Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
South Korean technology major Samsung on Wednesday (January 22) unveiled the company's flagship Galaxy S25 series.
Initially, it will be offered in three variants-- the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra-- with prices starting at Rs 80,999. It plans to release its fourth model Galaxy S25 Edge with a super slim design, by the end of June.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is the top-end model among the lot and comes with big upgrades. Though it looks similar to its predecessor, there are several new features.
Galaxy S25 Ultra: Key features you should know about Samsung's latest flagship
Build quality:
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
The new Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with high-grade titanium build material. Also, it comes with Corning's Gorilla Armor 2 shield, which is said to be made of a first-of-its-kind material that is more durable than glass.
It combines Corning’s glass ceramic with a proprietary anti-reflective surface treatment, helping to ensure advanced drop protection alongside anti-reflection surface treatment and scratch resistance.
During the Corning lab tests, the Gorilla Armor 2-protected phone reportedly survived drops of up to 2.2 metres (approx. 7.21 feet) on a surface replicating concrete. Alternative glass-ceramic materials failed when dropped from one metre (roughly three feet).
It also comes with an IP68 rating, meaning the device can survive a drop in the freshwater body up to 1.5 metres (around five feet) for close to 30 minutes.
Powerful processor
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with 3nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
The Galaxy S25 Ultra (& other S25 models) is powered by a special Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset. It can clock 4.47GHz CPUpeak speeds, compared to the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite variant found in other Android premium phones. The latter can support a max CPU speed of 4.32GHz.
The new Snapgradong 8 Elite for Galaxy promises 37 per cent better performance, 30 per cent improved GPU performance and 40 per cent better NPU performance compared to the previous iteration.
It also comes with a Vulkan Engine and improved Ray Tracing, which makes for smoother and more realistic mobile gaming on the Galaxy S25 series.
The new Snapdragon chipset ensures faster performance in terms of running generative AI features, video editing, playing graphics-rich games and other heavy-duty tasks.
Improved heat dissipation mechanism
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra showcased at Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru on January 23, 2025.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
To keep the phone stable and cool while performing power-intense tasks, Samsung has incorporated a bigger vapour chamber.
The latest S25 Ultra has a 40 per cent larger vapour chamber. Additionally, it has a new thermal interface material (TIM) that delivers extra improvement in thermal efficiency.
New photography features
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with big upgrades in terms of Photography features.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Besides hardware upgrades, Samsung is bringing a DSLR-like experience to the Galaxy S25. The device offers depth-of-field control with Virtual Aperture, integrated into the popular Expert RAW format. To deliver high quality, it supports Galaxy Log format, which enables editors to make precise colour grading for more professional video production.
With Portrait Studio, users will be able to create personalised avatars with more true-to-life facial expressions. Filters introduce new analogue-style filters, delivering a film-like aesthetic for their photos and videos.
Now, the Galaxy S25 Ultra records 10-bit HDR quality videos by default. The videos will be four times more vibrant than regular 8-bit HDR videos.
Like Pixel 9 (review)'s best take feature, Samsung is bringing Best Face to the Galaxy S25 series. With Motion Photo turned on, the phone will take the best photo in all light conditions. Even when one or two persons in the group photo blink, the phone will be able to pull the photo of those particular people with eyes open and deliver the perfect group photo.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra boasts of ProVisual Engine, which is powered by AI-powered algorithms, to deliver top-class photos in all light conditions. It can enable the camera to get all the minute details clearly, reduce noise, a wider dynamic range and boost the colours to capture a vibrant picture.
Besides the special Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset, Samsung also worked with Qualcomm to bring Spatio-Temporal Filter (STF) feature into the Qualcomm Spectra ISP (Image Signal Processing) chipset for the new device. With this, the Galaxy S25 Ultra will be able to capture sharper-than-ever low-light videos.
New Galaxy AI features
Samsung Galaxy S25 series.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Google Gemini-powered Galaxy AI brings upgrades to popular tools for communication, productivity and creativity such as Circle to Search, Call Transcript, Writing Assist, and Drawing Assist.
Gemini Live conversational experience that helps you brainstorm ideas, simplify complex topics and rehearse for important moments with real-time, spoken responses. Gemini Live will be more multimodal, meaning it will be capable of understanding queries in text, video, photos and audio) and deliver personalised suggestions and answers.
Gemini Extension feature on the Samsung Galaxy S25 series will be able to access several native apps such as Samsung Reminder, Samsung Calendar, Samsung Notes and Samsung Clock in addition to Google Google Maps, YouTube, Google Messages, WhatsApp Spotify and more.
In a single prompt, users can ask Gemini to take multiple actions across apps and services. For instance, users can ask Gemini to check for the schedule of an upcoming cricket match and put a reminder to watch on a particular date and day. an upcoming appointment, save a note or set a reminder. It can work on multiple apps and set reminders.
Based on user behaviour, the new 'Now Brief' feature every morning when the user gets the hand on the phone offers a short summary of what's happening on the day including appointments, office meeting schedule and more.
Also, it will offer live updates on food delivery status, cab arrival status, live sports updates and more.
Must read | Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: Impressive gen AI premium phone with amazing camera
User privacy-centric features
The Galaxy S25 series comes with a Personal Data Engine for personalized AI features. All personalised data is kept private and secured by Knox Vault.
Galaxy S25 also comes with post-quantum cryptography, which safeguards personal data against emerging threats that could increase as quantum computing evolves.
Samsung Galaxy S25 series is slated to hit stores on February 7 in India.
Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech.