Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Review: Boring But Brilliant

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Samsung’s latest flagship phone has arrived, and it’s not the upgrade that many of us were hoping for. In fact, at a glance, you may not notice anything has changed at all. Thankfully, that’s not actually the case, and there are a handful of new things to explore.

The design has been refreshed, and we now get corners with a bit of curve to them, which should be nicer on your palms. There’s the latest Qualcomm chip, and it’s a special “For Galaxy” version, as we’ve come to expect. There’s also a new 50Mp ultrawide camera, but in terms of hardware, that’s all you get.

The rest of the innovations come via software, and they’re mostly infused with AI smarts. There are some very novel features included, but I’d expect a lot of them to arrive on Samsung’s older flagships too.

So, is it worth investing in the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, or should you stick to an older model instead? I lived with the S25 Ultra as my main device for the past week in an attempt to find out.

Design & Build

• Boxy design with curved corners
• 218g, Corning Gorilla Armor 2
• IP68 rated

The Galaxy S25 Ultra has had a bit of a design refresh this year, although it takes more than a passing glance to notice. It’s still a very familiar shape with an identical camera layout to the last few generations.

Luke Baker

The most impactful change is that the corners are a little more rounded, so they won’t poke your palms quite as much as the S24 Ultra did. However, the curve is still much sharper than the rest of the S25 family, and I think this is a wise move, as it means the phone maintains the iconic boxy shape of its predecessors.

The cameras on the rear now have a thicker black bezel around each lens, a lot like the cameras on the Z Fold 6. It’s purely an aesthetic choice, but I quite like it – it looks almost cartoon-like.

The side rails are now completely flat all the way around, matching the other S25 models, and this is still the only model with a titanium alloy frame. The S Pen is still tucked away in its usual position, and the buttons remain largely unchanged too.

Eagle-eyed Samsung fans quickly spotted a change with the S Pen, and that’s the fact that it no longer supports Bluetooth. Writing and sketching still work in the same way, but you can no longer use it as a remote camera shutter, which is a bit of a bummer.

I’m a little puzzled by this downgrade, presumably, it’s just a cost-cutting measure, but at least you still get an S Pen. I have suspicions that the people who actually use it are in the minority, so I’m always pleasantly surprised to find it hasn’t been removed entirely.

The S25