The Extremely is Samsung’s largest and best telephone and is packed to the gills with the very newest expertise, which implies extra synthetic intelligence than ever earlier than.
The Galaxy S25 Extremely is on the entrance of the road of a brand new wave of Android telephones that promise to principally do every part for you. It combines Google’s superior AI help with quite a few Samsung instruments for writing, drawing, pictures and chatting.
However the actuality of the £1,249 (€1,449/$1,299.99/A$2,149) superphone is barely lower than the sci-fi dream. Whereas at instances the AI instruments might be completely spectacular, on different events they are often dumbfounded by the only factor.
The surface of the Extremely has been slimmed down and is 14g lighter than its predecessor, with new flat sides and tiny bezels round its gigantic, incredible display. It’s about as shut as you may get to being a slab of glass with a show.
Inside it has a souped-up Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which is even quicker in checks than the model within the latest OnePlus 13. It was troublesome to actually bother the efficiency of the chip, so it ought to deal with something most individuals need to do with a telephone. The battery lasts two days between costs whereas actively getting used for 7.5 hours throughout a variety of day by day duties, pictures and media on a mixture of wifi and 5G – making it one of many longest enduring in the marketplace.
Specs
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Fundamental display: 6.9in QHD+ Dynamic Amoled 2X (500ppi) 120Hz
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Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy
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RAM: 12GB
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Storage: 256, 512GB or 1TB
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Working system: One UI 7 (Android 15)
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Digicam: 200MP + 50MP 0.6x + 10MP 3x + 50MP 5x; 12MP front-facing
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Connectivity: 5G, USB-C, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 5.4, UWB and GNSS
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Water resistance: IP68 (1.5m for 30 minutes)
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Dimensions: 162.8 x 77.6 x 8.2mm
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Weight: 218g
Sustainability
Samsung doesn’t present an anticipated lifespan for the battery but it surely ought to final in extra of 500 full cost cycles with a minimum of 80% of its unique capability.
The telephone is typically repairable. Display repairs price £204 by authorised service centres and embody a battery substitute. Samsung additionally provides a self-repair programme. The telephone scored 5 out of 10 for repairability with the specialists iFixit.
It accommodates a number of recycled supplies together with aluminium, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, plastic, uncommon earth components and metal. Samsung provides trade-in and recycling schemes for previous gadgets. The corporate publishes annual sustainability stories and affect assessments for some particular person merchandise.
Extra AI in additional locations
Samsung has constructed on the quite a few “Galaxy AI” instruments added final 12 months, together with new drawing options and a contemporary AI choose instrument. This lets you merely faucet on photographs, textual content, icons and different gadgets in your display to see what you are able to do with them – comparable to drawing, modifying or looking.
The “Now” bar on the backside of the lock display reveals a stack of widgets comparable to reside sports activities scores from Google, at the moment enjoying music, timers, reminders for flights and different well timed issues. It’s a cross between Google’s At a Look and Apple’s Dynamic Island on iPhones, and is helpful. Reside notifications, comparable to scores, can even present within the standing bar.
It additionally produces an AI-curated snapshot of your day that includes native climate, calendar occasions, pictures you’ve taken, reminders, well being info, Spotify playlists and different bits. It as soon as informed me to watch out utilizing my telephone whereas strolling as apparently I had used it for 42 minutes out of three hours of strolling. I didn’t discover that notably helpful.
The star addition is the subsequent era of Google’s Gemini assistant, which has the power to carry out a number of duties directly utilizing apps in your telephone and the online. For instance, it will probably pull instances and dates from the online to set a reminder for you or ship the information to mates.
It guarantees quite a bit, and when it really works correctly it may be completely spectacular. Nevertheless it additionally journeys up on trivial issues, comparable to failing to ship a WhatsApp to a good friend as a result of they spell their title “Paterson” with one “t” not two. Or confidently including a reminder for the subsequent Fantasy Premier League switch deadline, however getting the date and time incorrect. Essentially it will probably’t be trusted to only get on with issues with out you needing to verify it for accuracy, which is an issue for all AI instruments in the mean time.
The remainder of the One UI 7 software program expertise, the newest model of the working system, is fairly slick. Elements of it are extra like Apple’s iOS than ever, but it surely has sufficient customisation choices to make the telephone look and behave the way you need. Samsung will help the S25 Extremely with software program and safety updates for seven years from launch, which matches the very best from Google and Apple.
Digicam
The S25 Extremely has a really related digicam system on the again as its latest predecessors, together with the primary 200MP digicam, a 10MP 3x telephoto and a 50MP 5x telephoto digicam able to optically zooming to 10x magnification, or past with digital zoom. New for this 12 months is a a lot improved 50MP extremely broad digicam, which has significantly better low-light efficiency producing crisper and higher detailed photographs indoors and in different dim environments.
The digicam app can also be full of loads of enjoyable and helpful modes, together with its best-in-class portrait mode, full guide management and numerous superior instruments. However as with its predecessors, the S25 Extremely’s greatest characteristic is solely the adaptability of getting 4 cameras with a number of completely different magnifications out there.
Worth
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely prices from £1,249 (€1,449/$1,299.99/A$2,149) with 256GB of storage.
For comparability, the Galaxy S25 prices £799, the S25+ prices £999, the Z Fold 6 prices £1,519, the Google Pixel 9 Professional XL prices £1,099 and the iPhone 16 Professional Max prices £1,199.
Verdict
The Galaxy S25 Extremely kicks off the 12 months as essentially the most highly effective and adaptable of mainstream slab Android telephones.
The digicam is nice with extra lens decisions than others. It has essentially the most highly effective Android chip going, lengthy battery life, loads of storage, an enormous display and a stylus.
However Samsung hasn’t added a lot to the components that made the mannequin such a killer system a number of years in the past. The design appears like an endpoint for the high-end smartphone. It’s not apparent the place you go from right here to meaningfully change the expertise on a {hardware} degree.
That leaves its AI options to supply one thing new. A few of them are nice, many are gimmicky and a few options, such because the upgraded Gemini assistant, are very hit or miss. Generally it may be fabulous, whereas being annoyingly dumb or just untrustworthy in different moments.
The Extremely is a superb telephone that can go the gap. Simply don’t purchase it for the overhyped AI options.
Execs: huge 120Hz display, extremely succesful digicam with 3x and 10x optical zoom, good software program with seven years’ help, high Android chip, lengthy battery life, entry to the newest AI options.
Cons: large, extraordinarily costly, S Pen lacks slightly magic of earlier variations, doesn’t meaningfully enhance on components of predecessors, AI capabilities overhyped for now.
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