Pretty screen, great camera, Ultra price tag

Samsung is the number-one global Android manufacturer, and in Q3 of 2024, it edged past Apple, making it the top smartphone maker. Of course, Samsung and Apple will keep going back and forth for the number one spot, but the South Korean phone maker has retained the crown for most Androids sold for as long as I can remember. With that being said, it must mean Samsung is doing something right.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is an example of Samsung doing “something right.” It’s a great smartphone and will likely be one of, if not the best, Android to launch in 2025. Despite this, many are not very happy with the handset, and that’s because of how the device compares to its predecessors. I mentioned this in my hands-on: Samsung is moving at a snail’s pace with its S series (and the other smartphones in its repertoire), and every release only has subtle adjustments and improvements.

To many reviewers, a handset like the S25 Ultra isn’t exciting thanks to similar form factors, very few specification improvements, and gimmicky AI features; it’ll feel pretty much like the Galaxy S24 Ultra Plus. But if you don’t buy a phone every year and haven’t purchased a new one since 2022, you’re looking at a significantly improved handset. And if you are a person who buys a new phone every year, then stop because it’s not worth the cost.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is Samsung’s best flagship yet. Its solid performance, great cameras, and useful AI gimmicks make it a contender for the crown.

Industrial design 

Design-wise, the handset measures 162.8 x 77.6 x 8.2 mm, which makes it slightly thinner than the S24 Ultra and not as wide or long. It’s also lighter than its predecessors, weighing 218g. When I first picked up the S25 Ultra, I thought I was crazy. Despite the S25 Ultra being thinner than the OnePlus 13, it’s 8g heavier. Coupled with the boxy design, the S25 Ultra feels like a much larger phone. The South Korean flagship feels bigger than the OnePlus handset because it sports a boxier design. I’m not a fan of the boxy design; it makes the handset look less elegant and more industrial. However, the design lets you better grip the handset; I haven’t dropped the phone once.

Though I do not like this boxy design, the S25 Ultra still looks pretty nice with thin bezels and rounded corners. My S25 Ultra sports the Titanium Silverblue colour variant, which looks grey with a tint of blue until the light hits it, accentuating the blue. The S25 Ultra looks nice and expensive; however, with this boxy design, I’d want the handset to be even thinner – looking at you, Galaxy S25 Edge. I’m sure there are a couple of reasons why the S25 Ultra isn’t thinner, including the big 5,000mAh battery and the S Pen.

Speaking of the S Pen, Samsung has removed Bluetooth support. This is because users don’t use its Bluetooth functions very much, and removing it helps keep the price in check. As someone who has never touched the S Pen, I wish they had gotten rid of it and offered a case with an S Pen, similar to the Z Fold series. After removing the S Pen, they could potentially make the handset thinner or more affordable.

During my hands-on experience, I mentioned that there’s a bit of an edge to the S25 Ultra that’s kind of sharp. It’s still there, but when you start using the handset all the time, you don’t realize it anymore.

Bigger battery next time, please

This year, I vowed only to use Android phones except during September so I could try out the latest iPhone. Until then, I’ll be using the variety of Android phones that come out each year. But I wouldn’t mind using the S25 Ultra that whole time because I find that the handset performs well.

Though its benchmarks could be better —the handset scored a single-core score of 2,101 and a multi-core score of 8,100, far lower than other flagships with the Snapdragon 8 Elite — the chip still keeps this phone chugging. I’ve done a lot with this handset, including writing on Google Docs and multitasking with other apps like Chrome or YouTube; I’ve played games like Blasphemous and Marvel Snap. I’ve taken a lot of videos and pictures and uploaded them to social media. This is pretty basic stuff, but I did much of this in the last two weeks. All of this runs incredibly well on the S25 Ultra, and I had no concerns.

A few times, I noticed that the handset got warm. This happened when I first set up the device (not particularly worrying) and after watching Netflix for a couple of hours straight. It also happened when I took many videos and uploaded them to Instagram. The smartphone didn’t get hot per se, but it was noticeably warmer than its base.

Battery-wise, the Galaxy S25 Ultra could perform better. I take my phone off the charger around 8-9am, and it can easily survive a full day and make it to noon the next; however, on occasion, when I took several videos and photos, the phone only made it to about 10pm. I put a lot of pressure on this because Samsung didn’t give the S25 Ultra a bigger battery. Instead, it advertised its new vapour chamber cooling system, which should help with cooling the device and battery performance, and the use of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is more power efficient than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It’s not bad, but it’s not the best either. In the battery category, the S25 Ultra isn’t as good as the Zenfone 12 Ultra or the OnePlus 13 – Samsung, we need a bigger battery next year, please.

AI gimmicks?

Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite and its neural processing unit (NPU), the Galaxy S25 Ultra offers a variety of AI features that many would call gimmicks. And honestly, they’re pretty gimmicky; you don’t need to use them. That said, I surprisingly found some of the features helpful.

Firstly, let’s talk about Now Brief. I checked this app every morning and night. I didn’t think it used AI to do much of anything, despite Samsung saying it used AI. It was helpful to see the weather for the day, what events I had coming up and a quick way to access YouTube Shorts. However, if Now Brief was truly intelligent, why didn’t it tell me the weather for Hamilton, Ontario, after it saw I had an event there? Or tell me about the traffic on the way to my dinner plans? It also never suggested news I was interested in; Google knows my search algorithm, so why didn’t Now Brief connect with Google, considering Samsung often flaunts its relation with the Mountain View company and its own Gemini experiences. I expected better from Now Brief, and maybe it’s still learning about me, but after two weeks, it still isn’t beneficial. I’m still holding out hope for the experience, and I think it’s a good idea; it just has some work.

I liked AI Select and used it more often than I’d expected. It lets you interact easily with what’s on your screen, like making wallpapers, creating GIFs, translating blocks of text and more. However, the AI part of it seemed to be lacklustre. After using it a lot, I could see it was contextual, but only with certain things. It could easily identify if I needed something on my calendar; otherwise, the AI Select pop-up offered the same options.

I was pretty excited about the Now Bar, which works similarly to Apple’s Dynamic Island; however, I didn’t see it much during my review process. It occasionally appeared when I was using Google Maps or Spotify. Still, my muscle memory is very strong, so I often unlocked the phone before I even remembered the Now Bar was there.

I ‘stan’ Drawing Assist; I liked how easy it was to pull up and start using. Crazily, after all these years, Samsung still has the ‘Edge Panel.’ The panel stores system functions and apps for quick access. I find myself going to it pretty often because of the Galaxy AI options there.

Flawless camera

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra offers a fantastic photography experience. It’s been a joy using the smartphone’s quad camera setup. I took it to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Aquarium and around San Jose for a day. The pictures looked excellent, the colours were accurate, there were a lot of details in each shot, and they weren’t over or under-exposed. A photo of the sunset showcases the beautiful high dynamic range, images of a mural showcase the gorgeous colours, and even a zoomed picture of a Canadian goose shows the detail in its plumage, the water on its beak and even the black of its pupil. The S25 Ultra even takes expert images in the darkness. A picture of a building still offers details, even in a lowlight environment.

Video recording on the S25 Ultra is fun, and in Pro mode, you can very smoothly zoom without obviously changing from one camera to another. Additionally, you can take videos in LOG that look undersaturated, but you can easily colour-correct them on the device.

Some photos are below, but check out our article showcasing various images I took with the S25 Ultra.

$$$

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra is great, offers some of the best photography, and has a sturdy build. This might be the best Android smartphone (or even smartphone in general) to launch this year, but it’s not perfect. I would fix the battery life and make the device slightly thinner – just get rid of that S Pen. The Snapdragon 8 Elite in the S25 Ultra provides a great experience and allows me to play games and watch videos that match my heart’s content.

The S25 Ultra’s biggest problem is its price tag. At a base price of $1,918, this is undisputedly the most expensive flagship available in Canada. This price tag is crazy; it’s a downpayment on a used car, nearly the cost of a foldable phone (and those phones have two screens), and it’s too much money. There’s no doubt that the handset is good, but it’s hard to recommend a phone at that price. The OnePlus 13 costs $1,249, the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL costs $1,349, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max costs $1,749 – the S25 Ultra is plainly just too expensive.