Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

It’s a bad time to be an S Pen fan — or, at least, that’s what Samsung’s not-so-quietly communicating to one of its most devoted bases. The company that practically invented the “phablet” has spent 2025 trying to leave behind (or, at the very least, downplay) one of the very things that brought it success in the first place. I’m worried the writing is on the wall for the S Pen, and it’s only going to grow bleaker from here.

In many ways, the Galaxy S25 Ultra signifies the industry’s acceptance that big changes are sort of “done” and that incremental updates are the way forward. That should be a negative, but the truth is that this is still one of the most complete packages on Android and maybe the best outright phone you can buy.

Even though it feels like Samsung just launched the current version of One UI, One UI 8 is already seemingly around the corner. A new update to the Galaxy S25 sets the phone up to receive Samsung’s next-gen software.

Samsung has brought back boosted trade-ins for Galaxy devices during a new summer sale event. The company is offering users up to $630 in instant credit and double storage for the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

When you think of phone cases, you probably think of something that covers up your entire device. That’s not what “Arc” does, though, with a special case that leaves most of the device exposed and focuses protection on the most crucial areas. Starting today, Arc cases are available for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and you can also get them for the Pixel 9 series too.

Samsung’s One UI 8 update based on Android 16 is now available to download, and there’s a whole new process for entering the beta program. Here’s how to install One UI 8 on your Galaxy S25.

Magnetic charging has been a big part of Samsung’s Galaxy S25 launch despite the fact that these phones don’t have magnets built in, but an odd note was the disappearance of a neat 3-in-1 wireless charger. Finally, it has resurfaced, but it’s still not shipping to customers yet.

Android announced a new set of cross-device services last year, and both have been made available for the company’s Pixel lineup. Nearly a year later, Google has updated support for cross-device services like instant hotspot to include the Galaxy S25, and maybe more of Samsung’s devices.

The OnePlus 13 was the first “big” Android phone out of the blocks for 2025, but now it has a challenger in the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Which is the best of the bunch, though? Here’s what you need to know.

One UI 7 did a lot to bring Samsung’s phones up to a new standard, and some cool little features that usually fly under the radar are included in that. One UI 7 lets you change your power button shortcut to much more than a launcher for a handful of Samsung apps, like changing Modes in an instant. Here’s how it works.

Samsung’s flagship smartphones don’t live nearly in the same vein they once did. They’re not as flashy, they’re not industry-leading in essentially anything, and they’re not cheap either. But, after two weeks with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, it’s hard to deny that, no matter who you are, you might like this phone a lot more than you expect to.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra shipped without an S Pen with Bluetooth capabilities, meaning it has no need for batteries and, therefore, no need to be charged. Still, Samsung packed an S Pen charger into the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which raises some questions.

Samsung has been heavily pushing Galaxy AI and refined hardware on the Galaxy S25 series. Apparently, the company is doing enough to set new records in South Korea for Galaxy S25 pre-orders, totaling 1.3 million units so far.

One of the few hardware changes I personally liked about Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 series is the addition of a color-matched ring around each camera, but as it turns out, those are basically just glued onto last year’s design.

The very first update to One UI 7 on the Galaxy S25 series is now available, and it sits at a significant 25GB file size.