Please note that this is a subjective personal review that reflects my own experience.
S25 Ultra 1TB / 12GB RAM 5G Snapdragon 8 Elite Jet Black
UAE.
The S24 Ultra was one of the most successful devices that Samsung has sold in 2024 and the past years. It was a continuation and an evolution of the successful S23 Ultra.
- Galaxy S24 Ultra: 15.8 million sold (more than the S23 Ultra’s 13.56 million) totalling 29m.
The S24 Ultra kickstarted the AI train, and weeks later, gave all those features to the S23 Ultra where they worked perfectly fine, and proved you don’t need an NPU to process the AI features. But most of those AI features were just gimmicks to most people, they talk/brag about and demonstrate them to friends and family more than they use them, just like the S-Pen for some.
Fast forward to 2025, the year-end where AI stops being free on the Samsung phones, what did Samsung offer? A Revolution, or a minor Evolution (S series in Iphones like iPhone 4s that marked minor upgrades before the better one the year after)?
Design:
- I can’t say anymore that “On the back, there’s nothing to the naked eye you can spot as different”. They rounded the edges (that are not as aggressive as the S25 and S25+) and that rounding marks the most difference since the S22 Ultra.
- Just like every year, I personally don’t care about the design and colour, I use a skin and a case, the phone is always on its back and screen facing me, so it’s 99% the same as the S22, S23, and S24 Ultra.
- If you use it without a case, you will notice first of all the light weight, the same amazing anti-glare screen, off course with a newer more durable Corning Gorilla Armor 2 glass screen and back.
- Then comes the finish of the Jet Black paint, the 1 of 3 exclusive colours that I tried for the first time and the lovely more durable titanium frame. (Grade 5 vs last year’s Grade 2)
- You can see the phone in some angles like an Iphone.
- It looks more beautiful and more elegant and it's slightly thinner.
- You can also see that the speaker grill is slightly different, they moved the eject sim hole from one side to the other.
- Powe button and volume are still the same.
- S-Pen looks thinner.
- The mics at the top are closer to each other.
Side By Side
Bottom Comparison
Side Comparison
Top Comparison
Thickness Comparison
S25
S24
Back Comparison
Silicon Cover
Display:
- Better than last year, which was already amazing, it’s beyond amazing. As per Samsung, they are using their own improved version of LTPO which is called HOP 3.0 (hybrid oxide and polycrystalline silicon) that will allow even better battery consumption, touch sensitivity, refresh rates, efficiency and light absorption with its market leader reflective anti-glare coat.
Camera:
- The main camera is not much of an improvement in the hardware, same 200MP sensor.
- The ultra-wide gets a 50MP instead of the 12MP.
- Same Telephoto and Periscope cam.
- The selfie cam is the same 12MP.
- Night mode has not improved as per the reviews and what i watched, but that’s pending personal testing.
- The shutter lag has improved big time, another improvement over last year, and it depends on the setting/mode you have specified.
- The camera app has improved a lot, and the software processing is much better, and offers new modes like LOG.
- Mainly, nothing wow in the camera department, if it ain't broke, dont fix it.
Battery:
- The battery was already good on the S23/24 Ultra, and now it’s 1.5 hours better as per Samsung, that’s 3 hours better than the S23 Ultra, due to the Snapdragon 8 Elite 3nm used along with the HOP3.0 screen efficiency. Once again, the phone will drain very slowly if not used or when left alone. The size of the battery doesn't matter as much as before due to hardware efficiency.
- We still have the 45W charging in the S24 Ultra, but we now have 15W Qi2.1 capable wireless charging.
- I will post the tests later after I use the phone for almost 2 weeks until the battery finishes the pattern analysis.
Ram and Storage:
- We have the same awesome UFS 4.0 storage, here’s a link to the article I posted about it to know more.
- Also still using the DDR5 RAM which makes the phone snappier and faster.
Sound/Speaker:
- I repeat, it sounds stronger and better.
Performance:
- Once again, It’s only normal that the phone is better than last year’s, thanks to the same perfect combination of the “Snapdragon for Galaxy” (Snapdragon 8 Elite 3nm) which was also overclocked specially for Samsung, with the UFS 4.0 storage and DDR5 ram used along with the OS and efficiency of the screen. This hardware will assist the NPU and PDE to make AI easier offline, without the need to connect online. But all that power, on daily basis, using WhatsApp, Youtube, etc, you will not notice. Remember, most games are made to work on a 100$ phones, there will be a difference for sure, but that goes without saying.
Software:
- I said last year, this is where all the magic is, AI in almost every category. You have seen the vids, I will not go in depth in the full review after 2 weeks, it’s a game changer for sure, for some, but only in some apps. Now, it’s no longer Gen 1 like last year, starting to be closer to 100% perfect, but with time and learning and updates, everything will become better, especially with the best chipset that can handle AI, as the Snapdragon 8 Elite 3nm has one of the best NPUs in the market(Neural Processing Unit) and married with Samsung’s PDE(Personal Data Engine) that communicates with the apps without letting them talk to each other and collects this info in Samsung’s Knox for privacy.
- The One UI with Android 15 is something very exciting, i hope we get the 7.1 version soon as the phones ship with the 7.0 one.
S-Pen:
- if it’s not for you, keep scrolling. If it’s for you, you lost a feature, which you didn’t have a couple of years ago, if you are concerned they dropped the ball on the pen, they already did the past 2 years when it did not evolve at all, but your worry should be that the day will come where the pen is gone, so whatever movement the internet is running, keep it going, keep saying it, because they do listen.
Should you upgrade?
- S22/23 Ultra users, this is a huge bump up to you, when the AI support ends, the S24 Ultra users will have the NPU to make them perform better Offline. You will be getting better cams, CPUs, Performance, and AI processing along with the other perks.
- S24 Ultra users, that’s your hard earned money, you can pay now to benefit from the Pre-Order offers and discover, enjoy or maybe even be Meh. Or, you can wait, hear honest feedbacks, the ones that love, that hate, that meh, and make up your mind. I will rarely tell people to blindly get a phone, the S23 Ultra was the first one I honestly personally enjoyed, and would recommend blindly if you have the same requirements or uses as me, same applies to the S24 Ultra.
- For me, it's a new phone every year, until the Fold gets wider, and has an embedded pen in it, not in the cover, because I come from using in the early 2000’s the Nokia Communicator, and what is encouraging me to get the Z Fold 7 in a couple of months is just the Z Fold 6 Limited edition that was launched in South Korea, and has less creases, wider screen, everything improved, but no compatibility with the pen due to its screen! If they can adjust the pen thing I would personally get.
- Check it out here :
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hInyV2HC8I&pp=ygUWdW5ib3ggdGhlcmFweSB6IGZvbGQgNg%3D%3D
Initial Verdict: (That can change)
- The software and AI battle already begun last year, everybody jumped on the wave, Samsung and Google are leading the way, and I can’t wait to see how this will play and to which level they will take all of this.. like with the new XR Headset, Project Moohan. Check it out here:
- https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Wearables/Samsung-s-Android-XR-Headset-Project-Moohan-First-Look...
- Most of the AI features I found gimmicks, but the ones that are relevant to me, work well, very very well, and I can’t wait to see how better they became, and how the Gen 1 ones improved, hoping they become integrated in apps we stop calling them AI.
- The hardware improvments should mainly affect battery life and AI processing, think about that, and that those same features are coming to the S24/S23 Ultra.
- Make sure you pre-order online from Samsung.com to benefit from everything Samsung is offering like exclusive colours, and discounts. I will post a link to the pre-order I did and the benefits and money savings you can get as well as where you can pre-order from, hurry up!
- https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S/The-2025-Pre-Order-Experience-Savings-S25-Ultra-1TB-Tit...
Let me know if you have any questions, as usual I will post the yearly 2 weeks of use full review and my experience with the device as well as battery life etc, and here's last year's S24 Ultra's 2 weeks review:
Here's my last year's initial thoughts on the S24 Ultra in case you want to compare both experiences:
Stay tuned and enjoy your new S25 Ultra!
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