The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra isn’t so ‘ultra’ anymore

When you yell “Can you just Google it?” at your AI assistant, it’s fair to say that the AI assistant is not doing its job.

I was browning any beef on the stove and trying to find erstwhile my husband’s flight was landing. I didn’t have the flight number, but there are only so many direct flights between Detroit and Seattle in a day. So I long-pressed the power button on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and asked Google’s Gemini assistant to find the information for me. It said it couldn’t. So I insisted — loudly — to just Google it, plus or minus an expletive. It couldn’t even do that, so I went to Google myself and had the answer in seconds. AI, everybody.

This wouldn’t substance but AI smarts are expected to be the big deal with this phone. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is simply a barely warmed-over version of last year’s device, with any lightly bumped specs and ever-so-slight plan changes. That’s fine! The S24 Ultra was a large part of hardware, and the S23 Ultra was, too. Samsung didn’t request to reinvent the wheel. But it means the company is relying on these “Galaxy AI” features — plus any aid from Gemini — to give the S25 Ultra that new-phone zhuzh. And despite all its sparkle, Galaxy AI isn’t up to the task.

More than anything, Samsung has lost the game on what makes this “Ultra” telephone ultra. The Ultra utilized to — and kind of still is — the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink phone. It has the stylus, the large screen, all the cameras, and just about all another souped-up spec you could think of. But over the past fewer years, Samsung just hasn’t found a way to make this telephone any more special. In fact, it’s gotten just a small bit less special, if anything.

The S24 Ultra downgraded the 10x zoom to a 5x, which is just okay at 10x, despite Samsung’s claims it’s just as good. The S25 Ultra downgrades the smart stylus into a dumb 1 without Bluetooth connectivity and air control features. I wouldn’t have a problem with that if those things had been sacrificed for any another compelling feature. But I can’t see what’s been added, and at $1,299, this is 1 of the most costly phones you can buy that doesn’t fold in half. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a damn good phone. But I think at that price, it’s fair to ask for just a small more.

Samsung introduced us to the concept of Galaxy AI last year, which includes some proprietary features like writing tools, note summarization, call translation, and wacky photograph editing tools. This year, it places a fresh assistant front and center: Google’s Gemini. Bixby is inactive around in a supporting role, but Gemini is the default helper you’ll get erstwhile you long-press the wake button. With the S25 series, Gemini can take action across multiple apps for you including in Gmail and Calendar and a bunch of Samsung’s native apps. This was the function I was most excited to effort on the S25 Ultra, but it’s an Android feature coming to many another phones, too.

The results were mixed. I asked it to put an event on my calendar based on what was on my telephone screen, and it did it. Date, time, location were all correct. It felt kind of magical, which I realize is simply a very low bar for magic. another results were little impressive. If I asked it to make a list of 5 videos to watch on a peculiar subject and add them to a note, it only added the header text — even erstwhile I prompted it to add them as hyperlinks.

The another problem is, AI makes crap up a lot. I asked it to find a circumstantial recipe for an espresso martini on YouTube and add the ingredients to a note. It appeared to follow directions by pulling up the video I referenced, and the ingredients seemed like they might be in an espresso martini. But they were totally different from what was featured in the video. I tried to ask it about details of a flight leaving from San Francisco, and even though I had it mention my confirmation email, it kept insisting that my flight was leaving from San Jose. It makes you think twice about relying on AI for anything but the lowest of low-stakes tasks!

Samsung has besides integrated AI features here and there across the OS. A prominent AI feature called Now Brief offers summaries of your activities throughout the day and supposedly surfaces applicable information based on your calendar and location. It’s on the homescreen by default and pops up on the lockscreen erstwhile a fresh 1 is available. I find it to be mostly useless. It kept showing political news headlines that I don’t want to be bombarded with in the mediate of the day, so I turned those off.

None of this is unique to the Galaxy S25 Ultra or even the S25 series. These AI features — which occupied most of Samsung’s Unpacked presentation introducing these phones — will very likely come to erstwhile Galaxy phones later this year. I love to see older phones get fresh features. But it besides makes it very hard to see what sets the S25 Ultra apart from the remainder of the S25 series or even the another Android competition. There’s besides a strong anticipation that Samsung will start charging for these features at the end of 2025; Samsung’s fine print only guarantees that they’ll be free through the end of 2025. Don’t be amazed if your AI telephone abruptly comes with an AI subscription fee.

The S25 series ships with 1 UI 7.0, a crucial update to Samsung’s Android skin. It’s besides a peculiarly iOS-y update, most notably with divided fast settings and notification shades and a Dynamic Island-like Now Bar with time-sensitive information. I don’t think it’s a peculiarly bad influence, and you can undo or tweak many of these changes. I appreciate the ability to put all my apps on 1 page in the app tray so I don’t gotta scroll between multiple pages, like on another Android phones. There’s a time to do your own thing and there’s a time to just follow the crowd.

Samsung took another good cue from Apple with the S25 Ultra’s fresh shape. The erstwhile couple of Ultra phones had a boxy form that paid tribute to the Note series. But those pointed corners were sharp and made the telephone uncomfortable to hold. This year, Samsung ditched what was left of the Note styling and adopted curved corners like the remainder of the S series.

The Ultra besides loses what was left of its curved edges in favour of consecutive sides that make it easier to choice up. They’re subtle changes, but they do make the S25 Ultra more comfortable to hold and use, at the expense of looking like all another modern smartphone from the front. I think it’s a net positive. I’d alternatively have a comfortable telephone than a unique-looking 1 that digs into my palm.

The Ultra uses an updated Gorilla Armor 2 protective layer on its screen. It’s expected to withstand drops onto concrete better than the erstwhile version, which I didn’t test in my time with the phone. But I can say its scratch-resistance has held up well to a week of abuse, and the screen’s antireflective coating makes it 1 of the easiest phones to usage in direct sunlight. But that was besides actual of the S24 Ultra.

The S25 Ultra, like the S25 and S25 Plus, uses a version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset that’s specially tuned for Galaxy phones. I utilized the 8 Elite in the OnePlus 13 and couldn’t tell you any notable difference in performance between the two. Everyday tasks ran smoothly on the 8 Elite. The telephone crashed and restarted itself in 1 instance, which was a small unusual, but I haven’t seen anything else like that in the week I’ve been utilizing it.

Battery life is about par for a flagship smartphone in 2025. I usually got through an average day with 60 percent or so left over. Good, but not amazing. The S25 series is Qi2 Ready, which means it supports the latest wireless charging standard but only with a peculiar magnetic case — it doesn’t have magnets built into the phone. It’s a fair compromise since most people will put their telephone in a case and never take it off, but it’s a bummer for the case-averse like me.

The S25 Ultra inactive has an S Pen, but Samsung removed Bluetooth features that allowed you to usage the stylus like a magic wand. Samsung says fewer people utilized those features, and on balance, it’s no large loss. But it’s the rule more than anything that stings.

The cameras on the S25 Ultra are unchanged with 1 exception: a fresh 50-megapixel ultrawide. Samsung’s claim that it performs better in low light seems to hold up — I can see more fine item in shots from the fresh camera compared to the ultrawide on the S24 Ultra. Likewise, the fresh ultrawide — most likely helped by a wider f/1.9 aperture — allows the strategy to usage lower ISOs to get the same level of brightness in a shot, which helps keep sound down, too. It’s definitely an upgrade; is it 1 that Ultra owners were clamoring for? I’m little certain about that.

Samsung’s another notable claim is that its low-light video processing has been improved to better separate between moving and static subjects, in explanation allowing for smarter application of sound reduction. I can’t say this is anything I’ve had a peculiar complaint about on past Galaxy phones, but low-light video is inactive a challenge for any mobile camera.

And it appears to be working: in side-by-side video clips with the S24 Ultra, I can clearly see more fine item from the S25 Ultra, peculiarly in dim indoor lighting. It isn’t a paradigm shift, but advancement is progress. Otherwise, the S25 Ultra’s images look very much like what I’ve come to anticipate from Samsung. This camera loves its vibrant reds and blues, and image mode segmentation is inactive any of the best in the game.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra remains 1 of the best phones you can buy. The screen is excellent, the cameras are any of the best in the game, and you’ll have a hard time uncovering any workload tough adequate to challenge it. That’s all been actual of the last fewer Ultra phones, and it’s actual of this one. But I think there’s something intangible that the Ultra has been losing over the past couple of generations.

You can buy the Galaxy S25 Plus or the Pixel 9 Pro if you just want a good Android phone. The reason to buy a Galaxy S-series Ultra is due to the fact that you don’t want something that’s just good; you want something that’s special. This telephone feels a small little peculiar than the S24 Ultra did, which felt a small little peculiar than the S23 Ultra. Complaining about the “specialness” of a telephone would be silly for any another phone. But this is the Ultra! Doesn’t that mean something?

It utilized to come with a 10x telephoto camera and a stylus that worked like a magic wand. It utilized to look strikingly different from the remainder of the S series, or any another phone, for that matter. any of these changes have been for the better, but Samsung hasn’t made up for what it’s cutting. For now, the S25 Ultra inactive feels like something special. But if the trend continues, then the Ultra could become just another large phone.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge