The Galaxy S25 series is just about here — in fact, if you pre-ordered early enough, it might be on its way to you right now. But not everyone’s built to be an early adopter. I’ve had the Galaxy S25 Ultra for about a week now, and while I won’t be publishing my full review until next week, I feel ready to answer plenty of questions about this particular phone. While I won’t be able to get to every single question asked in response to my prompt last week, I promise to try to address it all within my final review.
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Until then, though, let’s dig deep into what makes the Galaxy S25 Ultra stand out among the crowd — or, in some cases, what keeps it from excelling in the first place.
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If you insert an older S Pen, will it be able to pair and use Bluetooth? How does the new stylus affect your experience?
Asked by Fredrik and Aaron
By far, the two most popular questions asked about the Galaxy S25 Ultra comes down to its stylus and its camera system. Let’s start with the S Pen first, since it’s undoubtedly the easier of the two to explain. If you are one of the thousands of Galaxy users who rely on the S Pen’s Air Commands for all sorts of everyday remote tasks — including, most notably, the ability to snap a photo with the push of the S Pen’s button — you are bound to be disappointed with the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Effectively, the only answer to any S Pen question you could have is “no.” No, the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s stylus doesn’t fit into the Galaxy S25 Ultra — it gets close, but doesn’t actually lock into the chassis. No, you can’t pair it and use it separately, as there is no menu within the phone itself for Air Commands. And no, I don’t expect Samsung to bring a separate, optional S Pen to market, even if that would satisfy fans on both sides of this debate.
Personally, I can’t say the S Pen’s Bluetooth removal has affected my own experience, but I wasn’t a regular user of Air Commands to begin with. I feel for those S Pen fanatics out there, though. Yes, the new stylus is noticeably lighter, as is the entire Galaxy S25 Ultra. But if it comes at the cost of everything that made the S Pen unique to begin with, what’s the point?
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Is motion blur still a problem with the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera?
Asked by Rick and JohnEggHead
And here’s the second most-popular question. Samsung had a real problem on its hands with the Galaxy S24 series. All three of our reviews bring up shutter speed complaints, and it’s not hard to find similar comments from real-world people on Reddit and similar communities. That long-rumored camera update that promised to fix post-processing never arrived, and trying to disable specific settings to improve how those cameras captured motion simply didn’t help.
So, is that a problem with the Galaxy S25 Ultra and its updated “ProVisual Engine?” Maybe — it’s actually a little too early in my own testing to find out. Of the photos I’ve taken with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, most have been of fairly stationary objects so far. I got home pretty late from San Jose last Friday, which means most of my weekend was spent catching up on chores and other home duties, not heading out to get camera samples. Still, I took photos of people and pets walking, and so far, I’m not seeing the level of motion blur that affected last year’s flagships.
That’s not to say I’m over the moon with the S25 Ultra’s camera, though. Some of my samples leave a lot to be desired in their color reproduction, and I’ve had a couple of odd moments with subjects being out of focus, too. I’m saving final judgement for next week’s review, of course, and with two different sports events coming up this weekend, I’ll have plenty of excuses to take photos.
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How is battery life compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra?
Asked by Aaron and Anonymous
Battery life on the Galaxy S25 Ultra has been perfectly fine. Throughout my first few days, I stayed on T-Mobile’s 5G network almost exclusively, skipping out on Wi-Fi networks until I arrived back at home from San Jose. Frankly, I wasn’t particularly impressed with my first day or two’s worth of performance, though things leveled out over time.
Right now, on a mix of Wi-Fi and cellular service, I’m seeing about six to seven hours of screen-on time before calling it a night. Last night, I plugged in the phone with just shy of six hours recorded and about a third of the battery’s capacity still remaining. That’s perfectly serviceable, though it’s a far cry from the ten-plus hours of SoT I saw on the OnePlus 13 throughout my time with it. Charging speeds do seem to be faster, though; speaking with other journalists, I can confirm the S25 Ultra seems capable of delivering a full charge in around an hour with an appropriate charging brick. Not too shabby.
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How do the speakers sound? What about its haptics?
Asked by Davism0490 and Mike
The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s speakers sound great to me, though that’s been true for generations now. If there’s a difference between the speakers on the S25 Ultra and its predecessor, I haven’t heard it. Same goes for haptics; I prefer the sharper, more punchy haptics offered by the Pixel 9, but they’re totally solid here.
You’ll find plenty of sound quality tools within the settings menu for adjusting how your audio playback sounds, but most of them are also available on last year’s phone. Dolby Atmos, a built-in equalizer, loudness normalization — everything from the previous generation has made its way to this device, with one notable exception. “Boost dialogue” is a brand-new toggle for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, designed to “make it easier to hear voices in videos that have other background sound.” It’s the sort of trick we’ve seen on plenty of TVs, and it’s great to see something similar make its way to mobile.
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Does the Snapdragon 8 Elite have any serious strengths over last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3?
Asked by Anonymous
None that I can speak of to this point. As I wrote about when the Snapdragon 8 Elite was first announced, the thing I’m the most excited about with that chipset is its potential, not so much what it can do in fairly iterative pieces of hardware. Samsung could’ve attempted a DeX overhaul with how much power is built into this phone, but the experience included here is exactly what’s been included in other previous Galaxy flagships.
In terms of weaknesses, anecdotally, I’ve noticed the Galaxy S25 Ultra heats up more often than its predecessor. I haven’t been gaming much here — just the occasional Balatro round or two — and yet, I’ve absolutely felt it get warm to the touch. No issues with Samsung’s 12GB allotment of RAM, at least, though as the company feels compelled to add additional Galaxy AI features over the coming months and years, we’ll see just how fast that potential bottleneck is met.
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In a head-to-head with the OnePlus 13, which phone is better?
Asked by Sachin
Spoilers for the eventual “Competition” section in my review, but I do think the OnePlus 13 is the better overall package. Samsung has plenty going for it with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It feels far more premium than the OnePlus experience, and the software — though filled with plenty of its own quirks — feels a little more fully baked. Throw in a couple of other improvements, including the anti-glare finish delivered by Corning’s Gorilla Armor, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra is, from a certain perspective, the obvious winner here.
And yet, if you asked me to pick one to be my daily driver for the rest of 2025, it’s the OnePlus 13, and I’m not sure it’s close. Not only is it the more unique phone, but I feel like OnePlus really did enough to impress with its end-user experience in a way Samsung simply has not. IP69 water and dust resistance, ultra-fast wireless charging, and some really meaningful camera tweaks that make a big impact to your final output are enough to push the OnePlus 13 over the line. If you’re an S Pen die-hard, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a no-brainer, but frankly, I think old-school Android enthusiasts will find a lot more to like on the OnePlus side of the fence.
There’s plenty more to come on the Galaxy S25 Ultra
This is far from my final word on this phone, of course, but the rest of your questions — and yes, I’ve taken note of what’s not answered — will have to wait for our forthcoming full review. In the meantime, what are your initial impressions of Samsung’s latest super-phone? Is the refreshed design enough to win you over, or are you waiting for something a little more impressive than a bunch of various AI parlor tricks?
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Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra leaves the Note-like design behind for the very first time. With flat edges, curved corners, and a massive 6.9-inch display, this is a modern flagship through and through — and yes, that S Pen is still here too.
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Samsung Galaxy S25+
Samsung’s Galaxy S25+ finds just the right middle ground between its two siblings. With a 6.7-inch display, up to 512GB of storage, and 12GB of RAM, this smartphone includes practically everything you could ask for in the modern AI age, without driving up the price.
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Samsung Galaxy S25
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 keeps things small without sacrificing power. With a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, 12GB of RAM, and all sorts of tools courtesy of Galaxy AI, this is everything you expect from a modern flagship squeezed into a relatively svelte chassis.
