As somebody who has entry to a few of the newest and biggest flagship telephones, I get to decide on which one I’d like to make use of every day.
And if my time in 2023-2024 was roughly evenly cut up between the iPhone 15 Professional Max and Pixel 8 Professional, the one cellphone that stayed on my desk gathering mud was the Galaxy S24 Extremely.
Sarcastically, I do imagine Samsung’s most premium slab cellphone strikes a pleasant stability between the opposite two – it has glorious battery life and a strong chip (which isn’t the case with the
), however it gives the flexibleness and AI methods of Android the iPhone merely can’t match.
Nonetheless, ultimately it got here down to 2 issues – design and digicam. And that is the place the Galaxy S25 Extremely could make up some floor and win me over.
To get to the purpose, I discover the Galaxy S24 Extremely’s design to be extraordinarily unwelcoming typically, however particularly for somebody with small arms.
It’s a big cellphone, which already makes it onerous/inconceivable to make use of with one hand. Nonetheless, it’s the form of the cellphone that makes it an ergonomic nightmare. Extra particularly, the thick body, which involves a pointy nook on all 4 edges and digs into your hand.
Due to this fact, the slight curves we see on the Galaxy S25 Extremely renders (and the display) may look meaningless, however I’m constructive they’ll make quite a lot of distinction on the subject of holding the cellphone.
And though you possibly can’t actually inform from wanting on the renders, additionally it is anticipated that the body can be thinner, which ought to scale back the general dimension of the cellphone.
The Galaxy S25 Extremely’s digicam wants three issues to depart iPhone, Pixel, and Xiaomi behind: Much less aggressive picture processing; a lot improved video high quality, and pro-grade, enjoyable digicam “filters”
That is how I Leica it, Samsung.
As for the digicam aspect of issues, I’m hardly a fan of Samsung’s picture processing, which leans on excessive HDR, giving pictures the acquainted “smartphone digicam look”.
However, the video taking and modifying expertise on the Galaxy S24 Extremely can also be inferior to that on the iPhone 15/16 sequence. Low stage of element, dangerous low-light efficiency, and a much less succesful Cinematic mode all make the Galaxy S24 Extremely the lesser “professional” smartphone digicam for video in comparison with the iPhone.
So… I can solely hope Samsung has labored on the digicam of the Galaxy S25 Extremely to make it extra versatile and aggressive.
Aside from the overly processed pictures and OK movies, the S24 Extremely’s digicam lacks the character supplied by the likes of Xiaomi, Vivo, OnePlus and even the iPhone 16.
The reason being that each one of those telephones have developed particular images modes (in collaboration with legacy manufacturers) that give your pictures a singular feel and appear – whether or not it’s Leica, Zeiss, Hasselblad, or Apple’s upgraded Photographic Types.
It’d appear to be a small factor, however it’s an ideal solution to make cellphone cameras enjoyable once more. To not point out, Apple’s Photographic Types are baked into the precise photograph you take – not simply filters.
On prime of that, the final word flexibility issue is that the iPhone 16 sequence helps you to change the Photographic Types after the very fact, which suggests you don’t even want to consider “messing up” your pictures when taking them – you possibly can’t actually get it fallacious.
All in all, it’s that lack of pro-grade artistic management that places the Galaxy S24 Extremely’s digicam under that of the iPhone 16 sequence for me – in addition to under the likes of the Xiaomi 14 Extremely and Oppo Discover X7 Extremely. And the Galaxy S25 Extremely is Samsung’s golden alternative to even the enjoying area. Particularly given the facility of the Snapdragon Elite chip, which should be of nice assist on the subject of picture processing.
Galaxy S24 Extremely is already nearly excellent – the Galaxy S25 Extremely doesn’t want a lot to turn out to be my go-to Android cellphone
I already love the anti-reflective show, which (for no matter purpose) continues to be unique to Samsung’s prime flagship cellphone practically a yr after launch
I additionally love the plethora of AI options Samsung and Google are giving me, like Circle to Search, Sketch to Picture, and Samsung’s glorious Summarizing function (which works solely on the Samsung browser, so let’s repair that?)
The S24 Extremely additionally has nice battery life, so an additional hour or two would make the S25 Extremely solely higher; that being stated, I don’t count on Samsung to make the most of the brand new Si/C battery expertise, and shock everybody with a 6,000 mAh battery; after all, this could be the dream state of affairs however given how conservative the corporate has gotten on the subject of {hardware} upgrades, I don’t see that taking place
When it comes to efficiency, benchmarks already present that the Snapdragon Elite chip might be essentially the most highly effective SoC in any cellphone proper now, which suggests the S25 Extremely can be class-leading in that regard; on prime of that, leaks counsel One UI 7 ought to be “the smoothest model of One UI ever” – fingers crossed
Heck, I even favored utilizing the S Pen on the S24 Extremely, and that is one thing I by no means thought I’d say in one million years – and it’s all because of the Sketch to Picture AI function, which helps you to draw “pretend” objects on prime of your pictures; it’s a variety of enjoyable
And naturally, there’s the wild promise of seven years of software program updates – there’s no solution to fact-check this one proper now, however I suppose it’s good it’s there
Good timing? I’m shedding religion in Apple, and Galaxy S25 Extremely may be the primary premium Samsung cellphone I’d take pleasure in utilizing
Samsung’s prime flagship was once way more gratifying to carry than the iPhone. Let’s like… completely return to that!
As I discussed, I refuse to make use of the Galaxy S24 Extremely day by day as a consequence of how uncomfortable it’s, and the slight ergonomic redesign of the Galaxy S25 Extremely may simply be sufficient to make me use this cellphone every day.
A particular Leica-like digicam mode that makes pictures coming from the Galaxy S25 sequence extra thrilling and video high quality nearer to that of the iPhone can be the cherries on prime. However I’m positive Samsung has extra surprises – particularly within the space of AI.
Let’s not neglect the Galaxy S24 sequence launched with a ton of unique AI options developed in collaboration with Google – options even Pixel telephones didn’t have on the time. And that’s precisely an space the place Apple is de facto missing behind proper now – particularly if you happen to’re an iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Professional consumer.
Samsung, it’s the right time to steal my coronary heart.
