Samsung S25 Ultra

Samsung's new flagship model is a little smaller, a little more rounded, a little lighter, but still with a huge screen protected by the best Gorilla can offer, Victus 2. It also means that while Samsung prides itself on environmental awareness, existing covers don't fit it, something I find deeply frustrating as the lens moves a few millimetres every time. The dimensions and placement have been pretty much the same for a number of generations, almost back to when it was called Note, and the fact that you can't reuse your otherwise semi-expensive cover makes me quite annoyed. That said, it suits the S25 Ultra to be a little more rounded and a little more designed.

The screen has grown to 6.9" and with a slightly higher proportion of the screen area. On the other hand, the pixel density has decreased as you're still running 1440x3120. Not that I can tell... It's still a dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X display at 120Hz with 2600 nits peak brightness.

The chipset is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite on 3nm, running Android 15 and Samsung's One UI 7 interface, which is pretty sweet. It barely gets warm when gaming on it, and you should, because it's currently the best device you can get for mobile gaming, as it even supports Ray-Tracing.

Everything is beautifully wrapped in titanium, and that includes the ever-impressive S Pen. Or... S Pen Lite, because this version has lost almost all the extra functionality that has been its hallmark. I'm an avid S Pen user, but with the caveat that I probably haven't used the advanced features more than 5-6 times in the almost 10 years I've had various Ultra/Note phones. It works great as a writing tool, and that's how I've used it but not for much else. Still, it's a little strange that Bluetooth, accelerometer, gyroscope, and everything else that made the S Pen special has been removed.

The camera has been upgraded and the AI features can remove noise and voices. The former works pretty well and the latter is a little more mixed. The big news is that the ultrawide camera is now a 50MP instead of 12MP, and in addition to solid hardware, AI is naturally integrated to provide the most stable experience. Camera is one of the places where I find AI makes the most sense, especially when it comes to removing image noise. Oh and video recordings are now 10-bit, by the way.

There's a new image processor, and like other times, it may not be a huge quantum leap, but it is a reasonable improvement to its predecessor. I think night shots in particular are generally starting to look pretty decent, something all mobile phones struggle with enormously due to the physical limitations of the sensor being used. For those using things more professionally, there's both RAW photo and LOG video, opening up a myriad of editing options. It's not something I'll be using on a daily basis, but it's great that it's there.

Otherwise, it's the same story as always: a 5000 mAh battery, with no fast-charging functionality, and only 15 watts of wireless charging, which is all part of Samsung's strategy to get people to use their phone for longer before they buy a Samsung again. On the other hand, the battery also lasts a full day - even with "heavy use" - something I can attest to over the reviewing period. In fact, it's impressive that it didn't ask for a break at any point, because I bombarded it with the simultaneous use of many heavy apps.

AI is the big buzzword. Maybe that's because the S25 Ultra has built-in Samsung Galaxy AI, which is really Google's Gemini. There are several levels built in and you can choose to run things on your phone only or via the cloud, and while it's a bit complex, it's not noticeable as a user. There's also Gemini Advanced, which costs money but is much better at understanding what you want, be it large texts, integration into your emails, and other fun stuff. But the basic model, where you can talk "naturally" with your phone, doesn't cost money.

But AI still has a big problem.

It doesn't understand context at all. I asked it to compare two specific headphones and it did find prices, but then tried to give me a longer generic explanation of why more expensive headphones are better than cheap ones. My problem is that I'm an old soul, and I can do pretty much all the functions myself faster than I can dictate them to the AI. However, I will give points for the core AI functionality being run on mobile, as this should increase the chance of retaining private and sensitive information, such as "Galaxy, when is my wife's birthday?" AI can definitely do a lot of cool stuff, but I'm just a dinosaur who has a hard time integrating it naturally into my everyday life.

It's convenient that it can summarise and give an overview of the day, but I can do that in two seconds by looking at my calendar. The search function, especially for images and text, is really useful though, and I'm also in favour of the camera improvements. At the same time, it should be recognised that Samsung leaves it up to the user what is processed locally on the device in their secure Knox system and what goes to the cloud.

AI on mobile lacks some basic features, such as an easy way to summarise entire websites or texts. It still requires you to manually select the text you want to summarise, which is virtually impossible with larger texts on mobile - it's just poor at times. This is Gemini's fault and not Samsung's but it's still annoying. One of the things I think AI is brilliant at is the note/summary function, but if I have to spend several minutes to get it to work, I'd rather read the text myself.

On the other hand, the prices are quite favourable right now. All models come with 12 GB RAM, but the 256 GB and 512 GB storage models have the similar starting prices of £1,249 and £1,349, respectively. The 1 TB version, which most normal people don't need, is £1,549. It comes in six colours, of which PinkGold and JadeGreen are only available online.

But that's not the problem. Unfortunately, it's not an exorbitant price for a flagship phone in this day and age. The problem is that the Gemini AI system's advanced edition, which really unlocks the fun, requires a subscription... I simply don't see the built-in AI functionality enriching my life to a level where I'm willing to pay anything remotely resembling £18 a month for it, perhaps even more for that matter...

And that's kind of the conclusion. It's a really cool flagship model, with one of, if not the best screens on the market, an S Pen for those who often need to take notes, a couple of decent speakers, a solid battery, and some of the best camera features on the market. The AI part has a lot going for it, and if you're more interested in it than I am, it feels very futuristic to communicate with your mobile phone instead of just using it, but the fact that Samsung hasn't been allowed to offer its customers a better price or a special subscription ruins it for me.

I refuse to pay for another subscription and I refuse to pay for "extended functionality." when I already have to pay so much money for a mobile phone in the first place.