Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus review: The one that strikes the right balance

Galaxy S25 Plus

When it comes to Samsung's flagship lineup, the "Plus" model often gets overshadowed by its siblings. The base model gets praised for its affordable price tag and compact form factor, while the Ultra gets all the attention for its top-of-the-line features. But the Galaxy S25 Plus? It sits right in the middle—bigger and better than the vanilla S25 but not as bank-breaking as the Ultra.

For someone using an iPhone 16 as her primary device, moving to the Galaxy S25 Plus felt different. The phone is large, but not overwhelmingly so like the Vivo X200 Pro or Oppo Find X8 Pro. It strikes a good balance between size and usability.

The design remains familiar, but the internal upgrades are significant. And for the first time in a while, the AI features in an Android phone feel genuinely useful rather than gimmicky.

However, software and design are just one part of the story. There is a lot more to say about the Galaxy S25 Plus. Let’s dive in:

Galaxy S25 Plus design & build

Samsung isn’t reinventing the wheel here—if you’ve seen the S24 Plus, you’ll find the S25 Plus familiar. The flat back, floating camera lenses, and aluminum frame are all here, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Apple has been doing this for years, and Samsung has every right to do the same.

Galaxy s25

However, with the Galaxy S25 Plus, there is one noticeable tweak. The camera lenses now have thicker bezels around them. While the bezels do make them look bulkier, they add a bold touch to the lenses, enhancing the aesthetic value. The phone comes in four interesting colors—Navy, Icy Blue, Silver Shadow, and Icy Mint.

Samsung may not have made huge changes in design, but the Galaxy S25 Plus looks incredibly chic and premium in the Navy-Blue color. Remember the BMW 5 Series in Mediterranean Blue? Yes, the vibe is the same. If you want something lighter and more subtle, you can check out the other colors, but my favorite remains Navy Blue.

The phone’s ultra-slim form factor makes it a bit slippery. The matte finish helps, but it’s still prone to sliding off surfaces. A case is highly recommended. On the flip side, the slim build allows it to fit comfortably into a denim pocket despite its large size. The camera bump, while slightly protruding, doesn't obstruct pocketing the phone.

Durability-wise, you get Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back, along with IP68 water and dust resistance. However, there's no pre-installed screen protector. My review unit already picked up some scratches. If you’re spending around close to six figures on this phone, you’ll want to slap on some extra protection.

The volume buttons are placed quite high, while the power button sits right in the middle on the right side. For people with smaller palms, the button placement might feel a bit tricky.

Galaxy S25 Plus display

Samsung makes some of the best smartphone displays in the world, and the 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel on the S25 Plus is no exception. It’s Quad HD+, but you’ll need to manually enable the max resolution in settings. Notably, Samsung keeps it at Full HD+ by default to save battery. The 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling and animations feel silky smooth.

Galaxy S25 Plus

The colors? Vibrant. The blacks? Inky. And with HDR10+ support, streaming content on Netflix or YouTube looks fantastic. Watching movies and web series on the device is an absolute treat. If you are someone who likes to watch content on the go, this display size is just perfect.

Also, the peak brightness has been bumped up, so reading content under direct sunlight is a breeze.

Galaxy S25 Plus performance

The phone is fast and smooth, and that was evident right from the setup. Jumping from one app to another is easy and super-fast. Apps load very quickly, which is a huge plus. I have been using it for weeks now and haven't come across any lags or stutters.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus uses the 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, the most powerful chipset you’ll find on an Android phone. In fact, its Geekbench score is almost on par with the iPhone 16’s A18 chipset—which is hailed as the most powerful processor in a smartphone. The Galaxy S25 Plus has managed to clock 3053 in the single-core test and 9622 in the multi-core test, which is very good. But these are just benchmarking scores; the phone performs equally well in real-world usage.

Galaxy S25 Plus

Gaming is a treat—titles like Call of Duty: Mobile and Genshin Impact run at max settings with barely any overheating. Samsung’s Game Booster has been improved, but some features, like frame rate boost, don’t make a major difference. The phone only gets warm after around 40 minutes of continuous gaming.

Haptic feedback is another highlight. While OnePlus is known for its excellent haptics, the S25 Plus is equally impressive. You’ll especially notice this while typing, gaming, or using navigation gestures.

One UI 7 and AI features

The S25 Plus ships with One UI 7 on top of Android 15, and Samsung is promising seven years of software updates, which is insane. That’s longer than what Google offers for the Pixel lineup.

Samsung has packed in a bunch of AI features, some useful, some gimmicky.

–Circle to Search, which is borrowed from Google, is great—you just draw a circle around something, and AI finds related info. There is also an option where you can long press the main menu button to freeze the screen, it is much faster and quicker than taking a screenshot.

–Audio Eraser lets you remove the audio from a video you’ve shot without needing a separate app. Particularly useful if you are a content creator.

–AI Eraser blends backgrounds so well that you will hardly ever miss the subject you have deleted. It is much better than what Apple offers

– Another interesting feature is the Now Briefing, which is supposed to give you a personalized feed of updates. Apart from that there is drawing assist– it is great tool if you are sitting idle at an airport and want to be a bit creative, then there is writing assist which helps in writing stuff and the transcript assist, which is most useful to journalists like me, who frequently interview people, attend conferences and when jotting down points isn't feasible, this feature comes into play.

Samsung still loves to push its own apps like Samsung Internet, Samsung Pay, and SmartThings. I wish they’d let users rely solely on Google’s ecosystem without duplication, but these are small trade-offs for an otherwise excellent experience.

Galaxy S25 Plus cameras

Samsung hasn’t changed the camera hardware much from last year’s model, but the refinements in image processing and AI make a noticeable difference. You still get:

--50MP main sensor
--10MP 3x telephoto lens
--12MP ultrawide lens

In daylight, the S25 Plus delivers fantastic photos—sharp, vibrant, and packed with detail. Samsung’s image processing still leans toward slightly oversaturated colors, but that’s something most people prefer. Skin tones look natural, and HDR does a great job balancing shadows and highlights.

Galaxy S25 Plus

The telephoto lens is solid for zoom shots, but anything beyond 3x zoom relies on digital cropping and quickly loses clarity. The ultrawide lens performs well in good lighting, though the quality drops noticeably in low-light conditions.

Speaking of low-light photography, Samsung’s Night Mode does an impressive job brightening up shots without overexposing them. However, the S25 Plus still struggles with noise in extremely dark conditions. That said, in most indoor and nighttime scenarios, the improvements in noise reduction make a difference.

Used the portrait mode to click a picture of my dog, and it handled the shot beautifully. The camera accurately picked up the fine details in her fur, and the background blur (bokeh) looked smooth and natural. Even indoors, the colors remained true to life—her brown eyes appeared rich and warm, and the white patches of her fur weren’t overexposed. The autofocus was fast and reliable, which was impressive considering she doesn’t sit still for long.

For video, the S25 Plus offers 8K recording at 30fps, which is great for high-resolution captures. More importantly, Samsung’s Super Steady stabilization makes handheld shooting feel smooth, even in motion. Whether recording 4K clips or casual videos, the phone does an excellent job reducing shake. The AI-based features like background blur and auto-framing add a polished touch to video calls and vlogs.

Overall, the S25 Plus has not drastically changed its camera system, but the refinements make it one of the best in its class. While the Ultra model still dominates in zoom capabilities, the S25 Plus delivers consistent, high-quality results in everyday photography and video recording.

Check out the camera samples below 

Galaxy S25 Plus battery

The S25 Plus houses a 4900mAh battery, the same as its predecessor. While I didn’t use the S24 Plus for comparison, the S25 Plus delivers solid endurance. Despite heavy usage—watching YouTube Music, Google Maps navigation, Instagram Reels, and WhatsApp calls—it easily lasts a full day.

Samsung has increased the charging speed to 45W, up from the 25W found on the iPhone 16. It takes about 25 minutes to reach 50%, but there’s no charger in the box. Wireless and reverse wireless charging are supported.

Galaxy S25 Plus: Final verdict

So, should you buy the Galaxy S25 Plus? After using the phone for weeks as my primary device, there are enough reasons that make the phone worth every penny. You should buy the phone if you want a flagship phone that’s powerful, big — but not Ultra-big —; you love Samsung displays and long software support; you need solid cameras, fast performance, and great battery life.

However, you can skip it if you prefer compact phones (the regular S25 is a better fit in that case. You need the absolute best camera setup — the Ultra is the king here; and you hate One UI and pre-installed Samsung apps.

At around Rs 1 lakh, the Galaxy S25 Plus isn’t cheap, but it offers a great balance of size, power, and features. If you don’t need the Ultra’s crazy zoom lens or S Pen, this is the sweet spot in Samsung’s flagship lineup.