In India and globally, Samsung unveiled the updated Galaxy S25 series this year. It comes with the entry-level S25, S25+, and premium S25 Ultra models. Despite being the best of the lot, the S25 Ultra is also costly. You don’t have many options if you’re looking for a compact flagship. You might want to get the standard S25 or S25+. With a slightly larger screen and battery than the basic model, the Galaxy S25 Plus continues to be an upgraded version of the previous S Series, which has always been an upscale model. The Galaxy S25+ has been in our testing for approximately two weeks, and this review discusses our thoughts and assesses its positive aspects. Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy S25+ to know more.
In This Article
Samsung Galaxy S25+ Review: Design and Display
Samsung has been improving the Galaxy S series’ design, saving the most major changes for the Ultra model (Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Review). This year, the familiar glass sandwich design with flat front and rear sides and three distinct camera housings in the upper-left section of the rear is still in place.
Compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy S24+, not much has changed in design, including weight, density, connectors, buttons, and flat panel. Yes, everything is the same, but it’s not a terrible thing because the phone still feels high-end. In addition, the phone is large but lightweight. The titanium frames of the S25+ and S25 Ultra are similar. A flat display with a selfie camera punch hole and symmetrical, very undetectable bezels on both sides are located on the front.
The back surface is resistant to smudges and fingerprints thanks to its smooth matte feel.
Even without a case, this phone is pleasant to carry in one hand and is not at all slippery like other competing phones. For protection against any unintentional drops and scratches, we still advise using a case. All things considered, the phone is the perfect size—neither too large nor too small.
It can be tricky to distinguish the S25+ from the standard version since it only has a larger screen, measuring 6.7 inches compared to the 6.2-inch display of the S25. The screen size impacts the functionality of the device. The Plus model measures 158.4 x 75.8 x 7.3 mm, whereas the standard Galaxy S25 comes in at 146.9 x 70.5 x 7.2 mm.
The Galaxy S25 and S25+ have the same appearance, including the colour choices. Icy Blue, Silver Shadow, Navy, and Mint are the standard hues available for the S25 and S25+.
But keep in mind that Samsung has more unique colours—blue-black, coral-red, and pink-gold—set aside for its online stores.
For the review, we have the Navy colour option.
Also Read: Samsung Galaxy S25 Review: Samsung’s compact flagship has got its punch back
The S25+ is constructed with two sheets of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 placed between an Armor Aluminium 2 middle frame. While still excellent, these materials are not quite as high-end as those found in the Ultra models. Because of its IP68 ingress protection, the phone should be able to withstand immersion in fresh water up to 1.5 meters deep for up to half an hour.
The base model and the Plus model have identical ports and buttons.
A SIM tray, a microphone, a Type-C connector, and a speaker grill are found at the bottom, while the power button and volume rocker are found on the right side of the frame. For quicker data transfers, this phone has a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port.
The 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen of the Samsung Galaxy S25+ has a 1,440 x 3,120 pixels resolution. The gadget has a peak brightness of 2,600 nits and a dynamic refresh rate ranging from 1Hz to 120Hz. Additionally, Samsung increased the maximum brightness to 2,600 nits for all models.
With a crisp 513 PPI, the Galaxy S25+ packs more pixels than the 416 PPI screen of the standard S25, making everything look sharper, clearer, and more vibrant. But we can’t help but wish Samsung had brought over the anti-reflective Gorilla Armour Glass from the Ultra models. While these aren’t the absolute best displays in the business, they’re still plenty bright and comfortable for outdoor use—even under direct sunlight. The contrast is spot-on, delivering deep blacks, punchy whites, and excellent colour reproduction. After all, Samsung’s Galaxy S-Series has long been the gold standard for smartphone screens.
The vision booster allows for good contrast and colour saturation adjustment in bright and dark conditions. Therefore, watching videos on this phone is a delight, and the viewing experience is great.
Additionally, the touch reaction was quite responsive and good.
As for biometrics, the device’s ultrasonic under-display fingerprint sensor is the same as the previous generation, and it functions flawlessly; no adjustments are required in that area.
Samsung Galaxy S25+ Review: Performance and Cameras
The brilliant new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which powers the Samsung Galaxy S25+, is more potent and effective than the one from the previous year and provides improved connectivity. Exynos models were previously exclusive to India, but this time the company goes against standards by providing Qualcomm’s most recent flagship processor, the biggest improvement on this year’s Galaxy S-Series. Yes, across the entire lineup, which is fantastic. For better heat dissipation, the S24 lineup’s cooling system has also been updated and tuned. The Galaxy S25+ can better manage heat dissipation because of its bigger body.
This silicon made news by obtaining benchmark scores that were on par with—and in certain tests, even higher than—the Apple A18 Pro, the current frontrunner in smartphone processing. Higher benchmark results could result from Qualcomm’s “for Galaxy” processing of their chipsets, which slightly overclocks performance cores.
Geekbench 6 Results:
- Single Core Score- 2098
- Multi core score- 8281
The RAM and storage capacities of the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus differ slightly. The S25 comes with a base storage capacity of 12GB with 128GB, and it can be upgraded to 256GB or 512 GB. The storage capacity of the S25 Plus is 12GB with 256GB and a second 512GB option. sadly, there isn’t a MicroSD card slot to increase storage. The gadget can handle anything you put it through, including multitasking and the most draining games like Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 9. It also responds instantly. Apart from that, the phone performs wonderfully; multitasking is easy, and there are no lags or micro stutters in the animations.
Both versions have Galaxy AI built in, and they will be supported through Android 23 thanks to an amazing seven years of software support. Fantastic. The gadget, likewise, is running Android 15 with One UI 7 skinned on top. It’s still one of our favourite Android skins because of its clean, simple user interface. There are some pre-installed apps on the phone, but they are easily uninstallable. The variable refresh rate functions flawlessly when navigating between apps.
Also Read: OnePlus 13 Review: The sensible flagship
The design language and One UI experience are simply amazing. Without a doubt, this is among the most impressive user interfaces we have seen thus far.
Galaxy AI, an expanding collection of AI-powered tools that becomes increasingly user-friendly every year, is its most notable feature. The AI-powered features, which are the same as the Galaxy S25 series, are the main focus of the latest version. When you tap the Galaxy AI icon in the Samsung browser, for example, a new option called “read highlights aloud” appears. This option does just that, reading out what is on your screen. Although we’ve seen this function on iPhones for a while now, the S25 series now has it.
A new video editing tool called Audio Eraser listens to the audio in the video, recognises all the various sounds, and then allows you to enhance or minimise those sounds. Once again, this has long been a feature of iPhones and Pixels.
From the beginning, the Galaxy AI has been good, and this is still the case. One or two of the new AI functions in this edge panel are live. For example, AI Select is similar to smart select, but it is far more cognisant of what is on your screen. You will thus be presented with a few potential action options based on your selection, such as the ability to change the selected image into different artistic styles.
“Sketch to Assist” just got a glow-up—meet Drawing Assist! This upgraded tool lets you whip up brand-new images with a mix of styles, including 3D cartoons. Want to get creative? Just type in a prompt, and watch the magic happen. Pretty awesome, right?
We got our hands on the freshly updated Portrait Studio, and while the aesthetics have had a slight facelift, the core styles remain intact. The real game-changer? It just feels so much better. Plus, you can now throw in text prompts, meaning you’re no longer just tweaking portraits—you’re creating and customising almost anything.
We enjoyed how, inside the keyboard, they gave us the new sticker generator, which is extremely cool.
This brings us to the much talked about feature—the Now Brief, which has never been seen before. Samsung claims that to generate a summary of our day, it employs AI to extract apps and information. It’s good that you can choose which apps this functionality can access, and it seems to be device-based.
Right out of the box, Google Gemini will be activated when the lock button is held down. It will assist you with more complicated tasks like those that Google Assistant performs. For example, you may ask Gemini to find a nearby cafe that welcomes pets.
When we requested it to do so, these are the outcomes.
However, Bixby, which appears to have seen a significant improvement as well, is still available. Yes, two built-in assists are now available. That’s cool, isn’t it? But, under the settings, you can also return to the original Google Assistant.
There’s a lot to discuss about both of these digital assistants, of course, but to put it simply, Bixby employs Gemini, just like Siri uses ChatGPT for more complicated queries and tasks.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which was developed specifically for Samsung, has also significantly improved the features of the Galaxy S25 Series. Since it is the fastest chip in any mobile phone, the S25 series will be the only one with some AI features, such as the Now Brief or AI Select and the enhanced Gemini and Bixby integration. Therefore, you might have to switch to one of the S25s if you were hoping to get those features in a later update.
Let’s now discuss optics. Samsung hasn’t changed the camera hardware from the previous iteration. A 10MP telephoto lens (3x optical zoom, F2.4, FOV 36), a 12MP ultra-wide sensor with a 120-degree field of view, and a 50MP sensor with OIS make up the triple rear camera configuration. The gadget has a 12MP front-facing camera for taking selfies and making video calls.
There are several options in the camera app, which is also quite easy to use.
In daylight, the main sensor in a 1x zoom can produce brilliant, vivid photographs with bold, saturated colours. Even if you take shots closer, the default f/1.8 aperture does not produce a very good natural blur effect. The photographs appear more inviting and natural since the hues are bright and lively. They are natural, not too much or too little, allowing you some editing flexibility.
The highlight controls are excellent, resulting in somewhat saturated colours. The management of bright areas in S25+ is among the best we’ve seen at this price point. The hues and textures turn out extremely well. The shadow processing has been improved, and detail levels have been increased. The dynamic range is superb; we found no issues. The S25+’s backlight processing is likewise excellent. In all of our backlight images, the subject is nicely exposed. There is no extreme contrast applied anywhere.
Aside from that, talking about the face and skin is subjective, but we’ve become accustomed to the Samsung Galaxy S-Series’ highly natural skin tone output. It, like its competitors, does not make the face appear brighter than necessary. This can be a disadvantage for many people, but it can also be beneficial for some; it all depends on you.
Ultra-wide shots on the S25+? Let’s just say they’re a mixed bag. The detail, shadows, and colours are decent, but the close-focus distance is just… average. Try getting too close, and forget about those dramatic ultra-wide shots. Edge sharpness? A bit soft—which isn’t exactly what you’d expect at this price point. Technically, the ultra-wide isn’t a showstopper in terms of sharpness, edge clarity, or focus distance. But credit where it’s due—colour reproduction, exposure, and processing is on point, delivering well-balanced shots even in backlight.
Aside from that, in all of our outdoor shots, we’ve noted that the sky appears blue. Meaning that it adds a little more colour than the original blue.
Personally, in low-light situations, we are dissatisfied with the 1x performance. We expected crisper, brighter, and less noisy images, as advertised by the company, but we were disappointed because competing phones in this price range performed better. Noise appeared more easily in 1x shots. If you keep your hands steady, the phone’s night mode reduces noise while keeping good detail and exposure control.
The telephoto lens boasts a 3X optical zoom and produces outstanding portrait shots with a well-focused subject and plenty of detail. However, when compared to other competitors, the S25+’s results are not particularly impressive. However, the face processing is among the best in this price range; it keeps texture in portraiture, the details are excellent, and the colours are exactly what we see with our eyes. Telephoto lenses maintain a good dynamic range.
Other phones in this category make the face very smooth and apply skin smoothing; the S25+ does not, however, you do have the option. Skin smoothing, for example, can be used, but it is not applied on its own, which results in a good texture, decent face processing, no overexposure, and excellent highlight management.
Selfies are taken in high detail thanks to the 12MP camera. You can shoot in either standard or ultra-wide mode. Colours are not too much as we see with our eyes. The rest of the clarity is good, as is the overall look. In contrast, nighttime selfies are softer and noisier.
The blur fall-off in portrait mode is also quite true to life; the edges are not entirely cut out, but rather blurred smoothly, which gives you a professional appearance.
The Galaxy S25+ features good video stabilisation and can record videos at up to 8K@60fps. Footage options include UHD@30fps, FHD@30fps, and HD@30fps. However, recordings from both the front and back cameras turned out to be more steady. So, if you enjoy vlogging, this is probably one of the best options available.
Also, zooming in and out and switching between lenses is much smoother now, and while they have maintained the traditional zoom length settings, they have also introduced a zoom slider, which we greatly prefer and believe a lot more people will enjoy using.
Within the camera settings, under the advanced video option, you can now record in log mode. In simple terms, it provides extremely high-quality 8K cinematic log footage, which is a game changer. So for content creators and professional videographers, this is a huge update.
Verdict
So, that is the Samsung Galaxy S25+ for you. It’s not the most significant improvement we’ve seen, and it seems like Samsung could have done a little more for this middle child. However, whether or not it is worthwhile to upgrade is largely dependent on how you feel. However, for those searching for faster speed and the Galaxy’s new UI, AI features, and a larger display, the S25+ has its advantages.
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In terms of brightness and colour accuracy, the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus displays are essentially similar, with the latter having slightly higher brightness and colour accuracy. The S25 Plus delivers a better hands-on experience and better specifications than the standard model, with fewer compromises such as battery life and screen size.
Previous generations of standard and Plus models used different chipsets, with the Snapdragon CPU reserved for the premium Ultra and the Exynos chipset for the base and Plus versions. However, all versions now run the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. That is a great thing.
Furthermore, all of the Galaxy AI features on the S25 Ultra have been extended to the S25 and S25+, which is a significant advantage.
So if you’ve finally decided you want a brand-new Galaxy flagship and will not go for a smaller, more compact, vanilla model? Then the Galaxy S25+ is your best option.
Pricing starts at Rs 99,999
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Galaxy S25+ Pros
- Bigger screen
- Lightweight
- Long battery life
- All the Galaxy AI features
- Log Mode
Galaxy S25+ Cons
- Dated design
- Unchanged cameras
