Samsung Galaxy S25 overview: Thrilling cellphone, boring replace

The Galaxy S Extremely gadgets all the time get all the eye, however maybe extra fascinating are the bottom fashions that accompany them. The Samsung Galaxy S25 isn’t as high-tech as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, however at that cheaper price level, it’s nonetheless most likely a greater purchase for most individuals.

That mentioned, the Galaxy S25 and S25+ symbolize even much less of an replace over the earlier technology than the Galaxy S25 Extremely. The Extremely no less than acquired a tweaked design to deliver it extra consistent with the bottom fashions, however as the bottom fashions, the design tweaks to the Galaxy S25 and S25+ are a lot tougher to identify.

Does the Samsung Galaxy S25 actually symbolize maybe essentially the most minor replace in smartphone historical past, or is there a little bit extra to it? On this overview, I’m going to debate the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25+ collectively, however I solely totally examined the Galaxy S25+. The gadgets are related in some ways, and I’ll be aware any variations as I am going.

Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25+: Specs

Design

The Samsung Galaxy S25 is extremely related in design to the S24 earlier than it. There are some variations, however they’re very laborious to identify, and except you used the S24 for a yr, it’s unlikely that you just’d discover the distinction simply by wanting on the S25 or S25+.

The gadgets nonetheless have flat edges with an aluminum body, and so they nonetheless have the vertically aligned triple-camera array on the highest left of the again. You’ll nonetheless get the quantity rocker and energy button on the fitting edge, together with the USB-C port on the underside.

So what’s new? Effectively, Samsung says that the bezels across the show are barely smaller, which makes for a minor change within the system’s footprint. Moreover, it’s thinner by round half a millimeter. Once more, a minor change, however nonetheless a welcome one.

The largest change to the cellphone comes within the type of the brand new colours, which look nice. My Galaxy S25+ is the Navy colour, and I believe it seems to be incredible. That mentioned, it’s not as shiny because the coral purple colour possibility, although that possibility is simply obtainable on-line.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

Even supposing the adjustments to the cellphone’s design are so small, it’s nonetheless a handsome cellphone. It’s snug to carry and feels skinny within the hand. The Galaxy S25+ that I’m utilizing isn’t too large for me, although these searching for a small cellphone expertise will wish to go for the smaller S25.

Show

On the Samsung Galaxy S25, you’ll get a 6.2-inch show with a 1080p decision. Nonetheless, the Galaxy S25+ steps that as much as a 1440p decision, which will increase the pixel density a good quantity. Each telephones have an LTPO AMOLED 2X display with an adaptive refresh fee as much as 120Hz or as little as 1Hz. They usually each have a peak brightness of 2600 nits.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

The show on the Galaxy S25+ seems to be wonderful. It’s very crisp and detailed, and it’s almost inconceivable to see particular person pixels with out wanting extremely intently. Whereas I haven’t totally reviewed the Galaxy S25, I did have an opportunity to test it out for just a few hours and located that the show was simply crisp and detailed sufficient, particularly given its smaller measurement.

The display was very responsive too, because of the excessive refresh fee, and I discovered it acquired simply shiny sufficient for even out of doors use. Frankly, smartphone shows have been getting higher and higher, to the purpose the place even mid-range telephones provide stunning-looking screens. The Galaxy S25 and S25+ aren’t mid-range telephones, however relaxation assured that the shows on each of them look wonderful, even when the Galaxy S25+’s show is that additional bit extra detailed.

Efficiency

Like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the bottom Galaxy S25 and S25+ are powered by a specially-tuned model of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor — and right here, it’s coupled with 12GB of RAM. Crucially, all variations of the Galaxy S25 are powered by this chip — there’s no Exynos mannequin of the Galaxy S25 in any markets this yr.

As talked about, the model of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip within the Galaxy S25 is custom-built for these telephones, designed to supply higher energy effectivity and improved efficiency. You gained’t actually discover a distinction in efficiency between the Galaxy S25 and different Snapdragon 8 Elite telephones, however hopefully, the {custom} adjustments do make for a greater battery life.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

Customized or in any other case, the Galaxy S25 performs excellently. The cellphone is extremely responsive and really fast, in a position to deal with all the pieces you would assume to throw at it in 2025. It performs video games like a champ, loading even difficult video games comparatively rapidly and refusing to skip a body when you play.

That isn’t all that shocking for a flagship-level cellphone in 2025. All telephones with the newest top-tier chip carry out very nicely. What stays to be seen nevertheless, is how the cellphone holds up in efficiency through the years to return. That’s one thing you’ll be able to’t take a look at with out the advantage of years to make use of a tool, although.

Listed here are the benchmark outcomes I achieved with the Galaxy S25+.

• GeekBench 6: 3174 single-core, 9922 multi-core
• 3DMark Wild Life Excessive: 6927

These are superb outcomes and basically present that the Galaxy S25 is on the high of the sport with regards to smartphone efficiency. These outcomes additionally present a cellphone that’s very aggressive with the iPhone 16 Professional, particularly with regards to multi-core efficiency, although the iPhone nonetheless wins in single-core efficiency.

The Galaxy S25 comes with both 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of storage — although the Galaxy S25+ does away with the 128GB possibility.

Battery life and charging

The Galaxy S25 and S25+ each have the identical battery measurement as final yr’s mannequin, however I discovered battery life on the S25+ to be wonderful. I’ve been simply in a position to get by way of a full day of even heavier use and nicely right into a second day, and it will be comparatively straightforward to get two full days of use so long as it’s underneath a lighter workload with out taxing duties like cellular gaming. Anecdotally, the battery life within the Galaxy S25+ appears to be much like the Galaxy S25 Extremely. It’s a barely smaller battery, however the display measurement is smaller too, so it is smart that you’d get an equal battery life out of the cheaper cellphone.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

Sadly, the charging expertise supplied by the Galaxy S25 and S25+ simply isn’t actually the place it ought to be. The smaller Galaxy S25 helps wired charging of as much as 25W, which is slower than the Galaxy S25+ and Extremely’s 45W charging, and far slower than the competitors from the likes of OnePlus. That is an space the place neither Samsung nor Apple has been innovating a lot, even supposing Chinese language competitors has been, and it’s an space the place they might each dramatically enhance.

Technically, the Galaxy S25 and S25+ assist the Qi2.1 wi-fi charging commonplace, permitting them to cost wirelessly at as much as 15W. Nonetheless, they don’t have the magnets generally related to Qi2, in order that they gained’t assist these magnetic equipment with no case that provides the magnets. I’m glad the charging pace is there, however I really like the magnetic accent ecosystem now obtainable for iPhone gadgets, and I’d like to see Android competitors hop on board that pattern.

Digicam

As standard, Samsung is pushing the boundaries of digital camera efficiency on the Galaxy S25 Extremely, leaving the usual Galaxy S25 and S25+ with a barely worse digital camera expertise general. The gadgets provide a 50-megapixel important digital camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide digital camera, and a 10-megapixel telephoto digital camera with 3x optical zoom. Solely the telephoto digital camera is a digital camera that may be discovered on the S25 Extremely — although within the case of the Extremely, it’s arguably the secondary telephoto digital camera that serves as a stopgap between the principle digital camera and the periscope telephoto that hits 5x optical zoom.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

Regardless of the clearly lower-quality digital camera in comparison with the Galaxy S25 Extremely, the Galaxy S25+, photos captured by the system nonetheless typically look nice. In 95% of conditions, photos are simply pretty much as good as these captured by the higher-end cellphone. However when you begin pushing the digital camera a little bit, you’ll be able to see why the digital camera on the S25 Extremely is a little bit higher. For instance, whereas zoomed pictures as much as round 6x or 7x look good, additional zoom begins to make photos look a little bit unnatural. That’s one thing that the Galaxy S25 Extremely is ready to keep away from with the 5x periscope telephoto lens, which helps push the boundaries of how a lot digital zoom can be utilized whereas retaining a pure look.

The Galaxy S25 and S25+ additionally don’t get the S25 Extremely’s new ultra-wide digital camera. That implies that macro pictures are nowhere close to as detailed or lifelike, although fortunately, they nonetheless look stable. Low-light pictures look fairly good too.

There are some AI-based digital camera enhancing options on the Galaxy S25 and S25+ too. For instance, the system now has Audio Eraser, which helps you to handle the audio in a video recording by pulling again issues like wind noise or different noise and highlighting voices or music. Options like Magic Eraser have improved too, providing extra natural-looking photos extra of the time.

Typically talking, the Galaxy S25 and S25+ merely don’t examine with the likes of the iPhone 16 Professional, Galaxy S25 Extremely, and Pixel 9 Professional. The triple digital camera array does make for a flexible digital camera system that’s in a position to seize vibrant and detailed photos the overwhelming majority of the time. Don’t anticipate that photos will look subpar; they gained’t. They’ll look nice in all however essentially the most difficult situations. It’s simply that these higher-end telephones can carry out in extra of these difficult situations.

Software program

AI is the massive focus for software program this yr, not solely on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but in addition on the opposite two Galaxy S25 gadgets too. That largely begins with the Now Bar, a little bit notification bar on the lock display that may present issues like sports activities scores, climate data, and extra. Tapping on it’ll deliver you to the so-called “Now Temporary,” which wraps all that data up right into a single display, and contains issues like sleep knowledge and calendar occasions.

The function is completely tremendous, however I didn’t discover myself essentially utilizing all of it that a lot. Given the truth that it integrates with different Samsung apps and companies, these deep within the Samsung ecosystem might discover it extra helpful than those that solely use a Samsung smartphone.

One other large change is the truth that Google’s Gemini is now extra deeply embedded within the software program expertise, additional pushing Bixby to the background, although you’ll nonetheless want to make use of Bixby to regulate issues like gadgets in Samsung SmartThings.

Different elements of One UI are tremendous, although One UI has by no means been my most popular Android pores and skin. There are nonetheless loads of Samsung and Microsoft apps pre-installed, and I nonetheless don’t discover it to be as clear because the pores and skin that Google ships on Pixel gadgets. Nonetheless, should you’re used to Samsung telephones, then you definitely’ll like One UI 7.

Conclusions

Put merely, the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25+ are a little bit boring. They provide no main enhancements to actually any side of the cellphone — solely actually iterating with regards to efficiency. Whereas different elements of the cellphone may get a minor bump, just like the digital camera, because of improved picture processing, the actual fact is that the Galaxy S25 and S25+ are as minor of an replace as I can keep in mind in current historical past.

However that definitely doesn’t make them dangerous telephones. Quite the opposite, they’re nonetheless among the many greatest gadgets of their worth vary. Must you replace from the Galaxy S24? Positively not, however should you’re due for a brand new cellphone and like Samsung gadgets, you’ll be able to’t lose by going for the S25 collection.

The competitors

With such a minor replace, maybe the most important competitors to the S25 comes from final yr’s S24. If you could find an ideal deal on an S24 and will stand to avoid wasting money, you gained’t be lacking out on a lot by shopping for it over the S25.

Different competitors exists too although. The Pixel collection is value mentioning, contemplating the truth that I discover it to supply a greater software program expertise. That mentioned, for a digital camera expertise that’s as versatile on the Pixel, you’ll have to get no less than the $999.99 Pixel 9 Pro, which is simply a little bit bigger than the bottom Galaxy S25. And, you’ll must be tremendous with a lower-performance chip.

Ought to I purchase the Samsung Galaxy S25?

Sure. It might be an extremely minor replace over final yr, however it’s nonetheless an ideal cellphone.