Samsung Galaxy S25+ review
- D
- DerLuke
- xIj
- 07 Feb 2025
jiyen235, 07 Feb 2025I don't care what exact sensor they use, the 1/1.56&qu... moreJust a comment on video recording tests- saw some YouTube reviewers to do those with phones on the table. in other words Black screen. I can only imagine how unrealistic that is, there is constant watchdog, focus,ai, imagine scanning, etc which could misbehave when people are recording with camera covered... If i was writing the software I'd even consider camera module crashed and force restart it periodically...
But yes, recording, encoding, saving..
iPhone 15 pro max ultra was even crashing and powering off upon release, if i recall correctly..
My son's nothing phone 2a gets very hot when recording videos too..
On the topic of Sxx+, Samsung have always priced it very close to Ultra, but without Wacom capabilities..it makes no sense to pick +. It's just a trap, idk why but they don't want people buying + at all :(
Edit: I'm the same Luke, had to register at the end
- F
- FatShady
- CLX
- 07 Feb 2025
Romeozero, 07 Feb 2025Really lack of competitiveness and attractiveness at this p... moremaybe in your country...
- jiyen235
- XQQ
- 07 Feb 2025
vik457, 07 Feb 2025No the sensor is gn3 while a55 has imx906, they have been r... moreI don't care what exact sensor they use, the 1/1.56" sensor market is only there for flagship killers or midrangers, there's not gonna be a magic sensor that's gonna be perfect at this class. My point is that they both use the same sized main sensor, with the same aperture as well, NO upgrades for the more expensive phone other than software processing.
And yeah, Samsung has the worst telephoto out there of the main players, it was impressive back with the S21 Ultra as they were able to cram in 2 long range telephotos but it seems Samsung's still stuck in 2021 whereas everyone's gone ahead lol. And no autofocus on UW cam is just sickening, even the base iPhone 16 gets it..... Apple's less greedy than Samsung in a way, ofc, that phone is 60 hz only but im just talking about camera specs.
Also, you're right, the speakers are good but not amazing and certainly not a plus point of this phone especially considering the high price, the Oneplus 13 is louder and better, you can just turn down the volume of that phone for better dynamics than this phone at the same loudness with a better FR.
Idk about sustained brightness, i haven't seen any proper tests done on that apart from just one vid done by Tech Droider recently and the beach test GSMArena did a little while ago. I did see a video by HuashengTest/PeanutTalks about 2024 Ultras and Xiaomi and Samsung are the ones who hold the brightness for longest, with Vivo having high brightness but only for 2-ish mins.
And yeah, these battery test numbers don't really line up with what we see on other tests, I think it's always best to just use these as a simple guide, a small sample, not as the rule. Combine the results of a handful of tests and you'll see some patterns and that's the important thing. For example based on the numbers on this website the X200 Pro is not even better than the S24 Ultra but in tests done by The Tech Chap you can see it's actually even better than the iPhone 16 Pro Max lol, the main thing that always helps Apple and Samsung from what I've seen is video recording. This is the scenario where Chinese phones just choke and Apple and Samsung gain the lead. If a phone test has a video recording test for a long time then iPhones and Galaxies come close to the Chinese phones and if it's based on apps and games then the Chinese phones are far superior. Go watch XEETECHCARE's battery drain test on the S25U vs the X200 Pro and stuff. You'll see what I mean.
People made fun of IQOO for downgrading the camera system but it's not far off from this phone, only the telephoto cam is inferior and only cus of zoom range, otherwise the IQOO is a far better buy imo, 90% of this phone in terms of camera and even better everywhere else like battery, charging, speakers, sustained performance and display for 30% cheaper.
- D
- DerLuke
- xIj
- 07 Feb 2025
jiyen235, 07 Feb 2025Doesn't explain why the S25 Ultra has a far superior b... moreHm, might well be.. if the browsing tests were done in night mode in (e.g dark background), that would probably tell more about display efficiency...
Sxx+ was never a good deal. Samsung pricing was always putting it very close to Ultra and without Wacom capabilities...it made no sense picking it at all..for me + was always a trap...
- David 040882
- spY
- 07 Feb 2025
[deleted post]Then what does "Generational upgrades are far and far between" mean on the cons list, eh?
- jiyen235
- XQQ
- 07 Feb 2025
vik457, 07 Feb 2025I don't think it's inefficient display, it's... moreDoesn't explain why the S25 Ultra has a far superior browser runtime despite only 100 mah more battery. They're using a more inefficient display compared to the S25 Ultra at the very least.
It's a shame, cus I really like how this phone looks from the front, it looks quite pretty with the thin bezels. If it were out for 700 dollars i'd have changed my mind and called this a steal but at its current price it's just an absolute joke.
- v
- vik457
- d%A
- 07 Feb 2025
jiyen235, 07 Feb 2025bro every SD 8 Elite phone apart from the S25 has better we... moreI don't think it's inefficient display, it's more like in spite of more efficient display.
- jiyen235
- XQQ
- 07 Feb 2025
Anonymous, 06 Feb 2025What are your thoughts on the iPhone 16 Plus compared to this?slightly better phone due to the vastly superior battery and video recording. I also think that Apple's photography is superior to Samsung, apart from telephoto shots where Apple uses horrendous budget phone level sensors. If it had 120 hz it'd have been a no-brainer compared to the S25+.
However, being better than the low tier garbage isn't exactly something to be proud of. The S25+ should be a 700 euro phone and the iPhone should be 750 euros at best, price hike due to it being an iPhone. The iPhone will give a better experience for a year and then get nuked with updates when the 17 series rolls out or somewhere during 2026 with a new iOS update or something, battery health will fall off and performance might tank a little. The same can be said of the S25+ but I think it'll last 2 years and THEN get nuked so people can be gaslit in to thinking that their battery health naturally fell off alongside the performance.
At their current price i recommend buying a second hand older flagship or look for some nice deals on older Ultra/Pro/Pro Max models. There's no reason to get the latest mid tier flagships from Samsung, Apple or Google, they're too bad for their price.
- jiyen235
- XQQ
- 07 Feb 2025
Luke, 07 Feb 2025Tbh i checked the reviews of other SD Elite smartphones her... morebro every SD 8 Elite phone apart from the S25 has better web browsing runtime. This is just simply Samsung using an inefficient display on the S25+ alongside a less optimized software.
- L
- Luke
- xIj
- 07 Feb 2025
vik457, 07 Feb 2025No the sensor is gn3 while a55 has imx906, they have been r... moreTo be fair I think it's time GSMArena introduces a new battery sub category to calling times - calls via video messaging apps. I think many are using those more than the regular calls over cellular network, nowadays...
- L
- Luke
- xIj
- 07 Feb 2025
Retroboy, 07 Feb 2025Hey guys! You definitely misentered the hours value for th... moreTbh i checked the reviews of other SD Elite smartphones here and all are having low browsing time, which is ~ the same as for gaming. IMHO Qualcomm has messed up here and Elite is running at full power while browsing. Only that can explain how browsing and gaming get similar battery drain..my 2 cents
- v
- vik457
- d%A
- 07 Feb 2025
jiyen235, 06 Feb 2025I wonder why they put the Xiaomi 14 Ultra by default in the... moreNo the sensor is gn3 while a55 has imx906, they have been reusing same sensors for non-ultra even when there are newer and better sensors like gnj and they have worst short range telephoto in flagship by a large margin, even x14's telephoto gets 1 and half stop more light, not to mention noise and they're the only ones with autofocus ultrawide just in ultra now. Speakers test tests for loudness and not quality and they haven't tested for distortion and even they noted a weakness of speakers in its secrion. They get beaten along with iphones in sustained brightness not just by phones with samsung panels, but also ones with tcl and boe panels. In stress test it's slower and hotter than oppo find x8 pro in sustained performance. Calls test on s25 ultra was probably a fluke too, since other two don't go nearly as high.
- R
- Retroboy
- a4g
- 07 Feb 2025
Hey guys!
You definitely misentered the hours value for the web browsing battery life of this phone.
I'm pretty sure you just inserted a value from the vanilla S25 by an accident.
Since it can't be true that S25+ with way more efficient CPU lasts less in web browsing with exactly the same screen and battery size than the predecessor with goddamn Exynos chip.
I'm pretty sure it has 11 hours or so in web browsing,not less.
- C
- Charger45
- tVs
- 07 Feb 2025
S25+/U both support 45W charging using 3A cables. S24s need the 5A cable
- ?
- Anonymous
- fCE
- 07 Feb 2025
justasmile, 07 Feb 2025For those who want a Si-Ca battery, Gorilla Armor (even the... moreThey will likely not offer gorilla armour on the base and plus models, since they like to create as many differences as they can between the top model and the other two, which exist just as dummies to make people go for the ultra
- ?
- Anonymous
- fCE
- 07 Feb 2025
The S series shouldn't be considered as flagship when even a mid-range chinese phone has a bigger battery, faster charging and newer battery tech
Meanwhile Samsung: "Introducing, the S22 Plus 2025 edition, now with an upgraded chipset" 😊
- E
- Elite cheep
- U@F
- 07 Feb 2025
Camera quality should be on the Cons list and It's definitely an overpriced phone.
- p
- pocketbook89
- KZK
- 07 Feb 2025
web browsing runtimes immensely disappointing, very subpar. iphone 16 with lesser capacity battery last twice longer...