Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Review 2026

How We Tested the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Our review is based on 14 days of hands-on testing with a retail Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (256GB, Titanium Black) purchased at full price. We ran Geekbench 6, AnTuTu 10, and 3DMark Solar Bay benchmarks on three separate occasions and averaged results to eliminate thermal throttling variance. Camera tests were conducted in controlled studio conditions and real-world scenarios including a night concert, daytime cityscape, and indoor portrait session.

Battery testing followed a strict protocol: screen brightness locked at 200 nits, adaptive refresh rate enabled, mixed usage (30% social media scrolling, 30% video streaming, 20% camera, 20% productivity apps). All times represent averages across three full charge cycles. Charging speed was measured with Samsung's own 45W adapter. We also tested 15W wireless charging with Samsung's official Qi2 pad.

Design & Build Quality

Samsung made the S25 Ultra slightly slimmer and lighter than its predecessor at 218g — down from 232g on the S24 Ultra — without sacrificing the titanium frame that gives it its premium, tool-like feel. The corners are subtly more rounded this year, making the large 6.8-inch body marginally less aggressive in the hand. The S Pen now lives in a redesigned silo that's easier to eject single-handed. IP68 dust and water resistance is retained with a 2-meter, 30-minute rating.

Four color options — Titanium Black, Titanium Gray, Titanium White, and Titanium Blue — all feature a matte Corning Gorilla Armor 2 back that resists fingerprints well. The chassis has 0% recycled titanium added to the production process, and Samsung uses recycled aluminum in internal components. Build quality feels genuinely flagship: there's zero flex, precise panel gaps, and the camera array housing has a glass lens cover that feels thick and durable.

Display

The 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display is one of the best panels on any smartphone. Peak brightness hits 2,600 nits in direct sunlight (up from 2,200 on the S24 Ultra), and the 1-120Hz adaptive LTPO4 refresh rate adjusts smoothly from Always-On at 1Hz to gaming at 120Hz. Resolution is QHD+ at 3088×1440 (501 ppi) — genuinely useful at this screen size for fine text and detailed photography review.

Color accuracy is exceptional with coverage of 100% DCI-P3 and an average ΔE of under 1.5 in Natural mode. The anti-reflective coating Samsung calls Vision Booster is measurably better than the iPhone 17 Pro Max's treatment in our side-by-side outdoor test. HDR10+ support is present with full certification; streaming Netflix and YouTube in HDR on this display is a legitimately superior experience to any other Android phone we've tested in 2026.

Performance & Benchmarks

The Snapdragon 8 Elite (4nm TSMC) powers the S25 Ultra globally — Samsung dropped Exynos variants entirely this generation. With 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage, the result is the fastest Android device we've ever tested. Apps open instantly, multitasking is flawless, and sustained performance under load stays strong thanks to Samsung's improved graphite vapor chamber cooling.

Camera System: 200MP + Quad Telephoto

The S25 Ultra carries over the same 200MP primary sensor from the S24 Ultra but with significantly improved computational photography processing. The new Snapdragon 8 Elite's Hexagon NPU handles AI scene detection, noise reduction, and HDR processing 3× faster, which translates to visibly better highlight recovery in bright scenes and cleaner shadow detail at night. Our night photography shootout against the Pixel 10 Pro was genuinely close — Samsung's warmer rendering is a matter of taste, but detail resolution at 200MP native gives it an archiving advantage.

The telephoto system is where the S25 Ultra truly differentiates: a 10MP 3× optical lens for portraits combined with a 50MP 5× periscope telephoto for long-range shots, plus 10× Space Zoom that's usable up to about 30× before quality degrades. At 5×, the S25 Ultra delivers the sharpest telephoto we've tested on any smartphone in 2026. Video capture goes up to 8K at 30fps or 4K at 120fps — the latter being genuinely cinematic and stabilized via Samsung's Adaptive Pixel Stabilization.

The 12MP ultrawide covers 120° with autofocus — useful for macro shots from 3cm distance. Low-light ultrawide performance lags behind the primary sensor but is competitive with the Pixel 10 Pro's ultrawide. One UI 8's ProVisual Engine adds real-time histogram, zebra patterns, and focus peaking to the Pro video mode, making the S25 Ultra viable for semi-professional video production.

Battery Life

The 5,000mAh battery carries the S25 Ultra through a full workday with ease. In our mixed-use test, we recorded 13h 20min screen-on time — significantly better than the iPhone 17 Pro Max (11h 45min) in the same protocol. The Snapdragon 8 Elite's efficiency cores deserve credit here; idle and light-use consumption is markedly lower than the S24 Ultra's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

S Pen: Is It Still Useful in 2026?

Samsung kept the S Pen for the S25 Ultra — siloed inside the chassis with 2.8ms latency and 4,096 pressure levels. For note-taking, signing documents, and precise photo editing in Lightroom Mobile, there's genuinely no substitute. Galaxy AI's handwriting recognition has improved to the point where handwritten notes are automatically transcribed with over 97% accuracy in our English-language testing. Samsung Notes syncs across Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra seamlessly, making cross-device workflows possible.

The honest answer to "is it useful?" depends entirely on your workflow. If you annotate PDFs, sketch wireframes, or take handwritten meeting notes, the S Pen is a killer feature that justifies the S25 Ultra over the S25+. For everyone else — the majority of buyers — it's a nice-to-have that you'll use occasionally but doesn't drive the purchase decision alone.

One UI 8 & Galaxy AI

One UI 8 ships on Android 16 and represents Samsung's cleanest software effort in years. Bloatware is reduced — Meta apps no longer come pre-installed by default in North American units. Galaxy AI features include: Circle to Search (now handles video frames and real-time translation), Live Translate in voice calls with 16 supported languages, Note Assist for AI-generated meeting summaries, and AI Photo Remaster that can selectively enhance specific objects in images. All AI processing for sensitive tasks runs on-device via Qualcomm's Hexagon NPU — cloud processing is opt-in.

Samsung's 7-year OS and security update promise means the S25 Ultra will receive Android updates through 2032. This is now on par with Google's Pixel 10 and exceeds Apple's effective support window in practice. For enterprise users, Knox Vault provides isolated hardware security for sensitive credentials, and DeX mode wirelessly mirrors a desktop-class interface to compatible monitors.

S25 Ultra vs iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Pixel 10 Pro vs OnePlus 13

Full Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Specifications

Final Buy Verdict

Frequently Asked Questions