The phone nearly convinced someone who has spent years defending iPhones that Android might be worth the switch.
At the intersection of ambition and utility, Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra arrives as a quiet argument that artificial intelligence on a smartphone need not be mere spectacle. Launching February 7 at $1,299, the device asks whether the tools we carry daily might finally begin to think alongside us — coordinating calendars, messages, and searches through a single spoken request. It is a phone that does not merely iterate on its predecessors but gestures, however imperfectly, toward a different relationship between human intention and machine action.
- Samsung enters 2025 with a flagship that challenges Apple's dominance not through imitation but through a genuinely novel AI feature — cross-app voice commands that chain tasks across Google, Samsung, and third-party apps in one breath.
- The tension is real: a $1,299 price tag demands perfection, yet the phone ships with a missing Qi2 magnet, a blunted S Pen, and a morning briefing feature that occasionally surfaces clickbait alongside useful intelligence.
- The display and camera system hit back hard — 1,860 nits of brightness and a 50-megapixel ultrawide sensor push measurably past the iPhone 16 Pro Max, giving Samsung a concrete visual edge in the flagship wars.
- Battery life clears 17 hours, the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor runs graphics benchmarks above Apple's chip, and the overall experience is smooth enough to make a longtime iPhone defender reconsider their allegiances.
- The landing is promising but conditional — Samsung must now widen its AI partner ecosystem and iron out design compromises before this vision of voice-controlled mobile computing moves from impressive demonstration to everyday habit.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra arrives carrying a quiet paradox: critics called it an Apple imitation the moment it launched, yet weeks of real-world testing brought at least one longtime iPhone defender to the edge of switching. That tension — between familiar form and genuinely new function — defines the phone.
The headline feature is cross-app AI actions. Press the side button, speak a single request, and the phone will look up an event date, drop it into your calendar, and text it to a contact — all at once, across Google Workspace, Samsung's native apps, and services like WhatsApp. It works, and it works quickly. For the first time, AI on a phone feels less like a marketing flourish and more like something that actually saves time.
The 6.9-inch display is among the finest ever shipped on a smartphone, reaching 1,860 nits of peak brightness and covering a wider color gamut than the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Darker scenes and bright outdoor conditions both favor the Samsung. The camera system is equally compelling — a new 50-megapixel ultrawide sensor, a 200-megapixel main shooter with vivid, natural color rendering, and professional video tools including 10-bit HDR, LOG format, and a precise Audio Eraser for removing unwanted sound.
Performance is seamless. The overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite with 12GB of RAM handles heavy multitasking and gaming without hesitation, and battery life stretches past 17 hours — a modest but real improvement over last year.
The compromises are worth naming honestly. The S Pen loses its Bluetooth air-gesture capability. Qi2 magnetic wireless charging requires a separate case because the magnets were not built into the phone itself. The flat titanium edges are sharper than comfortable for long holds. And the Now Brief morning summary feature arrives feeling unfinished, mixing useful personalization with noise.
At $1,299 — matching the iPhone 16 Pro Max — the S25 Ultra is expensive. But it is the first Samsung flagship in some time that makes that price feel earned. The open question is whether its AI ecosystem will grow fast enough, and whether voice-controlled cross-app automation will become a genuine shift in how people use their phones, or simply a feature that dazzles and then fades.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra arrives with a paradox built into its titanium frame. Critics complained the moment it launched that Samsung had simply copied Apple's design—flat edges, rounded corners, the whole aesthetic playbook. But after weeks of testing, the phone nearly convinced someone who has spent years defending iPhones that Android might be worth the switch.
The device launches February 7 at $1,299 for 256GB of storage, with configurations up to 1TB. What Samsung has done here is take the concept of AI on a phone and actually make it useful in ways that feel less like a parlor trick and more like genuine assistance. The standout feature is cross-app actions: you can press the side button and ask the phone to look up the Oscars date, add it to your calendar, and text it to a friend—all in one voice command. The phone handles the coordination across Google Workspace, Samsung's native apps, and third-party services like WhatsApp. It works. It's fast. And it hints at what phones might become when AI stops being a marketing term and starts being a tool that actually saves time.
The 6.9-inch display is nearly flawless. It measures 1,860 nits at peak brightness, beating the iPhone 16 Pro Max's 1,553 nits by a meaningful margin. Colors are richer—the phone covers 90.8 percent of the DCI-P3 color space compared to Apple's 80.9 percent. Watching video side by side, the Samsung pulls ahead in darker scenes and outdoor visibility. The screen also uses Corning's Gorilla Armor 2, though durability testing suggests it's slightly less scratch-resistant than the previous generation.
The camera system is where Samsung makes its strongest case. The ultrawide sensor jumped from 12 megapixels to 50 megapixels, delivering noticeably sharper detail in wide shots. The 200-megapixel main sensor captures colors with genuine pop—blues and greens and purples that feel alive without looking artificial. In low light, the S25 Ultra produces cleaner images with less noise than the iPhone, though macro photography remains a weak point. Video recording now includes 10-bit HDR and LOG format support for professionals, plus an Audio Eraser feature that lets you fine-tune which sounds to remove—wind, voices, music, crowd noise—with surprising precision.
Performance is excellent. The overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite processor with 12GB of RAM keeps the phone silky smooth even with a dozen apps open. Gaming is fluid. The phone scored higher than the iPhone in graphics benchmarks, though Apple's chip wins on single-core CPU tests. Battery life stretches to 17 hours and 14 minutes in testing, about 30 minutes better than last year's model and competitive with current flagships. Charging remains at 45W, faster than iPhone but slower than some Android competitors.
Samsung made some compromises worth noting. The S Pen no longer has Bluetooth, eliminating air gesture controls—Samsung says few people used them anyway. More frustrating: Qi2 wireless charging support requires buying a separate case because the magnets aren't built into the phone itself. The edges are also sharper than ideal, digging into your hand more than Apple's beveled design. The new Now Brief feature, which aims to give you a personalized morning summary, feels underbaked during testing, occasionally serving up clickbait headlines alongside useful information.
What emerges is a phone that takes real risks with AI integration and mostly lands them. The cross-app actions feature alone suggests a direction for mobile computing that feels genuinely novel. The display is among the best ever shipped. The cameras are versatile and often superior to the competition. The battery lasts all day and then some. At $1,299, it's expensive—the same price as the iPhone 16 Pro Max—but for the first time, Samsung has built something that makes that cost feel justified. The question now is whether Samsung can expand the ecosystem of apps that work with its AI features, and whether this approach to voice-controlled automation will actually change how people use their phones, or remain a novelty that impresses at parties.
Notable Quotes
The ability to perform actions across multiple apps at once using your voice has the potential to change how we interact with our phones forever.— Tom's Guide review
Its AI smarts, vivid display, mostly top-notch cameras, super smooth performance and long battery life add up to a very impressive flagship—so impressive that I'm tempted to switch to Android myself.— Tom's Guide review
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
What makes the cross-app actions feature actually different from just having a voice assistant?
It's the simultaneity. Siri can do one thing at a time. This phone understands the relationship between tasks—it knows that adding something to your calendar and then texting someone about it are connected actions, not separate commands. It's thinking in sequences.
Does it actually work reliably, or does it fail in ways that are frustrating?
In testing it worked every time I tried it. But the real limitation is that it only works with apps Samsung and Google have integrated. You can't ask it to do something with, say, a banking app or a niche service. The potential is enormous, but the actual usefulness depends on whether the apps you use are on the approved list.
The display brightness numbers are impressive, but does that actually matter in real life?
Yes, but not in the way marketing suggests. It's not about making things look brighter—it's about visibility in sunlight. When you're outside on a bright day, the extra brightness means you can actually see what's on the screen without squinting or tilting the phone. It's a practical difference.
You mentioned the macro photography is weak. Why would Samsung upgrade the ultrawide to 50 megapixels but still struggle with close-ups?
It's a sensor physics problem. More megapixels doesn't automatically mean better macro performance. The iPhone's approach to macro is different—it uses computational photography more aggressively. Samsung's hardware upgrade helps with wide shots but didn't solve the close-focus problem.
The Qi2 magnets requiring a case feels like a deliberate choice to sell cases. Is that what happened?
Probably. Building magnets into the phone adds weight and thickness, and Samsung was clearly focused on making this lighter than the previous model. But it does feel like they're asking you to pay extra for a feature they're advertising as built-in.
Would you actually switch from iPhone to this?
The reviewer came close. The AI features are genuinely useful in ways iPhone's aren't. The display is better. The cameras are more versatile. But at the same price point, it's a choice between ecosystems, not a clear winner. If you're already in Apple's world, the friction of switching is real.