The battle for Ultra phones has heated up this year, with every company aiming to launch a phone that can compete with the camera prowess of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Samsung’s latest camera behemoth features four cameras: a 200MP main sensor paired with a 50MP ultrawide and two telephoto lenses. One camera has a 10MP sensor offering 3x optical zoom, while the other has a 50MP sensor complete with 5x optical zoom.
Since it launched in January, I’ve taken thousands of photos with the Galaxy S25 Ultra from several countries around the world. While phones like the Oppo Find X8 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra beat it in certain environments, the Galaxy S25 Ultra can still take exceptional photos.
Here are some of the best pictures I’ve taken and why.
The best phone for variety in portrait mode
I’ve long been a major fan of Samsung’s portrait mode for many reasons, but the biggest is the options included in the portrait mode camera. Samsung isn’t the only company that offers a range of different portrait modes, but every Samsung phone camera includes my favorite portrait mode feature: color point.
Color Point is designed to capture artistic and unique portrait mode pictures. It works by separating the foreground and background, allowing you to keep the former in color while making the background grayscale. The result can be truly striking photos; I’ve used these for many years for my social avatars.
Beyond Color Point, Samsung’s portrait mode also has other fun features. A standard blur mode blurs the background, and three modes simulate different lighting conditions: Studio, High-key Mono, and Low-key Mono. There’s also a backdrop mode that allows you to create a full background color behind the subject in the photo.
Two particularly noteworthy features are that you can edit both the effect and its strength before and after taking a photo, and that all the same features work with the front-facing camera. Regarding versatility, no phone offers the breadth of portrait mode features that the Galaxy S25 Ultra does.
High quality and rich colors for many photos
The post-processing of photos captured on a Samsung phone usually yields similar results, making for an instantly recognizable image. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is no different, and while Samsung has toned down some of the saturation for more natural photos, the camera still takes high-quality images that are rich in color.
In particular, it’s a fantastic phone for vibrant ultra wide photos with high saturation. Some phones, like the Pixel 9 Pro, prioritize natural colors at the expense of saturation, so you may want to apply filters before uploading to social media.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra takes excellent, Instagram-ready photos that require little editing. Many users will find these photos more visually appealing than the competition, even though they aren’t as accurate or natural. Visually appealing pictures are always received better on social media, which is how most people share their lives with the world.
What about the telephoto cameras?
The main reason to buy the Galaxy S25 Ultra is the dual telephoto cameras. Samsung has been refining its approach to telephoto cameras for several years, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra can capture fantastic pictures at many different focal lengths.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is not the world-beater it once was, especially as phones like the Oppo Find X8 Ultra and OnePlus 13 have shown to have better zoom performance, but you can still take incredible photos.
In the viewfinder, you’ll find several options representing various focal lengths. The 2x zoom option is a crop of the main 200MP sensor, while the 3x and 5x use their dedicated telephoto lenses. Then there’s the 10x and above zoom options, which combine AI and details from the various sensors into a hybrid zoom.
However, it’s worth noting that while the Galaxy S25 Ultra is great at the lower focal lengths, Samsung’s Space Zoom hasn’t withstood the test of time. In previous years, the Space Zoom feature was groundbreaking and surpassed the competition, but now Samsung’s rivals have caught up and surpassed the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Take the OnePlus 13, for example. It only has one telephoto lens, but it’s more capable at 30x and its max 120x zoom than the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Or the Oppo Find X8 Ultra, which has two telephoto lenses. The same learning applies here, especially as even the Oppo Find X8, which has just one telephoto like the OnePlus 13, takes better 30x photos than Samsung’s flagship camera powerhouse.
However, despite the competition being better in certain ways, the Galaxy S25 Ultra still has an excellent zoom camera that will delight most users.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra camera is versatile yet fallible
For many years, the Galaxy S25 Ultra was largely the gold standard for photos, at least if you discount phones made by Huawei.
Even though its camera king is now facing tough competition, it remains one of the most versatile cameras on the market. The only problem is that it’s gone from being invincible and the camera you should always keep on you, to being a good camera with better alternatives.
After taking 4,000 photos with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, there are a few key takeaways. Its camera is fantastic, and the portrait mode is the best of any phone. As I discovered in Dubai, it can take stable videos with excellent zoom features. Though not the highest quality, the selfie camera has the most versatile camera options.
For all it does well, it’s no longer the best zoom camera. It’s still one of the best smartphone cameras, and it is arguably the most versatile as well. However, if zoom performance is your top priority, the camera may be disappointing, especially if you’ve used other smartphone cameras.
For portrait photography alone, the Galaxy S25 Ultra will stay in my stable of phones. While it used to be the phone I always turned to, it’s now one of a collection that includes many of the best smartphones.
