Spoiler; it's been spectacular. This is a phenomenal device.
Today marks my of owning the S25 Ultra (512 GB variant). And after about 60 days of having this amazing phone, not just as glorious pocket candy, but also as a functional and almost always overdelivering work companion. Seriously, as a power user that averages anywhere between 9-11 hours of screen time, I have used the phone for operational, work and social tasks way more than even my primary laptop, which is saying a lot for someone who is an early stage entrepreneur. For context, I'm not particularly a blind Samsung fanboy, albeit, my growing gadget collection of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Galaxy Fit3 and Galaxy Tab S9 might indicate otherwise. But honestly, after all my research and personal usage testing, I only ended up buying these devices, since for the feature set, user experience, quality level and value proposition for the retail price, I can confidently say that these are honestly the best tech I could find for my needs.
I suppose I'm somewhat of a self-confessed tech enthusiast, but as I said, I've never been a blind Samsung fanboy, as my MacBook Air, my Apple TV box, my LG G3 OLED TV, my Sony WH1000XM5 headphones, the Daikin and Panasonic ACs will attest. I just value buying the best and the cream of the crop, when it comes to tech. That being said, I would most certainly say when it comes to the category of phones, I don't think anything else stands a chance to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, whether it's the iPhones or competing Android devices. While I must add the note, that I am a power user, whether it's about using the UI and Good Lock modules for complex intra UI tasks and activity, automating modes and routines, content creation and the correlated editing + post processing, and creating and editing heavy duty documentation, I find myself gravitating and using my phone more for pretty much any task, and man does it breeze right through everything without a hiccup, never faced a single stutter or random overheating issue yet. Even though I used a Xiaomi 11 Ultra, an iPhone 14 Pro Max and then an S24 Ultra before this one, I don't know what it is, can't really put a finger on it, the experience with the S25U is just surreal. Especially considering that last part, at least on paper, I didn't think there would be too much of a difference between my previous S24 Ultra and the S25 Ultra, but man, is it night and day! I don't know if it's because of OneUI 7, but the UI has been waaay snappier, boot time is shorter, apps load and open quicker, RAM management is excellent, battery lasts almost a couple hours longer than my S24U, and it even feels like it charges about 10-15 mins quicker despite having the same battery, and the same charging speeds. It also remains waaay cooler than my S24 ultra while blowing through tasks, even in the 40+ degree temperatures of India.
Using the Spigen ZeroOne case to activate the phone's Qi2 ready feature. Haven't faced any issues using the S Pen with any magnetic attachment.
In conclusion, Samsung really turned up this year and delivered an absolute hit. I honestly find the iPhones so dull and boring, with extremely limiting UI and features, the Pixels are better, but still have that limiting and boring vibe of the iPhone while being grossly overpriced in India, and the OnePlus/Oppo/Vivo/Honor/Xiaomi counterparts just have poor, unoptimised UI in my experience.
I'm honestly shocked at how well it is optimised compared to any other previous device I have ever used, this is peak Samsung. If I had to nitpick there are a couple rough edges on OneUI still, like the janky charging animation in the status bar, but I assume that'll be ironed out with the final stable OneUI 7 update that's releasing this month. So yeah, closing thoughts;
- Absolutely adore the level of customisation and additional multi tasking and functionality features that I am able to set up on this, which I cannot do on any other non OneUI device (Tip - I'd suggest people to try Good Lock to set up customisation and additional features like diagonal and long swiping from the edges to set up app and activity shortcuts from it.)
- Love the ability to create in app activity shortcuts and using the edge panel for easy and quick access (Activate creating home shortcuts for in app activities and adding them to the edge panel for easy and quick access as action shortcuts)
- I love, love, absolutely love the photo, video and AI editing suite, it's definitely unmatched on any other device (Use the specific sound AI removal tool from the editing suite in videos to remove elemental sounds)
- Overall the imaging and video system if definitely the best of all the available phones. I mean I accept that the iPhone has better quality videos, and the Xiaomi, Google and Vivo flagships have better still imagery, but considering the S25U is easily the second best in video and perhaps 4rd in images, combined with the UI and the editing suite, it's just at the top of the heap. Really happy with my purchase and the only way I'd switch now is probably when the S26 Ultra comes out (the Samsung pre order and trade in deals are incredible)
10/10 would recommend EVERY TIME
