Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely assessment: Iteration finished proper

The “Extremely” system within the Galaxy lineup has lengthy served as the perfect of the perfect for Android-lovers who aren’t able to go for a foldable, and need these top-tier specs above all else. However over the previous few years, a sample has emerged. The world of smartphones is slowing down, and the year-over-year innovation that we noticed within the 2010s has given method to year-over-year iteration. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely completely embodies this.

Now, to be clear, the Galaxy S25 Extremely is actually an amazing telephone — possibly the perfect. And, in each single part beneath, you’ll see me sing its praises. However, you may also see one thing else — the noting of the truth that the Galaxy S25 Extremely is extra like final 12 months’s telephone than ever earlier than.

Is {that a} dangerous factor? Nope. It’s only a boring factor. Samsung is fast to level out enhancements in AI as what breathes new life into its smartphone lineup, however as a telephone reviewer, I’m all too accustomed to the truth that software program comes and goes, modifications over time, and admittedly, is just a part of a a lot greater story in relation to recommending devices.

Maybe all of it is a little too harsh, although. In spite of everything, how a lot better does the perfect actually should be?

Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely specs

A refined, and extra cohesive, design

One of many largest modifications to the Galaxy S25 Extremely in comparison with the S24 Extremely? Design — and the modifications are minimal.

The Galaxy S25 Extremely will get rounded corners and flat edges, bringing its general look far more in keeping with the remainder of the units in the Galaxy S25 series. I fairly like this modification — the distinction in design has all the time felt a bit of awkward and incohesive, even when it made sense given the truth that the Extremely succeeded the much-loved Galaxy Notice.

Like final 12 months, the Galaxy S25 Extremely has a brushed titanium body, and for this 12 months, it curves properly across the corners. On the best of these edges might be discovered the amount rocker and energy button, whereas the USB-C port and S-Pen might be discovered on the underside.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

The Galaxy S25 Extremely is available in a number of completely different colours, however all of them are considerably muted. I fairly just like the Titanium Blue shade, however I additionally want the telephone got here in the identical enjoyable colours on provide by the usual Galaxy S25 fashions, just like the CoralRed possibility — even when that shade is an internet unique.

Nonetheless, you’d be hard-pressed to argue that the Galaxy S25 Extremely doesn’t look extremely premium. It’s a really well-built telephone, with a clearly sturdy construct. And, I’m glad the S Pen remains to be right here.

S Pen

The S Pen should still be right here, however it’s not as superior because it was earlier than. Samsung says that nobody actually used the options related to the S Pen’s Bluetooth connectivity — so it eliminated them. This 12 months, the S Pen is only a fundamental stylus.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

I’m one of many apparently many individuals that didn’t actually use these options, so I by no means actually observed them gone. That stated, people who do use them can be dissatisfied, and it feels bizarre that Samsung eliminated options. It feels even weirder that you could’t even use the Galaxy S24 Ultra‘s S Pen with the brand new system in any respect — so that you’re caught dropping options even if you happen to’re keen to pay extra to get them again.

Nonetheless, the S Pen within the Galaxy S25 Extremely nonetheless felt pure and responsive, and it’ll nonetheless do the trick for energy customers who really use it as, you recognize, the stylus that it’s.

A vibrant and responsive display screen

On the entrance of the Galaxy S25 Extremely might be discovered probably the greatest shows within the enterprise. We’re form of in a lull in show growth proper now, at the very least so far as smartphones go. That’s to say, all flagship telephones provide a superb show with a excessive decision, excessive brightness, and adaptive refresh price.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

The show on the Galaxy S25 Extremely measures 6.9 inches and has a 1440 x 3120 decision. It’s an LTPO AMOLED 2X display screen with a refresh price that may differ from 1Hz to 120Hz and a peak brightness of 2600 nits.

All that tech equates to an excellent-looking display screen. It simply will get shiny sufficient to be used open air, and it feels easy and responsive, whether or not you’re utilizing it together with your arms or with the S Pen.

Gaming-phone efficiency

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely is powered by a custom-built model of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. Not like a number of years in the past, this chipset powers each model of the Galaxy S25, so that you don’t have to fret about getting a lower-power Exynos chip such as you used to.

So what’s completely different about this chip? Primarily, it’s designed to scale back energy consumption on Galaxy units, whereas being higher optimized for efficiency. Will you get a radically completely different expertise in comparison with a non-Galaxy Snapdragon 8 Elite telephone? Not essentially, however improved energy consumption can translate to raised battery life, which is all the time useful. Moreover, the Galaxy S25 sequence is the primary sequence of telephones to help Snapdragon Satellite tv for pc options, nevertheless that can require help out of your mobile supplier too — in contrast to related options on the iPhone or Pixel sequence.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

In fundamental efficiency, although, the Galaxy S25 Extremely performs like a beast. It’s extremely responsive and in a position to deal with heavy multitasking whereas loading even heavier cell video games with ease. It’ll run all of these trendy video games, like Genshin Impact, in excessive settings with out breaking a sweat — and Samsung says it has improved its vapor chamber cooling tech for the Galaxy S25 sequence. Arguably, the Galaxy S25 Extremely is a greater gaming telephone than nearly all of different gaming telephones on the market.

Listed below are the benchmark outcomes I achieved with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely.

• GeekBench 6: 3143 single-core, 10123 multi-core
• 3DMark Wild Life Excessive: 6788

These are wonderful outcomes, and so they present that the times of Android units always lagging behind the iPhone in efficiency are over. Whereas the iPhone 16 Professional does nonetheless obtain a greater single-core rating on GookBench 6, for instance, the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s multi-core scores are a good bit higher than the A18 Professional.

A responsive really feel and the flexibility to deal with heavy multitasking are each issues that each different flagship telephone can obtain. Regardless, it’s best to count on the Galaxy S25 Extremely to carry out effectively for years to come back.

Lengthy battery life

The battery measurement of the Galaxy S25 Extremely is similar as final 12 months’s Galaxy S24 Extremely — 5,000mAh. That stated, the precise battery life appears to have improved.

I used to be simply in a position to get via a full day of even heavier use with a great 50% or so remaining, and I most likely may have stretched the system to 2 days of sunshine use. That’s higher than a lot of the competitors, and it highlights the improved energy effectivity of not solely the Qualcomm Snapdragon. Elite, however this explicit model of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

The charging tech on provide by the Galaxy S25 Extremely is a little bit of a combined bag. The system helps quick wired charging at 45W, which is ok, however nowhere close to a lot of the competitors from China, and is what Samsung has provided for a few years now. It might be good to see Samsung work on upping the wired charging speeds on its units.

The telephone does help decently fast wi-fi charging, although. It helps wi-fi charging at as much as 15W, which isn’t dangerous. Sadly, it doesn’t have the magnets for Qi2 equipment — so if you wish to benefit from magnetic equipment, you’ll have to get a case with the magnets constructed into it. I want to see Samsung undertake full, magnetic Qi2 for the S26 sequence.

An ever-improving digicam

The Galaxy sequence all the time affords a high-end digicam system, and the Galaxy S25 Extremely is not any exception to that rule. Like in earlier years, the system has a quad-camera setup, and whereas most of these cameras are the identical as on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, there’s an upgraded ultrawide sensor.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

First, the {hardware}. The principle digicam is a 200 megapixel digicam with optical picture stabilization. It’s coupled with a brand new 50 megapixel ultrawide digicam with a 120-degree area of view. There are two telephoto cameras, together with one 10 megapixel telephoto digicam with 3x optical zoom and one 50 megapixel periscope telephoto digicam with OIS and 5x optical zoom. It’s a flexible collection of cameras that ought to make for strong photographs in all conditions.

Certainly, the telephone was in a position to seize beautiful photographs in each state of affairs I put it via. In well-lit environments, photos are detailed and crisp, and whereas it was doable to push the telephone a bit of in some low-light eventualities, it simply saved up with the competitors in offering fairly shiny photos that weren’t blurry. I cherished the upgraded ultra-wide digicam’s skill to seize wonderful macro photographs too.

I additionally actually just like the Galaxy S25 Extremely’s twin telephoto digicam strategy. It helps plug the hole between the lossless 2x zoom you may get on the principle digicam and the 5x zoom you’ll get with the periscope telephoto lens. After all, it does make for a busy look on the again, however for a lot of, it’ll be definitely worth the trade-off.

As we’ve come to count on from Samsung, photos appeared fairly pure and vibrant, with out making use of an excessive amount of of a “look.” Against this, the default settings on an iPhone will produce barely extra orange-looking photographs, whereas the Pixel will introduce a bit of extra distinction — although all of those corporations have been engaged on tech that lets the consumer change picture processing.

Due to Samsung’s emphasis on wonderful zoom tech, the Galaxy S25 Extremely does certainly seize higher photos than a lot of the competitors at greater ranges of zoom. Photos captured at 10x zoom had been extra vibrant and colourful than the likes of the iPhone 16 Professional, and extra detailed than the OnePlus 13. The principle competitor in digital zoom high quality is the Pixel sequence, however even then, I believed the Galaxy S25 Extremely produced barely extra detailed and vibrant photographs than the Pixel 9 Professional XL.

All that to say, the digicam on the Galaxy S25 Extremely is implausible. It’s not essentially objectively higher at 1x zoom, for instance, however it’s higher at greater ranges of zoom.

As you’ll count on, there are some AI-based digicam options new for the Galaxy S25 Extremely. The system now has the Pixel’s Audio Eraser characteristic, which basically makes use of AI to detect completely different noises in a video and means that you can increase or take away them to your desire. It might probably turn out to be useful for eradicating issues like wind noise or background noise and focusing extra on one thing like a dialog or a musician taking part in. Different options have been improved, like the flexibility to take away objects in a photograph and have the system naturally exchange these objects with no matter was within the background. This characteristic appears to be working higher and higher, and pictures that make use of it are beginning to look a complete lot extra pure.

Private AI, embedded in One UI

AI is getting more and more embedded into Android as a complete, however Samsung is usually the primary to debut a few of these new options. The Galaxy S25 Extremely ships with One UI 7 together with a spread of recent AI-based options that some could love and others could not discover all that helpful.

Maybe essentially the most hyped of those new options is the Now Bar that Samsung has been advertising and marketing. It’s just like the iPhone’s Dynamic Island however on the backside of the display screen as an alternative of the highest. It might probably present info like sports activities scores, climate, and so forth. Tapping on it might convey you to the “Now Transient,” an summary of the day, together with climate, calendar gadgets, sleep info, and extra.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

It’s a neat method to convey a spread of data into one display screen — although I think about that these not deeply embedded in Samsung’s ecosystem could not essentially discover it as helpful as those that use a Samsung smartwatch, Samsung good residence units, and so forth.

Different software program modifications come within the type of elevated help for Google’s Gemini. Gemini is the default assistant on the Galaxy S25 Extremely and might be pulled up with a press and maintain of the facet button. For the S25 sequence, Gemini also can carry out actions inside some apps, corresponding to creating calendar occasions and discovering a season schedule in your favourite sports activities crew. Primarily, Samsung is additional and additional deprioritizing Bixby, although you’ll nonetheless have to depend on Bixby to manage some issues, just like the units in Samsung SmartThings.

Lots of the AI-based options within the Galaxy S25 sequence are powered by what Samsung calls the Private Knowledge Engine, which analyzes your knowledge to ship customized responses. I count on we’ll see an increasing number of private options as AI continues to evolve, however for now, they nonetheless really feel considerably restricted and a bit of pressured.

Conclusions

Unsurprisingly, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely is a wonderful smartphone. It could really feel like an iterative replace over the Galaxy S24 Extremely, however it undoubtedly helps pull every part collectively right into a extra cohesive and smarter expertise. In different phrases, every part is just a bit bit higher. The telephone appears a bit of bit higher, the digicam is a bit of bit higher, and it performs a bit of bit quicker.

If you happen to’re a fan of the productivity-focused Galaxy telephone, desire a large display screen and a top-tier digicam, and don’t thoughts spending some severe money, then the Galaxy S25 Extremely, just like the Extremely telephones earlier than it, remains to be the best way to go.

The competitors

A lot of what I really like in a telephone nonetheless comes right down to the general software program expertise, and I nonetheless want Google’s Pixel software program to Samsung’s One UI. That stated, there’s no denying that the Galaxy S25 Extremely is healthier performing than any of the Pixel telephones presently out there. Whereas the cameras are arguably neck and neck, there are some conditions wherein I discover the Galaxy S25 Extremely digicam system to be barely higher.

That will not essentially be sufficient for everybody, although. The Galaxy S25 Extremely might be essentially the most well-rounded Android telephone on the market — there’s nothing it isn’t good at.

Ought to I purchase the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely?

Sure. It’s costly, however it’s maybe the perfect Android telephone out there proper now.