Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on: 3 reasons I recommend the flagship phone (and 1 reason to skip)

Samsung’s Big Bad Galaxy phone has arrived and it’s almost everything I expected. The Galaxy S25Ultrawhich starts with a bold $1,299 price tag, remains the company’s all-in-one phone, with a more durable screen than ever, an upgraded camera system with some neat editing tricks, and the infamous S Pen stylus. Oh, and yes, AI is everything, everywhere, all at once.

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While last year’s Galaxy S24 series ushered in Samsung’s Galaxy AI era, this year it feels more like the company has established itself as a leader in this area, beating Apple and even Google (for now) in terms of features and possibilities. How decorative that honor ultimately is, of course, depends on how invested you are in the use of AI.

I spent an intimate afternoon with the new Galaxy S25 phones, with a particular focus on the flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra, and wasn’t all that surprised to find myself fascinated and bored in equal measure. After all, this is now Samsung’s fifth iteration of the S-series Ultra model, and the changes year over year have been modest, to be generous. But if even part of you is considering upgrading to the latest Galaxy flagship, here are the changes you need to know about.

1. A sleeker, more durable design

The Galaxy S Ultra has always been a big phone and ambidextrous affair, and that holds true this year too. In the hand, the S25 Ultra feels like the fanciest calculator ever (and I say that in a nice way), with its squared-off edges and tall stature.

Fortunately, the device is not as top-heavy as I remember from previous models. In fact, the S25 Ultra is 16 grams lighter than its predecessor, and Samsung says it’s the thinnest S-series device ever. That is, until the Galaxy S25 Edge releases.

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The other notable design upgrade is the Corning Gorilla Armor 2, layered over the front display. It does not detract from the anti-reflective surface treatment that created it headlines on last year’s S24 Ultrabut promises improved drop protection and scratch resistance. I remember my S24 Ultra having numerous micro scratches after just a week of use, so I’m hopeful that the S25 Ultra will hold up better this time.

Now if only Samsung could bring back the glory days of Samsung psychedelic Aura Glow finishes. These S25 Ultra colors are not.

2. The best AI phone from Samsung (and Google)

Under the hood is a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, the same processor powering the competition Android phones like the OnePlus 13 And Honor Magic 7 Pro. The chipset’s most notable benefit comes in the form of AI experiences – specifically a 40% increase in NPU performance compared to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

In layman’s terms, on-device AI features would require less bandwidth and power to operate while also functioning quickly. I saw the results in person, placebo effect or not, as my S25 Ultra demo unit quickly removed subjects (along with their shadows) from the background of photos via Generative Editing and pulled up Gemini search results in seconds.

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You can also thank the performance to the improved Gemini app, which can now be activated with a long press of the power button. Previously, Samsung phones were limited to Bixby – or Google Assistant, if you made some higher-level backend changes.

The new Gemini app can handle natural-sounding, conversational sequences of actions, like telling the AI ​​assistant to look up the upcoming schedule of your favorite sports team and add the date(s) to your calendar. While the agent-like capability mainly works in Google and Samsung apps, some third-party services like Spotify are also supported.

Considering Google’s S24 series introduced last year Circle to search feature, and this year’s S25 series does the same for the improved Gemini experience, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that Samsung, not Google, is making the best AI phone for Android users right now.

3. Camera features suitable for professionals

One of the main reasons to buy a Galaxy Ultra phone is still the camera, although Samsung hasn’t improved the specs much this year – at least on paper. The only hardware change this year is the 50-megapixel ultra-wide lens (from 12MP), which delivers more detail and vibrancy, especially when taking macro photos. The rest of the lenses, such as the 200 MP wide-angle lens, 50 MP 5x telephoto and 10 MP 3x telephoto, are identical to last year’s S24 Ultra. Boo.

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There’s a greater focus on the software side, with Samsung introducing useful photo and video features such as standard 10-bit HDR video recording to capture greater dynamic range, a new Audio Eraser feature that lets you reduce the volumes of can adjust different frequencies (classified as audio topics such as voices, wind and sounds) and the ability to record in Galaxy Log mode.

The latter feature lets you better identify overexposed areas and adjust dynamic range while recording videos, while also applying LUTs in post for better color and light control. How all these new features fare in the real world is what I find most interesting to see. I’ll be testing the S25 Ultra in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for updates.

The reason to skip the Galaxy S25 Ultra

This one is pretty obvious, but how tempting Offers from Samsung and other major retailers may be, let this be a reminder that you not need to upgrade your phone every year or two. When I first tried the S25 Ultra, I was quite surprised by how similar it felt overall to older flagships like the S22 and S23 Ultra.

Samsung has also confirmed that most of the new AI featuresespecially the ones embedded in One UI 7 will eventually trickle down to older Galaxy phones, so if the latest software is part of the reason you’re considering an upgrade, you should think again.

The Samsung Galaxy S25Ultra is available for pre-order today with a starting price of $1,299 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant. You can choose from Titanium Silver Blue, Titanium White Silver, Titanium Gray and Titanium Black if you shop through a major retailer or carrier, and you’ll have more colorful options if you buy directly from Samsung.