Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Review: Major upgrade makes it ‘best of the best’
The tech juggernaut talked big with its latest AI improvements, but another feature is catching everyone’s eye.
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Samsung may have pulled some bold moves with new “human-like” AI features in their latest Galaxy S series, but it’s the new camera on the S25 Ultra that’s dropping jaws.
It’s just one of the reasons that makes the top-tier model the “pinnacle of the S25 series”, according to Nathan Rigger, Head of Product Mobile eXperience, Samsung Electronics Australia.
“We’ve made significant upgrades, including to our camera which now features a 50MP ultra wide lense. That means you’re able to capture really crisp ultra wide photos but also really detailed macro photos so you can shoot something up to 2cm away and get stunning photos off the back of that,” Nathan told news.com.au checkout.
The self-confessed “time poor” Head of Product Mobile eXperience also couldn’t help but list a couple of new features that transformed his daily routine.
“There’s a feature called AI Select, which will analyse what you’re doing on the screen and give you some actions that you can quickly click to make your life seamless and easy,” he said.
“If there’s an upcoming concert, I can take a photo and AI select will analyse the poster, put it in my calendar, give me directions to the location, and allow me to save that into my gallery or search for information as well.
“I’m horrible at taking photos and videos. And all of these features like Audio Eraser and Generative Edit will help to edit all these images and videos to make the video capturing experience better.”
But how does this $2000+ AI heavy smartphone fare in the real world? Here’s our honest review of the Galaxy S25 Ultra* after giving it a road test for the past couple of weeks.
P.S. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra smartphone may have just launched today but it’s already on sale on Amazon Australia for one of the lowest prices we’ve ever seen for a Samsung Galaxy Ultra, with the 256GB model dropping from $2199 to $1699. That’s the same sale price as the more storage friendly Samsung Galaxy S25+ (512GB) and only $100 off the original cost of the Galaxy S25 (512GB).
IN THIS ARTICLE
- New design
- Upgraded camera
- Best Face
- Generative Edit
- Audio Eraser
- Now Brief and Now Bar
- Gemini Live
- Privacy
- Accessories
- How much is the Galaxy S25 Ultra?
- Is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra worth it?
One-minute review: Is the Galaxy S25 Ultra worth buying?
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, from $2149 at Samsung
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra brings serious eye candy with the new rounded corners and flat edges, along with a thinner and lighter build. It offers personalisation like no other, with plenty of customisation options tailor everything from your home and lockscreen to the many AI-enabled features.
It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy for faster and smoother performance, and includes updates to Galaxy AI and One UI that make the different functionalities more user intuitive, time saving and generally more practical in day to day life.
The downside? It’s still very pricey, as with Samsung’s other Ultra models. The $50 price drop from previous generations isn’t exactly a huge saving, despite being hailed “cheaper than ever”. The Bluetooth capabilities on the S Pen have also been removed to the dismay of some users, although you can still do a variety of tasks (including a much smarter Circle to Search).
There are still some kinks to iron out with Gemini Live, with the AI assistant sometimes lagging or producing inaccurate results.
Overall, I would say the Galaxy S25 Ultra is worth investing in if you have an older phone or a mid-range phone and want to take advantage of the different AI features, along with a nice camera.
Lighter, slimmer and more powerful
My Galaxy S24 Ultra feels like a brick compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s lighter and slimmer design. The return of the rounded corners is also a welcome change.
Plus, for those worried about scratches, the housing for Samsung’s “most powerful processor ever on Galaxy S series” is more durable thanks to the titanium frame and Corning Gorilla Armor 2 protection.
One controversial downgrade leaving some users “disappointed” is the newly missing Bluetooth capabilities on the S Pen, which has attracted a petition with more than 8000 signatures to date.
Better camera
What separates the Galaxy S25 Ultra is the major camera upgrade, with the 50MP ultra-wide sensor now four times bigger than the (still respectable) 12MP camera in its older siblings as well as the new Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25+.
And it did not disappoint. (Please note the pictures have been compressed after being uploaded.)
While there’s a lot of hype around the incredible way it takes macro photos, I was most excited about how well the camera captured colour in low lighting and night photography – especially when it required a decentzoom.It was slightly overcast when I saw The Painted Ladies and zoomed into Alcatraz and the California sea lions at Pier 39, but the colours came out really well despite being alittle blurry.
Even moving objects and people stayed relatively clear in photos and videos.
If you’re a photographer or someone who wants more control, there are additions like Virtual Aperture in Expert Raw mode which lets you control the depth of field for a “DSLR-like experience”. There’s also Galaxy Log for video buffs who want more exposure control and precise colour grading options.
There are also a few other editing features to play around with, such as Best Face, Generative Edit and Audio Eraser.
Best Face
I’m somewhat of a professional at ruining otherwise perfect pictures with half- or fully closed eyes, so it’s no surprise this was one of my highly anticipated features.
If you have ‘Motion Photos’ turned on, you can swipe up on a photo and tap ‘choose best face’. The Best Face function will analyse your face, or anyone in a group photo who’s mid blink, and offer several alternative ‘faces’ where your eyes are open.
And don’t worry, the options are actually still shots from the Motion Photo and not a creepy pair of AI-generated eyeballs. If you want more options, you can hit ‘view more’ and drag the little yellow square across the entire motion until you find ‘the one’.
Apparently I’m allergic to taking a decent photo, so sometimes my eyes won’t be open enough in any of the stills but it’s still useful when it works.
Generative Edit
Galaxy AI makes it easy to resize, reposition or remove certain elements like objects or people, especially since it’s now more “context-aware” so you don’t need to be super precise when you’re making an outline. Unlike Microsoft Paint back in the day, Galaxy AI does a pretty good job at understanding what you’re after. It won’t matter if you miss the bottom of a person’s pants or don’t circle the shadows.
In a photo I took of The Painted Ladies, I roughly circled the fountain in front of the iconic landmark and it tidied away the obstacle along with some cars. I also tried to be ambitious and remove the tall trees and it did a surprisingly great job with that, too.
In saying that, Generative Edit isn’t totally perfect and might erase more than what you want (or not enough). But it’s certainly impressive and should get the job done for most tasks.
Audio Eraser
Audio Eraser is another editing gem that makes it ridiculously easy to remove any unwanted sounds. You can isolate certain elements, such as wind or voices, and adjust the levels to either amplify or mute the different parts as little or as much as you want.
I was particularly impressed when I tried to edit a video with Nathan at Samsung Unpacked. His voice wasn’t super strong to start out with and the background music and crowd noise was pretty overwhelming. But it was really easy to adjust the levels and create something that didn’t sound overly distorted.
Introducing Now Brief and Now Bar
Now Brief and Now Bar is a nifty way to keep on top of things, but maybe I’m just not busy enough because I honestly didn’t find it that practical for my daily routine. I assume it will be a different story if you’re a big sports fan with multiple meetings in different locations across the city, and have an obsession with checking the weather or do a lot of voice recordings.
Although I do like how the Now Bar stacks multiple apps to give you quick access without cluttering the lockscreen.
Some items you can toggle on or off include:
• Traffic updates
• Travel
• Events and tasks
• News.
Gemini replaces Bixby
I’ve never really been a big user of voice assistants, but Gemini Live has the potential be one of the best AI assistants since it can now understand natural language and context surprisingly well, something you don’t get with others.
You don’t need to worry about using specific keywords or restarting the command after stuttering or make a typo. Even if the phone didn’t transcribe my commands correctly, it still gave me what I wanted.
My favourite floor demo was seeing the representative take a photo of a fridge and asking Gemini Live to give her recipe ideas based on what was inside the fridge.
For me, it’s mainly useful for getting ideas for restaurant options, as well as suggestions for travel itineraries and narrowing flight options so the results prioritise the cheapest or fastest routes. But I sometimes found it laggy and gave inaccurate results.
Using Gemini Live to interact with YouTube videos is also now a thing, which can be handy if you want to get summaries and ask about topics mentioned in the video. However, there are some limitations, such as if there isn’t a captions file or if the video language isn’t supported.
Unfortunately, I found it hit or miss. Sometimes it would only work if typed commands, despite it correctly recognising my voice commands, and sometimes it would take multiple tries.
Securing privacy with Knox Vault
While developments in AI have given consumers some showstopping features across a variety of tech and home appliances, many users are still on the fence (at best) when it comes to trusting artificial intelligence.
A global study conducted by Samsung and London-based research firm Symmetry even revealed 90 per cent of participants had doubts around privacy and whether AI could be trusted.
So, to keep prying eyes away and “put privacy and security first”, Samsung uses Knox Vault to process your sensitive data in the device rather than in the cloud.
“All the data we capture, which is on the device, is fully encrypted. There’s a key for the encryption that we install into what we call Knox Vault, which is effectively a mini vault that sits in the chipset and contains all of your passwords and all of your personal data so that it can’t be accessed by anyone, except your device,” Nathan explained.
“Frequent consumer use of mobile AI globally has nearly doubled in just six months, jumping from 16 per cent in July to 27 per cent in January,” said Dr Chris Brauer from Goldsmiths, University of London, and Symmetry, in a recent Galaxy Tech Forum session.
“There’s immense potential with this technology, but what’s also clear are the very real barriers that must be addressed responsibly for wider adoption to take place.”
Accessories
I’ve been a Samsung user for years but if there’s something I miss from ‘the other side’, it’s the wide range of fun cases. Thankfully, the accessories wall at Unpacked teased everything I could have imagined – from bold designs inspired by Hershey’s chocolate bars and Crocs (with customisable Jibbitz, obviously), to more tame prints and solid colour options.
How much is the Galaxy S25 Ultra?
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is “cheaper than ever”, with the brand scraping $50 off its previous price tag.
• Galaxy S25 Ultra 256GB: $2149
• Galaxy S25 Ultra 512GB: $2349
• Galaxy S25 Ultra 1TB: $2749
Base colours include Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Black, Titanium Whitesilver and Titanium Grey. Bonus online exclusive options from the Samsung store include Titanium Pinkgold, Titanium Jetblack and Titanium Jadegreen.
All Galaxy S25 devices will come with a complimentary six months of Gemini Advanced, which is usually $32.99 per month, plus 2TB of cloud storage.
Where can you buy the Galaxy S25 Ultra in Australia?
You can shop the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra from the Samsung website and instore boutiques, as well as the usual selected retailers including Amazon Australia and The Good Guys.
*Product has been loaned by Samsung for a 100 per cent independent, honest review.
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