The Samsung Galaxy S25 feels like one of the least groundbreaking flagship phones in recent years. That’s not to say it’s bad—far from it. The hardware remains premium, the performance is excellent, and the camera system is good enough for most users. However, Samsung seems to be sticking to a predictable formula, making only incremental improvements over its predecessors. The Galaxy S25 is slightly better than the S24, which was slightly better than the S23, and so on.
Of course, this happens with most tech products as they reach maturity, but the Samsung Galaxy S25 makes it especially obvious. It boasts a faster chipset, more RAM, and a few new AI-driven software features, but at its core, it feels like the same device Samsung has been refining for years. Depending on how old your current phone is, these small upgrades may or may not be meaningful. It remains the best version of Samsung’s compact flagship formula, but only marginally so—and not because of AI innovations.
Price, specs, and availability
The Samsung Galaxy S25 starts at $800 for the 128GB base model, while upgrading to 256GB costs just $60 more. It’s available through major carriers and smartphone retailers, making it easy to find and purchase.
Color options include Navy, Mint, Icy Blue, and Silver Shadow, providing a sleek and stylish look. However, Samsung.com offers a few exclusive shades with rather unconventional names: Blueblack (a deep gray), Coralred (a warm pink), and Pinkgold (a beige-like tone).
Specifications
The Samsung Galaxy S25 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, delivering top-tier performance. It features a 6.2-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 2340 x 1080, ensuring smooth visuals and vibrant colors.
With 12GB of RAM, the Samsung Galaxy S25 offers seamless multitasking. Storage options include 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB, giving users flexibility. The 4,000mAh battery supports 25W fast charging, and the device charges via a USB-C port for convenience.
Running on Android 15 with One UI 7, the Samsung Galaxy S25 delivers an intuitive and feature-rich experience. The camera setup includes a 50MP f/1.8 main sensor, a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide, and a 10MP f/2.4 3x telephoto lens, while the 12MP front camera ensures sharp selfies.
Connectivity is enhanced with Bluetooth 5.4, and the device is IP68-rated, offering water and dust resistance. Measuring 146.9 x 70.5 x 7.2 mm and weighing 162g, it is lightweight and sleek. Available colors include Silver Shadow, Navy, Icy Blue, and Mint, giving users stylish options.
Design and display
The Samsung Galaxy S25 closely resembles its predecessor, the Galaxy S24, maintaining the same sleek aesthetic, flat edges, and compact size. However, it is slightly smaller and lighter, though the difference is subtle unless you compare both devices side by side. This minor change means that S24 cases won’t fit properly on the new model.
Switching from the Pixel 9 Pro, the Samsung Galaxy S25 feels notably slimmer and lighter, making the Pixel seem a bit bulky, especially around its camera bar. If you prefer small phones, this design will feel incredibly comfortable in hand.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 features the same 6.2-inch AMOLED display as its predecessor, with a 2340 x 1080 resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 2,600 nits. This ensures a vivid, sharp viewing experience, though colors may appear overly saturated by default. Thanks to its LTPO technology, it supports an always-on display, allowing your wallpaper to remain visible—something I’ll surely miss when switching back to the Pixel 9 Pro.
Other hardware and what’s in the box
Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which received a design refresh, the Samsung Galaxy S25 retains the same look as the S24—and even the S23 before it. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the hardware remains premium and well-crafted.
With a 7.2mm thin profile and a lightweight 162g build, the Samsung Galaxy S25 is incredibly comfortable to hold. Despite its featherweight feel, it maintains a solid, sturdy construction. The haptic feedback is precise and satisfying, making interactions like adjusting alarms in Samsung’s Clock app feel incredibly smooth and tactile.
Samsung has opted for a matte finish on both the glass back and aluminum rails, which enhances grip and minimizes fingerprints. While it doesn’t stray from the Galaxy S24’s design, it’s still an improvement over the S23 series, which featured glossy metal edges.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 arrives in a compact, minimalistic box, including startup literature, a USB-C-to-C cable, and a SIM ejector tool. As expected, no power brick is included in the package.
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Software and performance
Samsung’s marketing strategy for the Galaxy S25 heavily emphasizes AI-driven features. The device includes Galaxy AI capabilities such as AI-generated object additions in photos, tone adjustments in writing, and natural-language search for settings. Additionally, it boasts deep integration with Google Gemini, though these features may not provide a compelling reason to choose the S25.
The Galaxy S25 comes with Gemini pre-installed, and by default, a long press of the power button activates it. Gemini now integrates with Samsung apps, enabling tasks like adding calendar events or creating notes. It also supports Cross App Action, allowing seamless interactions across multiple apps—such as finding restaurants and drafting a text message with the results—all without issuing separate prompts. While this feature isn’t exclusive to Samsung devices, it functions just as effectively on the S25.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 introduces two AI-driven features: Now Bar and Now Brief, both designed to enhance the user experience. Now Bar appears at the bottom of the lock screen under specific conditions, offering quick access to useful information like active timers, media controls, sports scores, and Google Maps navigation steps—essentially, anything you’d want at a glance.
While the Now Bar is a welcome addition, it’s not exactly groundbreaking. It closely resembles iOS’s Live Activities, OnePlus’s Live Alerts, and Android 16’s upcoming Live Updates. Samsung’s claim that it’s AI-powered feels a bit exaggerated since the feature functions more like an enhanced widget, but it’s still a valuable inclusion in One UI.
On the other hand, Now Brief feels unnecessary. It frequently interrupts throughout the day with Midday Brief notifications, attempting to deliver weather forecasts, calendar events, upcoming alarms, news suggestions, and Spotify recommendations. While it aims to provide relevant daily insights, it often feels more intrusive than helpful.
Without even opening my Midday Brief, I already know what it contains: the hourly weather forecast and a generic message wishing me a good afternoon. Every Midday Brief follows this predictable pattern. Throughout the day, I also receive recommended playlists—often user-generated and completely irrelevant to my taste since Samsung lacks access to my Spotify account. Additionally, I get news alerts about violent crimes happening somewhere in the world, yet nothing that proactively addresses potential issues for me—something an AI-powered feature should ideally strive to accomplish.
Similar to the Now Bar where it appears, it’s odd that Samsung categorizes Now Brief as a Galaxy AI feature. Perhaps the brief’s text is AI-generated, but providing weather updates or sports scores on a schedule neither requires nor benefits from AI. In its current state, Now Brief feels like a diluted version of Google Now, a feature Google discontinued nearly a decade ago.
Even without the AI additions, One UI 7 on the Samsung Galaxy S25 isn’t particularly appealing to me. For a premium smartphone, it comes loaded with unnecessary apps—Facebook and LinkedIn shouldn’t be preinstalled, and Samsung duplicates core apps with its own versions of an internet browser, email client, and gallery app. While these choices may serve business interests, they don’t enhance the user experience—bloatware is still bloatware.
Samsung’s software design choices also feel clunky. The Edge panel shortcuts overlay is enabled by default, which can be intrusive, and the paginated, horizontal app drawer feels outdated. However, One UI 7 does introduce an optional vertically scrolling app list, which is a welcome improvement, even if the default layout remains unintuitive.
With One UI 7, the Samsung Galaxy S25 introduces a redesigned notification panel, separating notifications from quick settings. Now, swiping down from most of the top edge opens notifications, while swiping from the top-right corner brings up quick settings. Initially, this felt frustrating—using the phone one-handed, my thumb naturally landed on the quick settings panel instead of notifications, leading to constant mis-taps.
However, Samsung provides options to tweak this behavior. You can swipe horizontally to switch between views, adjust touch targets, or even disable the new layout entirely in settings. While these fixes help, the change still feels unnecessary—more like change for the sake of change rather than a true usability improvement. And knowing that iOS uses a similar setup doesn’t make it any more appealing.
It’s fair to say I’m not particularly excited about One UI 7. That said, after extensively tweaking Samsung’s default settings, I find it more tolerable. If you’re well-versed in Samsung’s software ecosystem, you might adapt easily. However, if you prefer a UI closer to AOSP, One UI’s design could feel frustrating.
Performance, on the other hand, is a different story. The Galaxy S25 is powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite (for Galaxy™) chipset, paired with 12GB of RAM—an upgrade from the 8GB in the S24. The phone is fast, fluid, and responsive. While I’m not a power user, everyday tasks like browsing the web and occasional mobile gaming feel incredibly smooth. I haven’t encountered any major performance hiccups or bugs. With Samsung promising seven years of OS updates, the S25 has the potential for long-term use, assuming you can overlook some lingering drawbacks.
Cameras
Camera performance on the Samsung Galaxy S25 remains largely unchanged from its predecessor, featuring a 50MP primary lens (defaulting to 12MP shots), a 12MP ultrawide, and a 10MP 3x telephoto on the rear, along with a 12MP selfie camera with autofocus.
In well-lit conditions, the S25’s cameras produce sharp details, lifelike contrast, and vibrant colors, delivering the reliable image quality Samsung users expect. However, in low light, sharpness noticeably declines, and moving subjects in dim settings often appear blurry, making night photography one of the phone’s weaker points.
No camera performs as well in low light as it does in bright conditions, but competitors have made significant progress in this area. The Samsung Galaxy S25 struggles where others, like Google’s Pixel 9, excel. Indoors with dim lighting, the Pixel 9 captures reasonably sharp photos of my dogs, while the Galaxy S25 often fails to retain detail. In one instance, my dog was completely still, yet the S25’s image processing blurred his face.
Another example is a shot of the Playhouse Square sign, taken while I was crossing the street at a slow pace. The resulting image was disappointingly blurry, proving that capturing motion without strong lighting is a challenge for the Samsung Galaxy S25. Granted, Samsung releases its phones in the middle of winter in the US, meaning much of my experience with the camera has been in poor lighting conditions. Still, while the S25’s camera delivers generally decent results, it rarely impresses.
Battery and charging
The Samsung Galaxy S25 features a 4,000mAh battery, supporting wired charging up to 25 watts and wireless charging capped at 15 watts—identical to last year’s Galaxy S24. There are no notable upgrades in charging speed or battery capacity.
For a compact device, the Galaxy S25’s battery life is decent. On average, I get around five to six hours of screen time spread across two days. Heavy users can expect a little over six hours on a single charge. In comparison, the similarly priced Pixel 9 delivers about eight hours of screen time per charge. Granted, Google’s phone has a thicker build and a larger battery, but that trade-off seems worthwhile for extended usage.
Competition
The Samsung Galaxy S25 is priced at $800, placing it in direct competition with the non-Pro Pixel 9, which shares the same price point. When compared, the Galaxy S25 stands out for being thinner, lighter, and more compact overall.
It also boasts a 3x telephoto camera, an advantage over the Pixel 9, which lacks a dedicated telephoto lens. While Samsung’s flagship excels in build quality and processing power, Google’s Pixel 9 still holds the edge in overall photo quality, even without a zoom lens. Additionally, Google’s Android experience remains preferable to One UI 7 for many users.
For those seeking a more budget-friendly alternative, the OnePlus 13R enters the conversation at $600. It offers a larger display and a significantly bigger battery capable of lasting two days on a single charge. Performance remains strong, featuring 12GB of RAM like the Samsung Galaxy S25, alongside last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset.
However, despite its solid battery life, the Galaxy S25 is generally the superior device, delivering faster performance, better photography capabilities, and longer OS update support. That said, the $200 price gap might make the OnePlus 13R an attractive option, depending on individual priorities.
Should you buy it?
There are two perspectives when evaluating the Samsung Galaxy S25. First, for casual buyers who only consider phone reviews when upgrading, it’s a solid choice. If you’re coming from a device that’s at least two years old, the Galaxy S25 offers a well-rounded experience with strong performance and premium build quality. While the Pixel 9, priced similarly, might take better photos, those who prefer Samsung or find a great carrier deal will still appreciate this refined flagship.
However, from a more critical standpoint, the Samsung Galaxy S25 doesn’t bring major innovation. That’s not to say it’s a bad phone—it handles all smartphone tasks smoothly and even excels in some aspects. This year, Samsung boosted RAM to 12GB, a welcome jump from the 8GB that had been standard since the Galaxy S20. Performance gets the expected annual upgrade, and yes, it’s undeniably better than the S24, which was already impressive.
Yet, the S25 follows a pattern of incremental improvements. The display remains unchanged from the S24, the cameras see no upgrades, and battery capacity and charging speeds remain the same. While the Snapdragon 8 Elite outperforms last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 on paper, the real-world speed difference is barely noticeable. Even with its shift to a 3nm chipset, battery life improvements are minimal. Samsung clearly sticks to a winning formula—but as the leader in the Android market, it would be great to see more bold innovation.
For those upgrading from a 2022 or older device, the Samsung Galaxy S25 is a strong contender, offering a premium compact smartphone experience. But if you already own an S24 or S23, or if you can find an S24 at a lower price, there’s little incentive to upgrade this year.