Samsung Galaxy S25 Series – More Than AI

DJURO SEN - EDITOR
9 Min Read

Samsung’s new S25 Series is essentially being marketed as the ultimate AI phone experience. The keynote and media briefings were dominated by Artificial Intelligence explainers and spiels.

It’s pretty cool AI but I had to wait to get to the really good stuff. The specs and performances capabilities and how they compared with last year’s models. So as I did in my Sky News segment above – I’m going to start with the most important part of the smartphone to me and many others – the cameras.

THE CAMERAS

On the surface not much has changed. The only significant hardware improvement is the upgrading of the ultra-wide sensor from 12MP to 50MP. It’s also a faster lens, improving from f/2.2 to f/1,9. It’s a welcome upgrade because the competition, like the OPPO Find X8 Pro, comes with four 50MP sensors.

THE S25 ULTRA NOW RIVALS THE IPHONE WITH ITS MACRO LENS

I’d like to see Samsung do the same thing with its back cameras and front camera too. And yes the S25 Ultra’s main sensor is 200MP but I’d prefer all sensors to be 50MP.

MY DAUGHTER’S ARTWORK SHOT WITH S25 ULTRA ULTRA-WIDE – BELOW MACRO COMPARISON 12MP FILES

In the examples above you can see the S25 Ultra gives a better result in macro mode than the S24 Ultra even when both are selected in 12MP.

Of course it’s not all about resolution, it’s about processing all those extra pixels quickly and accurately.

SPIDER IN EARLY MORNING LIGHT CAPTURED WITH S25 ULTRA’S NEW ULTRA-WIDE CAMERA

IMAGE PROCESSING

The brilliant upgrade for me this year is log recording. Log recording is something we use daily in the professional video business. It allows a cinematographer to maximise the dynamic range from the camera’s sensor which gives the best possible flexibility when editing.

The great thing Samsung has done here is enabled a one-click colour correction in the photos app. It means, even if you don’t understand log shooting, you can click the correction button and save a clip in Rec. 709 colourspace.

LOG RECORDING CAN BE EASILY CONVERTED ON DEVICE

For advanced editors, you can download LUTs (Lookup Tables) that will transform your Samsung log footage in DaVinci Resolve or any other professional video editing software. I’ve already tried this out and it works brilliantly.

The wonderful thing about Samsung log, it’s available on all three S25 Series phones.

10-bit HDR recording is now applied by default. This will give you more than a billion colours unlike 16 million with 8-bit recordings. There’s less noise too in low light video, with the S25 able to detect both moving and static objects with greater precision for cleaner captures.  

Galaxy S25 also has a Virtual Aperture integrated into the Expert RAW app. This will let you adjust the apparent f-stop for depth-of-field impact. If you’re looking to take your photo game to the next level, you need the Expert RAW app.

EXPERT RAW NOW HAS VIRTUAL APERTURE

AUDIO

Audio Eraser simplifies the removal of unwanted noise in videos. By isolating categories of sounds – including voices, music, wind, nature, crowd and noise – you can control what to tone down. 

S25 SERIES SPECS

Feature Galaxy S25 Galaxy S25+ Galaxy S25 Ultra
Display 6.2-inch FHD+
Dynamic AMOLED 2X
Super Smooth 120Hz
Vision Booster
6.7-inch QHD+
Dynamic AMOLED 2X
Super Smooth 120Hz
Vision Booster
6.9-inch QHD+
Dynamic AMOLED 2X
Super Smooth 120Hz
Vision Booster
Adaptive Color Tone
Dimensions & Weight 70.5 x 146.9 x 7.2mm, 162g 75.8 x 158.4 x 7.3mm, 190g 77.6 x 162.8 x 8.2mm, 218g
Camera 12MP Ultra-Wide (F2.2)
50MP Wide (F1.8)
10MP Telephoto (3x Optical Zoom, F2.4)
12MP Front (F2.2)
12MP Ultra-Wide (F2.2)
50MP Wide (F1.8)
10MP Telephoto (3x Optical Zoom, F2.4)
12MP Front (F2.2)
50MP Ultra-Wide (F1.9)
200MP Wide (F1.7)
50MP Telephoto (5x Optical Zoom, F3.4)
10MP Telephoto (3x Optical Zoom, F2.4)
12MP Front (F2.2)
Memory & Storage 12GB + 128GB/256GB/512GB 12GB + 256GB/512GB 12GB + 256GB/512GB/1TB
Battery 4,000 mAh 4,900 mAh 5,000 mAh
Charging Wired: 50% in 30 mins (25W)
Wireless Charging 2.0
Wireless PowerShare
Wired: 65% in 30 mins (45W)
Wireless Charging 2.0
Wireless PowerShare
Wired: 65% in 30 mins (45W)
Wireless Charging 2.0
Wireless PowerShare
OS Android 15, One UI 7 Android 15, One UI 7 Android 15, One UI 7
Network & Connectivity 5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Water Resistance IP68 IP68 IP68

PROCESSING POWER

AI can overplay its hand sometimes, and I’ve noticed a couple or weird motion artefacts in some of the video I’ve been shooting, especially at the extended zoom range when something is moving away. But mostly the video has been impressive.

A lot of that has to do with the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. Tweaked for Galaxy phones it delivers a performance boost of 40% in NPU, 37% in CPU and 30% in GPU compared to previous generation. This enables more AI processing on-device, including previously cloud-based AI tasks such as Generative Edit.

ProScaler allows the new S25 Series to achieve a 40% improvement in display image scaling quality, while incorporating custom technology with Samsung’s mobile Digital Natural Image engine (mDNIe) embedded within the processor using Galaxy IP to enable greater display power efficiency. 

Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy is also equipped with Vulkan Engine and improved Ray Tracing, which makes for smoother and more realistic mobile gaming. The phones run smoother thanks to improved heat dissipation structure with 40% larger vapour chamber.

TOUGHNESS

DJURO SEN WITH SAMSUNG GALAXY S25 ULTRA, S25+ AND S25 MODELS

Smartphone toughness is something you discover by accident. I’ve never been a fan of cases but do use them from time-to-time.

To my shame, I have dropped the S24 Ultra several times. On its back, front, and corners. Incredibly, it has not suffered a scratch thanks to Corning Gorilla Armor. Now the S25 Ultra is even tougher with Corning Gorilla Armor 2. The corners are rounded this year and that makes for a nice feel in my pockets. The other two models come with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

But I can definitely vouch for the the toughness of Corning Gorilla Armor. So the days of cracked phones could be over?

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

Galaxy S25

RRP: $1,399 (256 GB) | $1,599 (512 GB)

Colours: Silver Shadow, Mint, Icy Blue, Navy

Online Exclusive Colours: Blue Black, Coral Red, Pink Gold

Galaxy S25+

RRP: $1,699 (256 GB) | $1,899 (512 GB)

Colours: Silver Shadow, Mint, Icy Blue, Navy

Online Exclusive Colours: Blue Black, Coral Red, Pink Gold

Galaxy S25 Ultra

RRP: $2,149 (256 GB) | $2,349 (512 GB) | $2,749 (1 TB)

Colours:

  • Titanium Black
  • Titanium Blue Black
  • Titanium Grey
  • Titanium Silver Blue
  • Titanium White Silver
  • Titanium Jet Black
  • Titanium Jade Green
  • Titanium Pink Gold

Visit Samsung for full pre-order deals.

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