As I ready for a protracted weekend break, I needed to take a succesful Android cellphone with digicam with me, able to seize my adventures. I put my SIM card right into a recent Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely and set the cellphone up purely for leisure, as I needed to disregard work emails and messages as a lot as attainable. I spent 4 days with the cellphone, and right here’s what I found revisiting the Galaxy S25 Extremely.
The form continues to be an issue
The Galaxy S25 Extremely is flat. Very flat. The edges are flat, the display is flat, and the corners are far much less curved than earlier fashions. It’s an enormous, slab-like block, and much from engaging. Not everybody will care if it’s a handsome cellphone, however everybody ought to care if it’s snug to carry, and after revisiting the Galaxy S25 Extremely I’m unhappy to say it’s not.
I returned to the S25 Extremely after a string of different telephones, starting from the OnePlus 13, the Google Pixel 9a, and the Xiaomi 15 Extremely, and all are extra snug to carry. The issue is the cellphone digs into your palm, the sharp edges are noticeable if you grip it, and because it’s additionally a little bit of a slippery factor, you actually do need to hold maintain out of it.
I used to be utilizing the cellphone for enjoyable, spending some free time searching Reddit and Threads or enjoying Magic: The Gathering Area, however the S25 Extremely didn’t encourage me to select it up due to the consolation issues. My Apple iPhone 16 Professional Max is much extra ergonomic, and rather more pleasing to carry for longer intervals of time. I discovered I’d power myself to make use of the S25 Extremely, and it shouldn’t be that approach.
The display is the perfect you’ll see
It’s a disgrace I didn’t really feel joyful about holding the S25 Extremely for a very long time, because the display is the perfect I’ve used on a smartphone. Amazingly for the U.Okay., it was very brilliant and sunny on my break, and the S25 Extremely’s anti-reflective display actually got here into its personal. It’s laborious to {photograph} to exhibit simply how efficient it’s, however it removes the cruel reflections which cease you seeing what’s occurring, and crucially, it really works rather well at completely different angles.
This issues most if you wish to take pictures. Hardly ever do the perfect photographs come if you maintain the digicam instantly in entrance of your face, which is why robust viewing angles are essential on a smartphone. I might all the time see the digicam’s viewfinder, whatever the angle I held the cellphone at or the lighting situations. It’s an excellent display, and eclipses each different smartphone you should buy in the meanwhile.
The extraordinary brightness additionally helped in these situations, however this wasn’t what made it work so properly. As an alternative, it’s the automated brightness adjustment. I solely as soon as reached for the handbook brightness management, because the cellphone did such job of balancing the display’s brightness to the situations. The one time I keep in mind utilizing the handbook management was after utilizing the cellphone exterior, and it was a beat to sluggish to adapt after I went again inside. However I’d quite or not it’s too brilliant than too dim.
What concerning the digicam?
Earlier than I selected the Galaxy S25 Extremely I used to be near selecting up the Xiaomi 15 Extremely, however my very own phrases had been in my thoughts earlier than I made the ultimate choice. I fell for the Xiaomi 15 Extremely’s digicam after I used it someplace I didn’t know very properly, after being a tiny bit dissatisfied with it after I reviewed the cellphone taking photographs regionally. I haven’t been that excited by the Galaxy S25 Extremely’s digicam, and have been stunned at how the principle digicam particularly hasn’t met expectations. Occurring a visit with it might change my thoughts about it.
The panorama meant I used the principle and the wide-angle digicam essentially the most, and the consistency between the 2 is spectacular, sharing balanced colours and distinction, even in difficult mild. Images straight from the digicam are a bit too natural-looking for my private style, and it’s right here the place One UI 7’s glorious photograph modifying suite was put to good use.
I utilized one in every of Samsung’s new filters to most photographs — the Chill, Amber, and Sunbeam normally gave the perfect impact — and subsequently tweaked the photographs additional, earlier than it regarded the best way I needed it. Cleverly, it can save you the edits made to 1 photograph as a brand new filter of your personal, after which apply it to different photographs. It really works so properly on photographs taken on the identical day and in the identical situations. Samsung’s AI-powered eraser software stays glorious too, neatly eradicating undesirable parts like energy traces and telegraph poles.
Trying again on the photographs I’m happy with the outcomes, however I’m acutely aware nearly all of them wanted modifying. This implies Samsung’s personal tuning isn’t fairly proper, and means fanatics hoping to make use of the digicam and by no means contact the pictures earlier than sharing them could also be dissatisfied. Nonetheless, Samsung’s highly effective and versatile modifying suite makes it easy and gratifying to vary the best way your photographs look, so it’s much less of a draw back than it first sounds.
Was I joyful I selected the Galaxy S25 Extremely?
The Galaxy S25 Extremely display, efficiency, and battery life — which was greater than sufficient for 2 days use — made it a dependable accomplice for my time away, however I used to be pissed off by the form of the cellphone. If it was my solely cellphone, I’d shortly select a case for it, in a effort to make it extra nice to carry. The unlucky factor is, it’s sturdy and robust sufficient to not really want a case.
I just like the photographs I took with it, and really feel it captured my break rather well, so I’ll be joyful to look again on them sooner or later. The Galaxy S25 Extremely is a superb smartphone and regardless of being probably the most costly fashions you should buy, it’s a secure buy for the long run. Nonetheless, I didn’t fall in love with it, and do assume I’d have been simply as joyful (or maybe, even happier) with the OnePlus 13.
The Galaxy S25 Extremely is a chilly, but extraordinarily succesful excessive efficiency smartphone. I doubt I’ll ever really feel a lot for it, regardless of how lengthy I take advantage of it, however its all-round capacity and very good display make it laborious to beat. It’s nonetheless a cellphone you’ll purchase together with your head, not your coronary heart, simply as I believed after I first reviewed it.