As I prepared for a long weekend break, I wanted to take a capable Android phone with a good camera with me, ready to capture my adventures. I put my SIM card into a fresh Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and set the phone up purely for entertainment, as I wanted to ignore work emails and messages as much as possible. I spent four days with the phone, and here’s what I discovered revisiting the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The shape is still a problem
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is flat. Very flat. The sides are flat, the screen is flat, and the corners are far less curved than previous models. It’s a big, slab-like block, and far from attractive. Not everyone will care if it’s a good-looking phone, but everyone should care if it’s comfortable to hold, and after revisiting the Galaxy S25 Ultra I am sad to say it’s not.
I returned to the S25 Ultra after a string of other phones, ranging from the OnePlus 13, the Google Pixel 9a, and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, and all are more comfortable to hold. The problem is the phone digs into your palm, the sharp edges are noticeable when you grip it, and as it’s also a bit of a slippery thing, you really do have to keep hold out of it.
I was using the phone for fun, passing some free time browsing Reddit and Threads or playing Magic: The Gathering Arena, but the S25 Ultra didn’t encourage me to pick it up because of the comfort problems. My Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max is far more ergonomic, and much more pleasing to hold for longer periods of time. I found I’d force myself to use the S25 Ultra, and it shouldn’t be that way.
The screen is the best you’ll see
It’s a shame I didn’t feel happy about holding the S25 Ultra for a long time, as the screen is the best I’ve used on a smartphone. Amazingly for the U.K., it was very bright and sunny on my break, and the S25 Ultra’s anti-reflective screen really came into its own. It’s hard to photograph to demonstrate just how effective it is, but it removes the harsh reflections which stop you seeing what’s going on, and crucially, it works really well at different angles.
This matters most when you want to take photographs. Rarely do the best photos come when you hold the camera directly in front of your face, which is why strong viewing angles are important on a smartphone. I could always see the camera’s viewfinder, regardless of the angle I held the phone at or the lighting conditions. It’s a superb screen, and eclipses every other smartphone you can buy at the moment.
The intense brightness also helped in these conditions, but this wasn’t what made it work so well. Instead, it’s the automatic brightness adjustment. I only once reached for the manual brightness control, as the phone did such a good job of balancing the screen’s brightness to the conditions. The only time I remember using the manual control was after using the phone outside, and it was a beat to slow to adapt when I went back inside. But I’d rather it be too bright than too dim.
What about the camera?
Before I chose the Galaxy S25 Ultra I was close to picking up the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, but my own words were in my mind before I made the final decision. I fell for the Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s camera when I used it somewhere I didn’t know very well, after being a tiny bit disappointed with it when I reviewed the phone taking photos locally. I haven’t been that excited by the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera, and have been surprised at how the main camera in particular hasn’t met expectations. Going on a trip with it may change my mind about it.
The landscape meant I used the main and the wide-angle camera the most, and the consistency between the two is impressive, sharing balanced colors and contrast, even in challenging light. Photos straight from the camera are a little too natural-looking for my personal taste, and it’s here where One UI 7’s excellent photo editing suite was put to good use.
I applied one of Samsung’s new filters to most photos — the Chill, Amber, and Sunbeam usually gave the best effect — and subsequently tweaked the photos further, before it looked the way I wanted it. Cleverly, you can save the edits made to one photo as a new filter of your own, and then apply it to other photos. It works so well on photos taken on the same day and in the same conditions. Samsung’s AI-powered eraser tool remains excellent too, neatly removing unwanted elements like power lines and telegraph poles.
Looking back at the photos I’m pleased with the results, but I am conscious almost all of them needed editing. This suggests Samsung’s own tuning isn’t quite right, and means enthusiasts hoping to use the camera and never touch the images before sharing them may be disappointed. However, Samsung’s powerful and versatile editing suite makes it simple and enjoyable to change the way your photos look, so it’s less of a downside than it first sounds.
Was I happy I chose the Galaxy S25 Ultra?
The Galaxy S25 Ultra screen, performance, and battery life — which was more than enough for two days use — made it a reliable partner for my time away, but I was frustrated by the shape of the phone. If it was my only phone, I’d quickly choose a case for it, in a effort to make it more pleasant to hold. The unfortunate thing is, it’s robust and strong enough not to really need a case.
I like the photos I took with it, and feel it captured my break really well, so I’ll be happy to look back on them in the future. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is an excellent smartphone and despite being one of the most expensive models you can buy, it’s a safe purchase for the future. However, I didn’t fall in love with it, and do think I’d have been just as happy (or perhaps, even happier) with the OnePlus 13.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is a cold, yet extremely capable high performance smartphone. I doubt I’ll ever feel much for it, no matter how long I use it, but its all-round ability and superb screen make it hard to beat. It’s still a phone you’ll buy with your head, not your heart, just as I thought when I first reviewed it.
