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Last year Samsung embraced artificial intelligence with its suite of Galaxy AI features. And while the new S25 Ultra is a bit faster, a little curvier and has a slightly bigger display than before, it’s clear the company’s primary focus was upgrading the software and machine learning capabilities of its top-spec flagship phone. But is that enough?
Similar to its predecessor, the Galaxy S25 Ultra features a titanium frame. However, for 2025, Samsung wanted to buck tradition by making the phone a bit less boxy. So instead of a totally angular chassis, Samsung rounded off its corners. This gives the Ultra a bit more of a familial resemblance to its less expensive siblings (both the S25 and S25+). That said, the Ultra still has flat edges that are a touch sharper than on last year’s phone, so it's more of a remix than a full revamp.
For its front and back glass, Samsung moved to Corning’s new Gorilla Armor 2, which features a "next-gen" anti-reflective coating that helps eliminate more glare than before. But perhaps the best new hardware upgrade is a larger 6.9-inch QHD+ AMOLED display (up from 6.8 inches) with 15 percent smaller bezels, allowing for more screen space without increasing the phone’s overall dimensions (6.41 x 3.05 x 0.32 inches).
On the flip side, the S25 Ultra’s included S Pen is actually getting a tiny downgrade as Samsung is removing Bluetooth Low Energy support from the stylus. This might seem like a bit of a headscratcher, but Samsung claims only a tiny percentage of owners were using Air Actions (which was the only S Pen feature that required BT LE) and that by getting rid of it, the stylus is more durable than before because there’s no need worry about equipping it with tiny radios. The company also says the only gesture that saw significant use was the one for remotely triggering the phone’s camera, which can be accomplished in a variety of other ways (e.g. holding up your palm or using a Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Ring).
Here's a quick design comparison between the new Galaxy S25 Ultra (left) and last year's Galaxy S24 Ultra (right). Notice the smaller bezels and more rounded corners on the S25U. (Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget)
Another design quirk is that while the S25 family (including the Ultra) supports wireless charging at up to 15 watts, it’s not technically fully Qi2 compliant. Instead, Samsung says the phone is “Qi2 ready” which means it will work with compatible chargers, but because there aren’t any alignment magnets inside of the handset, users will need to rely on aftermarket cases to provide a proper mounting point for magnetic accessories.
The final noteworthy hardware addition is a new 50-megapixel sensor for the ultra-wide camera, which joins the three that return from last year’s phone: 200MP main, 10MP telephoto and 50MP telephoto cameras (with the latter two offering 3x and 5x optical zoom respectively). Samsung says there should be some general photo and image processing improvements thanks to the S25 Ultra’s new chip, such as improved noise reduction and a better spatial-temporal filter that can more accurately tell the difference between moving and stationary objects. But we’re going to wait until we can review the phone to say what these features can really do.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Inside, the S25 Ultra is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip along with 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. For buyers outside North America, Samsung says it’s using the same SoC across the globe instead of opting for its own Exynos chips in certain regions as it has in the past. The company claims general CPU performance is up 37 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, GPU speeds are up 30 percent while the S25 Ultra’s NPU has gotten the biggest boost of around 40 percent. And to help provide improved sustained performance for things like gaming, Samsung claims the S25 Ultra’s vapor chamber is 40 percent larger than before.
In real life, the phone felt expectedly responsive, though it was hard to tell if that was all thanks to the phone’s new chip or if it was due in part to the snappier animations in One UI 7, which will come pre-installed on the Galaxy S25 family. And as before, Samsung is continuing to offer seven years of OS updates and regular security patches.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Of course, as with so many other recent gadgets, the S25’s main focus is on expanded AI functionality and after introducing its first set of features on the S24 line last year, it feels like Samsung's goal was to make everything a bit more powerful and easier to use. For example, existing tools like Smart Select have been renamed to AI Select and transformed into what the company is calling AI agents. Generally, this means a single feature will support a wider range of abilities and improved contextual awareness.
Now when you tap the AI Select icon after pulling up Samsung's side bar, the phone will analyze whatever you’re looking at and provide an assortment of suggestions like taking a screenshot, performing a visual search, summarizing an article or even capturing a video clip and turning it into a GIF. It’s a similar situation for Samsung’s Sketch to Image tool which has been renamed to Drawing Assist, which not only provides more realistic results, it also allows you to add AI-generated art to photos by roughly sketching something with the S Pen or simply using text prompts. Even Google’s Circle to Search feature has gotten a small upgrade as it now supports song identification either by listening to music or someone humming a tune.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 family featuring the Galaxy S25 Ultra (left), the S25+ (middle) and the base S25 (right).
Alternatively, in order to surface information in a more timely manner, Samsung has created a Now Brief tool and Now Bar. The Now Brief is designed to provide a customized feed that appears periodically throughout the day (generally in the morning, afternoon and evening) populated by news and events relevant to you. This includes everything from appointments in your calendar to the weather and traffic. Meanwhile, the Now Bar is an offshoot of this functionality that will pop up on your lock screen or in your notifications so you can keep tabs on apps you may already have open or the score for your favorite sports teams. It's very similar in spirit to Apple's Live Activities. Samsung says it has also designed the phone to observe your habits and notice patterns so it can provide helpful shortcuts in the future. One example would be if you regularly turn on Bluetooth before getting in your car and then turn it off when you get home, which is a process the phone may be able to handle automatically.
There’s also a new Audio Eraser tool in the camera app which functions a lot like what we’ve seen in recent Pixel phones. It uses AI to identify six different types of noise like wind or speech and then creates a custom EQ allowing you to turn down distracting ambient sounds or boost the volume of whoever is talking.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
But, at least for me, the S25 line’s most powerful new AI-based ability is improved natural voice recognition, which allows the phone to perform complex tasks that may involve more than one app at a time. During my brief hands-on time, I asked the phone to add the next Detroit Lions game to my calendar. That might sound like a simple request, but if you break it down, the AI first needs to figure out which game I’m talking about based on a web search, when it’s being played, and then create an appointment inside the Samsung Calendar app. And the AI did add the relevant match to the calendar in the demo S25 Ultra I was using.
Granted, we’ve sort of seen this before, but this implementation feels much more streamlined and cohesive. You can also search for images in the Samsung Gallery app with your voice, while the enhanced natural language recognition applies to generally controlling the device as well. This means you can ask the phone to adjust specific settings like changing screen resolution, which is nice for anyone who doesn’t feel like scrolling through a seemingly endless list of options.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Lastly, some more niche improvements include support for logarithmic video capture (Galaxy Log) with exclusive look-up-tables. When watching movies or clips, Samsung is also borrowing some tech from its TV division to automatically upscale lower-res content. And for its Wallet app, the company is adding the ability to “Buy now, pay later” even when shopping at brick-and-mortar retailers or wirelessly transferring money to someone else just by tapping two devices together. However, the new Wallet features won’t be available at launch (they’re coming “sometime later”) and they will only be available when using debit cards from Visa and Mastercard.
After my short time with the S25 UItra, I came away with mixed feelings. Samsung’s general approach to AI tools feels much more cohesive and easier to get into. But I still wonder how much value they really add and how much of a benefit they will provide on a day-to-day basis. The slightly curvier chassis makes the S25 Ultra fit in more with the rest of the line’s design, but that feels like a minor change. I appreciate the new anti-reflective coating from Corning’s Gorilla Armor 2 and I’m happy to see a new sensor for the phone’s ultra-wide camera. But even so, I’m left feeling like there are a handful of features Samsung could have given a little more attention to.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
How about a bigger battery like the 6,000mAh pack in OnePlus 13 instead of the same 5,000mAh cell we’ve seen for several generations? Or what about something for the S Pen? And then there’s Samsung’s half-baked solution for supporting Qi2, which just seems a bit lazy. Don’t get me wrong, the S25 Ultra still looks like a good phone and I like that Samsung hasn’t bumped up its price for 2025. But at the same time, it seems like the biggest phone maker in the world could be doing more for its most expensive non-folding phone.
Pre-orders for the Galaxy S25 Ultra are live now starting at $1,300 with official sales slated for February 7.
