Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, S25+ and S25 hands-on review

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on

The Galaxy S25 Ultra gets the biggest design change of all three phones, although it's still rather subtle. We've got the familiar minimalist camera lens design, but those lenses protrude more than before, likely due to the slimmed-down chassis (0.4mm thinner now). The oval side frame is now flat, and the sharp corners have been replaced with oval ones, which we find much more comfortable to hold.

Galaxy S25 Ultra

There are a few more design changes worth noting. Thanks to the slimmed-down bezels (by 15%), Samsung has fitted a 0.1" bigger screen - now at 6.9" without increasing the device's footprint. It also uses next-generation DX anti-reflection surface treatment, further improving legibility under direct sunlight or a strong light source.

Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. S24 Ultra

Despite the bigger display, the phone is less wide, making it easier to handle. The device keeps the same height but is notably narrower than last year, thanks to the smaller bezels.

Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. S24 Ultra

In a way, the Galaxy S25 Ultra's design is more in line with the other two S25 members, like the S25+.

Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. S25+

Not only has the S25 Ultra slimmed down, but it has become tougher too. An upgraded Corning Gorilla Armor 2 protects the front and back panels, supposedly improving durability by 29% over the last generation Gorilla Glass Armor. According to Samsung's internal data, the service team has observed 60% less screen breakage in S24 Ultras with their Gorilla Armor glass compared to the S23 Ultras, which had Victus 2 screen glass.

The color options are four - Titanium Silver Blue, Titanium White Silver, Titanium Green and Titanium Black. Some online exclusive paint jobs are also available - Titanium Pink Gold, Jet Black and Jade Green.

As we already pointed out, the hardware changes this year are far and few between. The S25 Ultra carries largely the same hardware as its predecessor - except for the chipset, one of the cameras and the display. The battery capacity and charging power are the same.

Notably, the Galaxy S25 Ultra gets a new ultrawide camera, now 50MP and with a wider f/1.9 aperture, up from f/2.2 aperture on the 12MP ultrawide unit on the S24 Ultra.

Another change lies in the S Pen. The stylus no longer supports Bluetooth connectivity or an accelerometer, so you can't use it as a remote shutter for the camera, and Air gestures are no longer possible. Allegedly, the feature did not see much love from consumers.

We also get a new SoC inside the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The new Ultra employs Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, the biggest generational jump in a long time. The "for Galaxy" denotes slightly higher clock speeds on the main 2x Oryon V2 Phoenix L cores, the GPU and the NPU. The "original" SD 8 Elite has them at 4.32 GHz, while the Galaxy-exclusive CPU runs at 4.47 GHz. We have benchmarks for you on the following pages to show you how it performs.