In this post we’re going to be doing an unboxing and I’m going to give my first impressions on the Galaxy s25 Ultra this phone is available for pre-order at the time of this post. If you want to check it out for yourself the retail price is $1300 comes in seven different colors.

We have black gray silver and this blue color we’re going to be checking out here today and there’s three exclusive colors pink gold jet black and Jade green. There’s three different configurations to choose from we have 256 GB storage standard 512 GB and up to 1 terb of storage, And all these models come packed with 12 GB of RAM shout out to Samsung for sending out.

We get in the box

We get a type- c to type-c charging cable, We get a little bit of paperwork and We have a SIM ejection tool but that’s everything inside. Let’s go ahead and check out the star of the show here the Galaxy s25 Ultra First Impressions immediately add the packaging even though this is the blue color in some angles like my top down shot here. It definitely looks gray but if you put it into different lighting conditions. We also have some physical refinements going on here compared to last year’s s24 Ultra the most notable change here is that we are getting rounded Corners now on this s25 Ultra.

That conventional boxy design, That we took over from the Galaxy Notes and made their way over to the S Series. It still overall does have that boxy appearance to it. If you compare this to and s24 from last year, You can see much more rounded corners on those devices. They were on last year’s s24 but they’re flattened out here now it is worth mentioning that we still do have a rounded feel on the back of this s25 Ultra so you have a nice rounded feeling in the back. The rounded Corners to comp it and having lighter weight makes this feel like a much more.

It is taking a quick physical tour now on the left side we have our 5G antenna on the right. We have our volume rockers and our power button on the top. if you want to however there is no micro SD expansion. we have our type-c Port capable of 45 w super fast charge. All the way over here on the left love the S Pen functionality with this overall physically seems to feel and look very similar to the previous sens might have a little bit different of a tip at the top.

Display and bezels of Galaxy s25 Ultra

Now taking our first look at the 6.9 in 1440p 120htz AMOLED display we do have a little bit of a larger display. Now on this s25 Ultra compared to The s24 from last year. We do have what looks like an entirely flat display here on this s25 Ultra so no Edge display going on here and as far as the Antireflectivity. It looks to be the same on this s25 as it was on last year’s s24 but with all that out of the way I’m going to go ahead put my information in this phone use it for the day and I’ll come back with my final First Impressions on the Galaxy s25 Ultra all right so it’s been a full day.

Now since I first started using this s25 Ultra I’m definitely ready to share some of my first impressions with you guys so getting into the phone the Biometrics we have an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner this gets you.Then we also have the face recognition on top either way it gets you into your phone super quick.

Screenshot 2025 01 25 233701 — Samsung S 25 Ultra

Once you’re in you’ll be greeted by the new 6.9 in display I’ve been really enjoying this display my first day of usage actually a little bit more over the s24 ultra to my surprise, I think mainly because this s25 Ultra is slim down a little more on the sides. We do have that slight bezel reduction, But overall we have what feels like a little bit more compact of a phone with still a very large display.

It just makes this s25 Ultra a lot more enjoyable to use in your average everyday usage, Using it for extended periods of time watching YouTube on it. I’ve noticed go really well with these physical refinements are the software refinements with one ui7 this has been a very clean software, So for really the only differences. You have are that you swipe down from the top to get to your notifications then you swipe down from the top right corner to access your quick settings similar to what we’ve had on, I phones for a while now but overall, The performance on this has been extremely smooth opening all your applications.

Battery on this one and charge timing

Battery UI 7, So we have a little bit of some updated icons and things too really like how smooth and fluid it is initially and something else. That has also been noticeably improved on this s25 Ultra is the battery life even though we have the same capacity of 5,000 milliamp hours as we had on last year’s s24 Ultra. I am getting noticeably more battery life on this s25 Ultra.

Some gaming testing for about a half an hour doing a fair amount of web browsing writing some notes and Samsung Notes playing around with some of the AI features in the gallery. If you’re doing basic things just browsing on YouTube and just going on the news and social media apps you are going to get phenomenal battery life. So I’m definitely excited to test out this battery further in the next couple of days.

A look at the cameras around back of Samsung S 25 Ultra

Taking a look at the cameras around back we have the same setup here as what we had on last year’s s24 Ultra the only difference now is on that Ultra wide lens. We now have a 50 megapixel option instead of of just the 12 megapixel but, overall by far this is Samsung’s most versatile camera system on any of their phones we have so many options here with the zoom, we have that ultrawide which can now go up to that 50 megapixel option.

We also have a two times which is new now on this s25 Ultra and then the same as we had before the three times Optical the new five times Optical, The 10 times which is technically a digital but gives you near Optical quality of previous Ultra phones and Here’s a look at the 30 times and 100 times zoom in action, So overall a ton of Versatility on this camera as far as all the different zoom lenses. Expected the 200 MP mode is giving me some really good results in my usage. So picture my puppy, Here you can zoom in really close you still have a ton of detail on your photos, So really liking the 200 MP mode initially looking at the video side of things and my initial 4K 60 filming looks really smooth here.

I just wanted to see the front-facing camera in addition to that rear camera and this is just one of many new Galaxy AI features is coming to this phone. whatever the newest device is Samsung’s going to be putting the newest Galaxy AI features into it but some of these have felt genuinely useful in my first day of use and as far as other AI functionality on this phone, I want to address Google Gemini since this was also pushed heavily at the Samsung event. But the reality of this new Gemini functionality and features and capabilities is that in 6 months. You’re going to have to start paying for some of the advanced features. I definitely don’t like that so this is set up by default with the long press on your phone. If you go into your settings, you can change this to Bixby and Bixby has gotten so much hate over the years but it’s actually been genuinely useful for me.

The Brightness of Samsung S 25 Ultra

The brightness to 50% it can do some of these on device features which I know that’s very basic but that simple task is something I can’t do with Gemini so if I switch back to the Gemini assistant change brightness to 50% so it says I can’t help with that. You’re going to be paying for something that can’t help you with simple functionalities. I also noticed that Bixby is better at some tasks initially compared to the Gemini assistant write an email to SS inquiries at gmail.

What’s the subject of your email checking in what would you like to say in your email hey how are things going just wanted to check in and hope to talk to you soon got it please review the drafted email and hit send when you’re ready so this opens it up on its own writes everything out that you asked for beta works really well so I’m liking Bixby for some of these on device things. if I switch back to Gemini and try that same thing write an email to SS inqueries ” Gmail ” sure here is an email to but fact inquiries see, So it just kind of does its own thing, It’s just writing a general email which this is not even what I wanted at all so even though the Gemini is being heavily pressed in the initial coverage here personally the Bixby assistant has been better for me.

Comparison to the other Ultra devices

My first day of usage with the Slimmer bedels just the Slimmer overall feel and form factor of the phone I usually end up using the plus series of these S Series phones for the past few years, Because it is that bit smaller and lesser weight but now that we have that lighter weight on this Ultra model you’re getting best of both worlds situation here with a larger display and what feels like a very light weight phone in the hand in comparison to the other Ultra devices really the only downside to this s25 Ultra is we no longer.

Have the Bluetooth functionality of the S Pen it’s only going to be your onscreen things. You can go into things and use this kind of mouse overall feature for a lot of things with the pen, even though it doesn’t have the Bluetooth it really just mainly affects you being able to take pictures with this remotely which you can just put your hand up to take pictures with Samsung software.