Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review: An exceptional large-screen phone, with top-tier performance and convenient AI features

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The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is an excellent phone thanks to its stunning power, large high-end screen, and camera performance, including the ability to take incredibly sharp photos of far-away subjects.

At the same time, the Galaxy S25 Ultra feels very familiar to the previous Galaxy S24 Ultra, despite an updated sleek design and a new 50MP ultrawide camera. And apart from its size, extra camera lens, and S Pen stylus, most people will find the experience similar to the standard Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus. Indeed, all Galaxy S25 models have the same performance and run the same AI features.

Combined with its high $1,300 price, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a niche option for people who actively value the S Pen, yearn for the biggest phone display available, or want the most versatile camera.

Design: One of the most elegant phones you can buy

Unlike the distinct designs of previous Galaxy Ultra phones, which had sharper rectangular corners, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a refreshed, relatively rounder design that looks more similar to its base Galaxy S siblings.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is a smidgeon taller due to a larger display but a tad narrower overall than the previous Galaxy S24 Ultra, thanks to 15% narrower borders (bezel) around the display. It's also ever-so-slightly thinner while weighing half an ounce less.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra mimics the flat edges and glass back of the base Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus, but its more defined corners and incredibly thin bezel give it a more sophisticated and sleek look.

The frame is made of titanium, but I struggle to notice a difference in looks and feel compared to the aluminum frame on the base Galaxy S25 models. Still, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is light for such a large phone with a 6.9-inch display, perhaps thanks to the titanium, which can be comparatively lighter than aluminum.

Due to its cameras, the phone wobbles considerably in use while resting on a table (or any flat surface). A case can mitigate the wobble by making the rest of the phone's back flush with the cameras, and we recommend a case not only to protect the phone but explicitly to prevent such wobbling. A case is all but necessary if you plan on using the S Pen to take notes when the phone is lying on a table, as the wobble makes note-taking an awkward and messy affair. See our guide to the best Galaxy S25 Ultra cases for top options.

Performance: Three times the benchmark numbers we were expecting

Performance gains from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Optimized for Galaxy processor in the Galaxy S25 series over the previous generation are off the charts. Single-core benchmark results are about three times higher than the usual year-over-year generational improvements.

To be sure, this performance upgrade isn't exclusive to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, as the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus run on the same processor and have the same 12GB of RAM.

While impressive, these performance gains won't be noticeable in 2025, or even for another couple of years, if you have a recent phone like a Galaxy S23 or Galaxy S24 series model. Rather, you'll likely notice in four or more years how the Galaxy S25 Ultra still runs apps and games as quickly and smoothly as it did when you first took it out of the box. Indeed, most phones show some performance degradation after four years, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra has the potential to be the longest-lasting among the best Android phones to date.

To top it off, Samsung will issue seven generational upgrades of the Android operating system and deliver seven years of security updates. Based on its benchmark results, the Galaxy S25 Ultra's performance could actually remain spritely for the duration of its support window.

Display and S Pen: A gorgeous OLED screen gets a size bump, but the stylus gets a downgrade

The Galaxy S25 Ultra's 6.9-inch display is the largest on a non-foldable Samsung phone to date, an increase from the S24 Ultra's 6.8-inch screen. Numbers-wise, it's a small size bump, but the 6.9-inch display looks notably larger thanks to the narrower bezels.

As expected, Samsung uses an OLED panel that produces superb contrast, colors, and brightness and supports a refresh rate of up to 120Hz.

It's set to 1080p resolution by default, though it can be adjusted to 1440p. However, keeping it at 1080p helps extend the battery life, and it's still easily sharp enough for most people.

Samsung says the display's new glass — Corning's new Gorilla Armor 2 — has 29% better fracture resistance than the previous Gorilla Armor glass panel in the Galaxy S24 Ultra. We haven't tested the claim for fear of permanently damaging our review units, but stronger glass can only be a positive. Samsung also says the Gorilla Armor 2 panel has improved anti-glare, but we never thought it was an issue on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

However, as none of the best phones is impervious to display damage, we recommend equipping the expensive phone with a protective glass film. See our guide to the best Galaxy S25 Ultra screen protectors.

Samsung notably removed Bluetooth connectivity from the integrated S Pen stylus in the Galaxy S25 Ultra, eliminating remote features (Air Actions) like snapping the camera shutter button. According to Samsung's user research, Air Actions usage is low, and removing the Bluetooth component means it's one less thing that could malfunction.

As such, the S Pen is now a simpler stylus tool for taking notes, drawing, annotating, and finer control for more complex photo editing. Combined with excellent palm rejection and improved AI features, like converting scribbles to text, summarizing, and automatic formatting for neater notes, the Galaxy S25 Ultra and S Pen combination are more useful than ever as a simple stylus. It doesn't accurately register my handwriting 100% of the time, but it's still a convenient tool.

For those who use the S Pen as a note-taking tool, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is the best option by a long, long way. However, those who liked remote features will be disappointed.

Cameras: Stellar photos and videos

Apart from its screen size and S Pen, the Galaxy S25 Ultra differentiates itself on a hardware level with its four cameras, including a main camera with an astounding 200MP resolution, a 50MP ultrawide, a 10MP 3x zoom camera, and a 50MP 5x camera. These are impressive numbers for cameras, but it doesn't mean your photos are taken at these resolutions.

Instead of shooting 200MP photos, the pixels are used for a process called pixel binning, where each pixel is grouped with others to create one larger pixel (12 million larger pixels instead of 200 million smaller ones). This process, enabled by default, captures more light and yields a 12MP photo with a more reasonable file size. Note that pixel binning isn't a new technology, as many camera sensors use it, including the base Galaxy S25's 50MP main camera.

If you wish, the Galaxy S25 Ultra's main camera can be set to take photos at 50MP and 200MP. At these higher resolutions, the camera captures a stunning amount of detail. However, they take up huge amounts of storage space, even with the space-saving HEIF format. I saw around 35MB for 50MP photos and up to 75MB for 200MP photos. Some photos taken at these high resolutions also suffer from overexposure compared to the standard 12MP setting.

The Ultra's 50MP ultrawide and 5x zoom cameras also use pixel binning by default. Oddly, the 10MP 3x zoom camera upscales to 12MP, but there's no option to downscale.

The 12MP photos are plenty for most uses, whether it's for posting on social media or making small to medium-sized prints. It is excellent for indoor and low-light photos, provided subjects and objects remain still; any movement will result in a blurry photo, so it's not perfect.

Overall, the Galaxy S25 Ultra takes sharp photos with well-balanced brightness, contrast, and colors. When comparing photos taken with the S25 Ultra's 200MP main camera to those taken with the base S25's 50MP, it may be hard to see any discernible differences. But closer inspection reveals that the S25 Ultra's photos have sharper details.

I wish Samsung offered an intermediary resolution option like Apple does with the 24MP photos on the iPhone 16's 48MP cameras. That way, you could capture sharper detail when cropping into the photo.

The biggest benefit of the Galaxy S25 Ultra's four-camera system is sharper zoomed photos taken with the 5x zoom camera. Photos taken with the Galaxy S25 Ultra's 5x camera are slightly sharper than the base Galaxy S25's 3x camera. However, it's when you go beyond 5x that you see the Galaxy S25 Ultra's versatility come into play. Photos taken at 10x with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, for example, are notably sharper and clearer than 10x photos taken with the base Galaxy S25 (see the photo above).

A significant upgrade to the Galaxy S25 Ultra's camera system is a new 50MP ultrawide camera, compared to the 12MP ultrawide from previous Ultra generations. It captures sharp and clear detail in macro photos and takes beautiful ultrawide photos.

Video quality is also superb at 4K resolution with high dynamic range (HDR). Brightness, contrast, and colors are balanced and natural, and you get lovely videos that don't look overly processed. While they're not pure, unprocessed LOG format videos, their natural look gives you room to boost (or reduce) qualities, like color or contrast, should you want to in the Gallery app or Google Photos.

Speaking of LOG, Samsung added the ability to record videos in the LOG format for more complex and advanced video editing. It's not likely to be useful for most people, but hobbyists and professional videographers could find it useful. It could allow the Galaxy S25 Ultra to be a secondary video camera to complement their main camera, or even as a primary camera if the Galaxy S25 Ultra covers their needs.

Videos are smooth at 30 frames-per-second (fps) and smoother than the Google Pixel 9 Pro's 30fps videos. If you like a super-smooth look for your videos, there's also a 60fps option up to 4K resolution.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is capable of recording video up to 8K resolution at 30 frames-per-second (fps) but at the expense of filming in HDR. Videos still look good without HDR, but brightness and contrast are clearly less dynamic. I'd stick to 4K HDR for videos, especially when 8K resolution isn't the widespread standard for monitors and TVs, and 8K videos take up a massive amount of storage.

AI features: Useful with room for refinement

I cover Samsung's new AI features in greater depth in my review of the base Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus, and all of the latest features apply to the entire Galaxy S25 series.

In summary, some of Samsung's new AI features are useful, while a few could use refinement. The biggest AI feature that most people will likely use is Google's Gemini built into the phone, which can be summoned by long-pressing the power button. Gemini is Google's AI chatbot, and it works similarly to OpenAI's ChatGPT for a huge range of tasks, from answering simple questions to recommending a workout routine specific to your needs, among many, many other uses.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra uses Gemini to perform other AI-powered functions. One of my favorites is Cross App Actions, which can access multiple apps and complete useful actions with them. For example, I asked Gemini to search my Gmail for a coming car rental and add the pickup date and time to my Google Calendar, all without tapping the screen or opening an app once.

Searching for specific photos is better than ever and useful for those with massive photo libraries. You can use more natural language, location details, and context to find the photos you're looking for. For example, searching for "bath time in Florida" brings up all my kids' bath photos that were taken in Florida.

Samsung refined its object removal in the Gallery app to remove shadows cast by objects you remove. For videos, Samsung's AI-powered noise removal feature effectively removes unwanted background noise, like wind, music, nature sounds, and crowds. You can also raise the volume for desired sounds, like a subject's voice.

Other notable new features include AI Select (which lets you perform various AI-powered tasks for what you see on the screen) and searching in settings with your voice using natural language. However, these aren't very good in their current iteration and could be refined.

Battery life and charging: Unremarkable relative to top competitors

The Galaxy S25 Ultra ended our battery test with 64%, which is enough to last most people through a whole day. It's a downgrade from the Galaxy S24 Ultra (66%), and it's an unimpressive score for a large phone today.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL scored 70%, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max scored 74%. Depending on usage, both can last up to two days on a single charge. Both have 6.9-inch displays.

Our battery test mimics a typical day's mix of light and heavy use with three hours of screen-on time. We put the phone through two runs of the intensive 3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test, a two-hour video stream, five runs of the Geekbench 6 CPU test, and one hour of music streaming while connected to a Bluetooth speaker. For more information, read our guide to the best phones for battery life.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra supports charging speeds up to 45W, which is plenty fast for most people. A charger is not included with the phone, so you'll need one that supports up to 45W to make the most of it.

There's faster charging out there, like the OnePlus 13, which uses an included proprietary charger to achieve 80W charging.

Wireless charging is capped at a typical 15W, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra is newly "Qi2 ready." That means it doesn't include magnets to magnetically attach to Qi2 wireless chargers, but you can use cases with built-in magnets to achieve magnetic connections, even with Apple's MagSafe chargers.

Biometrics: Fingerprint sensors and basic facial recognition are getting stale

While not deal breakers, the Galaxy S25 Ultra's facial recognition and fingerprint sensor feel dated and inadequate for such a high-end, expensive phone.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra's facial recognition, especially, feels basic. It uses the front camera instead of the array of sensors used in Apple's Face ID. As a result, the phone needs to briefly brighten the display in dark conditions to let the front camera see your face, which is uncomfortable on the eyes. It also struggles to register my face at more acute angles.

The fingerprint sensor works well, but finding and placing a thumb on the sensor still feels like an antiquated manual process, whereas Apple's Face ID feels automatic and seamless.

Samsung and other Android phone makers haven't made significant progress in biometrics since 2019 and need to innovate in this area.

Should you buy it?

Easily one of the best Samsung phones released to date, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is an ideal upgrade option if you have a Galaxy S21 Ultra or older, as performance, battery life, and camera quality have seen notable improvements with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. A solid case can be made to upgrade from the Galaxy S22 Ultra if you feel that its performance and battery life have significantly degraded.

Otherwise, those with more recent phones, like the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra, won't find major meaningful upgrades in the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

For those who have no need for the S Pen or the 5x zoom lens, the Galaxy S25 Ultra and its price are harder to justify. Still, its 6.9-inch screen alone could be worthwhile for those who value large displays.