Samsung Galaxy S25 Review: Does the Cutie-Patootie Deliver? , Urdu Wirsa
Look, while Xiaomi and Vivo are out here tossing fancy lenses into their phones like it’s a tech wedding confetti storm, Samsung’s playing a different game. They’re basically saying, ‘Why bother with a plane ticket to Paris? Just sketch the Eiffel Tower on your screen, mate.’ They’ve been laser-focused on turning Galaxy AI into the next big thing, and honestly? It’s a bold move. The S25, like its predecessor, isn’t exactly a hardware revolution. But the question is, can this AI magic actually deliver?
Now, you know me. I’ve been through the S22, S23, and S24 gauntlet here at MySmartPrice. And yeah, I’m a sucker for their compact cuteness. But I’ve also been the guy constantly yelling into the void about Samsung needing to seriously step up their battery game, fix those snail-paced charging speeds, and inject some serious oomph into their cameras. So, with the S25, we’re back at it. Can this phone finally break the cycle, or are we just getting more AI-powered smoke and mirrors?
Design and Build
If you were anticipating a complete overhaul, you’ll find it’s more of a subtle paint job on a familiar canvas. It’s the same delightful, compact form factor we’ve come to expect. You’ll be able to fit it into your pockets, and it still feels great in the hand. Dust and water resistance?
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Still IP68. This year, the OPPO, OnePlus, Vivo and Xiaomi are all pushing the envelope for IP69 in their flagships, but Samsung seems to have missed the memo. Still, the second-gen Armor Aluminum frame protects its internals from serious drops.
| Feature | Specification |
| IP Rating | IP68 dust and water resistance (immersible up to 1.5m for 30 min) |
| Frame | Armor aluminum 2 frame |
| Dimensions | 146.9 x 70.5 x 7.2 mm |
| Weight | 162 g |
| Build | Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus 2), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus 2) |
Want to tell an S25 apart from an S24? Just check the camera deco – it’s bigger than before. And, naturally, the colours. So, if you see a cute Samsung phone in Navy, Icyblue, Silver Shadow, or Mint, that’s an S25. I’ve got the Mint version here, and it’s a real head-turner.
Display and Audio
Last year, the S24 impressed us with its brighter-than-ever display. Guess what, this year they upped it even further by 300 nits. It’s one of the brightest displays around… until and unless the phone is under optimal operating temperatures. There have been instances where I took it out in the sun, and because of the heat, it wouldn’t yank up the brightness to a reasonable level.
Indoors, the display works insanely well, with fantastic crispness, response times and vivid colours. The bezels are tiny, and that combined with the tiny form factor makes it look futuristic in a way.
I didn’t notice a considerable change in the speakers’ audio output, but again, it was already quite nice, so I have no complaints.
Performance and Software
Samsung is no longer the first phone maker to boast spanking-new Qualcomm chipsets. Still, the entire S25 series is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC. A major change from the outgoing models. At the launch, Samsung wasn’t modest about what the performance gains that the chip has to offer, boasting improvements of up to 40% in neural processing. The CPU and GPU have received 37% and 30% bumps respectively. This shows up in our benchmark scores as well.
| Feature | Specification |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite (3 nm) |
| CPU | Octa-core (2×4.47 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix L + 6×3.53 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix M) |
| GPU | Adreno 830 |
| Storage and RAM Options | 128GB/12GB, 256GB/12GB, 512GB/12GB |
| Storage Type | UFS 4.0 |
| RAM Type | LPDDR5X |
To make the benchmarks more relevant, we also compared it to a competitor of similar calibre, the Vivo X200 Pro. The X200 Pro’s MediaTek Dimensity 9400 offered better AnTuTu scores, but lower Geekbench figures.
This doesn’t mean either of these phones is slow, by any stretch of the imagination. These days, UIs have been optimised so well by smartphone makers that even huge jumps don’t make a massive difference in day-to-day usage.
Now, let’s circle back to that 40% bump in NPU performance. That’s kind of important here, because Samsung’s Galaxy AI takes advantage of every single shred of the 45 trillion TOPs (45 trillion operations per second) speed to carry out AI tasks on-device.
I will refrain from going too far into the capabilities of Galaxy AI, because Robin has already talked about it in-depth in his review of the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Personally, I found the contextual search in the Gallery app incredibly useful. It streamlined finding specific photos and videos, even those… embarrassing moments of friends. I just have to search for an action being performed, and boom! Within five seconds, I could find exactly what I was looking for in a sea of more than 70GB of media files. It works better than Google Photos, by the way.
Similarly, Object Eraser and Sketch to Image are super-handy features. The former is very good at not just removing unwanted elements in your image, but it can also recreate a face obstructed by foreground objects (such as hands) rather accurately. The Sketch to Image feature works darn well. I could fool many of my friends into believing I got another cat for myself. Great for catfishers, I guess?
I wasn’t too fond of Now Brief. I like the positioning of it, but the data it wants to convey is very generic in its current state.
I was a bit too excited about the multi-modality aspect of Gemini initially. In the demo, Samsung showed the phone fetching data from Google and organising it in your calendar app. The problem is that it only works with very limited Samsung apps, so I can’t think of replacing an intern with Galaxy AI anytime soon. Your jobs are safe, for now. Moreover, this particular feature isn’t exclusive to the Galaxy S25 Series.
But, the way One UI now looks and feels is phenomenal, and it’s way better than other custom UIs in the market. It’s noticeably snappier and prettier than ever before, the redesigned notification shade and command centre are intuitive. Notifications are displayed seamlessly, without interfering with the on-screen elements, a welcome contrast to some other interfaces. It’s just a pleasure to use it.
Cameras
This is perhaps the least inspiring bit of the entire Galaxy S25 experience, not because it’s bad, but because there’s not a thing that has changed in terms of hardware.
| Camera | Specification |
| Primary Camera | 50-megapixel, f/1.8, 24mm |
| Ultra-wide Camera | 12-megapixel, f/2.2, 120-degree field-of-view, 13mm |
| Telephoto Camera | 10-megapixel, f/2.4, 67mm |
Here’s what’s new: Nightography video. That’s it, that’s the showstopper this time. Yes, it’s good, and slightly better than before, with reduced noise and better overall exposure in the output. The photos look literally the same – punchy, clear in the day, a bit blurry and noisy in the evening and night. The same applies for the front camera, except things start falling apart much quicker at night.
This isn’t a big deal, because it sits on the same bench as iPhone photography – the emphasis isn’t on sharpness or clarity, but on maintaining that classic Samsung look. It’s not a bad camera system, it’s just the repetition of last year.
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I hate to make this comparison, but Vivo, Xiaomi, OPPO and even OnePlus are all making huge strides in making their optics glare and noise free. Sadly, that isn’t the case here.
The good thing is there’s fantastic native Instagram and Snapchat integration here, so you get to upload full-quality HDR content and have built-in night mode. This is good, because only iPhones allow this level of maturity in experience on these apps. OnePlus has started to catch up on this, but it’s still a novelty as of now.
Essentially, the S25’s camera is reliable for everyday photography, particularly in well-lit environments. While it meets the expectations for a flagship device, its performance doesn’t significantly surpass that of its competitors or its predecessors.
Battery and Charging
I called Galaxy S23 the Gus Fring of smartphones, because just like the Breaking Bad character, its battery would die too soon. That was two years ago, and the Galaxy S25 still can’t go a full day without charging.
And speaking of charging, it’s still painfully slow, taking about one hour 15 minutes to charge up that tiny-ish 4,000mAh battery. Charging speeds are still pedestrian, only peaking at 25W. The "no charger in the box” joke isn’t funny any more, so I’m not going to talk about it.
In PCMark Battery Test benchmark, the phone lasted about 11 hours and 20 minutes. That’s good enough for the bottom spot in our database.
| Feature | Specification |
| Capacity | 4000mAh |
| Charging Capacity | 25W |
| Wireless Charging | Yes (15W max) |
| PCMark Battery Test Benchmark | 11 hours 18 minutes |
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S25 is a solid phone, but it’s not a revolution. It’s an evolution, and a rather conservative one at that. If you loved the S23 and S24, you’ll probably like this one too. The display along with the tiny form factor and the classy build can score high points amongst all personalities. One UI is brilliant, better than any other Android flagship, and to an extent even stock Android. Moreover, you get seven years of promised upgrades.
But if you were hoping for a game-changer, you might be disappointed. See, Samsung’s focus on AI is commendable, but it sometimes feels like they’re trying to compensate for a lack of new hardware changes.
So, who’s this phone for? People who want a compact, powerful phone with a sprinkle of AI magic. And people who don’t mind drawing their photos instead of taking them.
So, yes, the cutie-patootie does deliver, but the Galaxy S24 is much better value for money with a recent price drop. It has Galaxy AI features too, and is essentially the same phone in terms of camera and battery performance.
The post Samsung Galaxy S25 Review: Does the Cutie-Patootie Deliver? appeared first on MySmartPrice.
Look, while Xiaomi and Vivo are out here tossing fancy lenses into their phones like it’s a tech wedding confetti storm, Samsung’s playing a different game. They’re basically saying, ‘Why bother with a plane ticket to Paris? Just sketch the Eiffel Tower on your screen, mate.’ They’ve been laser-focused on turning Galaxy AI into the next big thing, and honestly? It’s a bold move. The S25, like its predecessor, isn’t exactly a hardware revolution. But the question is, can this AI magic actually deliver?
Now, you know me. I’ve been through the S22, S23, and S24 gauntlet here at MySmartPrice. And yeah, I’m a sucker for their compact cuteness. But I’ve also been the guy constantly yelling into the void about Samsung needing to seriously step up their battery game, fix those snail-paced charging speeds, and inject some serious oomph into their cameras. So, with the S25, we’re back at it. Can this phone finally break the cycle, or are we just getting more AI-powered smoke and mirrors?
Design and Build
If you were anticipating a complete overhaul, you’ll find it’s more of a subtle paint job on a familiar canvas. It’s the same delightful, compact form factor we’ve come to expect. You’ll be able to fit it into your pockets, and it still feels great in the hand. Dust and water resistance?
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Still IP68. This year, the OPPO, OnePlus, Vivo and Xiaomi are all pushing the envelope for IP69 in their flagships, but Samsung seems to have missed the memo. Still, the second-gen Armor Aluminum frame protects its internals from serious drops.
| Feature | Specification |
| IP Rating | IP68 dust and water resistance (immersible up to 1.5m for 30 min) |
| Frame | Armor aluminum 2 frame |
| Dimensions | 146.9 x 70.5 x 7.2 mm |
| Weight | 162 g |
| Build | Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus 2), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus 2) |
Want to tell an S25 apart from an S24? Just check the camera deco – it’s bigger than before. And, naturally, the colours. So, if you see a cute Samsung phone in Navy, Icyblue, Silver Shadow, or Mint, that’s an S25. I’ve got the Mint version here, and it’s a real head-turner.
Display and Audio
Last year, the S24 impressed us with its brighter-than-ever display. Guess what, this year they upped it even further by 300 nits. It’s one of the brightest displays around… until and unless the phone is under optimal operating temperatures. There have been instances where I took it out in the sun, and because of the heat, it wouldn’t yank up the brightness to a reasonable level.
Indoors, the display works insanely well, with fantastic crispness, response times and vivid colours. The bezels are tiny, and that combined with the tiny form factor makes it look futuristic in a way.
I didn’t notice a considerable change in the speakers’ audio output, but again, it was already quite nice, so I have no complaints.
Performance and Software
Samsung is no longer the first phone maker to boast spanking-new Qualcomm chipsets. Still, the entire S25 series is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC. A major change from the outgoing models. At the launch, Samsung wasn’t modest about what the performance gains that the chip has to offer, boasting improvements of up to 40% in neural processing. The CPU and GPU have received 37% and 30% bumps respectively. This shows up in our benchmark scores as well.
| Feature | Specification |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite (3 nm) |
| CPU | Octa-core (2×4.47 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix L + 6×3.53 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix M) |
| GPU | Adreno 830 |
| Storage and RAM Options | 128GB/12GB, 256GB/12GB, 512GB/12GB |
| Storage Type | UFS 4.0 |
| RAM Type | LPDDR5X |
To make the benchmarks more relevant, we also compared it to a competitor of similar calibre, the Vivo X200 Pro. The X200 Pro’s MediaTek Dimensity 9400 offered better AnTuTu scores, but lower Geekbench figures.
This doesn’t mean either of these phones is slow, by any stretch of the imagination. These days, UIs have been optimised so well by smartphone makers that even huge jumps don’t make a massive difference in day-to-day usage.
Now, let’s circle back to that 40% bump in NPU performance. That’s kind of important here, because Samsung’s Galaxy AI takes advantage of every single shred of the 45 trillion TOPs (45 trillion operations per second) speed to carry out AI tasks on-device.
I will refrain from going too far into the capabilities of Galaxy AI, because Robin has already talked about it in-depth in his review of the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Personally, I found the contextual search in the Gallery app incredibly useful. It streamlined finding specific photos and videos, even those… embarrassing moments of friends. I just have to search for an action being performed, and boom! Within five seconds, I could find exactly what I was looking for in a sea of more than 70GB of media files. It works better than Google Photos, by the way.
Similarly, Object Eraser and Sketch to Image are super-handy features. The former is very good at not just removing unwanted elements in your image, but it can also recreate a face obstructed by foreground objects (such as hands) rather accurately. The Sketch to Image feature works darn well. I could fool many of my friends into believing I got another cat for myself. Great for catfishers, I guess?
I wasn’t too fond of Now Brief. I like the positioning of it, but the data it wants to convey is very generic in its current state.
I was a bit too excited about the multi-modality aspect of Gemini initially. In the demo, Samsung showed the phone fetching data from Google and organising it in your calendar app. The problem is that it only works with very limited Samsung apps, so I can’t think of replacing an intern with Galaxy AI anytime soon. Your jobs are safe, for now. Moreover, this particular feature isn’t exclusive to the Galaxy S25 Series.
But, the way One UI now looks and feels is phenomenal, and it’s way better than other custom UIs in the market. It’s noticeably snappier and prettier than ever before, the redesigned notification shade and command centre are intuitive. Notifications are displayed seamlessly, without interfering with the on-screen elements, a welcome contrast to some other interfaces. It’s just a pleasure to use it.
Cameras
This is perhaps the least inspiring bit of the entire Galaxy S25 experience, not because it’s bad, but because there’s not a thing that has changed in terms of hardware.
| Camera | Specification |
| Primary Camera | 50-megapixel, f/1.8, 24mm |
| Ultra-wide Camera | 12-megapixel, f/2.2, 120-degree field-of-view, 13mm |
| Telephoto Camera | 10-megapixel, f/2.4, 67mm |
Here’s what’s new: Nightography video. That’s it, that’s the showstopper this time. Yes, it’s good, and slightly better than before, with reduced noise and better overall exposure in the output. The photos look literally the same – punchy, clear in the day, a bit blurry and noisy in the evening and night. The same applies for the front camera, except things start falling apart much quicker at night.
This isn’t a big deal, because it sits on the same bench as iPhone photography – the emphasis isn’t on sharpness or clarity, but on maintaining that classic Samsung look. It’s not a bad camera system, it’s just the repetition of last year.
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I hate to make this comparison, but Vivo, Xiaomi, OPPO and even OnePlus are all making huge strides in making their optics glare and noise free. Sadly, that isn’t the case here.
The good thing is there’s fantastic native Instagram and Snapchat integration here, so you get to upload full-quality HDR content and have built-in night mode. This is good, because only iPhones allow this level of maturity in experience on these apps. OnePlus has started to catch up on this, but it’s still a novelty as of now.
Essentially, the S25’s camera is reliable for everyday photography, particularly in well-lit environments. While it meets the expectations for a flagship device, its performance doesn’t significantly surpass that of its competitors or its predecessors.
Battery and Charging
I called Galaxy S23 the Gus Fring of smartphones, because just like the Breaking Bad character, its battery would die too soon. That was two years ago, and the Galaxy S25 still can’t go a full day without charging.
And speaking of charging, it’s still painfully slow, taking about one hour 15 minutes to charge up that tiny-ish 4,000mAh battery. Charging speeds are still pedestrian, only peaking at 25W. The "no charger in the box” joke isn’t funny any more, so I’m not going to talk about it.
In PCMark Battery Test benchmark, the phone lasted about 11 hours and 20 minutes. That’s good enough for the bottom spot in our database.
| Feature | Specification |
| Capacity | 4000mAh |
| Charging Capacity | 25W |
| Wireless Charging | Yes (15W max) |
| PCMark Battery Test Benchmark | 11 hours 18 minutes |
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S25 is a solid phone, but it’s not a revolution. It’s an evolution, and a rather conservative one at that. If you loved the S23 and S24, you’ll probably like this one too. The display along with the tiny form factor and the classy build can score high points amongst all personalities. One UI is brilliant, better than any other Android flagship, and to an extent even stock Android. Moreover, you get seven years of promised upgrades.
But if you were hoping for a game-changer, you might be disappointed. See, Samsung’s focus on AI is commendable, but it sometimes feels like they’re trying to compensate for a lack of new hardware changes.
So, who’s this phone for? People who want a compact, powerful phone with a sprinkle of AI magic. And people who don’t mind drawing their photos instead of taking them.
So, yes, the cutie-patootie does deliver, but the Galaxy S24 is much better value for money with a recent price drop. It has Galaxy AI features too, and is essentially the same phone in terms of camera and battery performance.
The post Samsung Galaxy S25 Review: Does the Cutie-Patootie Deliver? appeared first on MySmartPrice.
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