Small upgrades but a great compact Android phone
The Samsung Galaxy S25 does n’t deliver significant improvement over the Galaxy S24 so there is little ground to upgrade asunder from a computer hardware boost . But if you have an older phone , the Galaxy S25 has a lovely small variant constituent , a smashing video display , reproducible camera results and a smooth and silken performance that make it a solid pick .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Samsung herald its latestflagship smartphonesin the center of January in the form of the Galaxy S25 Ultra , Galaxy S25 Plus and the Galaxy S25 . It also teased a fourth equipment in the Galaxy S25 Edge , but that ’s a story for another daytime .
The Galaxy S25 is the modest and flash of the Samsung S25 series , featuring a start monetary value of £ 799/$799 that places it in a strong side . It ’s the same price as theApple iPhone 16and only slightly more expensive than theOnePlus 13Rand Google Pixel 9 .
It ’s also the same damage theGalaxy S24launched at , but that ’s not all that surprising because there are n’t any innovative changes this year . This year more than any , the changes are below the surface . That ’s not to say the Galaxy S25 is n’t one of thebest Android phonesavailable though , because it is and I ’d go as far as to say it ’s my favorite of the S25 series .
Design
“ If it ai n’t broke , do n’t specify it ” . It ’s an geezerhood - old locution and it ’s true . Do company really require to reinvent the rack every time they launch a new telephone set ? If they are go for to entice you to upgrade every twelvemonth then a design change could help of course , but if the previous poser has a decent invention , is there any demand to vary it for the sake of it ?
If you ’d say no to that last assertion , you and the Galaxy S25 are conk out to be great friends . It is nearly indistinguishable to the Galaxy S24 and when I say virtually identical , I really do mean it . A game of spot the difference would be a tough gig between the two twist . If you have an eye for point though , you will make out the little and insidious change , and if you do n’t , well then I ’ll say you where to look .
The colour selection has changed compared to the Galaxy S24 and they have a little more biff too . There are a twain of samsung.com exclusives include Coralred , Pinkgold and Blueblack , while the standard four colours consist of Mint ( picture in this followup ) , Icyblue , Silver Shadow and Navy . in person , I ’m a Mint form of girl , but you do you .
Elsewhere , the photographic camera lens system on the fanny are slightly more prominent on the Galaxy S25 in that there is a small gap between the lenses and the rear of the speech sound . It is very subtle – a blinking and you ’ll miss it kind of vibration – but it ’s a tweak I am all in favor of . It arrive at the Galaxy S25 appear a little more sophisticated than its predecessor and a shade more premium overall . The other changes are n’t ace you could see needfully , but they are there .
Put the Galaxy S25 on the musical scale and it will number in at 5 g lighter than the Galaxy S24 . The plane edges that were first introduced on the Galaxy S24 are also marginally slim , while the aluminium framing – there ’s no titanium here like theGalaxy S25 Ultra – has an Enhanced Armor Aluminium Frame . I did n’t go about dropping the Galaxy S25 on concrete to see whether that enhanced frame made a difference of opinion in durability , but I will say that it has held up well in my duad of weeks of examination .
The other thing I ’d say is that there is a lot to be said for a smaller gimmick and that ’s where the Galaxy S25 wins me over . I always loved theApple iPhone 13 miniskirt – its cute and stocky build was perfect for one - handed use – and the same give for the Galaxy S25 . It ’s lightweight , a really lovely succinct size and it save a bracing variety to larger devices , whilst still offering a big enough showing to do everything you want to .
Screen
Speaking of displays , the Samsung Galaxy S25 has a 6.2 - inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen , which is the same as what you ’ll find on the Galaxy S24 .
The Galaxy S25 Ultra saw the bezels around its screen reduce to allow for a larger screen within the same footmark , much like Apple also did with itsiPhone 16 Promodels , but those reduced bezel have n’t trickled down to the Galaxy S25 or Galaxy S25 Plus .
The bump in brightness has n’t either , with the Galaxy S25 offering a 2,600 nit peak like its predecessor , as well as the same adaptive refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz , and the same resolution of 2340 x 1080 . It ’s the low resolution of the entire Galaxy S25 series but that does n’t matter in realness as the smaller showing means the pixel density is still relatively high , resulting in deal of detail .
There remain a punch - hole photographic camera in the centre at the top , a antiphonal fingerprint detector under the video display and the Galaxy S25 ’s screen auspices sticks with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 . I ’d care to have construe theGalaxy S24 Ultra’sCorning Gorilla Glass Armor make its way onto the Galaxy S25 , particularly as the Galaxy S25 Ultra has now moved to Corning Gorilla Glass Armor 2 , but that was n’t to be this sentence around .
Cameras
I feel like I ’m part to voice like a low record here , but just as there are minor changes in the pattern and the display , the camera hardware also remains the same on the Galaxy S25 . The Galaxy S25 Ultra got a new extremist - blanket lens for this year , and it of course has the higher resolution main photographic camera too , but the Galaxy S25 does n’t see any of these advancements .
What you get here then is a ternary rearward camera setup made up of a 50 - megapixel master sensing element , a 12 - megapixel ultrawide sensor and a 10 - megapixel telephoto sensor . On the front , there ’s the same 12 - megapixel selfie camera so if you had last year ’s Galaxy S24 or even the S23 , this is a familiar setup on both the front and rear .
The main tv camera is the good performing artist of the three – no surprisal there . It offer good particular , good active range and it perform well in all lighting condition , deliver consistent results with very lilliputian travail from you .
The ultrawide sensor miss autofocus , which is n’t ideal , but it ’s a self-coloured sensing element for landscape guess and again , the results are pretty uniform , though you do get unspoiled detail and gloss mental representation from the chief sensing element , especially at dark .
The telephotograph sensor does a great job at 3x , get you nigher to the guinea pig without losing contingent , though the digital 2x is n’t risky either . I reckon the 10x and 30x digital zooms are only pointless if you ’re looking for a adequate stab , but I did find it useful when trying to read an aerodrome information add-in from a aloofness so I guess entirely pointless is a little unfair .
Overall , there have been some big advancements in smartphone cameras over the last couple of years so it feels like Samsung is going to have to make change next year to avoid slipping too far behind . The Galaxy S25 just about gets away with it this twelvemonth , with a duet of software features like Audio Eraser for get rid of setting noise from videos , and a slight redesign of the camera app with One UI 7 doing some of the leg work to keep things being entirely the same .
compare to others , like the Apple iPhone 16 or the Google Pixel 9 , I do n’t think the Galaxy S25 render the best camera performance in its field , but that ’s not to say it does n’t offer great results – it ’s just that the contender has got better .
Performance
I ’m thrilled to say we have in conclusion get to the arena where the Samsung Galaxy S25 does dissent from its herald . Under the hood , you ’ll find the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy , an overclocked version of theSnapdragon 8 Elitethat Qualcomm revealed at the end of 2024 , and the performance is splendid .
Everything run smoothly , I did n’t experience any overheating ( something that could have been a worry given the higher CPU swiftness ) and overall , it ’s a very slick experience . That applies whether you ’re gaming or perform daily sidereal day - to - day task like email or societal media . It got ardent when put under pressure gaming or in tenseness exam – something the OnePlus 13R does n’t at all – but I ’m peach warm rather than live .
Supporting the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy platform is 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a choice of 128 GB , 256 GB or 512 GB of storage . There are a couple of things to note here , the first of which is the jut in RAM from the Galaxy S24 , which is welcomed , and the second of which is the increase of the 512 GB storage model .
AI is a focus of the Galaxy S25 , as it was for the Galaxy S24 and it has to be said that any of the Galaxy AI feature I be given on this twist ran without a hitch .
We did our common set of benchmarking tests on the Samsung Galaxy S25 too and its performance nock tally up with my experience of a smooth - running gadget and every bit a flagship Android handset . you may see how the Samsung Galaxy S25 equate in the graphs below .
Software and AI
The Samsung Galaxy S25 runs on Android 15 out of the box , with the company ’s OneUI 7 over the top . Samsung is forebode 7 years of o update , which is in assembly line with what Google offers and what Apple typically give up too . It ’s also three years more than what OnePlus is offering on its OnePlus 13R.
If you ’re a Samsung user , it ’s a conversant experience with a few minor change and improvement . Meanwhile , if you ’re newfangled to Samsung , OneUI 7 is easy to navigate and get to grips with .
There is some bloatware with Samsung agitate its own apps for Gallery , Internet , Notes , My Files , Health , Calculator , Calendar , Wallet , and Bixby , alongside take Google ’s entire entourage of apps pre - installed and some Microsoft ones too , but there ’s nothing stopping you selecting your preference .
I mentioned Bixby , but it ’s Google ’s Gemini that ’s being drive as the AI wonder . It ’s a scrap of a mixed bag and there are definitely some AI for AI sake feature go on here , just like there are on all other phones in my opinion . That tell , a couplet are executed very well .
AI Summarise will allow you quickly analyse the content on your screen door to give you an overview , while the AI Select affair is easily accessible by swiping in from the right boundary of the twist . Once you pick out the AI Select ikon , you may force around anything on your filmdom that you want to acknowledge more information about , or relevant hunt results on .
Circle to Search , which was first bring in on the Galaxy S24 has also been improved , and is now able-bodied to not just analyse images on your screen but it can mind to audio recording too to identify what is playing . There ’s also natural spoken language input so you could search your Gallery with a prompt like “ ascertain pictures of horse from my trip to Sweden ” , though I had very mixed outcome from this , with it primarily not working .
bad-tempered - App Actions is interesting , appropriate you to perform multiple actions across several apps with one command prompt . It only turn across Samsung and Google apps at the moment , but WhatsApp and Spotify bread and butter is due to arrive shortly and it was great for adding forthcoming fixtures from your favourite squad , for example .
Overall , I like the Gallery Generative Edit feature the most – or found that the most useful I should belike say . It allow for you to remove mass or objects and you’re able to dispatch multiple at once so you do n’t involve to do each somebody or thing severally . It ’s nimble and the results are actually somewhat impressive .
Last thing I am kick the bucket to mention here is the Now Brief and Now Bar . The Now Brief appears morning , noon and night and it is designed to deliver utile information like weather conditions and health scores if you have a Samsung wearable on . It ’s fine , but it ’s not a reason on its own to kick upstairs to the Galaxy S25 .
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The Now Bar appear in between the camera and phone icon on the lock screen and it ’s a interbreeding between Dynamic Island on iPhone and Live Activities – again , it ’s nice but it ’s not the only reason to seat here .
Battery life
The Samsung Galaxy S25 has the same capacity battery as the Galaxy S24 – I live , I know , we ’re back into the no - change territory . There is some modification here though , in that there has been an upgrade in mainframe to the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy which is said to be more efficient . The One UI 7 software system should improve thing too .
I thought the battery lifespan was adequate overall . While it does n’t last as long as the OnePlus 13R , this is a smaller equipment and that needs to be taken into consideration . I finished the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. with over 30 pct most twenty-four hour period , with some solar day a lilliputian more , so while it ’s not a two - daytime gimmick , it should get you through one without a job .
charge speeds are n’t the fast , topping out at 25W wire and 15W wireless . That ’s quite a bit slower than the ilk of the OnePlus 13R that supports 80W charging , but it ’s also exchangeable to Apple and Google and I do n’t think it make a vast difference in world . At least it does n’t to me .
I modify my phone overnight so I typically would n’t point out how long it takes to go from 1 percent to 100 percent as I would ( hopefully ) be gone . Where the faster commit speeds do help is when you need a nimble top - up before you hasten back out the threshold for the evening , for representative , so it ’s something to keep in intellect that you wo n’t get 50 percent in 15 mins , but not having 100W charging here is n’t what I consider to be a deal breaker .
Should you buy it?
Most flagship Android earpiece are much bigger than what the Galaxy S25 extend so if you ’re after a little pocket powerhouse , it ’s a superb choice .
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a number of additional feature and progress on the Galaxy S25 so while the software is the same , if you want the good Samsung offers , it ’s the Ultra you ’ll want .
Final Thoughts
The Samsung Galaxy S25 does n’t usher in huge amount of modification compared to the Galaxy S24 so unless you ’re really looking for a hardware encouragement , if you have last year ’s theoretical account , there is little understanding to upgrade .
That said , if you have an old Samsung Galaxy S mannequin , or another phone that is a couple of year old , the Galaxy S25 is a air hole human dynamo . It has a lovely little form component that is a delight to hold , a great display , consistent camera solution and a smooth and slick performance .
There are some clever AI features on board too , and the software make for a bang-up user experience overall . It might not be the S25 series gimmick that offers it all , but if you ’re looking for a small andpowerful Android phone , this is a splendid choice .
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FAQs
No . The Samsung Galaxy S25 comes with a USB - C to USB - deoxycytidine monophosphate cable system in the box but not a power adapter .
Yes . The Samsung Galaxy S25 is IP68 - rated for water and dust resistance .
Yes , but there are no attracter built into the headphone so if you want to habituate this criterion , you ’ll need to employ a compatible case .
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Test Data
Full Specs
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