Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely evaluate: one small step for AI… eh, no leaps

Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely specs

The Extremely fashions have historically featured a pointy rectangular design, inherited from the outdated Galaxy Be aware line. Their aspect body was nonetheless rounded off, the place your fingers naturally relaxation. Nonetheless, the Galaxy S25 Extremely comes with totally flat sides throughout. The corners of the cellphone are barely arched, breaking that pointy rectangle look, however not by so much. It nonetheless has that “all enterprise” look from the entrance.

No query, it is nonetheless rated IP68 for water- and dust-resistance, and Galaxy S25 Extremely nonetheless contains the fan-favorite S Pen. It is also barely thinner and lighter than the Galaxy S24 Extremely, with a 0.4 mm discount in thickness and 14 grams shaved off its weight. Although, when holding each, the distinction is miniscule if any.

There isn’t any main change within the placement of energy and quantity buttons, audio system, S Pen slot, digicam lenses, and selfie digicam punch-hole. Although the primary digicam rings seem barely lifted off the cellphone’s physique, however they create a pleasant little hole to gather your whole pocket lint. We now know that was an intentional design choice, and Samsung calls it “floating cameras”. It is meant to indicate how highly effective the cameras are… by some means?

In relation to colours, the top-tier Extremely telephones function “muted” titanium paintjobs. The Galaxy S25 Extremely‘s collection of shades is Black, Grey, Silver Blue, and White Silver, with unique colours on Samsung.com being Pinkgold, Jetblack, and Jadegreen. Our pleasure over Jetblack was for naught. Whereas the common black comes with a matte silver-ish titanium body, the Jetblack version comes with black body and black again… Not shiny or shiny, all matte. It is high quality, they give the impression of being mature and like they imply enterprise, however if you’re on the lookout for a extra “enjoyable” cellphone, perhaps look into the Galaxy S25 and S25+ for his or her colours.

Samsung’s AMOLED panels have been at their peak for a while now, with the most recent iteration branded as Dynamic AMOLED 2X. This highlights the adaptive refresh fee (1-120 Hz) and spectacular peak brightness, now reaching 2,600 nits. The Galaxy S25 Extremely retains these options, with the one noticeable change being its measurement. Due to barely thinner bezels, the display diagonal has elevated from 6.8 inches on the S24 Extremely to six.9 inches. The distinction is minimal and barely noticeable in on a regular basis use.

Each fashions function Gorilla Armor glass on the entrance. The S25 Extremely specs say Gorilla Armor 2, however there is no change in the way it seems to be. The low reflectivity appears to be the identical — gentle reflections are a bit extra bluish, however the identical in degree of brightness as earlier than. That is to say — very low, the visibility of those shows is superior.

Show Measurements:

Digital camera

One other yr, one other 200 megapixels

The Galaxy S25 Extremely comes with a really acquainted digicam specs sheet — 200 MP major, 10 MP 3x zoom, 50 MP 5x zoom, and 50 MP ultra-wide digicam. Type of just like the Galaxy S24 Extremely, the one factor totally different is the ultra-wide digicam, which was 12 MP on the S24 Extremely.

Whereas the module appears to be largely the identical, there are some minor tweaks finished on the software program aspect. The Galaxy S25 Extremely does not oversharpen as a lot as its predecessors, and it is barely higher at exposing nighttime photographs than the S24 Extremely. Generally, there is a minor improve to be noticed right here.

The brand new processor and the ability of AI do unlock extra options. There’s the brighter nighttime publicity, but in addition a brand new filters system. Type of like Apple’s Photographic Types, now you can take images with a number of user-adjustable filters within the Galaxy S25 Extremely. You possibly can even change filters and their settings after a photograph was taken, from throughout the Gallery app editor.

The 12 MP digicam on the entrance of the gadget appears unchanged. That is simply high quality, it has been good so far, giving us nice selfies with sharp particulars and balanced dynamics.

For video, we’ve a wierd flip in outcomes. The clips from the Galaxy S25 Extremely come out extra greenish, extra vivid than from the S24 Extremely. Stabilization appears to be on par, and particulars look nice on each, particularly when zooming in. It is fairly spectacular how far these telephones have come.

Qualcomm has formally unveiled its newest and quickest chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, now constructed on a 3 nm course of for better energy and improved vitality effectivity. This marks the second time Qualcomm has rebranded its flagship chips lately. Oh effectively, no confusion right here!

Powering the Galaxy S25 Extremely, the Snapdragon 8 Elite comes with the “for Galaxy” branding, indicating a slight overclock in comparison with the usual model. In response to Samsung and Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Elite boasts a 30% sooner CPU, 37% sooner GPU, and 40% sooner NPU, in comparison with final yr’s S24 Extremely and its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (for Galaxy).

The Galaxy S25 Extremely additionally incorporates a 40% bigger vapor cooling chamber to take care of constant efficiency from the Snapdragon 8 Elite. No less than, that is what we hoped earlier than launching the exams.

Efficiency Benchmarks:

And sure, the Galaxy S25 Extremely did get very respectable prime scores on the benchmarks. But it surely’s price noting, it takes as much as 2 cycles of the 3DMark Wildlife Excessive stress check for the processor to throttle right down to 4,000 factors. By cycle 7, it begins hovering round 3,000 factors till the top of the check. That is very near what an iPhone 16 Professional Max with an Apple A18 Professional would do. However a extra optimized cellphone, just like the gaming uber-machine Asus ROG Cellphone 9 Professional with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, can persist with a rating of 5,900 for the complete check.OK, high quality, so it isn’t a king of the stress exams. How is the Galaxy S25 Extremely in actual life? Very snappy! It opens apps quick, it scrolls fluidly, it is enjoyable to make use of. No complaints from us.

The Galaxy S25 Extremely affords the identical configurations as its predecessor: 12 GB of RAM paired with storage choices of 256 GB, 512 GB, or 1 TB.

On the intense aspect, Samsung is presently providing early adopters incentives throughout the pre-order interval, resembling “free storage upgrades” and enticing trade-in offers to have fun the launch of the Galaxy S25 Extremely.

The Galaxy S25 Extremely ships with Android 15 and One UI 7. It introduces a redesigned person interface, new Reside Notifications harking back to the iPhone’s Dynamic Island widget, and a few extra new AI-powered options. These embody AI Choose, which acts like a supercharged model of Circle to Search, immediately recognizing every thing in your display, and a multi-modal mind, permitting customers to hyperlink queries throughout a number of apps and sources, executing actions inside different apps seamlessly.

Apparently, these options are a part of Google’s Gemini AI framework, which suggests they will additionally roll out to the Galaxy S24 sequence and different current Android gadgets. Bixby continues to be there… hidden within the Settings. By default, when holding the cellphone’s aspect button, you name up Gemini, however you may set that as much as be Bixby as an alternative.

You might be additionally getting 6 months of Gemini Superior totally free with a Galaxy S25 Extremely, with 2 TB of cloud storage, too. Apparently, Samsung’s and Google’s partnership is deepening.

The S25 Extremely additionally upgrades its video editor with an Audio Eraser function that cleans up vocal audio, very like the iPhone 16 Professional’s Audio Combine, which might make voices sound studio-quality. It is a bit much less sturdy, it does not have a number of modes just like the iPhone does. However you get to choose from totally different classes of sounds to “erase” — voice, random noise, or music that occurred to be within the video. It does an OK job of it.

We do have to say the S Pen right here. Don’t be concerned, it is as nice as ever, nevertheless it has shed its Bluetooth performance. This implies, you may not use the S Pen as a distant shutter button, as a distant play key to your music, or to do this magic wand wavey factor within the air and navigate by the cellphone. If you happen to’ve forgotten that these options are even there — don’t fret, so have we. It is smart why Samsung would take away them. They required the S Pen to have a battery and be charged, and no person actually used them that a lot.

With a 7-year software program help dedication, the Galaxy S25 Extremely might stay related till 2032. That’s an extended lifespan for a smartphone, making it an ideal choice for many who desire to not improve steadily.

So, any good points in endurance will all be as much as the three nm Snapdragon 8 Elite’s effectivity, and perhaps some software program optimizations. Effectively, how is it?

PhoneArena Battery and Charging Check Outcomes:

So, the battery lifetime of the S25 Extremely may be very a lot much like the S24 Extremely, with about half an hour of endurance added. That is high quality, however not a champion. We are able to nonetheless depend on it to final a day, for positive, and undoubtedly a day and a half after the honeymoon interval is over.

Charging capabilities stay the identical, with the Galaxy S25 Extremely supporting as much as 45 W wired charging. It additionally helps the brand new Qi2 wi-fi charging commonplace, probably enabling 15 W wi-fi charging pucks. Nonetheless, don’t count on compatibility with magnetic equipment. Magnets intervene with the S Pen’s digitizer performance, and Samsung has opted to keep away from them altogether. You possibly can nonetheless purchase circumstances for the Galaxy S25 Extremely which have a magnetic ring in them — each official circumstances and third celebration — and add that performance.

The Galaxy S25 Extremely scored a small improve within the audio system division, too. It sounds barely louder and barely meatier than the S24 Extremely. Its bass response has shifted a bit, with a slight hump within the low, low mids as an alternative of a deeper backside finish. It does nonetheless sound a bit honky within the mids, and it does nonetheless compress barely whenever you pump up the quantity. Whereas the sound is kind of good for what you’ll count on from a cellphone, it is nonetheless not fairly Bluetooth speaker-like.

The Galaxy S25 Extremely is a little bit of a letdown. Sure, it is an ideal Android cellphone, it has all of the bells and whistles, and it’ll most likely be fairly standard all through 2025. However, for those who had been on the lookout for some significant upgrades over the S24 Extremely — you will not discover them right here. Even Samsung had hassle attempting to fire up pleasure for the S25 sequence, presenting AI options on-stage like they had been one of the best factor since sliced bread… whereas they’re largely “Enhanced search”.

That mentioned, we reside in a really totally different world now. You might be most likely not coming from an S24 Extremely. If this can be a massive leap of an improve for you, or your first premium smartphone, you’ll definitely be pleased with it. There is a good purpose why it does not carry a variety of enhancements — Samsung has the system down, and telephones like Galaxy S24 Extremely and Galaxy S23 Extremely had been already glorious. No shock, so is the Galaxy S25 Extremely.

On the lookout for the golden nugget of a secret tip? Search for a reduced Galaxy S24 Extremely. You did not hear it from us!