Samsung S25 Ultra Review After 168 Hours! (vs S24 Ultra) 🤔
The number 1 criticism about the S25 Ultra is that it’s not that much of an upgrade from the S24 Ultra. Rather, Samsung is choosing to place all the focus on Galaxy AI, powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. But if you are not sold by Galaxy AI yet, you’re probably wondering how different the S25 Ultra’s performance is compared to the previous model. Like its camera, aside from 50MP ultrawide what are the improvements? Does its speakers sound better or worse for music, videos and games? And what about thermals? So what if the new vapor chamber’s 40% larger, does it make the phone run any cooler than before? We’re going to find out in this video. Links in the pinned comment if you want to check the latest prices of these phones on Amazon. More videos about the S25 Ultra are coming, so get subscribed to stay notified for more.
As you know, you can now shoot in .6x ultrawide in 50MP mode which means you can crop in further without losing resolution. Without cropping in, the ultrawide on both S24 and S25 Ultra don’t look so different, but when you crop in, the S24 Ultra’s 12MP shot starts to break apart, such as you can see in this side by side macro.
But this is just like beating a dead horse, everyone knows the benefits of more megapixels. What the 50MP sensor does also unleash is being able to shoot ultrawide in 8K resolution video, which wasn’t possible on the previous model. Now you can fit more landscape into that 8K video than was possible on the S24 Ultra.
Apart from that, the camera hardware is the same, but the processing is a bit different. In general, pictures shot on the S25 Ultra look more contrasty, with deeper shadows, and they have a softer feel to it, with less sharpening on the fixed focal lengths than the S24 Ultra. So pictures do look more pleasing. That is, on the fixed focal lengths.
When you get into digital zoom territory, it doesn’t seem to sharpen enough, while the S24 Ultra sharpens heavily. A sweet spot would be somewhere in between.
Also, in low light conditions, I notice that the S25 Ultra on 50MP mode has some issues with stabilization, like this image on 5x telephoto. I thought it was just my hand being too shaky, so I tried again and nope, it’s still blurry. So far this only happens on 50MP mode’s 5x telephoto. Maybe a software update will be able to fix this issue.
You do get a few more camera settings that I think are useful for creators which aren’t available on the S24 Ultra, such as being able to shoot videos in log on Pro Video mode, so you retain all that dynamic range on file. Of course when you import the file it’s all flat picture, so you’ll need to bring out the color yourself manually or with LUTs in your own editing app, or you can apply Samsung’s own LUT on it directly on device, so you have something ready to use immediately.
Another thing is being able to play audio while recording a video. Maybe it’s to record a cover, or just some BGM, that’s just interesting to me as a content creator.
Speaking of videos, aside from being able to shoot in Log and ultrawide for 8K, there doesn’t seem to be any changes. Videos shot in 4K 30 while walking seems just as stabilized. Even the sharpness and contrast look quite similar. So with pictures there is a difference, not so with videos.
View video stabilization samples here.
Speakers
Nobody talks about this but the S25 Ultra’s speakers have also been improved. The S24 Ultra sounded quite shrill in the mids, and thin in the lower registers even compared to the S23 Ultra. The S25 Ultra brought back that heaviness in the sound and somehow, this heaviness also makes the speakers sound a little louder than the S24 Ultra. For gaming, this heavier sound gives more gravity to the overall ambience of the game.
Suffice to say, I just prefer the S25 Ultra’s speakers. By the way, if you’re wondering what Bluetooth audio codecs it supports, it supports the same ones as the S24 Ultra, so no fancy aptX variants.
Thermals
I want to talk about the S25 Ultra’s thermals, because Samsung’s made the vapor chamber about 40% larger, so most people think it’s going to make it run cooler. Obviously when I bring it up like this, the answer is no, I don’t think it runs any cooler than the S24 Ultra. It gets about as warm when I’m gaming or shooting videos, and most of the heat is concentrated around where the cameras are, just like the previous model. The only difference is I’m actually feeling the heat building up a bit more on the flat sides of the phone, but it never gets too hot to hold. My theory is that the Snapdragon 8 Elite, under load, runs hotter than 8 Gen 3, that is according to tests run by the guys at Android Authority, so even though the vapor chamber’s 40% larger, it doesn’t mean a cooler phone, it is to channel away more heat than what the previous versions had to manage under load without throttling performance.
Overall Take
So far, using this phone for the past week, my take on the S25 Ultra is still that it’s an incremental improvement. I think Samsung also feels this way, which is possibly why they’re witholding OneUI 7 from the older Galaxy phones for now. At the time of this writing, S24 Ultra is still running on OneUI 6.1 and Android 14, so I really do feel the generational divide in terms of their UI, of which one of the improvements is having the search bar at the bottom instead of on top. (My hands are large like a beast but this still helps a lot.) But in terms of features and functions, not so much of a divide. So if you do already have the S24 Ultra, you’ll be happy sticking with it, that is if you don’t mind not having the latest Android and Galaxy AI features.
Anyway, this is still my early assessment, there’s more S25 Ultra content coming as I continue to use this phone everyday, so shoot me your questions in the comments. Links below if you want to check the latest prices of these phones.
Check latest price:
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra - https://amzn.to/4heYqWC
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra -https://amzn.to/4haP3qQ
