The little galaxy S25 is almost good enough for me to ditch my big S24 Ultra

Since I got my Nexus 6 in 2015, I have loved big phones, always chosen the larger version of what I buy. After moving back to Samsung in 2019, I have Eid Galaxy S10 Plus and each Ultra phone in the S series S24 ultra. I had planned to do the same with Galaxy S25 series But decided that not enough had changed to guarantee the upgrade. I also wanted to try something small and comfortable. So when I got to spend some time with the smallest galaxy S25, I jumped on the opportunity. Can this phone size on the phone win me from “phablets” I have used for over a decade?

The Galaxy S25’s battery is not as good as my S24 Ultra, but it should not surprise me: The 4000 mAh cell obviously can’t last as long as the 5,000 MAH battery in the S24 -ultra. What surprised me was that I (for the most part) could live with the difference. With my normal use, looking at YouTube, listening to music, sending messages in telegram and slack, managing my calendar and arranging a billion tasks in the chin tick, I would complete the day with about 15% left. It is worse than my S24 Ultra, which ends the same day with at least 30%, but it is manageable. The phone makes it bedtime without having to connect, and that’s all I need.

It is a regular day where I work from home and only use Wi-Fi, but on busier days the S25 gives me battery anxiety. Last week I had to take some 45-minute round trips to a hospital to visit someone by using GPS for navigation and spotty mobile data when I arrived. On these days, the Galaxy S25 would be tapped by 16:00, while my S24 ultra got to bed with about 10-15% to spare. Use the cameras for more than a fast snap and it will also empty the battery.

So while I can live with S25’s battery life, battery anxiety is a non-nelegic factor, and during my use, I have kept a wireless Qi2 battery pack and case in my car or backpack, just in case I need them.

Charging is also a sticky topic. The Little S25 charges only at 25W, unlike the Galaxy A56, S25 Plus or S25 ultrathat can charge at 45W. With the smaller battery size, 25W is not terrible, but I want it to be a little faster when I have to give the phone a quick toppings after using GPS or the cameras.

The cameras on the Galaxy S25 are quite different from the ones I’m used to on my S24 Ultra. My Ultra has a 200MP main camera, 10MP 3X Teleoto, 50MP 5X Periscope Teleoto, and a 12MP Ultrawide. The S25 has the same 3x telephoto and ultrawide (minus macro mode), but treads the main camera down to 50MP and completely lacks a Periscope Teleoto system.

I knew what to expect from the S25’s 3x and Ultrawide, but the 50MP primary lens was a mystery to me, and I was pleasantly surprised. Shutter delay is still a problem, As it is for all Samsung phones, but it is significantly better than the 200MP sensor on my S24 Ultra, which has always disappointed me compared to the older 108MP sensor from previous Ultra phones.

The 50MP main camera at S25 matches the S24 ultra for sharpness and performance with low light. If I looked hard, there would probably be differences, but why care about the pictures I get happy?

The real problem is zoom. The 3X Tele camera on the S25 may be the same as it on my S24 Ultra, but Ultra has an extra 5x periscope lens that makes the whole difference. The Dinky 10MP 3x lens is bad no matter what phone you use it on, but the S25 has nothing else to negate the use. On my S24 -ultra, I rarely use the lens and prefer a 2x crop of the primary sensor instead and then jumps to 5x zoom for something more than that. As you can see in the picture above, the 3X camera is struggling in direct sunlight. I don’t know why I want to use it when the S25’s 50MP main lens is high-resolution enough for a 2x crop to look much better than I would get from the 3x lens.

At this time, Samsung should ditch this 3x lens from all phones and use the 5X camera instead as a standard zoom. If the company really wants to keep the 5x periscopet as a differentiates for the Ultra model, it can at least upgrade the sensor behind the 3x lens so that it becomes usable. The current 10MP sensor is mostly unchanged from the S21 Ultra, which was released four years ago and shows its age!

The rest of this phone is practically perfect for my needs. 2600 nits are more than bright enough outdoors, and I don’t miss the anti -reflex coating because I always use a screen protector. The adaptive update frequency holds things evenly, and 1080p is more than sharp enough in this screen size. Wrap up that appears even frames and a design that I think looks lovely in coral red, and I think this is one of the most looking phones around right now, even though it looks like S23 and S24 that came before it. In addition, the S25 finally got 12 GB of RAM instead of the 8 GB base model phones used to include the previous S series so that the phone can handle all the tasks I throw on the S24 Ultra.

What makes this phone a winner for me is the way it feels. It is smaller than an iPhone 16 Pro and weighs only 162g. Unlike my S24 Ultra, weighing 232g, the S25 does not pull my hand during use, and I hardly notice it when it is in my pocket. It has been the big revelation for me during my time with the Galaxy S25-I will have a phone that is easy to use one-hand when I walk around, which is not so unmanageable that it is dropped on my wife’s face when I show her memes in bed.

Ask me this a few days ago, and the Galaxy S25 would be my choice. The ergonomics of the smaller phone convinced me that I could look past the smaller battery life and the lack of a good telecommunications camera. But if there is one thing I have learned in my five years at work, it is that when you write a piece like this, you should return to the other phone for a few days. I’ve owned my S24 Ultra for over a year, so I felt like I knew everything about it without having to go back to it a little. But using my S24 Ultra again for a few days has been invaluable for my perception of the two phones. It helped me eliminate any false positivity to the S25 that comes from it was shining and new, and it let me reconsider how much I appreciate the larger battery and luxury that So.

Force to choose between these two phones, I would have taken my S24 Ultra. Everything I prefer if the Galaxy S25 is still correct – it is far more comfortable to carry in your pocket and to use in almost any situation. However, there have been a few cases where I wanted a larger screen. And battery life is a big problem for me. Although the Galaxy S25 got me through most days, it felt like I had gone back a decade when I used a Nexus 6 as my primary phone. S24 Ultra is more reliable for unexpected heavy days, and I would rather compromise the comfort of the battery life than the other way around.

So I keep S24 Ultra. A Ui 7 is fantastic; I just miss Now card from S25As I can live without. Another factor I should consider is that Samsung has made the S25 -ultra significantly lighter than my S24 -ultra, making it much easier to use when combined with the more rounded corners. It can make the S25 ultra the perfect mix of these two phones.

When the Galaxy S26 series is released next year, I have a tough decision. Maybe Samsung will finally switch to silicon carbon batteries, and the smallest S26 will last in a charging. Or, most likely, I will get the Galaxy S26 Plus as an intermediate ground. Anyway, I learned something from my time with the Galaxy S25: This is an underrated phone, not just by customers, but by Samsung, who should do more effort to improve it.