Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review: AI here, there and everywhere

Design and display

This phone uses the familiar, and attractive, Samsung Galaxy industrial design. You’d know it was a Galaxy without the Samsung label on the back. In other words, it’s polished, classy and slick. What’s new this year is the introduction of rounded corners instead of the square edges on the S24 Ultra. This makes for a more inviting, softer look, although, the difference is subtle.

The new shape replaces the curved edges of last year’s model with flat sides here. You’d think that would make the phone less comfortable in the hand but, while it’s true the edges are sharper, Samsung has made the phone slightly narrower, so it’s an easier fit. As with all large-screen phones, it’s worth trying in your hand first, if you have smaller mitts.

The overall dimensions aren’t very different from last year’s S24 Ultra but they also contribute to a better feel in the hand: the phone is 0.5mm taller, but 1.4mm narrower and 0.4mm thinner from front to back. These small changes combine to create a better-handling phone. Though, of course, if you put your phone in a case, as most of us do, that slimness is slightly muted.

The newly shrunken bezels mean Samsung has been able to put a bigger display into roughly the same size phone: it’s 6.9in against last year’s 6.8in. This isn’t a massive increase but extra screen real estate, with no extra hand-stretching is always welcome.

Meanwhile, the display itself is terrific. It’s pin-sharp and bright (up to 2,600 nits) with a fast refresh rate that varies from 1-120Hz. This means that everything you do is buttery-smooth but, when you’re looking at static content, it scales the refresh rate down, to save battery life.

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It also has impressively low reflectivity, which makes it easier to see in even the brightest light. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Armor 2, which Samsung says can survive a drop of 2m or more onto concrete.

The phone comes in new colours, all touching on the fact that, like last year, Samsung has appointed the phone with a titanium frame to make it strong but light: titanium silverblue, titanium black, titanium whitesilver and titanium grey. I tested silverblue, which has a delicate, subtle feel to it, that glints blue in certain lights.

Cameras

There are more cameras on the S25 Ultra than other Samsung phones. The main camera retains the 200MP resolution from last year’s models, but there’s an all-new ultra-wide camera, now with 50MP resolution. This camera is the one that’s used for super-close macro images, and these are remarkable: however close you get to your subject, it's possible to see it in sharp focus.

Then there’s the telephoto camera – or, rather, two of them. There’s a 50MP telephoto, which is the equivalent of 5x the main lens, though it can also take 10x shots without any digital zoom, by cropping into the central area. There’s also a 10MP telephoto, which has a focal length the equivalent of 3x the wide camera, which is often the ideal amount of zoom. They work together seamlessly.

One of the features of last year’s software has been expanded, too – this is the smooth zoom slider, which makes it easy to effortlessly zoom in and out. It was previously restricted to pro settings but now it’s accessible to everyone and it’s great for those videos that need a bit more of a professional touch.

There’s also something called ‘virtual aperture’, which uses software to mimic adjusting the aperture as though you were using an SLR camera. It’s effective and enjoyable, although, Samsung’s automatic settings do a tremendous job that most people will be happy with.

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Samsung’s cameras have consistently been strong, with uniformly good performance across all lenses and from features such as portrait mode through to macro. Whatever you need the camera to do, it can deliver.

Software

The combination of second-generation Galaxy Intelligence and collaboration with Google is powerful. It means you can use Google’s Gemini as your AI assistant, enabling you to do several things at once. You can ask it to find exactly the kind of restaurant you need, even down to whether it has seating outside, and it can draft a text message so you can tell your friend you’ve found the ideal spot. This capability is also available on other phones (even the iPhone) but it is embedded well here. You can even activate Gemini through a long press of the power button.

Samsung’s own assistant, Bixby, is also still here, but you may find Gemini is the one you use most.

Google’s excellent ‘circle to search’ feature has been enhanced, so you can draw around more elements on the screen to find out information, whether you’re looking at a place, an object or a piece of art, say.

Improvements to AI have meant it’s possible to talk to the phone in a more natural, conversational way, whether you’re looking for a very specific photo in your gallery or want to effortlessly find a sporting fixture and easily add it to your calendar.

Samsung’s own AI features first appeared this time last year, including interpreter (which translates speech in near-real time), and transcript assist, which turns calls and recordings into text. New additions include writing assist, which helps you summarise or format notes.

Key to the AI upgrades is the ‘now brief’, which presents information on the lock screen in something called the now bar. This lozenge-shaped panel aims to give you details before you even ask for them. It can stack items, so a timer and a voice recorder can both be live at the same time. It can also do things such as tell you you should leave the house shortly to be on time for your next appointment. It’s similar to Apple’s dynamic island on the iPhone and it works well: I love it.

Performance

Samsung partnered with Qualcomm to design a bespoke version of its latest processor to create the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. Qualcomm has also been integral to delivering wifi and 5G to the phone, plus Snapdragon Satellite, which enables users to send and receive messages via satellite. The Samsung Galaxy S25 series features the first gadgets to be able to use this feature – though other phones have similar capabilities.

Whatever the silicon, the performance here is very impressive. Everything happens fast, with no waiting or lag, not even for the shutter to snap in the camera. Performance is outstanding.

Battery life

With the same battery size as last year’s S24 Ultra, the new phone has battery life that matches the 2024 model. That means a full day and more so that battery anxiety need not trouble you. You still need to charge on a nightly basis, because it won’t last two full days otherwise, but this is still a strong battery offering.