Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Review: An Outstanding Smartphone with Inessential AI 

• The Galaxy S25 Ultra is the largest and most premium device in Samsung’s flagship S25 range, retailing from AUD$2,149
• Hardware and operating system upgrades make the S25 Ultra Samsung’s most polished smartphone yet
• The suite of Galaxy AI features offers limited real-world benefits

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is Samsung’s latest heavy-duty salvo in the endless smartphone war, and it is every bit as formidable as you would hope. With pricing starting at AUD$2,149, it’s reasonable to expect a lot of bang for your buck, and this device delivers. Whether that outlay is worth it for you will depend on how much you value having the pinnacle of smartphone design in your pocket.

Saying that, I’ve been using the Galaxy S25 Ultra for the last two weeks and I’ve been undeniably impressed with the streamlined update to Samsung’s flagship design, slick new One UI 7 user interface, and excellent camera performance, all of which deliver as they should for a device at this price point. The S25 Ultra is the ultimate high-end Android device and overall a pleasure to use.

I’ve been less enamoured with the phone’s Galaxy AI functionality. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. The suite works as intended. It just feels a little too superfluous and niche to act as a core reason to purchase the S25 Ultra. AI remains a murky proposition for the entire smartphone industry (not just Samsung – check out our iPhone 16 review for evidence of this), and I have a strong sense that everyone is still trying to figure out what to do with it. 

With that, let’s jump into the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s triumphs and shortcomings, and discuss whether it’s worth forking out for the upgrade. 

Why Trust Us

Here at Man of Many, we use a wide variety of technology. We’re not fans of any one brand, and we like to get our hands on the latest and greatest tech before we proclaim any product the next great thing. Over the past 10 years, we’ve built up extensive experience in reviewing tech as a publication.


The author of this article, Rob Edwards, is one of Man of Many’s technology journalists and has followed the industry for over a decade. He’s previously reviewed competitors’ devices, and was provided the Galaxy S25 Ultra by Samsung for the purposes of this review. No money exchanged hands, and all opinions expressed are those of the author and haven’t been seen by Samsung ahead of time. For more information on our independence, testing and review guidelines, you can read our full editorial policies here.

The Good: Premium, Polished, and Powerful

Less Unique but More Refined

Samsung’s Ultra releases have long stood somewhat apart from the rest of the brand’s Galaxy S devices. For example, while last year’s S24 and S24+ took one approach, deploying slightly curved corners and flat sides, the S24 Ultra (like the S23 Ultra before it) did the opposite, with sharp corners and curved sides giving it an entirely different feel. 

I’ve long been an admirer of the way the Ultra line has done its own thing in this way, but this year’s incarnation has adopted an aesthetic more aligned with its smaller siblings. I initially bumped up against this, but I have to confess that I’ve since come around. The S25 Ultra is certainly a less unique phone than its predecessors were, but it is unquestionably more stylish and premium in look and feel — the Titanium Silver Blue finish doesn’t hurt either.

I’d argue that this new approach has seen Samsung sacrifice some of the character that made the Ultra an outlier in the smartphone landscape, but by doing so, it should finally do away with the stubbornly widespread (and to my mind entirely inaccurate) notion that Apple’s iPhones dominate the competition when it comes to design. 

An Intuitive New User Experience

While I never found the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s offering to be a sluggish experience, it feels positively cobweb-ridden compared to One UI 7, the new user interface introduced with the S25 range. 

Not only is One UI 7 faster and easier to navigate than its predecessor, it looks better too — the difference is subtle enough that Samsung users will feel right at home, but it’s certainly an upgrade. The clean new aesthetic has been a welcome surprise every time I’ve picked up the S25 Ultra, and while we’ll get into the weeds of the Galaxy AI suite of functionality shortly, it is seamlessly integrated into One UI 7 for those who want to use it regularly. 

One detail I’ve particularly enjoyed from One UI 7 is the modest but handy addition of a feature at the bottom of the lock screen that’s not unlike Apple’s Dynamic Island. From controlling media to getting mini-briefings that keep you updated throughout the day, it’s a small addition that I’ve genuinely appreciated. Plus, it’s entirely animated, so it has a leg-up over Apple in that it’s not trying to cover up a large black hole in the screen, attempting to reframe what many would consider a design shortcoming as a positive. 

Beyond the UI, the S25 Ultra experience is what you would expect from a flagship Samsung smartphone. The 5,000 mAh battery will easily get you through the day (although you can forget about getting a full second day out of it), and the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy is powerful enough to handle anything you care to throw at it without missing a beat. Just as well. Anything less would be unacceptable. 

The New Standard for Phone Cameras?

Samsung has always been a force to reckon with on the camera front and the S25 Ultra’s setup is the brand’s best yet. Boasting a 200-megapixel wide camera, a 50-megapixel telephoto camera, and a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera (a massive upgrade over the S24 Ultra’s 12-megapixel effort), this is the most versatile and capable smartphone camera configuration I’ve come across. 

From taking photos of my dog—let’s be honest, this makes up 90 per cent of the photos in my gallery—to snapping the glorious sights around Sydney or whatever it is I ate last (I try not to be that person but sometimes my worst instincts take over), the S25 Ultra takes better photos than any smartphone I’ve used before. And the post-shot processing (some automatic, some manual, and much of it AI-powered), reliably elevates already very good snaps even further.

While Man of Many is yet to do a camera shootout between the S25 Ultra and its nearest competitors, I’m confident Samsung’s effort has what it takes to claim the throne. I’ll update this review once we’ve been able to see all the smartphone heavyweights go head to head. 

The Bad: Galaxy AI is Nice but Easy to Ignore

I Don’t Need an AI Assistant and Neither Do You

To place the S25 Ultra’s AI offering under our “The Bad” category feels a little mean-spirited, because it’s not bad bad. It’s perfectly fine. The issue is just that every brand is trying to frame AI as some exciting and innovative new selling point, and I’m already sick of it. I don’t believe any of these tools, including Google’s Gemini (above), have yet reached the stage where they will actually make your life better in any meaningful way — certainly not one that justifies spending over AUD$2,000 to upgrade your smartphone. 

As I mentioned in the intro, this is not a dig at Samsung specifically but rather the whole AI hype machine. There are some handy features here—for example, the AI-based ability to manage different audio elements in a video, enabling you to remove certain background sounds is genuinely useful—but when it comes to features like relying on an AI assistant to manage my calendar, well, it doesn’t save me any time. Because I don’t trust AI to get it right 100 per cent of the time, I have to double check it’s done so correctly, which takes about as long as if I were to just take care of it myself. 

Maybe that says more about me than it does the AI.

You Just Won’t Use Functions Like Sketch to Image

There are also a number of flippant AI-based features padding out the Galaxy AI suite that I’m willing to bet you just won’t use. For example, Sketch to Image returns from the S24 Ultra, enabling you to draw a sketch in the Notes app and then it will use AI to enhance it in one of five styles (Watercolour, Illustration, Sketch, Pop art, 3D cartoon). However, the results just aren’t of a quality that I would have any use for them whatsoever.

Again, maybe this says more about me and my artistic shortcomings than it does the AI. Either way, if you’re similarly untalented, you won’t use it. 

Many of Many’s Verdict on the Galaxy S25 Ultra

The S25 Ultra is the best Android smartphone money can buy right now. Just don’t be fooled by talk of revolutionary AI tech. With prices starting at AUD$2,149—admittedly AUD$50 cheaper than the S24 Ultra was at launch—it’s no small sum in the current climate, but you get a whole lot of phone for that investment.

If you’re in the market for a high-end Android device, you should seriously consider Samsung’s latest flagship, but do so because of its stylish design, fantastic new UI, and excellent camera, rather than the AI shenanigans.