Quarterly phone roulette: My time with the Samsung Galaxy S25

It’s been some time coming but finally I have a new quarterly phone roulette review as I have spent the last three months with the brilliant Samsung Galaxy S25.

Once again, courtesy of O2’s Switch Up plan, I managed to finally ditch iOS to go back to my favoured Android.

I say ‘finally’, and why it’s taken so long to get to another one of these, because I ended up having some sort of weird issue with my Switch Up on the iPhone 15 Pro. For whatever reason, I wasn’t on a Plus plan when I started - except I definitely was, so something got mixed up in the system.

Long story short, instead of just three months with the iPhone that would’ve ended last November, I was stuck with it until May. Brilliant.

Thankfully, the situation was rectified and I was able to switch to go back to Android. Admittedly, after such a bad time before, I wanted to go back to my trusty Google Pixel. But the one I wanted had no good deal on, while the Samsung Galaxy S25 had a deal that saw not one, but two free goodies included - both of which I managed to sell for a bit of extra cash!

And boy am I glad I did go with it, because this phone has been wonderful!

Initial thoughts

I was hesitant at first to go with Samsung. During my torrid tenure with the iPhone, I decided I had had enough with it, and rather than going with it and potentially damaging it, which would’ve meant I would never get to Switch Up, I got the cheapest phone I could find.

That turned out to be a Samsung Galaxy A05s, which cost me a whopping £80 - and it suuuuuucked. It was slow, it couldn’t run many apps because it didn’t have the required hardware, and I’m fairly certain the camera was taken straight from a Nokia 2760. 

But it wasn’t an iPhone, so it was automatically better in my book.

Finally the situation has been ratified and I have had the pleasure of experiencing a proper Samsung smartphone, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Samsung Galaxy S25 (title mentioned, end of piece).

It’s so quick, everything looks so great on it, the camera is easily the best I’ve ever experienced on a smartphone, but best of all, it feels incredible in my hand.

That may sound weird, but after having a literal brick that is an iPhone then a borderline tablet of the massive A05s, the S25 is a godsend.

Like I said before, I didn’t plan on going to Samsung, but I am sure glad I did because this has easily been my favourite device since the Pixel 8.

Favourite features

Hand feel

That’s right, I’m starting with the hand feel because I cannot stress how good this phone feels in the palm.

It’s the lightest phone Samsung have created since the S10 - which came out in 2019 (if that sounds off, it is correct, they just decided to jump from the S10 in 2019 to the S20 in 2020). It’s also the thinnest phone they’ve maybe ever created and it shows. 

Those two combined help the device to feel like no other. It’s going to be weird going to something else because I don’t think there’s any other brand creating such a fine-feeling phone.

Impressive AI

AI is becoming so important in daily life and especially in phones, where we’re now reaching the point that the year-to-year differences between generations are mainly highlighted by the AI gains made in the newer model.

That is the case in the S25 (or so I’ve heard, since I didn’t have an S24), and I again was thoroughly impressed by many of the features.

The photo and video editing tools like Audio Eraser and Generative Edit are beyond my comprehension - I just don’t get how it can do those things!

Now Brief is also a great feature. While at first it simply seemed like Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Dynamic Island, the AI-generated widget is actually incredibly useful for providing only the things that are relevant to me, making it a handy go-to for keeping me updated with things such as upcoming appointments and events without having to go searching for them myself.

Camera & image quality

I’m not going to pretend I know what makes a good camera phone because I’m not a massive photo guy. I also won’t hide the fact that there isn’t much of a difference between the cameras on the S25 to the S24 and even S23.

But that doesn’t change how impressed I was every time I did go to take a photo. Everything comes out so clear and sharp - from beautiful backdrops to images for an eBay listing, the pic comes out perfect every time.

I found out that that is thanks to an update to the ProVisual Engine, another AI feature that helps to produce better photo processing. 

I also read that there have been some very impressive improvements in the low-light photography department which, while I didn’t make use of myself, certainly is a great feature to have upgraded.

Less favourable features

I honestly can not and will not have a bad word to say about this device. I did, of course, have an unhappy time with the phone before this which may be skewing my thoughts.

Be that may, I was so incredibly impressed and happy during my time with the Samsung Galaxy S25 that I am dreading letting go of it for the thought of getting something I don’t like as much and getting stuck with it for some time once again.

For that reason, I have gone safer and opted for something which I have a good past with so hopefully will not be burnt this time - more on that soon.

Vs previous trial

I think this section can be kept quite short. I loved the S25 infinitely more than the iPhone 15 Pro.

I gave the 15 Pro a very solid and somewhat generous 7/10, mainly based on how I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would. 

But because of that, the S25 is going to get my very first 10/10 rating!

And with that, I’m going to introduce the new power rankings chart! This will be the third phone to make the list (I didn’t do a ‘my time with…’ for the Google Pixel 8 which I had before the 15 Pro but I will add it nonetheless) and the first to be given a 10/10 -  potentially even the only, depending on how long this goes on for.

Final thoughts

I’ll miss you, S25. You were the best phone I’ve ever had - sorry, Sony Ericsson Xperia Play with Bruce Lee: Dragon Warrior included.

What next?

Maybe slightly contradictory to what I’ve said above but I actually didn’t put much thought into what device to go with next. I knew I wanted to change up again, partly because I have a duty to this super popular content series, but also because the monthly bill was rather hefty on the S25, no thanks to the fact I have my Disney+ and Netflix subscriptions connected.

My main priority was something that’ll ease my monthly outgoings, and Google was offering just that with great savings on the new Google Pixel 10 series.

It is officially out today, Thursday 28th August, but I have to wait until tomorrow to pick up my Pixel 10 Pro, and I am very excited to be going back to my trustee Pixel.