Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Hands-On first impressions – they’ve nailed the look

It’s been barely more than a week since the Samsung Galaxy S25 range was announced, but in 10 days they go on sale. With most of the biggest fans already having pre-ordered this article is aimed at those who are curious and sitting on the edge of clicking that order button. We’ll have a much more detailed review in the weeks ahead also.

But, after a short while using the device there’s a few things very obvious to me. Design, Camera and AI – of course.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – Design

By far to me, the standout feature of the Galaxy S25 Ultra is it’s refreshed design. Compare it to the device from just one year ago and it’s not an iteration, it’s a generational leap.

Those rounded corners are so much more in line with the rest of the S series family, plus, the rest of the market.

The screen too is flatter, no more subtle edge rounding as we had last year

And most of all, those sides are flat, not curved – again, modern look and feel.

This is a stunning phone, I feel most like it’s the true death of the Note series as that design from last year was really a carry over from when Note was merged into Ultra, and now, Ultra is the top end of the S series by name, but feature and by design.

How good is the Galaxy S25 Ultra camera?

Oh, it’s good.

Now in general photography, this is top class stuff, there’s going to be no arguments there.

When it comes to what’s new, Samsung was excited their Ultra Wide had been improved for great Macro shots.

And it has been.

You can get so close

But most of the time, I found you got so close you cast a shadow on the subject!

Overall though, it’s still a class leader – the 0.6 up to 10x zoom is impressive in the most simple of circumstances

And, the “Super Steady” video mode (not new!) which I’ve never heard Samsung get excited about does a great job of stabilisation.

Is the AI all it’s made out to be on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra?

Look, it’s exciting that we’re in an AI world now, the simplicity of what it offers is exciting and could make life vastly easier for users.

One of the things promised at the Unpacked launch event and the sessions I personally had with Samsung was AI across various apps. Unfortunately, I couldn’t replicate this functionality in my short testing. I could ask “Gemini” via the side button to set an alarm and navigate to a destination, but all it would do is set an alarm.

Now, I have a paid Google Workspace account and it is frustratingly common that despite funding the operations of Google I am limited in what I can do on their advanced apps, that may be to blame here, but if so – the “AI Agent” that is Gemini didn’t blink, it just flat out ignored my secondary request.

Ahh, that’s a bit frustrating. And as an “advertised” feature, I’d be pretty bummed out as an owner. The device I’m using is also a global sample, which was setup in the USA when I was there, so there’s a chance that’s also to blame. We’ll test this in more detail with an Australian retail version of the device.

That said, the greatest natural language feature of all I found in Settings!

Tap the search button and just ask it something, it will find that setting.

Way, way faster than scrolling or typing. Game-changer.

Just don’t ask Gemini to help with that – because again, I couldn’t get the two to speak to each other.

Should you buy one?

Well, if you’re going to – now is the time. The pre-order deals are excellent, from trade-in offers to great long term cost savings, it’s worth shopping around across the telcos for a good deal – that’s for sure.

As for tipping you over the edge for purchase, if you’re an S24 owner, then I have to say the design of the 25 Ultra is like chalk and cheese to the S24 Ultra. Those flat edges, rounded corners – it just feels like a phone from this generation, not last. However feature wise, a lot of what you get here will come to S24 on One UI 7 – so be careful not to waste your money when a new one will also come out next year:)

Bottom line though, this is (of course) the best phone Samsung has produced, and I doubt I’ve ever used more than 10% of what it is capable of.