I Got To Try Out The Samsung Galaxy S25 Smartphones. Here's My First Impression

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Samsung's latest flagship smartphones for 2025 come in three models. The base S25 model is followed by the S25+, and for those with a bigger budget, the S25 Ultra.

For 2025, Samsung builds upon the success of the S24 and returns with a smartphone that's lighter, better integrated with AI, and with an improved user interface.

I had the chance to play around with the Samsung S25 smartphones recently for a couple of hours, and while at first glance there's not much difference when compared to the S24, upon closer inspection, I found some small but significant changes.

Before that, a caveat; this is my first impression and I would need to review the smartphone to really give you a more accurate assessment. But, if you're curious about the specs, then read on.

The S25 is 15gm lighter than the S24, and all three models feature thinner bezels.

Although lighter, the smartphones come with a tradeoff. They feature the same 5,000 mAh battery as the S24 smartphones, with no improvement in charging speed.

In terms of colours, the S25 and S25+ are available in four colours: Navy, Icyblue, Mint, and Silver Shadow. Additionally, there are three online exclusive colours: Blueblack, Coralred and Pinkgold.

Meanwhile, the S25 Ultra comes in four colourways: Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Whitesilver, Titanium Gray, and Titanium Black. Its online exclusive colours feature Titanium Pinkgold, Titanium Jetblack, and Titanium Jadegreen.

Although designed to be more durable than their predecessors, I noticed the devices are prone to smudges. But this can be sorted with a phone case.

These features are powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chip set which sets the S25 apart from its predecessors.

The most promising of all are the Galaxy AI assistant features.

These features integrate Google's Gemini Live into Samsung's native apps. Simply press and hold the side button to activate Gemini. With your voice, you can command it to search a specific type of restaurant and send the location to your friends. The entire process is done seamlessly without any extra tapping of buttons.

For productivity enthusiasts, there's the Now Brief feature, which provides a personalised list of priorities like meetings, weather updates, and news reports each morning and evening. You also get to set the feature as a widget on the home screen or access it via the Edge panel. It's a handy feature that helps S25 users better plan their day.

There's also the Now Bar feature which gives you an update on specific time-sensitive activities directly on your lock screen. For example, instead of opening up Chrome and Googling the latest score of a specific football game, Now Bar provides live updates directly on your lock screen.

Meanwhile, shutterbugs would appreciate the Best Face feature, which gives S25 users the option to pick the best shot from four photos of a subject's face when taking portraits.

There's another feature that allows you to separate audio tracks and edit them directly on the device. I can see this being useful for content creators who are constantly working on the go and lack the time to edit their content.

Circle to Search also returns. Courtesy of the S25's One UI 7 software, Circle to Search can now search music on your device and even in your surrounding area. Pretty useful if you're out and hear a track but don't know the name of the artiste behind it.

Previously, the S24 featured a 12MP Ultra Wide lens.

All the other lenses, remain unchanged. The S25 still retains the 200MP wide lens, the 50MP telephoto lens, and the 12MP selfie lens.

The device features 10X zoom capabilities with greater detail. The lenses also interchange automatically when taking closeup shots of objects like flowers and plants.

Another upgrade is the handy zoom slider which allowed me to zoom in and out quickly from the display when recording videos.

The S25 also supports 10bit HDR video recording, resulting in more vibrant visuals. This means visuals are a lot more vibrant. There's also a Log feature that allows you to capture videos in raw format.

At the highest setting, I was able to capture up to 8K 30fps videos. Unfortunately, this does not feature HDR or 60fps.

That said, these are my first impressions and there's more testing required in order to conclude if the S25 is 2025's best smartphone.

However, Samsung being Samsung, the S25 certainly makes a strong contender for those in the market to upgrade to a quality device.

Galaxy S25:
256GB - RM3,999
512GB - RM4,599

Galaxy S25+
256GB - RM4,999
512GB - RM5,599

Galaxy S25 Ultra
256GB - RM5,999
512GB - RM6,599
1TB - RM7,799

If you pre-order the Galaxy S25 series from 23 January to 13 February 2025, you'll get to enjoy deals worth up to RM1,600!

You can also enjoy a double storage upgrade worth up to RM600 for selected models, plus up to RM400 off when you pay with a CIMB bank card.

Also, don't forget to redeem your pre-registration e-voucher worth up to RM600 at checkout when purchasing the new Galaxy S25 devices.