Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review

30 January 2025


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Anyone noticed in the comparison section of the battery runtime? GSMArena chose not to include the Chinese brands with 6000mAh batteries just to make the S25U's battery graph look acceptable. Come on, put Vivo X200 Pro, Nubia Z60 Ultra or even the Red Magic 10 Pro in there.

    It has a hole in the screen. No buy

      zillion, 31 Jan 2025Maybe samsung wondering what the other features that will b... moreHighly likely. They might remove the spen for bigger battery as a justification because of "not enough space". They're testing the waters for now, it depends on how the spen users reacts with the S25U spen BT removal.

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        • Anonymous
        • Hks
        • 31 Jan 2025

        Unfortunately, there is still that ugly hole in the display. Not worth flagship price in that case

          For the first time in extended time, the highest-level of a Samsung Galaxy flagship review has more cons (S25 Ultra, with 6 cons) than the highest-level of a Sony Xperia flagship review (1 VI, with 4 cons). Well, that's a sign Samsung is deviating too much with its smartphone department, sigh...

            R19, 31 Jan 2025There are more cons than pros and Gsmarena rate the S25 Ult... more100% this. Hardware improvements for Samsung phones are so iterative that I personally see no reason to buy a new Samsung Ultra phone for awhile as someone who also owns an S23U. The S25U isn't that much different from the S23U aside from some minor differences, and the S23U isn't that much different from the S21U if we're being realistic. I live in the states so Samsung is basically the only option if you want a well-rounded Android flagship but I'm heavily leaning towards OnePlus for my next phone if and when I do upgrade. People elsewhere are very lucky to have tons of competition in the mobile space. If I had it my way I'd have an X100 Ultra right now instead of my S23U.

              Twski, 31 Jan 2025No! Don't take away my 3x. 70mm is the best focal rang... moreI am still not quite clear why Samsung chooses to persist with the 200MP 1/1.3" sensor, which produces inferior output than a 50MP sensor of the same size in most conditions. If Samsung really wants to have 200MP, it should come up with a 1-inch sensor. With 0.8um pixels as compared to 0.6um, I expect a significant jump in output quality.

                ashrobb, 31 Jan 2025Remarkable how stagnant and boring it feels.Maybe samsung wondering what the other features that will be cut off for s26u. SPen?

                  I´m a loyal follower Gsam arena reviews but this is not a good one.The camera performance is in a middle table, and curiously the oppo and the vivo ones disapears from the battery comparison chart... the same camera sensors from S22, a shorter battery agaisnt de competition, the same screen from S24U... without a hardware improve the hype- AI UI only won´t be enought to compete with the new phones.Clearly more of the same a crazy price, very very difficult to justify to buy this phone ( and write somebody that i had since Galaxy S2 to galaxy S23 Ultra). This phone is a warning to google pixel for to avoid the " more of the same but winnig a lot of money" policy. No more galaxy- S line in this little piece of planet for now

                    R19, 31 Jan 2025There are more cons than pros and Gsmarena rate the S25 Ult... moreI think rating 4.5 for s25u based by readers votes, not by gsmarena reviewers..

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                      • Anonymous
                      • I2c
                      • 31 Jan 2025

                      And the end of the year, this phone would be best phone of 2025. Such a joke

                        Magnificent Suleiman, 30 Jan 2025Your rating of 4.5 is a joke. It should be near4i'm agree with you, hype more than real live. camera Performance in middle table, and... very curious... the battery life from OPPO and vivo disapears from the comparison chart....

                          R19, 31 Jan 2025There are more cons than pros and Gsmarena rate the S25 Ult... moreWe'll actually see about oppo find x8 ultra

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                            • R19
                            • 0F6
                            • 31 Jan 2025

                            There are more cons than pros and Gsmarena rate the S25 Ultra 4.5 out of 5?! Like come on make it make sense. If this was another brand surely they would've given a lower rating. Anyway, looks like I'm skipping the S25 Ultra completely. So many dealbreakers i.e. no 16GB RAM option, STILL using an 8-bit display, STILL stuck with a 5000 MAH battery, STILL painfully slow 15W wireless charging. All while retaining the S pen that Samsung have now made redundant. Aside from the design which I like, it's just not compelling enough given the competition (including mid-rangers) offer better features and value for money. I'm still using my brilliant S23 Ultra, but I will look elsewhere to upgrade i.e. the Oneplus 13 or Xiaomi 15 Ultra when it's released (It's a shame the Oppo Find X8 Ultra and Vivo X200 Ultra aren't available outside China).

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                              • Davidsic
                              • snx
                              • 31 Jan 2025

                              Your review scares me quite a bit because of a loss of sharpness in the corners with the main camera, the auto night mode seems less good than my S24 Ultra. I hope it only concerns your test unit or that it is due to a pre-production firmware. The rest is pretty cool like the battery life. I'm waiting for mine in a few days, if it has the same defects as in your review it will be returned the next day to the Samsung store! Thanks for the review

                                [deleted post]Wrong, I'm disappointed with samsung, they're trying too little, this is more like pro level device, not an ultra where they give their best. Software tuning will screw up display and calls test skews the results in their favor. For cooling and camera hardware the problem can be seen easily. Then there's things that don't get tested extensively like speakers, they test loudness and not quality, they would be beaten by quite a bit, it's not close to the best. The storage they use also could be not the best. I use 14 ultra by the way.

                                  Remarkable how stagnant and boring it feels.

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                                    • Twski
                                    • J0@
                                    • 31 Jan 2025

                                    Ryan47, 31 Jan 2025There isn’t anything new with any brand,they have hit a wal... moreNo! Don't take away my 3x. 70mm is the best focal range. I'd rather hope they upgrade the 3x to a sensor with the same quality of the 5x (or better), remove and change the 5x for a 10x of lower quality. Even at 2x crop, the 200MP sensor already looks artificial in low light. For 3x crop it'd look like crap.

                                    Remember, it's 200MP but only 1/1.3. At 3x crop you'd still have a respectable 22MP, but with tiny 0.6um pixels and no bayer

                                      Anonymous, 31 Jan 2025People don't seem to understand that the score is base... moreWrong, most Chinese flagships use native 10bit displays, not 8+2

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                                        • Downgrades from Sam
                                        • EP%
                                        • 31 Jan 2025

                                        I am boycotting this downgrade from S24U, other than a small bump in camera from 12mp to 50mp thats it, bunch of promised AI garbage which I will hardly ever used; besides that everything else has taken a step backwards with Samsung'for the last few years under Mr Roh IMHO.
                                        Which genius @ samsung thought that they could continue to charge top dollar and save a few dollars by taking away the Bluetooth S-pen, limit ram to 12Gb instead of 16GB, use the same battery from 5 years ago, when most Chinese flagships in 2025 are charging faster with bigger capacity -6000Mah being the norm for flagship in 2025. Removed the 10x Optical zoom and replaced with 5x Zoom instead, each year they removed what customer wants and instead of improving it they went backwards.
                                        There is no reason to upgrade if you have the s23 or S24 at all, it seems Samsung is hellbent in trying to destroy itself going backwards and refusing to change for the better.
                                        Just look at the Z Fold series as an example it went from Pioneering large Foldable and global leader to the bottom of the ladder as the last 4 years were virtually the same iterative as they refused to change and kept the same thinking they were Apple, except Apple had full control and no competitors for IOS when they are tons tons for Android.
                                        They still have not learnt from their Z fold 6 mistakes that refusal to change for the better had cost them a massive declines in the large foldable market and all of a sudden they rush to try and play catch up after sitting on their laurels with Z Fold SE after years of customer complaint of the narrow front screen, tiny battery (same for last 4 years) when Honor Magoc V3, Pixel Fold and Oneplus open 2 hits the market next month.
                                        Makes my blood boil when they try so hard to copy whatever Apple does, even the S24U design is a copy (not that I mind it that much) but the same hardware over and over again with hardly any meaningful change over 4 years is just a joke and unforgivable excuse for a company who wants to dominate the mobile market.
                                        Long gone were the days when you buy A samsung Flagship it will have the best of everything in terms of hardwares, these days they are just pushing to sell the AI B.S. SO no more Samsung 25 Ultras Or Folds for me, I'm done.
                                        My next fone will be Oneplus Open 2 the Z fold 7 can eat the dust with its same 4400 battery when I will have 6000Mah battery without a worry it might not last the full day for power users like myself.

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