Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra First Impressions: How Does This Beast Stack Up At First Glance?

By Prateek Levi
Fri, 31 Jan 2025 02:26 PM (IST)

Source:JND

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: We all know by now that Samsung has unveiled its Galaxy S25 Series flagship smartphones beginning the year on a high note. These smartphones promise to bring the best in next-gen innovation with an increased focus on integrating AI for a more smoother and streamlined user experience across all its platforms. The most anticipated and top-end premium model of the series is the Galaxy S25 Ultra. This device is by far Samsung's most powerful and premium smartphone, which is in direct competition with its rival Apple's iPhone 16 Pro Max. But putting all that aside we have the opportunity to give you the very first impression of the premium Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The pricing of the 512GB variant is currently at 1,29,999 with a pre-order offer.

So let's get to it!

Design And Build

Judging from first impressions the phone feels quite sturdy with a premium feel and touch, Samsung has said goodbye to its previous box-style design and has decided to embrace the curves with this latest launch of Galaxy S25 Ultra. So we no longer have sharp edges in it; those have been replaced by curves.

The smartphone device still carries its iconic three-camera setup which I feel has a much cleaner look to it this time and feels quite distinct. The phone will surely turn heads when it's in your hand, and at first glance, anyone will easily recognize that it's the ultra variant. Although there is not much change in its back panel and camera design, it just looks cleaner, to say the least. I would like to point out that noticeable fingerprint marks tend to appear on both the back panel and the side frame of the phone. If that is not an issue for you then you are good to go.

Next, the side frame of the smartphone is made out of strong titanium which gives a nice feel when you hold the phone in your hand it feels metallic and intact. On top of that this time the phone feels a bit lighter and slimmer while keeping the same battery size which is 5000 mAh.

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Camera- Better than the last one?

Now if we are going to compare it with the previous S series flagship the S24 Ultra, I could not feel that there is much of an upgrade when we speak of the design of the camera. You still get the iconic three-camera setup with 100x Space Zoom, which in my opinion is still outstanding and outshines many other devices. However, there is an addition of a 50MP ultra-wide angle camera as well.

Performance- Is it worth it?

Here we can observe some massive upgrades and improvements in performance, and this is no doubt the doing of the custom 'for Galaxy' Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, the powerhouse behind the Ultra series. However, how the smartphone performs and its actual review can only be given after it is tried, in a detailed review.

Software Upgrade- Does it stack up?

One more thing to look out for with this new flagship is that it will be available with Android 15-based One UI7. This custom OS promises to bring many new AI features, which I feel is only okay considering the fact that Samsung S24 Ultra came with AI features and this time the company has just improved upon the existing ones. Initially for customers Samsung Galaxy AI Suite will be available for free for a few months, and later it's gonna follow the same pay-to-play model. Now all this is good news but the S24 Ultra will also receive the same OS update, so one should think if it's really worth the upgrade.

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The S Pen

This is again following the footsteps of S24 Ultra which also came with an S Pen, so there is nothing new about it, apart from the fact that you will be using it on a newer device.

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What does the first impression tell us?

Well, it is quite obvious that these flagship devices will be the most popular, best-selling and best-performing phones of this year, but is that it? Apart from a few software upgrades like the OS, which will come in its previous version as well, and a few design enhancements with the inclusion of AI, most of it still remains the same. The camera is a tad bit better but it's not an overwhelming upgrade over the previous version.

Speaking of the design it feels like all these smartphone companies want to go for the same Apple-like frame and curves, this design might be new for Samsung but it's not a new thing in the industry. Performance-wise definitely the device will deliver, but it is supposed to do that as it's a flagship it is expected of it. And what about innovation in hardware? It seems like these tech giants have mastered the art of showcasing small increments in their devices as a big deal, and on the innovation front not much is there on the offer, so for those who already have a S24 Ultra this upgrade might seem quite unnecessary.

So let's see how the phone performs when it's finally in your hands, it is definitely a very good phone for those who are opting for a flagship for the first time and does offer some exciting features, rest we will look into with a detailed review.

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