Samsung Galaxy S25 series was unveiled last month as the latest flagship phone from the company. It was one of the first major phone launches in India after the OnePlus 13, and everyone, including me, was eager to see what Samsung had to offer. As it turns out, the South Korean giant stuck to the ‘why fix it if it’s not broken’ ideology, and didn’t really bring any major changes to the phones. Apart from the usual incremental hardware upgrades, the only change was the new design of the 
Daylight photos shot using the 200-megapixel main rear camera [Tap to expand]
The telephoto cameras produce good results when there’s plenty of light, but I found the 5x to do better with close-up shots. Nevertheless, both the 3x and 5x cameras deliver good photos with accurate colours and great dynamic range.
3x Telephoto (Top 2), 5x Telephoto (Bottom 2) [Tap to expand]
Portrait photos with the cameras also turn out great, with good edge detection and not too much bokeh.
You can also shoot photos at 10x, 30x, and all the way up to 100x. The noise levels increase as you go higher up the zoom range. While the 10x and 30x are somewhat usable, the 100x isn’t. Meanwhile, Samsung still does the AI enhancement when you zoom in on the Moon.
Top to bottom: 2 x 10x shots, 2 x 30x shots, 2 x 100x shots [Tap to expand]
The new ultrawide camera is also quite good in daylight conditions, and the colour matches the images from the main sensor. The photos have good exposure,a wide dynamic range, and there’s almost no edge warping.
Ultrawide shots: Top – Daylight x 2, Bottom – Lowlight x 2 [Tap to expand]
Selfies are great, and there’s nothing to complain about here. You get detailed photos with very good dynamic range, almost natural skin tones, and good white balance. The camera does support autofocus, which helps deliver sharper images in all lighting conditions.
In low light conditions, the main camera continues to take good photos, but you’ll find some noise if you zoom in. The colours are good, though, and the exposures are well-maintained. The dedicated Night mode does make things a little better, but the difference is mainly in the sharpness.
Lowlight shots from the main rear camera [Tap to expand]
The photos from the 3x and 5x telephoto cameras are not the best at night, even with the Night mode. There’s a loss of focus, extra sharpening, and images have a lot of softening going on. However, I did find the cameras to offer good colour output. Again, the 5x sensor does a better job somehow, with slightly more detail and better dynamic range.
The ultrawide camera delivers images that have good colours and decent details. The white balance and dynamic range are not too bad. I did find them to be on the softer side compared to the main camera, though.
Video performance on the Galaxy S25 Ultra is really good across all the sensors when the lighting is good. All cameras have the ability to record at 4K 60fps, which is nice. You can also shoot at 8K 30fps on the main, ultrawide, and 5x telephoto cameras. All cameras also support video stabilisation, but the main and 5x cameras handle the bumps the best. The colours, details, and dynamic range are excellent from the main camera. The telephoto cameras aren’t as good as the main sensor, and so is the ultrawide. However, videos from all cameras, shot in daylight conditions, are very usable.
In low light conditions, the main camera still does a really good job. The videos are detailed, the colours aren’t overdone, and the exposures are well-handled. There is some noise in the shadows, though, but nothing bad. The telephoto and ultrawide cameras also do a fine job in the dark, provided there’s good lighting.
Samsung has also introduced LOG recording on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and you get improved 10-bit HDR video recording. There’s also an Audio Eraser feature that’s available in the Gallery app, which very much reminded me of the Audio Eraser that was announced by Google with the Pixel 8 series. In testing, the feature did a good job of removing noise.
Overall, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a really good camera setup, I wouldn’t call it the best in the market, but it delivers consistent performance across all the sensors.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Battery: No upgrades here
- Capacity – 5,000mAh
- Charging – 45W wired, 25W wireless
Samsung went with the same 5,000mAh battery that was found on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, however, that’s not really a bad thing. The phone still offers good battery life. In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted for 27 hours and 34 minutes with the brightness at 50 percent, resolution set to QHD+, and refresh rate set to Adaptive. I also ran the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery test on the phone. It delivered a runtime of 14 hours and 9 minutes before the battery hit 20 percent.
The phone supports up to 45W fast charging
As for charging, the phone supports the same 45W fast charging as before. Using a 30W charger, the phone hit 52 percent from 0 in 30 minutes. A full charge took about 1 hour and 10 mins. However, you can use a higher-wattage charger and reduce the charge time.
With daily usage, the Galaxy S25 Ultra would easily last me a day and a half or even longer. Under heavy usage, I’d still end the day with 15 to 20 percent battery. The phone also supports 25W wireless charging with Qi 2.1 support.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is a really good all-rounder Android flagship that you should buy if you’re coming from a Galaxy S22 Ultra or an older iPhone. If you’re someone with an S23 or S24 Ultra, I’d say you should hold on a bit longer. The phone delivers excellent performance, offers a beautiful display, a versatile set of cameras, a better design, and some usable AI features. It could definitely be a contender for the best smartphone of the year. And no, the new Galaxy AI features aren’t enough to justify an upgrade.
In terms of alternatives, you could look at the OnePlus 13 (Review), iQOO 13 (Review), the Vivo X200 Pro (Review), Oppo Find X8 Pro (Review), or the Pixel 9 Pro XL (Review) from the Android stable. You’ll get better performance and overall value from most of these phones, except the Google Pixel. The Vivo is also a better camera phone. All of these phones are also cheaper. On the Apple side, there’s the iPhone 16 Pro Max (Review), which will offer more or less the same performance across the system and cameras. You could also get yourself a Galaxy S24 Ultra, which will now be cheaper.
