Samsung Galaxy S25 review: A little ultra, a lot of value

's Galaxy S series has come a long way. The phones have undergone many changes over the series' decade-long journey, and the Galaxy S25 emerges as perhaps the most refined iteration yet — not through revolutionary leaps, but through meticulous refinement. Where its predecessors dazzled with hardware innovations, this year's model pivots towards software finesse, with Galaxy AI emerging as the cornerstone of Samsung's vision. But, there’s more to the S25, the phones maintains a quietly confident stance that delivers without fanfare—all wrapped in a familiar, yet somehow more elegant package (do read our Galaxy S25 Ultra review for context).
As usual, there are three different Galaxy S25s to choose from — a regular S25, a Plus and an Ultra. The Ultra remains the absolute best, but the standard S25 carves out its own identity in the shadow of its Ultra sibling, challenging Samsung's typical hierarchy.
Unlike the Ultra, which must justify its considerable price premium of Rs 1,29,999 through titanium frames and 5x optical cameras, courting power users willing to drop serious cash for every possible feature, and the Plus which tries to find middle ground, the standard S25, which almost costs half of Ultra having a price tag of Rs 80,999, poses an important question: do you really need to spend more?
Look past the understated silhouette, and you'll find the S25 is practically as Ultra as a small phone could get — the same chip, the same main camera, and the AI-enhanced OS — all matching features but in a smaller and affordable chassis. So the question becomes: Does the "base model" finally shed enough compromises to become the smart choice for most people? Well, I might have an answer for you.


It seems to be a time when phone makers have taken the "looks don't matter" philosophy a little too seriously. Just look at the phones; they all look the same — and the Galaxy S25 is no different. The S25 has essentially the same chassis as the Galaxy S24 that was already easily manageable with one hand, but Samsung has trimmed about 0.4mm off the chassis and 4 grams off the S24's weight, making the S25 a little more comfortable to hold. The camera rings on the back continue to be subtle, though they're now black in color.

The similarities don't end here. The reasonably sized 6.2-inch screen on the S25 is exactly the same as the one on last year's S24. The only upgrade here is that the bezels around it are slightly slimmer. The rest is all the same: a bright, colorful, and smooth AMOLED screen that's as good as you can get on the Ultra. A great screen will hardly displease you if you prefer a smaller phone. If not, there's a Plus model for you too.
Is this "all too similar" vibe a bad thing? Not really — because it still looks and feels premium — and year-old phones that someone might have bought a couple of months ago only, don't suddenly feel out of place, which is a good thing, right?

Now, let's get into details. The phone has the same matte finish on the sides and on the glass back that are still flat. Samsung is calling the chassis of the S25 the second-generation Armor Aluminum, not as robust as the titanium of the Ultra but not any lesser either. The Galaxy S25 is IP68-rated, providing the usual dust and water resistance. The front is protected by Gorilla Glass Armor 2, but it misses out on the "too good to be true" anti-reflective coating, which most of us hoped would be on the regular Galaxy S series phone after being an Ultra exclusive for a year.
If you are coming from an S24 (you might have your reasons), there are some new colors to get the S25 in, like Icy Blue, Silver Shadow, and Navy. Looks like this is also the year of muted colors.

The real beauty lies within, not just of a person but also of this phone. The Galaxy S25 comes with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite chip beneath its understated chassis, and what makes it more special is that it's made for Galaxy phones from the ground up; essentially, it's been overclocked a little. And let's be honest, even if it wasn't overclocked, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is far ahead of the Exynos 2400 that was inside the Galaxy S24. This deserves to be called the real upgrade, and you could even say it is the USP of this phone — that it has the same power as its Ultra sibling — in a smaller chassis and at a lower price.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite is the fastest chip to be inside an Android phone, so it means you have the best power that translates to a buttery smooth experience. The phone handles every task with ease, and while it can handle every AAA mobile title without any slouch, it isn't the ideal phone for gaming. Why so? The S25 misses out on the larger vapor chamber of its Ultra sibling that would help in more sustainable performance.

Another spec bump that helps this smooth performer is the RAM upgrade. Compared to the S24 that had 8GB of RAM, the S25 comes with 12GB across all its storage options. That's 4 gigs of extra RAM, which is plenty more to keep things running smoothly and even helps the AI capabilities of the phone (more on that in a bit). The phone has 128GB of base storage that goes up to 512GB.
Now, onto the AI capabilities of the phone. Samsung is one of the early adopters of the AI trend, and that momentum isn't slowing down. Among other changes, OneUI 7 incorporates even more AI features.
There are the usual writing tools, clean-up tools, draw-to-create functionality, transcription, and summarization that uses generative AI. The new in OneUI 7 is a an artificially intelligence, personalized briefing tool that'll keep you caught up with your day. The S25 phones also get Google’s Pixel-like AV tricks, such as face swapping and a magic eraser for noise removal. Some apps can now understand natural English. Samsung has its own version of Google's Circle to Search called AI Select, which can't perform internet searches but can handle other functions like translation and generative editing.
Bixby is being retired for Google's Gemini, which will be the go-to assistant, at least for now, and can perform tasks for you across different apps. Oddly enough, Bixby is still there as a standalone app (also inside the Camera app), and has generative AI capabilities and can take actions — but it's dormant. And it's not the only dormant artificial intelligence on the phone. The good-old Google Assistant is still there, and there's also Microsoft Copilot 365 that comes pre-installed on the phone. So, the phone has a total of four AI assistants, but do you really even need one?
Gemini is smart, and it gets you what you ask for. Ask it silly questions, it'll have answers for that. Tell Gemini to add an event to your calendar or a brief note, it'll do that. Need directions to a restaurant, that can also be done. Something of a YouTube video you're watching, yes that's also possible. But is it right every time? Not really.

I asked Gemini to give me a recipe of potato chips, so I can make some at home for the cricket season. While it gave me what I asked note, it added a little extra information on top, which seems to be fabricated - a recipe for "fashion chips," apparently Gemini thinks that'sn what I asked for. When I questioned this, Gemini confidently insisted this existed. So, while yes it works, and it is good enough to get things done quickly and handle basic tasks, it's still best practice to do a quick internet search by yourself.

Other assistants, you practically don't need them. But credit where due, Bixby is a lot smarter than the last time I encountered it. Not as good as Gemini or even Copilot, but it can get stuff done, and it's sad that it has nothing much to do these days.

Now Brief is the feature I mentioned three paragraphs ago that is supposed to keep you caught up on your day, but for me, it didn’t do much beyond showing the weather three times a day. For some, it also displayed Spotify recommendations and news headlines, though even they felt it wasn’t particularly in tune with their actual tastes. That said, others have had a better experience than I did. I asked a few people using the S25 around me, and they said Now Brief surfaced more relevant suggestions, like health data from Galaxy Fit, also music and video recommendations. However, it took time for these personalized suggestions to show up, and it also seems to work better if you’re already in the Galaxy ecosystem.

Besides all these new artificial intelligence tricks, the OneUI 7 has also went under some cosmetic changes. One big change is the Now Bar that not only houses the Now Brief but also acts up a mini interface to music, clock, sports score, and voice recording to name a few (and there’s only a few of them, like 8 apps that work with it). You can think of it as pretty much Samsung’s Dynamic Island - just that it’s on the bottom of the screen rather than being up there.
You'll also notice some subtle design changes throughout the interface, like the new icons, smoother animations, and widgets that also look a little different now. The notification panel is now split, and quick settings has this very iOS-like look. All this adds up to an intuitive and breezy interface that had me thoroughly satisfied.
Samsung is continuing their promise of 7 years of OS updates it made the last year. That's great, since someone buying an S25 will get, if not all, at least some of the features that Samsung brings with the S26 and beyond. But that also means a year-old S24 will get the same features as the S25 — something to consider when buying new Galaxy S series phones.
The battery, it’s also the same as the S24, but the S25 lasts longer. The 4,000mAh battery now lasts for almost a full day of moderate usage, which wasn't the case before. The 8 Elite proves its worth once again. However, charging the phone isn't any better. The S25 takes well over an hour to charge fully, as the maximum power delivery continues to be limited at 25W, and wireless charging is even slower, being capped at 15W. The S25 has Qi2 compatibility, but the phone doesn't have magnets inside, so you'd need to put on a case to use those MagSafe-like accessories.

The other thing Samsung is continuing from the last year is the same camera setup. The S25 has a 50MP wide, a 12MP ultra-wide, and 10MP telephoto — exactly the same as the S24, S23, and S22. It misses out on the new 50MP ultra-wide found in its Ultra sibling, but the 12MP ultra-wide is fairly good and maintains the same color palette as the main camera, which continues to deliver crisp, oversaturated pictures. And while the 3x telephoto can't zoom as far as the Ultra or even some other phones, it's quite dependable for those distant shots.




Yes, the cameras are aging, but the setup somehow just works every time you press the shutter, whether it's day or night, consistently. Even the 12MP front camera is quite good with details and skin tones. It has the face swap feature, so if you feel a photo doesn't have your best take, you can simply use this feature to insert a better version of yourself, but it might not necessarily pick your best takes. The other AI edit features, like generative edit, sketch to image, and portrait studio, are fun and sometimes useful.
The videos from these cameras, while not the best available, have been notably improved compared to previous Galaxy phones. They capture in HDR by default now and can also do log videos. Samsung has also included an audio eraser that does a fairly good job of eliminating noise, though a caution: it sometimes leaves human voices sounding a bit robotic.

The Galaxy S25 finds itself in the curious position of being both thoroughly impressive and completely forgettable. In a lineup where the Ultra demands attention for just simply being extra in every possible aspect, the standard S25 stands on its own, making most sense for the money. It delivers everything most users actually need—the same powerful processor, solid cameras, and comprehensive AI features—without the Ultra's eye-watering price tag. Samsung has created a phone that's impressively capable but lacks any compelling narrative beyond "it works well.”
Perhaps this is the inevitable endpoint of phone evolution— so mature that the only real differentiator is how they feel in your hand and their price point. The S25 doesn't inspire passion, but it doesn't need to. It's the rational choice in Samsung's lineup, offering the substance of its flashier siblings without the premium for features you'll rarely use. The S25 is the definition of boring brilliance — a phone that will never disappoint you in daily use but won't start conversations either. And in 2025, that might be the highest praise possible for a mainstream flagship.