UAE
S25 Ultra - 1TB, Titanium Jet Black.
This is A Subjective Personal Experience Review, Your Experience/Usage May/Will Vary.
Hello Members, well, nothing much changed from my Initial Thoughts on the S25 Ultra (you can read below):
I mentioned 2 weeks ago that it feels like an S24s, and by “s” I mean small incremental upgrade, and in some areas(S-Pen), a downgrade.
The major differences or significant changes are:
- Design: It looks great, different, like a new phone that doesn't resemble its predecessor, until it’s in a case, honestly now I cannot tell the difference or appreciate its beauty, and trust me, it is gorgeous and light weighed.
- Chipset: Just like every year, a newer more powerful chipset that affects performance and battery consumption, this one is 3nm, super capable for years ahead, future proofing and cable of handling coming updates for years.
- Ultra-Wide camera: 50MP instead of 12MP, for those 3 photos a week that I take using the wide angle.
[I did not mention the Android 15 here nor the OneUI 7, as it's something coming to the older models, unlike the above hardware]
Besides that, honestly, I could have used the same review of the S24 Ultra from last year:
The S23 Ultra was my favourite phone in years, then came the S24 Ultra and took it, let’s say 10% up a notch, and this year, the S25 Ultra also did the same.
But is it still an Ultra within the S25 series? Yes and no.
The only thing in my opinion making it an Ultra, is the [downgraded] S-Pen, bigger battery, and cameras, reason for that, all 3 models, S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra, have the Same Chipset [unlike previous years], Same Ram size, Same UFS4.0 storage, Same GPU and between the s25+ and the S25 Ultra, only 0.2 Inches in the screen size, which makes the S25+ an awesome choice.
Yes you can argue about the differences in the build material (Gorilla Armor vs Victus, or Titanium frame), butperformance wise… 98% the same, slab a cover and a screen protector and they become as safe as the Ultra.
Battery Life, Consumption, Draining, SOT, Standby And Charging:
We still have the same 5000mAH battery size this year, that was first used on the S20 Ultra onwards 😊 , but you don’t need a bigger one with all the optimizations and low drainage, the 3nm chipsetlets the phone drain so slowly and consume less, along with the screen.
I noticed an improvements in the already good battery department, between 5 to 10% from last year.The max I got was 10 hours of SOT (5% Left Last Screenthot below), compared to 9 hours on the S24 Ultra during the 1st couple of weeks of usage, but that doesn’t always happen nor is consistent if your apps usage changes(some of them draw a lot of power for some reason) or when brightness is increased.
I saw a decrease in the SOT after a couple of months on the S24 Ultra, i might post a thread just to compare both batteries.
Samsung claims that the S25 Ultra lasts 45 minutes more when watching videos.
I used the phone for 5 days on WQHD+, 120Hz and Normal battery profile with 30% brightness, I averaged around 8+ Hours of SOT with variable hours of standby. Remember, the more you scroll, the more the screen is on 120Hz, the more the consumption.
All screenshots taken at almost 10% left. I left the apps shown so you can have an idea on what is used on an average day.
I used the phone for 5 days onFHD+, 60HZ with the Light battery profile, with 30% brightness, I averaged 9.5+ hours of SOT with variable hours of standby.
All screenshots taken at almost 10% left. I left the apps shown so you can have an idea on what is used on an average day.
One night, with the latter above settings, I forgot to charge it and went to sleep, it totalled an almost whopping 10 hours of SOT along with 13 hours of Standby, totallingalmost 24 hours of usage on a single charge.
The most i got was 10 Hours SOT time when i reached 5%:
Anyways they cannot increase the battery size with this Graphite technology, but reports are saying that new Si/C Silicon-Carbon tech will be used next year on the S26, which will allow a more powerful battery, at a smaller size, more on that in the link here where[GSMarena] takes a deep dive on those reports.
At the same time, conflicting reports from[SammyFans] says otherwise:
It's good to see both takes on that matter, and see in a year from know, how it will pan out.
Regarding the charging, I saw many videos claiming that it charges faster, and only needs57 minutes from 0% to 100% but for meit still takes 1 hour and 10 minutes from 0% to 100%, and I’m using5A rated cables,which all of you should to maximize the charging and fully utilize the 45W at full capacity, not all cables are rated 5A and that would affect your charging speeds, so check what you are using.
Android 15, OneUI 7 and AI:
Same opinion as last year about them AI features, most of them are either taken from Google or the Pixel phones(Gemini, AI Audio Eraser, Circle to search, etc) or gimmicks, that I only used last year when they were out, and no matter how much they improve, I will probably never need or use.The Now Brief is as useful as the G letter in the word Lasagna 😂
But for the ones I like or use, they have vastly improved, no thanks to the phone or hardware (NPU, PDE),if they are better on the S25 Ultra, it means they are also better on the older devices, and those feature are:
- The Google circle to search, faster, better, with now ability to search songs.
- The photo editor became on another level, no more mistakes when removing objects and replacing them, it’s way to advanced now, it’s epic!
- The browser summary and read out loud features are still amazing and handy.
- Gemini and its integration with the phone is great, it acts like Tony Stark's Jarvis, does anything for you, but it’s reportedly only free for 6 months, and we don't have much info about that.
An AI worthy question, does anyone know what will happen at the end of 2025 when the AI features are no longer free? Or when Gemini will no longer be supported? Any official statement? Are we going to pay a fee to subscribe?
The OneUI 7.0 over the Android 15 is a win. It still needs some ironing which will come with the 7.1 update,but it’s the best thing honestly in my opinion about the phone. The flexibility of making the phone yours, truly yours, and I mean as customized as it can get, and when you use the GoodLock features, you can make it unique to an extent where nobody would have the same phone as you do. I love every aspect of it and can't wait for the rest to test it and play around.
What I Personally didn’t like for my daily usage and personal needs, and many if not all are a repetition of last year’s points:
- No evolution of the S-Pen or new features, and a downgrade by removing Bluetooth.
- Silver S-Pen on a Titanium Jet Black Phone.
- Few camera hardware changes.
- No improvement on the also very important Selfie camera. This is used in all video calls, Zoom Calls, and group shots, it deserves some attention, or even be under screen.
- The fact that the AI features work perfectly fine on the S24 Ultra and S23 Ultra, without the need for the additional hardware that is being promoted.
- No faster than 45W charging.
- No Magnets on the back, due to the compatibility with the S-Pen and dead zones.
- The price we paid, for what we are getting in return (Performance, hardware, upgrades, etc), compared to last year’s model.
- The presentation, USD 1300, for a phone in a box, no charger, no premium unboxing experience.
- No more free Samsung care+, even if it’s for AED 150 now, that’s an additional cost to pay. you need to get it through Galaxy for life, and here's where you can get it https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S/%EF%B8%8F-%EF%B8%8FGalaxy-For-Life-Is-Now-Live-In-The-U...
- Before you get it, here's what you need to know: https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S/MUST-READ-The-Galaxy-For-Life-Program-Here-s-What-You-N...
Performance:
Besides the items above, the phone is once again, for the 3rd year in a row, an absolute all round phone, and on a personal level and based on my daily usage of a phone shown in the screenshot above during the battery review (Work, emails, chat, media consumption, need for battery life) all this power of Chipset is irrelevant and only good on paper for me, i mean it's there, it's more than capable for many things, but for my Chatting Apps (WhatsApp, Messenger) Social Media Apps (Instagram, Facebook) Emails Apps (Gmail, Hotmail) Browsing Apps (Samsung Internet, Google Chrome) Media Consumption Apps (YouTube, Disney+, OSN+, Prime Video, Starz Play, F1, etc) it still performs the same, even when apps are open together, as on my previous S23 Ultra and S24 Ultra.
If you’re one of the few that use it for gaming,you will see a difference, but remember, games are made to work on the cheap phones, as they are in more hands, and the bigger the spread, the more money they make, so again, it’s a new year, a new chipset, it’s definitely in certain departments better, but besides on paper and in measuring apps, I did not in all honesty feel any difference in all the apps mentioned above, but to be fair, faster AI photo editing and processing, as well as better battery drainage.
Here's the results for last year's S24 Ultra from GeekBench:
Here's the results for this year's S25 Ultra from GeekBench:
Should You Upgrade?
S24 Ultra users… debatable, the major difference is in the design for you, then the ultra wide camera, your phones are still way too capable and good, I would safely saywait for the OneUI 7 and Android 15, skip this year, or, get it only if you are planning to skip the S26 Ultra.
S23 Ultra users… when the OneUI 7 and Android 15 will reach your devices along with the improved AI features, you can wait 1 more year, or, if you feel the phone became heavy(Slow, Sluggish) , which it probably won't, upgrade.
S22 Ultra users,yes, now, you’re getting up to 45% improvements in my opinion, in the performance and chipset, battery consumption, camera, built and design, as well as the minor here and there upgrades.
Thank you for taking the time to read, since 2016! And let's have a healthy productive Discourse/Discussion!!
