Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus review: Built to last (but with a catch)

The Galaxy S25 Plus is Samsung’s latest middle-ground flagship, promising to offer a combination of the size and form factor of the regular Galaxy S25 with some of the features that make the Galaxy S25 Ultra stand out. Samsung has also forged ahead with its best software ever, with even more improvements in Galaxy AI.

Is this the AI phone that you’ve been waiting for? I’ve used the Galaxy S25 Plus for two weeks and like the Galaxy S24 Plus, it has many positives with several caveats that you should be aware of.

Specs

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus: Design and Display

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The Galaxy S25 Plus looks like the Galaxy S24 Plus and the other Plus phones that came before. Like the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Ultra, it’s both thinner and lighter — 0.4mm and seven grams respectively — than the Galaxy S24 Plus, making for an improved overall in-hand experience. Where the Galaxy S25 Ultra will be slightly too heavy for some people, the Galaxy S25 Plus will likely be perfect.

Like many companies who opt for iterative refinements from one phone to another, Samsung is hoping sleek new colors will help the Galaxy S25 Plus stand out. The range of colors this year has improved over previous years, but the glass back has its challenges; mainly, it scratches extremely easily. Within two days of using the hero Navy color, the back gathered scratches due to being used alongside the Titanium Galaxy Ring.

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Beyond those changes, you essentially get the same experience as the Galaxy S24 Plus. There’s a 6.7-inch AMOLED 2X display that’s a joy to use, although it lacks the anti-reflective display from the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Like last year, it features a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate and 1,440 x 3,120 pixels resolution. The front and back are both protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2, although it hasn’t protected the rear from scratching easily.

Flip the phone over and aside from the different color, the only noticeable change is a tasteful camera ring. There are some concerns these may not be durable long-term, but there’s no way to know how they’ll hold up yet. There’s IP68 dust and water resistance, and the armor aluminum 2 frame is the same material used in the S24 Plus frame. Overall, you get a nearly identical experience to previous Plus phones, although the thinner build and lighter weight do make it slightly more comfortable in the hand. It also means the phone is more ergonomically friendly when you’re using a case.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus: Hardware and Performance

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The Galaxy S25 series features the best hardware and performance on a Samsung flagship phone to date, thanks to a combination of software optimizations and outstanding hardware.  The Galaxy S25 Plus is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, a customized version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor with a slightly higher clock speed. Both companies have partnered to also pay special attention to the NPU to ensure that it can keep up with all the AI demands, and crucially, many of the tasks that required the cloud previously can now happen completely on-device.

The performance is faultless, and while it’s ultimately the same processor as rival phones like the OnePlus 13, I’ve found it feels slightly faster. I’ve had no issues playing the best games and even when running the performance mode, it doesn’t miss a beat. There’s also a larger vapor chamber and while you often can’t notice this, the Galaxy S25 Plus has been surprising in just how cool it remains even under heavy loads.

Galaxy S25 Plus in Mint Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

Under the harsh Dubai sun when testing the camera, the Galaxy S25 Plus also remained cooler than the competition. While the iPhone 16 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro, and Galaxy S24 Ultra were too hot to run the camera — and the Oppo Find X8 Pro and OnePlus 13 were too hot to touch, but would still load the camera — the Galaxy S25 Plus (and S25 Ultra) both continued to be usable despite the warnings about excessive heat.

Many of these improvements come from the processor, which is paired with 12GB of RAM and between 128GB and 512GB of storage. However, some are thanks to One UI 7, which is one of the fastest user experiences the company has ever made.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus: Software and Galaxy AI

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One UI 7 is a significant improvement over previous generations of Samsung’s software. Unlike past Samsung phones which would often slow with heavy usage, the Galaxy S25 Plus remains as fast as it was on the first day and shows no signs of the sluggishness I’ve previously forgiven on Samsung phones. Coupled with outstanding battery life, this is a testament to the vast work put into One UI 7.

One UI 7 runs on top of Android 15, and Samsung plans to support the Galaxy S25 Plus with seven years of both major software and security updates. Unlike previous generations where the experience would likely grind to a halt before the end of this period, One UI 7 on the Galaxy S25 Plus offers excellent longevity if you don’t plan to change your phone often.

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One UI 7 now offers a split notification and quick settings pull-down menu which I enjoy far more than the combined menu before. It also comes with a new vertical app drawer — activated by sorting apps alphabetically — that finally offers parity with every other Android phone, and even most newer iPhones. It’s far easier to find the app that you’re looking for, and it’s a more elegant and logical approach to the app drawer.

All of Samsung’s optimizations have been designed to make One UI 7 the best software that Samsung has offered on a phone, but some of these have also been applied to Galaxy AI itself. Last year saw Samsung kick off the AI trend with a range of Galaxy AI  features powered by Google Gemini, but within weeks, these features were available on most Android phones. While there are many this year that will also likely be available on rival devices, Samsung has also developed a few features in-house that are particularly interesting.

Now Brief Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

Two of the new features that won’t be coming to other Android phones are Now Brief and the Now Bar, which are both designed to make AI more personal and helpful for you. The Now Brief gives you a summary of your day in the morning, during the day, and in the evening, and is designed to help surface the information that Galaxy AI thinks is pertinent to your day. It includes weather, your calendar and upcoming meetings, navigation, travel reminders, and even health data if you’re wearing a Galaxy Ring or Galaxy Watch. However, despite the wealth of information, it isn’t essential and ultimately doesn’t improve your life in meaningful ways.

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That said, it also powers the Now Bar which is far more useful. It’s inspired by Apple’s Dynamic Island, but unlike Apple’s integration which is available even when your phone is unlocked, the Now Bar is limited to a pill at the bottom of the lock screen. It’s a shame as it’s fairly useful at surfacing sports information, timers, music playback, and Notes from Samsung’s app. This is something that I expect we’ll more of this year, but as it’s just launched, it lacks support for third-party apps.

The new Circle-to-Search is Shazam on steroids and a feature that every smartphone needs

Beyond these two features, there are also a few other Galaxy AI features that I enjoy. The updated Circle to Search has quickly become one of my favorite use cases for AI as it can now recognize phone numbers and addresses in images, and look up locations directly from a photo. It also supports audio meaning you can quickly look up the song playing in a video.

Crucially, it’s a feature that is virtually guaranteed to save you a headache, literally; we’ve all had those moments when a song is stuck in our head, and the updated Circle to Search also lets you sing or hum the song for it to search for. It works exceptionally well and even works in foreign languages, as I discovered during my recent trip to India. The new Circle to Search is Shazam on steroids and a feature that every smartphone needs.

There are two more noteworthy AI features. Whereas the above set of Galaxy AI features is expected to launch on all Android phones, Samsung has developed two features that are seemingly exclusive to its phones as they use Bixby. First, instead of digging through the various settings menus to find a particular option, you can simply search for it using your voice.

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Second, you can search the contents of photos with your voice, but you need to do so in the Gallery app as the feature uses Bixby, not Gemini. It works fairly well and it shows that Samsung could build useful AI features that complement Google, but I suspect many users will expect it to be available in Google Photos, not Samsung’s default Gallery app.

Overall, AI is more useful on the Galaxy S25 Plus than the Galaxy S24 Plus, but it comes with the usual caveat over just how useful it is. The Now Bar is super useful but limited, while the Now Brief is a great attempt at personalization that hasn’t quite landed for me, at least not yet. Like previous years, Galaxy AI has a long way to go, but beyond this, One UI 7 is Samsung’s best software ever and arguably one of the smoothest software experiences on any Android phone.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus: Battery and Charging

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On paper, the Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S25 Plus feature the same battery thanks to the same 4,900 mAh capacity, but as we’ve seen with other phones, the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor offers outstanding battery life. Although the capacity isn’t as large as rival phones like the OnePlus 13 — which is arguably more of a competitor to the flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra — the Galaxy S25 Plus still offers true all-day battery life with plenty to spare.

The Galaxy S25 Plus battery can satisfy even the most demanding users

On several occasions, it will last for over 24 hours on a single charge with at least six hours of screen-on-time, and 10-20% battery remaining. This is battery life that can compete with most smartphones, and after using it for two weeks, I do not doubt that the Galaxy S25 Plus’s battery life can satisfy even the most demanding users. It’s also significantly improved over last year’s Galaxy S24 lineup. Also improved are Samsung’s charging speeds, and the Galaxy S25 Plus is better than ever before. It supports 45W charging, although this only happens for a small subset of the charge time. That said, the actual charge time matters more, and it’s more than enough for most users.

Galaxy S25 Plus and OnePlus 13 charging speeds Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

Running low and in a rush? A quick ten-minute top-up will net you around 25%. If you have more time, you can hit 50% in just 25 minutes and 75% in 40 minutes. It takes 54 minutes to achieve 90% and a full charge will take you a little over an hour. Across several tests, the Galaxy S25 Plus averaged one hour and ten minutes for a full charge, but the fastest was just 64 minutes.

It’s worth noting that this still pales in comparison to rivals like the OnePlus 13 which achieves a full charge in under 40 minutes. The OnePlus 13’s 50W magnetic charger can charge that phone at a slightly higher effective speed than the Galaxy S25 Plus when plugged into a 45W fast charger. That said, the Galaxy S25 Plus also supports 15W wireless charging, and it supports Qi2 magnetic charging, although you’ll need to buy the official magnetic wireless charging cover and it doesn’t offer higher speeds, just better alignment and overall efficiency.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus: Camera

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The Galaxy S25 Plus features identical camera hardware to the Galaxy S24 Plus, and even the Galaxy S23 Plus. If you have a Galaxy S22 Plus and upgrade to this year’s hardware, there’s no difference in the camera hardware, although there will likely be some improvements thanks to the ISP.

This means it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Galaxy S25 Plus camera doesn’t compare to the competition. You get a 50MP main sensor with f/1.8 aperture and OIS, paired with a 12MP ultrawide sensor and 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. On paper, this is perfectly fine, but in actual use, the aging hardware tells a different story.

The main lens uses pixel binning to combine four pixels into one and capture 12MP photos that are fairly detailed and will compete with most phones. Unfortunately, this is where the competition ends as rivals have higher resolution sensors in the telephoto and ultrawide cameras, which capture more detail and much better overall images.

The challenge isn’t that the Galaxy S25 Plus’s camera system is inferior to previous years, but rather that the competition is much fiercer. The Galaxy S22 Plus competed against the iPhone 15 Pro, the Pixel 7 Pro, and the OnePlus 11. It was already struggling to match those phones two or three years ago, but now the Galaxy S25 Plus has fallen considerably behind.

Often differences in camera hardware don’t translate to differences in camera performance, but in this case, the Galaxy S25 Plus is inferior to each of its main competitors. The Galaxy S25 Ultra features an upgraded 50MP ultrawide camera and this would have helped the Galaxy S25 Plus somewhat at least. Instead, a lack of a refreshed camera system combined with much better competition who have taken the camera seriously means the Galaxy S25 Plus has gone from being fine in previous years to feeling like a disappointment. A case in point is that the Galaxy S25 Plus was significantly outperformed by the OnePlus 13 in our comparison.

Samsung needed to revamp its cameras this year, but failing to do so means that the Galaxy S25 Plus camera will largely be disappointing if you’re upgrading from any recent smartphone and hoping for an upgrade.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus: price, availability and competition

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The Galaxy S25 Plus will be available from February 7. It starts at $1,000 for the 256GB storage model, and you can double the storage for an additional $120. Incidentally, this is the same pricing as the Galaxy S24 Plus in all regions.

The Galaxy S25 Plus is available in four main colors: Silver Shadow, Icy Blue, Mint, and the best Galaxy S25 color to buy, Navy. Having seen the propensity to be easily damaged, I’d pick the lighter Icy Blue or Mint colors now.

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The Galaxy S25 Plus also comes in three colors that are exclusive to Samsung’s online store: Blue Black, Pink Gold, and Coral Red. By far my favorite is the Coral Red, which has rich red-and-orange hues that stand out from any Samsung phone made recently.

The biggest challenge for Samsung remains that while the Galaxy S25 Plus pricing hasn’t changed from the Galaxy S24 Plus, there is now far more competition that is available at the same or lower prices. The OnePlus 13 starts at just $900 and is objectively a much better overall phone, while the Pixel 9 Pro starts at the same price and has a better camera. Even the iPhone 16 Pro starts at the same price and has more star appeal than Samsung’s Goldilocks-like flagship. Herein lies the ultimate conundrum for this phone.

The Galaxy S25 Plus is fine but lacks star appeal

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How do I summarize the Galaxy S25 Plus experience? After two weeks, I’m still taken back to my first two days with it and the range of emotions I felt. As it turns out, they summarize the entire experience extremely well.

At first, I was excited to review the Galaxy S25 Plus as it was my first time using Samsung’s middle phone extensively. The feel in the hand, the weight, and the color all felt great and I was excited to dig in. When I did so, the cracks began to appear. First, the durability concerns. Second, the camera’s shortcomings. These two combined to make the phone feel somewhat lackluster.

The lack of improvement in the camera aside, this is not down to Samsung. The performance is second to none, the battery is outstanding and even the charging is approaching more than acceptable. A commitment to seven years of software updates and a fantastic software experience means this will be a smartphone that should stand the test of time. Yet, the lackluster feeling comes from the competition, or rather, the Galaxy S25 Plus’ ability to compete with them.

The Galaxy S25 Plus in Navy vs the OnePlus 13 in Blue Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

For the same price, you can buy the OnePlus 13, Pixel 9 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro, all three of which offer a better overall experience. For years, Samsung has been able to offer an iterative upgrade that still competed, and while the Galaxy S25 Plus offers a worthwhile upgrade if you have an older Plus phone, it’s no longer in the conversation for best phones like it once was. Samsung’s approach to the Plus has been fairly perfunctory, and the Galaxy S25 Plus shows this in abundance. It’s a shame as it is the best-sized Samsung flagship.