Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: A game-changer, or more of the same?
Phone manufacturers launch new handsets every year and Samsung is no exception. However, you definitely don’t need to buy new phone every year!
A Uswitch survey from 2022 found that 38% of us upgrade every two years, and I’d argue even that is too frequent, given the continued quality of handsets.
Samsung’s latest smartphone launches – including the new flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra – offer the very best Android experience, yet I’d still implore you to consider if you’ll use all the features. High-end phones now deliver more than most of us need, so try to hold onto yours for as long as possible. There isn't a substantial physical difference between the Samsung phones from last year and this year!
And after Apple’s latest launches also came with only minor updates, the fact is that older models are now just as good as the shiny new ones. The presence of artificial intelligence (AI) might be great for marketing new models, but most of us remain unconvinced that it’s useful, and only 6% of people see it as a priority.
New phones aren’t your only option, either. “The production of a single new smartphone has a significant environmental impact,” Back Market’s Kewin Charron told GH. “With proper care and upkeep, devices remain reliable well past their ‘expiry date’ so choosing a high-quality refurbished smartphone when upgrading provides comparable performance while reducing e-waste by up to 89%.”
With all that said, if your current phone is a much older model and you’re due an upgrade that, crucially, you plan to hold onto for a long time, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is one worth considering.
I’m highly encouraged by Samsung’s commitment to seven years of software updates, so if your current phone is an ageing Android and you’re ready to step up to the best on the market, here's my honest verdict on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: At a glance
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Design and display
On aesthetics alone, there isn’t much difference between the S24 Ultra and the S25 Ultra. The new phone's display has flatter sides and rounded corners, but these didn't make an enormous difference in use. It still comes with the “S Pen” stylus for jotting down notes and it's available in subtle shades of titanium: Black, Grey, “Silverblue” and “Whitesilver”, plus exclusives from Samsung’s official store.
The thing to note, though, is that this is an enormous smartphone with its 6.9-inch display and 218g weight. As impressive as the tech inside is, it’s quite cumbersome to hold and use.
However, there’s one feature here that I wish we’d see on more smartphones, and that’s the “Corning Gorilla Armor 2” glass used on the screen.
It’s meant to offer better protection, but the most obvious benefit is its anti-glare properties. This is an excellent display (with great peak and low brightness, and an adaptive refresh rate) and it hardly shows reflections at all, something that makes it much nicer to use when compared side-by-side with an iPhone 16 Pro.
Those upgrading from older Android devices will notice both the size of this screen and its excellent clarity when used both indoors and outdoors. It’s worth mentioning that the S24 Ultra has the first generation of this “Gorilla Armor” too, so you can get some of these benefits at a lower cost.
Samsung S25 Ultra: Software, AI and ease of use
Samsung’s operating system, One UI 7, offers a much better interface than older software like One UI 5 that you might have used on the Samsung Galaxy S23. If you’re new to Samsung, you may have read that it includes more “bloatware” than on rivals like the Google Pixel.
This means a lot of extras – including apps from Microsoft, LinkedIn, Facebook, Netflix and some Samsung ones you may not use – are pre-installed, which can be a bit annoying. Aside from that, the ease of use impressed me. The navigation is smooth and intuitive, and it all feels fluid and fast.
The key selling point, though, is Galaxy AI. Samsung’s artificial intelligence features are designed to build on the likes of “Circle to Search” and “Live Translate” by doing more with cross-app actions and personalisation. Overall, this feels like the first phone with AI at the core of its offering.
I found it easy to ask a complex question of the Google Gemini assistant and get it to simplify a task that would take me a lot more effort. For example, I asked it to find all of England’s upcoming Six Nations matches and add them all to my calendar. It did it in no time at all, automating something that would’ve previously taken me several steps and a lot of copying-and-pasting!
That’s just scratching the surface of what the built-in AI should be able to do, although navigating some of the initial settings can feel quite daunting. However, once you understand it, you can quickly use “AI Select” to create an animated GIF of an onscreen video, you can use “Generative Edit” to remove objects from the background of your photos, you can summarise notes, turn speech into text and transform your doodles into AI-generated “artworks” – there’s a lot to unpack!
There's also the new “Now Brief” for a “personalised briefing” that updates during the day. It does more, the more apps you have connected – such as giving you an “Energy Score” for the day if you’re using devices for sleep tracking – but it’s a handy way to keep abreast of the weather, what’s on your schedule, and get a recap of the photos you’ve taken. I think it’s only somewhat useful in its initial incarnation, but it's likely to be a feature that will get better over time.
Note that Samsung has a track record for bringing some of its Galaxy AI features to its older devices. So, even if these new features are tempting you to upgrade, it might be worth waiting to see which of the extras comes to more affordable models, such as the Galaxy S23 or S24 series.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Camera and performance
The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera system is one of the most versatile on the market, offering a 200-megapixel main camera, 50-megapixel telephoto (a 5x zoom), a new 50-megapixel ultrawide, and a 12-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies. The upgraded ultrawide not only means more dramatic landscapes that you can crop without losing detail, but better macro close-up photos too.
On test, I’ve found the S25 Ultra’s camera results were vibrant and retained a lot of detail in all lighting conditions, but photos can still come out looking more overly sharpened and “processed” than on the rival Google Pixel 9 Pro. I’ve included several unedited images below, so you can see how this system performs.
There’s not much to beat this camera for sheer versatility, though, and I'm happy to see an “Audio Eraser” function added for videos, so you can remove distracting crowd noise and wind sounds from your clips.
When it comes to processing power, the flagship Samsung has the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (albeit a customised version for Samsung phones) and should be on par with the newest launches from the likes of Honor, Xiaomi and OnePlus.
In practical terms, this means it’s more than powerful enough for most normal people – it’s super speedy to use, responsive and able to handle multi-tasking, gaming, photo editing and AI features without issue.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Battery life
The Samsung Galaxy S25 has the same battery capacity as the last couple of Ultra models from the brand, and is advertised as delivering 31 hours of video playback, an increase of an hour over the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
It’s an impressive performer when compared to its key rivals, and in my testing so far it seems to live up to its longevity claims. It’s certainly as good as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, depending on your usage. I also like that it offers 45 watts of wired charging, so it’s faster to refuel than an iPhone too.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Price
Unsurprisingly, the Ultra phone comes with a premium price tag. It starts at £1,249 for 256GB of storage, and costs £1,349 for 512GB or £1,549 for the maximum storage size of 1TB.
It’s not a cheap smartphone, but the good news is that it’s the exact same price as you’d have paid for the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra at launch in the UK last year.
The Good Housekeeping verdict on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
If you're after the very best Android phone that money can buy, it’s worth considering the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
It’s a super fast smartphone with a Samsung-optimised version of Qualcomm's most powerful processor, a useful S Pen stylus, an all-day battery life, a powerful and versatile camera system, and a massive display that’s great for watching videos and reading, with fantastic anti-reflective properties.
It’s not without its downsides. It’s a bit too large and heavy for day-to-day use, it’s incredibly expensive at £1,249, and, even if the new AI features are useful, they’re probably not enough of a reason to upgrade for most people.
In fact, many of us shouldn’t need to upgrade to the newest phone at all. It’s worth checking whether most of the features you want in this phone (including the S Pen, battery life, cameras and display) are available from the Galaxy S23 Ultra or S24 Ultra at a lower cost. If you don't need the S Pen, I'd recommend looking at the regular Galaxy S24 series too.
Samsung Galaxy S24
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (refurbished)
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
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