In recent years, Samsung has perfected its Galaxy Ultra lineup, earning recognition as one of the top flagships of the year – even with an early release that allows competitors time to catch up. But the question remains: will the Galaxy S25 Ultra be able to hold on to that crown?
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Specifications
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy
- GPU: Qualcomm Adreno 830
- Memory: 12GB of LPDDR5x
- Storage: 256GB | 512GB | 1TB UFS 4.1
- Display: 6.9″ 3,120 x 1,440 120Hz LTPO 2.0 Dynamic AMOLED 2X, Anti-reflection Coating HDR10+, 2,600 nits Peak Brightness
- Rear Camera: 200MP f/1.7, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS + 50MP f/1.9, 123˚ Ultrawide + 50MP f/3.4 AF, OIS, 5x Optical Zoom + 10MP f/2.4 AF, OIS, 3x Telephoto
- Front Camera: 12MP f/2.2, Auto focus
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
- Battery: 5,000mAh @ 45W Samsung Fast Charging | 15W Wireless Charging | Power Share
- Dimension & Weight: 162.8 x 77.6 x 8.2mm @ 218g
- Others: Corning Gorilla Glass Armor 2 (Front Glass), Corning Gorilla Victus 2 (Rear Glass), Titanium Frame, S-Pen, IP68 Water Resistant, Samsung Pay, Ultrasonic In-display Finger Scanner
- Color: Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Gray, Titanium Black, Titanium Whitesilver | Online Exclusive: Titanium Jetblack, Titanium Jadegreen, Titanium Pinkgold
- Price: RM 5,999 (256GB), 6,599 (512GB), 7,799 (1TB)
Design & Build
The first thing I noticed was how light the Galaxy S25 Ultra feels. It’s thinner and lighter, shedding 0.4mm in thickness and 15 grams in weight compared to its predecessor. The sides are fully flat and covered in Titanium, with rounded corners, making it more comfortable to hold for extended periods.
There are no changes in the placement of the buttons, speaker, S Pen slot, or camera. The iconic vertical camera stack remains, now fortified with thicker lens rings.
Instead of a drastic design overhaul, the Galaxy S25 Ultra streamlines the existing Galaxy S-series design language. Despite the new design, it retains its IP68 water and dust resistance rating, and the S Pen is still included.
Yes, the S Pen no longer supports Bluetooth connection, meaning there won’t be any supports of Air Gesture and Camera remote. For me, I only use them for quick note taking, signing documents, and maybe have some fun with Sketch to Image.
Display
While the Galaxy S25 Ultra sheds some thickness and weight, the screen diagonal has increased from 6.8-inch to 6.9-inch. It features the same QHD+ LTPO Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel, with a peak brightness of 2,600 nits and an adaptive refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz.
Samsung’s mastery in display technology is on full display (pun intended). The Galaxy S25 Ultra impresses with vibrant colors, deep blacks, and remains one of the best displays for both productivity and entertainment, delivering sharp visuals and smooth interactions.
Protecting this beautiful display is the updated Corning Gorilla Armor 2 with an anti-reflection coating. While the anti-reflection feature isn’t new (it was introduced on its predecessor), it’s a great addition that every flagship should adopt. Samsung has also incorporated efficient AI image processing with ProScaler; a features from Samsung’s TV technology, makes the screen appear brighter and more vibrant than the Galaxy S24 Ultra while maintaining the same peak brightness. This explains why Samsung didn’t need to increase the display peak brightness.
Under the screen is the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which is exceptionally fast and accurate, having been refined by Samsung over several generations.
Performance
Samsung works closely not only with Google but also with Qualcomm in chipset development. This collaboration brings an exclusive, customized Snapdragon 8 Elite “for Galaxy,“ which is slightly overclocked compared to the standard version. It boasts a 30% faster CPU, 37% faster GPU, and 40% faster NPU compared to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy – at least on paper.
How about the numbers?
Geekbench 6 (CPU)
- Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – 2.268 (Single-Core) | 7,109 (Multi-Core)
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – 2.993 (Single-Core) | 9,771 (Multi-Core)
Geekbench 6 (GPU)
- Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – 15,313
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – 19,257
PC Mark (Work 3.0 Performance)
- Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – 18,678
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – 21,331
PC Mark (Storage 2.0)
- Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – 2,797MB/s (Read) | 2,910MB/s (Write)
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – 2,854MB/s (Read) | 3,200MB/s (Write)
The Galaxy S25 Ultra scores well in benchmark tests, though it doesn’t quite reach the performance Samsung claimed.
Built on a 3nm process, the new chipset offers greater power efficiency and much faster AI computing. However, heat management is crucial for such high performance. That’s why the Galaxy S25 Ultra features a 40% larger vapor cooling chamber to maintain consistent performance with minimal throttling.
Switching from the Galaxy S24 Ultra, I didn’t notice any major difference in performance. The device runs buttery smooth during everyday tasks, and the animations on the Galaxy S25 Ultra feel a bit smoother with the new One UI 7.0.
One UI 7.0 & Galaxy AI
The Galaxy S25 Ultra ships with One UI 7.0 based on Android 15, which will receive Samsung’s standard commitment of 7 years of major Android upgrades and 7 years of security updates. This means the Galaxy S25 Ultra will remain relevant until 2032, making it a great option for users who don’t upgrade their phones frequently.
One UI 7.0 introduces a redesigned user interface with more colorful app icons. The Notification and Quick Panel are now split into two separate screens, and the app drawer search bar has been moved to the bottom—making more sense for a large display like the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
There’s also a new UI element called the “Now Bar”. This dynamic widget on the lock screen displays live notifications such as playback control, navigation, workout tracking, voice recording, and more. It currently only supports native apps, hope more third party app to be supported soon eg: Grab, Shopee Food, and etc.
Samsung also introduced “Now Brief”, an AI-powered personal assistant that provides briefings throughout your day. It pulls in calendar appointments, weather updates, news, and traffic updates before you head out, along with other relevant info based on your daily usage. If you’re using a Samsung wearable, it will also share your energy and sleep scores to help you stay more self-aware.
Other Galaxy AI features have been further refined, such as Circle to Search, which now recognizes sound, improved Generative Edit, Live Translate for translating phone calls in different languages, and the new AI Select tool that suggests actions based on what’s displayed on your screen.
The photo gallery app and settings menu also support conversational search queries.
Google’s Gemini is integrated to the device, bringing a more human-like experience. By pressing and holding the power button, you can activate Gemini and give complex voice command requests. Bixby (Yes, Bixby is still there to perform cross action app), with Gemini to perform a chain of tasks across different apps.
For example: search for a product launch date, price, specifications, and summarize them in Samsung Notes.
Camera
The Galaxy S25 Ultra doesn’t bring major upgrades to its already solid camera setup, but it does feature a notable change: a new 50MP ultrawide sensor replaces last year’s 12MP unit. This is a significant upgrade for ultrawide shots, close-ups, and Super Steady video recording. The higher resolution provides better detail and sharpness.
The rest of the camera system remains unchanged, including the 200MP main sensor, 10MP 3x optical telephoto, and 50MP periscope telephoto with 5x optical zoom and up to 100x Space Zoom.
For video, the Galaxy S25 Ultra supports 8K at 120fps and 10-bit HDR by default. Samsung also introduced Galaxy Log, which allows you to shoot log video, capturing more highlights and shadows without needing professional equipment.
Lowlight
Different focal
A lot of the image quality improvements come from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Elite for Galaxy’s ISP and enhanced AI-driven post-processing, delivering noticeably cleaner results.
Full resolution photos can be viewed on Google Drive
There are a few new photo editing tools added as such; Best Face and New Filters system with flexible parameter control adjustments. You can even use other photo as reference.
Battery
Battery life is similar to the Galaxy S24 Ultra, with the same 5,000mAh capacity. On average, you can expect 7 to 8 hours of screen-on time.
Charging remains the same, supporting up to 45W wired charging, which takes about an hour to fully charge using the separately sold 45W Samsung charger. It also supports Qi2 wireless charging.
However, there’s no magnet built into the back of the phone, so you’ll need a Samsung case with a magnetic ring. It’s worth noting that not all MagSafe Qi2 accessories are compatible due to the long vertical camera bump.
Verdict
Did the Galaxy S25 Ultra get overshone by AI? Hardware innovation in smartphones has reached a plateau and Samsung is certainly not alone in this. Every brand is working on it, and it’s just a matter of how well they can implement it.
Samsung is not shy about showcasing its partner Google’s Gemini capabilities. In fact, this integration bring a meaningful AI collaboration between the hardware and software of both companies.
In conclusion, this upgrade isn’t necessarily for Galaxy S24 Ultra or even Galaxy S23 Ultra owners, as many of the new features will be coming on the One UI 7.0 updates. But you are looking for all-rounder full fledge AI smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra should be in your list.