Review: Samsung Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus - Well-balanced and Familiar

Samsung sticks to the model they've been using for several years now, with three Galaxy S models, where the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus offer a balance between top model features and price tag in two different sizes. If you want the best screen, the best cameras, and a built-in stylus, then it's the Galaxy S25 Ultra you should go for.

But it's not just the setup that's familiar; the Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus are almost identical to their predecessors, the S24 and S24 Plus. In appearance, but also in hardware. The main new features are instead in the system, but we can expect those new features to come to the predecessor as well in an update in the not-too-distant future.

We can quickly go over the differences between the two models in this test. The Samsung Galaxy S25 has a 6.2-inch screen with thin bezels around it. This makes it one of the more compact phones on the market for those who prefer that. The Galaxy S25 Plus has a larger 6.7-inch screen but is also heavier and more expensive. The screen on the Plus model also has a higher resolution, but the brightness and refresh rate are the same. If you want to notice the higher resolution, you have to go into the settings and change it, as it is set to a lower resolution by default to save energy.

The S25 Plus also has a larger battery, but this is partially offset by the larger screen, and the fact is that in our screen test where we stream video at maximum brightness, we get the same excellent battery life within a minute on both phones. However, the S25 Plus charges faster, at least if you have a charger that supports 45-watt charging. The S25 charges at a maximum of 25 watts.

The phones have a matte glass back and matte aluminum sides, and they are so slippery in my hands that I drop the S25 while configuring it and manage to scratch the screen a bit on the gritty floor. A protective case is therefore a good idea, and then the choice of materials and appearance of the phone no longer matters at all.

Familiar screen

I don't have eagle eyes, so I don't notice any difference in screen resolution between the two models, but the phones have exactly the excellent screens I have come to expect from Samsung, with bright colors, smooth response thanks to the fast screen refresh rate, and high maximum brightness that works even in sunlight. Not least, I expect this because they are exactly the same screens as in the previous year's models in the Galaxy S24 series.

The chipset is of course new, Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, present in both models in the test and provides the fastest possible performance. "for Galaxy" is supposed to mean that the chips have a slightly higher clock frequency than the usual ones and Samsung's image enhancement engine is supposed to run directly from the chip, but it's not something we notice much of in practical experience or in our performance tests.

The most noticeable novelty is instead One UI 7, Samsung's user interface on Android 15, and the new AI features. In neither case are these features reserved for the Galaxy S25, they are just the phones that are first to receive them.

If we start with the user interface, there are a number of cosmetic changes that you immediately notice. One is that Samsung has taken after the iPhone, so now you get your notifications if you swipe down on the left side of the selfie camera, and shortcuts to functions from the right side, instead of previously having a combined menu with both. For those who prefer the old way, it is possible to switch back.

Two other new features are Now Bar and Now Brief. Now Bar is a small strip on the lock screen that shows things you are playing, timers, and more, and you can scroll between the different items by swiping. Most of this you could already see and do from the lock screen before, but I think Now Bar is a more intuitive and charismatic way to present the information.

Now Brief is a kind of daily overview that gathers information from a variety of sources depending on what you have authorized and presents them in an AI-generated summary. This is potentially useful but so far limited, because even though I agree to almost everything that can be included, I mainly get weather forecasts and today's events in the calendar. If you have a watch from Samsung, you also get sleep information and other health-related data, and I can imagine that this could become a very useful summary over time as more services are connected. But it could also become yet another in the line of defunct attempts to spruce up the user interface that can be categorized under 'widget screens.'

Artificial intelligence permeates the user interface even more than it did in the Galaxy S24. This is partly because there are new features, partly because Samsung has become better at highlighting the features that exist, and partly due to the introduction of Swedish language support in the language-based AI functions that came last fall and opened up several features for Swedish users.

Speak Naturally

Samsung calls the Galaxy S25 the first human-like feature. By this, they mean that you can speak to it as if it were a human and it understands what you are saying. This happens via Gemini, and for the first time, I do not opt out of the function to speak with the voice assistant by holding down the home button. It is a world of difference communicating with the latest version of Gemini compared to previous digital assistants. For example, I try telling the phone to make a shopping list with eggs, milk, and sugar in Google's note app Keep, and it works flawlessly. I get a checklist named shopping list with eggs, milk, and sugar on it. I can hesitate and change my mind, and like a real human, the assistant understands what I meant in the end. However, this is not unique to the Samsung Galaxy S25. Google has recently activated the function to control most of its apps via Gemini, and this applies not only to the Galaxy S25 series. Samsung has followed suit and added Gemini control to its own apps as well. You can thus use Gemini via text or speech to send messages, write notes, set alarms and reminders, or create calendar events, among other things. Some third-party apps like WhatsApp or Spotify are also supported, but not Microsoft's pre-installed apps Office, Onedrive, or Outlook.

A lot of my conversations with Gemini are questions about how I find various AI features and other settings in the Galaxy S25. This is partly because I am in a test situation, but also because the features are still confusingly scattered in different places. Samsung's AI features for image management, for example, are located in widely different places in the user interface.

In Samsung's defense, the voice assistant is good at finding the feature for me, but it can't send me directly there, only give a step-by-step instruction on how to find and use it. An example is the feature to take a picture of the refrigerator and get a suggestion for something you can cook with the contents there. I try Circle to Search and the AI in the image app as well as asking Gemini, but it turns out I have to attach the file as an attachment to Gemini to perform this search, which Gemini explains when I ask. The result is mediocre, the suggestion I get includes two ingredients that are indeed in the fridge but a whole row that is missing.

Unchanged Cameras

The camera setup in the phones is exactly the same as in the Galaxy S24, and for that matter, the S23 and S22. A main camera with 50 megapixels, a wide-angle camera with 12 megapixels without autofocus, and a camera with three times optical zoom at 10 megapixels. The sensors have not been replaced in three years, and they weren't the best in class even when they were new, but on the other hand, one could argue that the camera setup can compete well with the regular iPhone 16 in the same price range, where particularly the ability to take zoomed-in pictures is better in the Galaxy S25. You can take sharp pictures with two or three times zoom, and only with higher zoom do the pictures become blurrier. The wide-angle camera is nothing to brag about, while the main camera takes competent pictures in most lighting conditions.

It's far from just optics and sensors that determine how the pictures turn out; potentially, the increased computing power in the phone in recent years can also be used for better image processing, and Samsung claims that there are quite a few improvements here.

I have difficulty detecting them. I have a Galaxy S22 that I compared the pictures with, and there are differences that favor the S25, but overall it's about nuances. I think the cameras in the Galaxy S25 have better and more natural color reproduction, and pictures in poorer light that often become too bright in the Galaxy S22. Night photography, on the other hand, is neither sharper nor faster, and I also fail to perceive the improvements when filming in low light that Samsung claims should be present in the Galaxy S25.

Image processing is the other major area for artificial intelligence after writing, transcribing, translating, and summarizing text. Here, there isn't much new since the feature to sketch something and have it translated into an image was introduced in the foldable phones this summer. The image editing functions are generally cool but of questionable usefulness. I don't know anyone who cares enough about how an image turns out to remove or move an object in the picture, but not so much that they are willing to open the image in an editing program and work on it. With Samsung Galaxy AI, you really have to hope for the best, sometimes it turns out okay, most often not. For example, the result is often successful if I mark an object and want to remove it from the picture, the AI can not only fill in even quite complicated backgrounds but also remove shadows that the object leaves. However, if I move an object, it rarely looks natural in its new place, and if parts of the object are obscured, the AI doesn't understand to fill them in.

A new feature is Audio Eraser, which allows you to make a film and remove parts of the sound, such as background noise, wind in the microphone, or someone talking. We recognize this feature from Google's Pixel phones, and it might be more Google's than Samsung's new feature. The result is similar, meaning noise can be removed quite effectively and voice enhanced, but the result doesn't sound particularly natural. More like when you're talking on a headset in a noisy environment and the noise is removed but you sound tinny.

Samsung promises seven years of system updates for the Galaxy S25 series, as it did for the S24. Essentially, everything new in the S25 will also come to the S24 series. Even if you have an older phone in the S series, like the S22 with which I compared the cameras, there are few reasons to upgrade if your current phone works well. But if you need a new phone, the Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus are excellent choices, with the Galaxy S25 being a particularly compact and affordable option.

Questions and Answers

What new features does Android 15 offer? You mostly notice security updates, such as needing to identify yourself to change certain sensitive settings.

How does the new AI-generated portrait feature work? You take a portrait photo and press the AI function to get suggestions for portrait images in various cartoon styles. None of our attempts closely resembled the person we photographed.

How is the fingerprint reader? Samsung's in-screen fingerprint reader usually works well right after you register your finger but starts to malfunction over time, especially in winter when it's cold. The S25 is no exception here.

An alternative

Iphone 16 and Iphone 16 Plus are the phones that Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus are clearly positioned against. The system is of course different, but in a direct comparison, you get a better screen and telephoto camera with the S25, while the Iphone has a slightly better main camera and wide-angle camera. Additionally, Samsung's AI services have Swedish language support, while Apple's have not yet been launched in Sweden.

Camera example

With the S25 series, Samsung has improved in making high-contrast images feel truly high-contrast, and the color reproduction is less exaggerated.