For a few years, Samsung has usually been one of many first Android telephone makers to ship a sizzling new gadget with the most recent Qualcomm chips at the beginning of the brand new 12 months. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely leads to an unenviable place in 2025, although, because it follows on the heels of the OnePlus 13, RedMagic 10 Professional, and Asus ROG Telephone 9, all of which have proven strong developments to their very own product strains and simply how succesful the brand new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset is. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely could also be the most effective that Samsung can do, but it surely actually has to knock it out of the park to remain on the high of the smartphone class, particularly when its $1,299 beginning worth is the very best of those 4 units.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely – Design and Options
Samsung has made among the most vital design modifications for the Extremely line in a number of years with the Galaxy S25 Extremely, and but it nonetheless appears to be like fairly same-y. The brand new design has curved corners and flat sides – a shift away from the angular corners and rounded sides of predecessors. However the Galaxy S25 Ulta stays a big slab. The again of the telephone is basically featureless save for the three massive and two small bumps for the digital camera array and laser auto-focus system.
Whereas I can’t say the colour isn’t fairly, it’s not jaw-dropping. OnePlus is on the market etching wooden grain into the again of its OnePlus 13, RedMagic is doing all types of daring craziness (together with frost-like geometric patterns and see-through panels), and Samsung simply has flat, muted colours. That is coming from the corporate that launched the S20 with a vibrant again panel that supplied an in depth approximation to a bubble catching the daylight. Certain, Samsung’s going with supposedly sturdy Gorilla Armor 2 glass on the back and front and titanium within the body of the telephone, however these lend little to the visible attraction of the gadget, and to my information, none of them forestall the telephone from shattering on concrete like all flagship telephone on the market.
The digital camera setup on the again of the S25 Extremely can also be a curious and worrying selection. Whereas the format is acquainted, every of the bigger bumps now has a small reduction on the backside – assume the pipes in Mario video games. This may present ever-so-slightly extra visible intrigue, however the capability of those gaps to assemble particles is all however assured, and on the off probability one thing bought beneath there with slightly leverage, I’d anticipate some injury to the digital camera itself.
The one factor setting the S25 Extremely aside from its competitors is the S Pen, which nonetheless has slightly slot on the backside fringe of the telephone. It tucks away conveniently, and comes out with a delightful little pop. And it gives responsive stylus inputs for handwriting and doodling with far higher accuracy than a finger can handle. This 12 months, Samsung took away the Bluetooth connection to the telephone, which enabled some further options, like the power for the S Pen to function a distant digital camera shutter button although. I’m reminded of when Samsung dropped the SD card slot from its telephones – positive, most individuals might need not been utilizing it, however that didn’t make it any much less handy to have. And on that observe, I assume I shouldn’t be shocked that Samsung consists of only a single SIM card in its tray. It helps two eSIMs, however extra is at all times higher in my guide, and Samsung may have provided extra.
Past the stylus and minor aesthetic decisions, the Galaxy S25 Extremely is very like all the opposite flagship smartphones on the market. It’s huge (6.41 x 3.06 x 0.32 in), weighty (218 grams), slightly laborious to make use of one-handed, and constructed effectively. You’ll get IP68-grade water and mud safety, which is about pretty much as good because it will get, although OnePlus went above and past this 12 months by including IP69 safety that may maintain up in opposition to sizzling water jets in addition to submersion.The anti-glare end does an excellent job chopping down on reflections with out impacting picture high quality from the show. Past that, although, the S25 Extremely’s display screen isn’t blowing the competitors out of the water.
Samsung suits in a wonderful show. The display screen stretches 6.9 inches throughout and has a pointy 1440×3120 decision. The display screen can attain a peak 120Hz refresh fee however can drop down as little as 1Hz to preserve power. It’s brilliant and vibrant, making it a pleasure to look at reveals and flicks or play video games on. The show is paired with potent audio system as effectively, which give clear stereo audio and sufficient quantity to take heed to podcasts whereas tackling chores or having a shower.
Samsung continues to situate a fingerprint scanner beneath the show, and it proves fast and dependable for unlocking the telephone. Facial recognition can also be supported.
The general high quality of the Galaxy S25 Extremely isn’t stunning. Samsung is aware of how you can make an excellent telephone, and this line is supposed to be the cream of the crop. Nevertheless it feels only a bit much less particular this 12 months as a result of it hasn’t performed a lot to vary from prior years whereas its rivals have. Certain, it has the S Pen, albeit considerably neutered this 12 months. Certain, it has Samsung DeX, giving it the power to work like a conveyable laptop, however that functionality might not be distant from seeing broader availability on Android units. And AI options are rolling out so quick and free that none of them appear distinctive to any given telephone, irrespective of how a lot Samsung hypes their capabilities.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely – Software program
The Galaxy S25 Extremely launches with Android 15, and Samsung continues to vow seven years of Android OS and safety updates, which is nice to see from a tool as costly as this. Samsung nonetheless gives a versatile tackle Android with its One UI, supplying you with loads of instruments to tailor it to the feel and appear you like. Whereas I haven’t discovered something objectionable about Samsung’s strategy to the working system, I proceed to be irked by Samsung’s makes an attempt at locking down the ecosystem. Samsung has a handful of default apps that change typical Google apps you’d discover on nearly some other Android telephone, corresponding to Chrome and Calendar. Samsung then makes use of its first-party apps to combine some options, like its AI summarization of net pages or its capability to have AI verify your calendar for occasions. If you wish to make the most of these options, you find yourself caught with Samsung’s apps, and that may imply an enormous ecosystem shift.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely – Gaming and Efficiency
Whereas the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely might have a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip akin to that in different current Android flagships, Samsung’s is a particular model with souped up cores. It options six cores operating on the identical 3.53GHz as its rivals however two cores are boosted to 4.47GHz, up from the 4.32GHz you’d see in others just like the OnePlus 13. It feels like a minor distinction, but it surely is sufficient to give Samsung a slight efficiency edge. In Geekbench 6’s single-core CPU take a look at and Vulkan GPU take a look at, the Galaxy S25 Extremely provided the quickest speeds I’ve seen from an Android telephone. It edged out the OnePlus 13, RedMagic 10 Professional, and Asus ROG Telephone 9 in these checks by as a lot as 6% and solely fell to the ROG Telephone 9 within the multi-core take a look at by 0.27%.
The Galaxy S25 Extremely additionally had spectacular GPU efficiency leads to 3DMark. However that is additionally the place the cracks began to indicate. For one factor, it didn’t handle to leap forward of the Asus, OnePlus, or RedMagic in these checks. In some instances, it was even a great methods behind, particularly since RedMagic mainly proved itself practically magical with how a lot efficiency it may eke out of the GPU. However the greater downside for Samsung was its capability to maintain.
Invariably, after one benchmark run, the efficiency of the S25 Extremely would throttle for subsequent runs, generally by upwards of 20%. Of the Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered Android telephones I examined just lately, the S25 Extremely additionally carried out the worst within the Metal Nomad Gentle stress take a look at, which runs the benchmark 20 occasions in a row. On this stress take a look at, the S25 Extremely began with a excessive of 2611 factors however dropped promptly to 2116 factors for the second run, then fell into the 1800s and ultimately bottomed out at 1279 factors. In contrast, the RedMagic 10 Professional and Asus ROG Telephone 9 had been each in a position to stay above 2150 factors for all 20 runs. The OnePlus 13 additionally noticed its outcomes solely sink as little as 1662 factors. Samsung could also be throttling extra aggressively, with efficiency dipping even earlier than the chipsets inside temps exceed 40 levels Celsius. Samsung’s telephone might keep cooler consequently, however all of those telephones are getting uncomfortably sizzling by the top of the stress take a look at. And I’ve seen the S25 Extremely warming up merely whereas I’ve been looking the net – one thing I didn’t discover from these different telephones.
All that is to say the Galaxy S25 Extremely is an extremely performant telephone, and it feels lightning quick in on a regular basis operation. Nevertheless it appears to wrestle with warmth, and its capability to function a top-tier gaming telephone will likely be impacted by this. Will probably be a powerful gaming telephone for individuals who need to dip their toes infrequently, but it surely gained’t be the supreme possibility.
The networking velocity of the S25 Extremely a minimum of doesn’t encounter compromises. I may see speeds over 400Mbps on T-Cell’s networking in testing, and the telephone helps Wi-Fi 7 for the most recent Wi-Fi networks.
Battery life is strong, simply lasting via a day of heavy use or two days of average use. However the 5,000mAh battery isn’t all that spectacular when the OnePlus 13 is packing in two 3,000mAh cells and the RedMagic 10 Professional has bumped as much as 7,000mAh. Even the charging speeds Samsung presents are on the gradual aspect with simply 45W wired charging and 15W wi-fi charging
Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely – Cameras
Samsung was by no means going to fail to impress with the sheer specs of its digital camera system on the Galaxy 25 Extremely. It packs a strong array of sensors with a variety of focal lengths. Right here’s what you’ll discover:
- 200MP vast, f/1.7, 1.12-micron, 1/1.3”, OIS, EIS
- 50MP ultrawide, f/1.9, 0.7-micron
- 10MP telephoto, 3x optical zoom, f/2.4, 1.12-micron, 1/3.52”, OIS
- 50MP telephoto, 5x optical zoom, f/3.4, 0.7-micron, 1/2.52”, OIS
- 12MP Selfie, f/2.2, 1.12-micron, 1/3.2”
For all of its technical prowess, the Galaxy S25 Extremely digital camera system manages to nonetheless really feel a bit bland. Maybe it is because Samsung has a shade filter system akin to Apple’s Photographic Types. You’ll be able to apply these whereas taking pictures or after the very fact, however with the digital camera operating at its defaults, I felt lots of the images I took merely lacked punchy distinction and vibrancy, to not point out the heat I’d gotten used to on the OnePlus 13. The Galaxy S25 Extremely’s most important sensor snaps very sharp, detailed images, however there’s a distinction between that and a photograph that appears good.
The ultra-wide digital camera definitely helps squeeze quite a bit into the body, but it surely does so at the price of noticeable distortion. Taking a look at a collection of ceiling images I took, the equilateral hexagon sample on the ceiling confirmed all-too-obvious elongation when snapped with the ultra-wide. Some textures exhibit sharpening artifacts that make them look barely extra processed than the principle sensor, and this breaks down the consistency between the 2 sensors. In sure eventualities, corresponding to excessive shut ups, the S25 Extremely prompted me to make use of a spotlight help device which truly swapped from the principle sensor to a cropped view of the ultra-wide, and the result’s a drop in high quality – not what I’d need from a device meant to be useful.
Samsung has some sturdy zoom prowess right here combining each a 10MP 3x sensor and 50MP 5x sensor. The 3x tightens in on topics effectively whereas maintaining them a lot sharp. The 3x sensor even proves sharper than cropping in on the 200MP most important sensor. I’ve seen some sudden shifts in how the digital camera system needs to deal with lighting when switching between the principle and 3x telephoto, although, and it once more hinders the general digital camera expertise.
I really like that Samsung features a 5x optical sensor on the S25 Extremely. Although I don’t like it as a lot because the 10x it might need included. Going again to have a look at images I took utilizing the 10x sensor that was on the S21 Extremely and S22 Extremely, it doesn’t seem to me that Samsung has made significant enchancment on its capability to get near far-off topics by switching to a 5x optical sensor after which cropping to get nearer. The 5x optical sensor on the telephone now does a great job getting near the standard of the outdated 10x when zoomed in, however it might have simply been that a lot neater to see it begin at 10x after which have the potential to achieve even farther out.
Now, because it stands, Samsung remains to be readily profitable the telephoto warfare, because the 5x sensor right here plainly beats the Google Pixel 9 Professional’s and the iPhone 16 Professional Max’s personal 5x sensor. It’s day and evening when evaluating their capability to seize correct element on a far-off topic. That is maybe the one edge the Galaxy S25 Extremely is maintaining on the OnePlus 13 as effectively, because the latter telephone doesn’t get a lot precise element when zoomed in very far past 6x. OnePlus nonetheless has a knack for making a picture that pleases the attention with bolder distinction and shade on these super-zoomed images, however Samsung’s capability to get precise element is unmatched right here – too dangerous OnePlus didn’t borrow the Oppo Discover X8 Professional’s 6x telephoto sensor.
The selfie digital camera on the telephone is completely respectable, however identical to its companions on this telephone, it doesn’t dazzle. The selfie digital camera captured lifelike, if slightly dry, colours and respectable sharpness. OnePlus and Google simply present higher trying selfies.
