Getting started with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: a larger screen and even more AI

Like every year at the same time, it’s time to renew the Galaxy S made in Samsung. The number 2 in telephony, still behind Apple (according to 2024 data from IDC) with 18% market share, announces its premium terminals and is a locomotive in the high-end market.

After a year of 2024 inaugurating the era of artificial intelligence in the South Korean ecosystem with the Galaxy S24 including the Galaxy AI suite, it is the turn of the equally “intelligent” Galaxy S25 to make their debut. As always, it is an Ultra model, equipped with what the manufacturer knows how to do best, which oversees a range also including the Galaxy S25 and S25+.

Advertising, your content continues below

The presentation of the Galaxy S25 is edifying: there is less and less talk about hardware, and it is the software that is now responsible for making technology enthusiasts dream. However, the Galaxy S25 Ultra contains some interesting new hardware features.

Ever bigger screen

This smartphone gives in to the current trend of ever-larger screens. If it retains the format of the S24 Ultra, it offers a slightly larger display (6.9 inches compared to 6.8 inches for its predecessor, Amoled, QHD+ and announced brightness of 2600 cd/m²) thanks to the thinning of its borders. Like Apple, Samsung is playing the card of enlarging the screens rather than reducing the dimensions of the product (162.8 x 77.6 mm compared to the 162.3 x 79 mm of the Galaxy S24 Ultra). This allows it to integrate a maintained capacity battery (5000 mAh), but also an unchanged S-Pen stylus. We note that the overall design of the smartphone is a little more similar to that of the Galaxy S25/25+: its screen and edges are flat, its corners rounded.

Advertising, your content continues below

But this is the most advanced model in the range, which benefits from a few exclusives. Among them, the use of a chassis clad in titanium – a material highlighted in all the colors of the device – and the protection of its panel using Gorilla Glass Armor 2. Corning therefore reserves for its partner a new generation of windows, which still promises just as much reduction in reflections, but also an additional 30% in impact resistance.

This is not its prerogative, but let us point out that the Galaxy S25 Ultra is IP68 certified, that is to say resistant to immersion in water. The manufacturer does not go so far as to offer IP69 (resistance to hot water), a popular standard among competing brands. Anyway, the smartphone is neither thicker (8.2 mm vs 8.6 mm) and the heaviest (218 g vs 232 g) than his elder. These are obviously minor improvements, but appreciable and which are felt once the terminal is in the hands.

The smartphone hardly surprises when it comes to the chip that powers it. After the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung opted for the Snapdragon 8 Elite in a slightly overclocked “for Galaxy” version (4.47 GHz) and accompanied by 12 GB of RAM. Enough to expect high-level performance, the chipset having already hit the mark in several competing devices.

Advertising, your content continues below

This chip is cut out for AI, and that’s also why Samsung chose it. It also gives the smartphone its compatibility with WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Note that it is also compatible with wireless charging and, at the wired level, still supports a power of 45 W.

Cautious on the subject of truly fast charging, Samsung is just as cautious on the subject of battery technologies. Unlike Honor or Xiaomi, the manufacturer does not use silicon-carbon for its batteries and prefers the more classic lithium. It only takes a look at the brand’s past (remember the Galaxy Note 7 affair) to understand why the South Korean is so measured.

The new features are also slim regarding the photo section. We find a main sensor of 200 megapixels (Mpx), 50 and 10 Mpx sensors dedicated to telephoto modules (x5 and x3), but a little generosity also devoted to the ultra wide-angle. This in fact offers a 50 Mpx sensor (12 Mpx previously) with optics opening at f/1.9, therefore potentially more detailed images. They seemed convincing to us during our first tests, but it will have to face our scene to confirm these impressions. Let us add that this module is now compatible with the macro.

A galaxy of AI functions… with Google

Even more than last year, Samsung intends to make a difference with its intelligent functions. The options made available in 2024 are still present (call transcription, instant offline translations, etc.), and its partnership with Google is more relevant than ever. In this regard, we note for example that the Ultra (like the other two S25s) benefits from the evolution of Circle to search, which includes audio search and more context to respond to queries. Samsung adds Select AI, a function available via its sidebarwhich delivers a recommendation for actions based on the content spotted on the screen, for example the call suggestion when a telephone number is detected.

Advertising, your content continues below

However, there is a new aspect of integrating Google’s AI. First, Gemini Live makes its debut on the smartphone, allowing the user to converse with AI in natural language. Above all, Samsung has worked on integrating Gemini into its terminal and it is now possible to send requests to it by voice, but also to summon several apps in the same request. The idea is, for example, to launch a web search, then send a message including the answer to this query, all working with native apps from Google and Samsung, but also Spotify and WhatsApp.

We were unable to test this function in French, and for good reason: it will only be available in the language of Molière from February 7, the device’s availability date. In English, however, it is effective. To ensure optimal operation, the brand recommends limiting yourself to requests involving two apps. However, it confirms that it will be possible to mix more within the same request in the future.

It is difficult to draw up an exhaustive list of functions using AI. Here are some of them:

• Intelligent Suggestions is responsible for offering the user routines based on their habits, linked to connected objects in the home if necessary.
• Best Pose is the counterpart of the Best Take function of Pixels (Google): it allows you to isolate the faces of each subject in a group photo and to individually choose their most successful smile. To do this, you must activate live photos.
• Audio Eraser allows you to remove unwanted noise in videos (wind, people talking nearby, music, etc.).
• AI editing allows you to automatically produce short vlogs automatically isolating the highlights of the videos selected in the gallery.

Note that Bixby is not abandoned. The Google Assistant is used when the user searches, always by voice and in natural language, for a function within the smartphone settings. Nothing tells him that he swapped Gemini for Bixby, and yet!

Advertising, your content continues below

With Android 15, the debut of One UI 7

Samsung took a while to release its first betas of Android 15 accompanied by its in-house One UI 7 interface, since it had to wait until December 2024. The South Korean therefore preferred to wait for the launch of its new smartphones to reveal its full content, in particular its Now Bar, one of its flagship assets that we were able to try in beta, therefore partially.

The Now Bar takes the form of a dynamic widget displayed on the lock screen of the S25 Ultra. It provides information such as route tracking on Google Maps, current playlist, timer and real-time translation. If several pieces of information need to appear, they stack up and you just have to swipe upwards to switch from one to the other.

The bar is accompanied by a Now Brief, to be found in the form of a notification (in the morning, evening or during the day), then under that of a widget on the home screen. By relying on the user’s habits and by drawing on its various tools, it summarizes information which can be useful to them at the present moment: report of the night’s sleep, weather, appointments, transport tickets and others Travel time to be expected depending on traffic.

Price and availability

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is available for pre-order from January 22, then will be delivered from February 7. It costs €1,469 in the 256 GB version, an unchanged price compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra with equal storage. Count on €1589 for 512 GB and €1289 for 1 TB.

Note that the Galaxy S24s will be updated to Android 15 with One UI 7, but the deployment schedule remains to be defined. It is likely that a large part of the functions announced within the newcomer will remain exclusive to it. The Galaxy S25 Ultra will also benefit from seven years of software updates.

Advertising, your content continues below