen downgrade of S25 ultra, extremely dissapointed that they chose to replace an already excelent ultrawide camera with a bigger res but same sensor size giving basicaly no improvement in photos, which is fine by me except we are forgetting the fact that the we desperately needed an upgrade for that horrifying 10mp 3x zoom sensor that upscales any photos to 12mp and is low detail and full of noise even in daylight!
And now this... we are losing important features for the sake of what? This is mind boggling to say the least!
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- DerLuke
- xIj
- 11 Feb 2025
Tiramisu , 11 Feb 2025I went and checked, played with the adjustments in the sett... moreNo, it's not. No one forces you to buy it, they're plenty of other devices out there. Go and buy them, then come to corresponding forums and share your experience and help other users.
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- Tiramisu
- mGu
- 11 Feb 2025
Luke, 06 Feb 2025No, s24u and s25u definitely have different displays. Just ... moreI went and checked, played with the adjustments in the settings, literally the same display,
Brightness, vibrancy, details, etc
Only difference that I saw was that some of the banding on the S24 Ultra was gone in the S25 Ultra. Apart from that there was proscaler and some minor tweaks. That’s all.
Most disappointing release in Samsung’s history.
Ai Ai Ai Ai …..