Samsung S25 Ultra Review – 6 Months Later

By Josh Teder

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: 6 Months Later Review

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is the quintessential flagship Android phone. It’s got seriously impressive hardware, a top-tier camera system, a processor that screams, and one of the most flexible and widely used versions of Android out there. But 6 months later, is this phone worth getting over its competition, which frankly at times can seem a bit more exciting than what the S25 Ultra is trying to do?

One UI 7: A Fresh Coat of Paint

Answering that first leads me into one of this phone’s biggest highlights, which is One UI, Samsung’s heavily customized version of Android. With the S25 Ultra, Samsung launched One UI 7, which feels like a fresh coat of paint on the software without completely changing everything, though notable things like the home screen have changed.

Now you can swipe down from the top right corner for all of your quick controls and down from the top anywhere else for notifications. It feels much more iOS-like with this feature, but one I found to actually like because of the customizability of the layout without having to have the notification shade there. Though, if you hate the change, you can of course go back to the combined version.

“One UI 7 feels like a much-needed change, but it also feels quite a bit safe compared to what Google is doing with Material You or what Nothing has done with their Phone 3.”

Another new One UI feature that I’ve really enjoyed is the Now Bar area at the top left corner. It’s color-coded now and gives you a place to quickly control media playing either on your phone or a cast device like a Google TV Streamer 4K, which I just reviewed. This also appears on the lock screen as well in what’s called the Now Bar. You can also customize in settings what can appear here, like if you have Maps running in the background, a sports game, or a voice recording going on.

The Now Brief: Useful or Distracting?

This is also where you’ll see another new feature called the Now Brief, which you can set up to tell you about your day with weather information, your calendar, travel information, routines, communications, music recommendations to get your day started, news, and for some reason, YouTube Shorts. That one was a bit of a head-scratcher.

This isn’t actually a feature I found myself using all that much when using this phone as my main phone. And by default, I found it too distracting. With news and YouTube Shorts in it, it almost felt like something trying to suck my time away rather than actually being useful. But thankfully, you can adjust all of that in settings.

Also, on the lock screen, we finally have proper iOS-like widgets. The only downside to the lock screen widgets so far compared to on the iPhone is that Apple just has way more apps available that support them compared to Samsung even 6 months later.

Smart Software Improvements

Another improvement I’ve noticed in my 6 months with the new One UI is with the nearby devices and pairing them to your phone. Now you simply drag the devices towards the phone to connect or away from your phone to disconnect, which is really cool. Another welcome change is finally with the default One UI software, you can enable a scrolling app drawer, which I of course did on day one.

Another software-related feature I’ve really enjoyed with this phone is the weather widget, which tells you about important weather events like incoming bad storms almost a day ahead of time. And I really like the weather alerts that tell you when you can expect rain on a given day and for how long that rain is supposed to last.

Also, the photo ambient wallpaper backgrounds are a great addition. This allows you to set the background to whatever photo you want and then Samsung will display the current weather animations over it for things like snow and rain. The weather app itself is also pretty great, though not quite as good as the Pixel’s, which still allows you to rearrange the widgets in whatever order you’d like. Though, of course, through the magic of Android, you can sideload Google’s app via an APK installer.

Now, of course, previous Ultra models will get the new software as well, but that has actually been probably the biggest highlight, at least for me, while using the S25 Ultra.

Build Quality and Hardware Refinements

But there are some other improvements that have made a big difference in my everyday usage as well, like weight. The S25 Ultra weighs 14 g less than the previous version, the same weight as my Nothing Phone 3 and well below the iPhone 16 Pro Max‘s and the new Google Pixel 10 XL’s weight.

Samsung’s build quality also just remains top-notch. I especially love how sleek the matte black side rails are of the Titanium Black color, which is a Samsung.com exclusive color. They also did a good job making the sides even more round and easier to hold, though that’s more of a moot point if you buy a case. Anyway, and one small win, they fixed the SIM ejection hole. It’s not right next to the mic hole like I pointed out in our S24 Ultra review.

The display is excellent with that anti-glare coating and 2,600 nits of max brightness, which is impressive. The only downside is that the PWM is 480 hertz, which is considerably lower than other smartphones like those from Chinese manufacturers, which typically have a much higher pulse-width modulation for reduced flicker. Though 480 hertz is in line with Apple and Google’s current lineup, the thinking here is that the higher the hertz rate, the fewer people will have symptoms caused by the PWM.

Exceptional Battery Life

Battery life is another big highlight with this phone. It easily lasts me all day and has been probably the best battery life I’ve experienced on any flagship phone this year. It typically dips down into the 60% range by the time I need to charge it at night. And typically for my use, that means I’ve gotten about 1 to 2 hours of screen time and a couple of hours of background play for music and podcasts, which for my light to moderate use, this is very good battery life.

Camera System: Impressive but with Caveats

Now, let’s talk about another reason people typically buy this phone, and that’s the camera system. Overall, I’ve been impressed with Samsung’s flagship camera system, which avoids some of the oversharpening pitfalls I experienced with my S24 Ultra.

Now, as with previous Samsung Ultra phones, the wide camera has a higher megapixel count, 200 megapixels to be exact, which is much higher than its peers, which are typically around 40 or 50 megapixels. But as I’ve stated before, megapixel counts don’t always tell the entire story or necessarily even net you better results. Something I definitely noticed when shooting videos at night with this camera system.

The wide camera ended up actually looking slightly noisier than the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 48 megapixel wide camera, though the S25 Ultra’s 50 megapixel 5X is clearly better than the iPhone’s 12 megapixel sensor in my testing, especially in low light. Overall, I’d say the camera, especially in more challenging lighting scenarios, does seem to show a bit more noise than the other two smartphones I’ve compared it to from Apple and Google. Though with Google’s that of course is using Video Boost.

The S25 Ultra’s autofocus did however impress especially when compared to the Pixel’s in more challenging environments like with falling snow. Video overall is still quite good especially compared to other phones. However, I do still think that the Pixel’s Video Boost feature delivers better detail, less noise, and better color in many cases, as outlined in my comparison of those two phones.

When you have good light, photos and videos tend to look pretty great, actually. Though, photos are definitely a hair more saturated than other phones, but that’s been Samsung’s MO for a bit now, so it’s not unexpected. And if you shoot in RAW, which you can with this camera system, you can easily adjust that later.

“At the meta level, what smartphones can do given their size and space constraints for the camera sensors is pretty amazing actually. At the same time, you shouldn’t fool yourself into thinking that they’re just as good as a dedicated camera.”

One area where the 200 megapixel sensor can come in handy is when you want to get a photo of something far away. Some friends and I were hanging out in the downtown Kerry Park and were trying to see whose phone could get the best shot of this frog in the distance and the S25 Ultra clearly won out.

The Smartphone vs. Dedicated Camera Debate

Overall, I think anyone looking for a phone with a great camera system would be happy with this phone. And the complaints I have with this camera system are complaints I have with basically every other smartphone camera system.

At the meta level, on the one hand, what smartphones can do given their size and space constraints for the camera sensors is pretty amazing actually, and definitely it’s the most convenient camera to carry around. At the same time, you shouldn’t fool yourself into thinking that they’re just as good as a dedicated camera, like a lot of the marketing from these smartphone companies would have you believe. They’re just not.

And I think most people who still want better photos, especially when you’re going on a really cool trip or you want to take really high-quality photos for an important event, you’re better off putting your money towards a new dedicated camera than a new phone. Like the Fujifilm X100VI I reviewed, for example, where in that review I explain in more detail what a dedicated camera is capable of compared to a smartphone.

Gemini Assistant: A Major Upgrade

Another highlight I’ve had with this phone is the Gemini Assistant being the main assistant on the phone. Gemini has not only gotten better than the Google Assistant in most cases. Although, except maybe for speed when doing something like playing music, it’s probably still a bit slower, but you now get an assistant with way more capabilities than what the Google Assistant could ever do, like helping explain a math problem to you for your homework or fact-check device specs for me to make sure I said the right thing.

And then on the fact-check, I can actually click that little Google search button to verify that what Gemini told me was actually correct. It can do just some very impressive things. For example, I took a screenshot of all of the performances in my Symphony package for the year and I asked it to add them to my calendar and it just did it. Now, it’s not perfect. It couldn’t add specific invitees or update the duration of the event, but that initial step still saved me time.

About the only thing it can’t do that the Google Assistant can, in my experience, has been being able to play music from Apple Music, which yes, I actually have found pretty annoying.

What I Haven’t Been Using: The S Pen

So, what have I not been using with the S25 Ultra? First up is the S Pen. It’s really hard to write on the screen without a case on this phone, and even with a case, it makes it better. But the phone still wobbles in Samsung’s case, which I just find very annoying. And the company removed Bluetooth from it, which means it can’t do features like air actions or remote camera shutter like in the past.

For me, do I miss that functionality? Not really. While for things like signing documents and contracts, I think it’s still very useful. I still at the same time question how many users of this phone consistently use the S Pen and whether it would just be better to remove it altogether, save that internal space for more battery or make the phone a bit slimmer and reduce the weight. Definitely let me know if you agree with that take or if you think Samsung should keep the S Pen.

Another app I haven’t used that much but is definitely worth highlighting as a strength of the S25 Ultra is Good Lock. This app allows you to heavily customize your S25 Ultra with things like more volume steps, adjusting colors, etc.

Downsides and Missing Features

Now, let’s talk about some downsides I’ve encountered with this device. One of the most annoying things I’ve run into with this device is you’ll put your thumb down on the fingerprint sensor to try to unlock it. The phone will unlock, but when I go to swipe up, it will occasionally think I’m trying to edit the lock screen.

Another downside I found is that I really missed the Screenshots app from the Pixel when switching over to the S25 Ultra. There’s not really a comparable feature to Google’s AI-powered Screenshots app with Samsung or an official way to get the Google app onto the phone, though there are some unofficial ones.

It’s not like this phone is lacking in AI features, though. You do get things like Transcript Assist, Smart Summaries and Suggestions, but I do find myself missing some of Google’s AI features like the Pixel Call Assist suite of features, which is all the more glaring of an omission now that iPhones will get similar features with iOS 26.

And of course, there’s no easy user-replaceable battery. That’s to be expected, but something I still hope to see from a major smartphone company to help people keep their devices for longer if they want to and be able to swap batteries out from their home.

Final Verdict: Do I Recommend It?

So, do I recommend the S25 Ultra? Yes. It’s been an absolutely solid flagship Android smartphone for the past 6 months. And while at first I think people thought it was kind of a boring update, 6 months later, my takeaway is that Samsung’s just made a lot of really good refinements to the Ultra phone.

But who should get one? Generally, if you want a top-tier Android phone with the best camera system that Samsung makes and a phone that just has solid hardware, it doesn’t feel like you’re holding a brick and has excellent anti-glare display technology, excellent battery life, all of the things you would want in a phone.

But if you were wanting to switch to a phone that feels totally new, something really different, that’s where I don’t think it’s necessarily the phone for you. Unless you’re coming from an iPhone and you’ve never had an Android phone before. While on the one hand, One UI 7 feels like a much-needed change, it also feels quite a bit safe compared to what Google is doing with Material You or what Nothing has done with their Phone 3, which I’m also reviewing and looks out of this world and maybe not in a good way or even what Samsung is doing with their foldables, which yes, do cost a bit more than the S25 Ultra depending on which version you get.

And there are certainly going to be trade-offs with that form factor, but it will absolutely give you that, whoa, my phone feels so different vibe that some people are after.