Samsung’s Galaxy S-series lineup has always consisted of at least three devices with one being the most powerful called the Ultra and the least powerful one being the vanilla one. The Plus model, however, blends best of both worlds and has gotten quite polarising since last year with all the upgrades it got. Can the Samsung Galaxy S25+ also recreate the same success the S24+ did or does it fall flat on its face? We’ll know by the end of this review.
Display & Design
The Samsung Galaxy S25+ design is quite similar to last year’s S24+ with the main difference between the two being the camera rings which are thicker on the latest model.
The in-hand feel remains the same, with flat sides feeling as premium as before. Because the device is on the larger side, one would surely need to fiddle around with it when trying to reach the top two corners.
The buttons feel tactile, and the overall aesthetic of the device is pleasing to the eye but also boring. The device does need a few refreshments in terms of design at this point, but until then, it seems like this design works for Samsung.
The new colours, however, look much better than last year’s. The blue shade we got for review is surely an eye-catcher, and depending on the lighting and the angle, it can cycle to a shade of black. The device is also IP68 rated, which should help it withstand splashes of water and dust with ease.
While we feel Samsung may finally need to rework the design to some extent, the Galaxy S25+ still looks handsome.
The Haptics feel similar as the past few years and while they are tight, they need to be stronger in terms of strength because the haptics in the likes of the OnePlus 13, iPhone 16, Pixel 9, etc., are far superior.
The stereo speaker setup on the Galaxy S25+ is notably better than the S24+ in terms of sound clarity, loudness, and to some extent, bass also, which is quite an unexpected upgrade.
The Galaxy S25+ sports a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x flat display with a QHD+ Resolution (3120 x 1440 pixels). It supports an adaptive Refresh Rate up to 120Hz and touch sampling rate of up to 240Hz. The display also gets max brightness of up to 2600 nits.
While the display hasn’t received any upgrades over last year, it still is one of the better panels we have seen at this price point. It’s sharp, vivid, smooth, and everything else you could think of when you talk of an all-rounder display.
The brightness is on point even in direct sunlight while the slim and even bezels on all sides increase the immersiveness while watching content on this sizable panel. I could barely find any flaws with this panel, and it performs exceptionally well.
Software and Performance
The Samsung Galaxy S25+ draws power from the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC paired with 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. The Snapdragon 8 Elite has been a powerhouse of a chip in our experience, both in the Galaxy S25 and the Samsung Galaxy S25+. It has been able to handle everything effortlessly without any hiccups.
While it does get a little hot when you perform demanding tasks, like when playing titles such as GRID Legends, it still doesn’t let the process lag. Even though the device was warm while gaming, the performance didn’t throttle which is a good sign.
During our review of the Samsung Galaxy S25+, we encountered no major bugs in the software, and the experience remained consistently stable. Apps launched quickly, with multitasking performance also remaining excellent. Additionally, the Settings App now supports natural language search, allowing users to type phrases like “keep my phone quiet for a while” to find relevant options to personalise.
Coming to the software side of things, One UI 7 has been a treat to experience. We have already talked in detail about the Galaxy AI features separately and to summarise, while some of them feel gimmicky, features like chat assist, Browser summary, interpreter, could prove useful in situations when you need them.
Now Bar, which was advertised by Samsung to be using a so-called Personal Data Engine, doesn’t seem to be as useful as I initially thought. Same as the S25, the Now Bar appears on the lock screen about four times throughout the day with barely any useful information. It shows me the weather, a shortcut to YouTube Shorts, and that’s about it.
It can detect any birthday events you may have in your Calendar and then suggest you to create birthday cards using Galaxy AI which is a nice touch but it’s not something I’d use on a daily basis.
Samsung could use the Now Bar to show a summary of all the notifications you receive in a certain period but it isn’t doing that as of now. The live activities that are supported is the only useful use case I found for the Now Bar where it handles the media player on the lock screen, can show the timer status if you have one running, scores of matches being played by a team you follow, and more.
We’ll see if Samsung further improves the feature in the future to automated use cases but for now, it’s not a feature I’d call mind-blowing.
As for the rest of the aspects of One UI 7, it features cleaner UI elements and smoother animations. Samsung went a step further by introducing granular controls for animation tuning—an addition that enthusiasts will appreciate, even if it may not matter much to the average user.
Google Gemini is well integrated into the system, especially with the new Samsung app extensions within Gemini.
The redesigned quick panel in One UI 7 efficiently utilizes space, offering a more structured layout. While the separation of notifications and quick settings may take some getting used to, Samsung provides an option to revert to the classic style where both remain combined.
The software is further filled with features up to the brim, from Secure Folder to various lock screen styles, AOD customisation, Good lock support, Samsung DeX, Storage share with Galaxy devices, Bixby modes and routines, Super HDR for certain apps, and much more.
The device will receive 7 years of OS updates and security patches which is a plus point if you plan to keep it with you for years to come.
The only drawback was the presence of bloatware. The device comes preloaded with some third-party apps, including Meta’s suite—Facebook, Meta App Installer, Meta App Manager, and Meta Service—all of which can be disabled if not needed.
Connectivity performance of the device was decent as usual, including that of Wi-Fi, 5G, GPS, and Bluetooth.
Battery
The Galaxy S25+ uses a 4900mAh battery cell with 45W fast wired charging, 15W wireless charging, as well as reverse wireless charging support.
The battery backup on the S25+ has been inconsistent for me. While at times it would give me 7 hours of screen-on time, it could drop down to 5.5 with the same usage pattern. Fortunately, the latest February patch has shown some improvement but it needs to be better.
I expected the battery life to be better but it is about the same as the S24+. We do need to keep in mind that in my use, I had the full screen AOD turned on which is a battery hogger along with screen resolution set to QHD+.
Further, my usage pattern included browsing through the web, scrolling through social media apps like Instagram, chatting and calling on WhatsApp, listening to music, watching YouTube videos, etc., which is all quite basic.
The active use time has definitely dropped last year’s S24+ and the device no longer offers a two-day runtime at any cost. On 5G and while carrying out demanding tasks, the device offers even lesser runtime, with screen-on time averaging at about 5 to 5.5 hours.
Battery life on the S25+ is decent for what the device has to power but not the best as competitors have been able to offer a better experience. We hope to see a larger battery in next year’s device which could bring notable improvements.
As for charging speeds, the S25+ can go from 0 to 100% in just under an hour with a wired connection. Wireless charging is more suitable for frequent and short top-ups rather than charging it from 0 to 100%.
Cameras
The Galaxy S25+ has a 50MP primary wide camera with f/1.8 aperture, multi-directional PDAF and OIS. Then there’s a 10MP telephoto sensor with 3x Optical Zoom support, an f/2.4 aperture, OIS, PDAF and a 12MP ultra-wide sensor with an f/2.2 Aperture and 120-degree FoV. Next, it has a 12MP f/2.2 front-facing camera.
This is the same camera setup as the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S24, and the Galaxy S24+. It produces results that are also identical to that of the Galaxy S25. The device offers a decent experience for casual photography but the S25+ is definitely not for those who are photographers and they’d be better off with the likes of Vivo’s X200 Pro or the Find X8 Pro.
Samsung may need to upgrade the camera hardware on its standard and Plus Galaxy S-series devices, as competitors from Chinese brands are quickly catching up—and, to some extent, have already surpassed them.
As I said, the results from S25+ aren’t poor, but they aren’t as good as the camera centric devices from other brands and if I plan on paying a price of Rs 99,999 for the Galaxy S25+, I’d need that experience.
We’ve already done a detailed camera comparison between the Galaxy S25 and the iPhone 16 and the Galaxy S25+ offers the same experience as the former. The S25 stood out with its telephoto lens and vibrant color reproduction and so does the Galaxy S25+.
In summary, the S25 cameras deliver strong performance in most lighting conditions but could improve detail in ultra-wide shots.
Low-light shots are surprisingly well detailed, including those shot in challengingly low lighting. The shots from the device also stand out in colour reproduction.
