The battle for Extremely telephones has heated up this 12 months, with each firm aiming to launch a cellphone that may compete with the digital camera prowess of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely.
Samsung’s newest digital camera behemoth options 4 cameras: a 200MP most important sensor paired with a 50MP ultrawide and two telephoto lenses. One digital camera has a 10MP sensor providing 3x optical zoom, whereas the opposite has a 50MP sensor full with 5x optical zoom.
Because it launched in January, I’ve taken hundreds of photographs with the Galaxy S25 Extremely from a number of international locations world wide. Whereas telephones just like the Oppo Discover X8 Extremely and Xiaomi 15 Extremely beat it in sure environments, the Galaxy S25 Extremely can nonetheless take distinctive photographs.
Listed here are a number of the greatest photos I’ve taken and why.
The very best cellphone for selection in portrait mode
I’ve lengthy been a serious fan of Samsung’s portrait mode for a lot of causes, however the largest is the choices included within the portrait mode digital camera. Samsung isn’t the one firm that provides a variety of various portrait modes, however each Samsung cellphone digital camera contains my favourite portrait mode characteristic: coloration level.
Shade Level is designed to seize inventive and distinctive portrait mode photos. It really works by separating the foreground and background, permitting you to maintain the previous in coloration whereas making the background grayscale. The end result could be actually hanging photographs; I’ve used these for a few years for my social avatars.
Past Shade Level, Samsung’s portrait mode additionally has different enjoyable options. An ordinary blur mode blurs the background, and three modes simulate totally different lighting situations: Studio, Excessive-key Mono, and Low-key Mono. There’s additionally a backdrop mode that lets you create a full background coloration behind the topic within the photograph.
Two significantly noteworthy options are which you could edit each the impact and its power earlier than and after taking a photograph, and that every one the identical options work with the front-facing digital camera. Relating to versatility, no cellphone provides the breadth of portrait mode options that the Galaxy S25 Extremely does.
Prime quality and wealthy colours for a lot of photographs
The post-processing of photographs captured on a Samsung cellphone often yields related outcomes, making for an immediately recognizable picture. The Galaxy S25 Extremely isn’t any totally different, and whereas Samsung has toned down a number of the saturation for extra pure photographs, the digital camera nonetheless takes high-quality pictures which are wealthy in coloration.
Specifically, it’s a unbelievable cellphone for vibrant extremely large photographs with excessive saturation. Some telephones, just like the Pixel 9 Professional, prioritize pure colours on the expense of saturation, so chances are you’ll need to apply filters earlier than importing to social media.
The Galaxy S25 Extremely takes wonderful, Instagram-ready photographs that require little enhancing. Many customers will discover these photographs extra visually interesting than the competitors, regardless that they aren’t as correct or pure. Visually interesting photos are all the time acquired higher on social media, which is how most individuals share their lives with the world.
What in regards to the telephoto cameras?
The principle cause to purchase the Galaxy S25 Extremely is the twin telephoto cameras. Samsung has been refining its method to telephoto cameras for a number of years, and the Galaxy S25 Extremely can seize unbelievable photos at many alternative focal lengths.
The Galaxy S25 Extremely is just not the world-beater it as soon as was, particularly as telephones just like the Oppo Discover X8 Extremely and OnePlus 13 have proven to have higher zoom efficiency, however you may nonetheless take unbelievable photographs.
Within the viewfinder, you’ll discover a number of choices representing varied focal lengths. The 2x zoom possibility is a crop of the principle 200MP sensor, whereas the 3x and 5x use their devoted telephoto lenses. Then there’s the 10x and above zoom choices, which mix AI and particulars from the assorted sensors right into a hybrid zoom.
Nevertheless, it’s price noting that whereas the Galaxy S25 Extremely is nice on the decrease focal lengths, Samsung’s House Zoom hasn’t withstood the take a look at of time. In earlier years, the House Zoom characteristic was groundbreaking and surpassed the competitors, however now Samsung’s rivals have caught up and surpassed the Galaxy S25 Extremely.
Take the OnePlus 13, for instance. It solely has one telephoto lens, nevertheless it’s extra succesful at 30x and its max 120x zoom than the Galaxy S25 Extremely.
Or the Oppo Discover X8 Extremely, which has two telephoto lenses. The identical studying applies right here, particularly as even the Oppo Discover X8, which has only one telephoto just like the OnePlus 13, takes higher 30x photographs than Samsung’s flagship digital camera powerhouse.
Nevertheless, regardless of the competitors being higher in sure methods, the Galaxy S25 Extremely nonetheless has a superb zoom digital camera that can delight most customers.
The Galaxy S25 Extremely digital camera is flexible but fallible
For a few years, the Galaxy S25 Extremely was largely the gold normal for photographs, no less than for those who low cost telephones made by Huawei.
Despite the fact that its digital camera king is now going through powerful competitors, it stays some of the versatile cameras available on the market. The one downside is that it’s gone from being invincible and the digital camera it is best to all the time carry on you, to being a very good digital camera with higher options.
After taking 4,000 photographs with the Galaxy S25 Extremely, there are just a few key takeaways. Its digital camera is unbelievable, and the portrait mode is one of the best of any cellphone. As I found in Dubai, it will probably take secure movies with wonderful zoom options. Although not the best high quality, the selfie digital camera has essentially the most versatile digital camera choices.
For all it does effectively, it’s not one of the best zoom digital camera. It’s nonetheless among the finest smartphone cameras, and it’s arguably essentially the most versatile as effectively. Nevertheless, if zoom efficiency is your prime precedence, the digital camera could also be disappointing, particularly for those who’ve used different smartphone cameras.
For portrait pictures alone, the Galaxy S25 Extremely will keep in my secure of telephones. Whereas it was once the cellphone I all the time turned to, it’s now one among a set that features most of the greatest smartphones.