Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Camera Review: Photo, Video & Everyday Results

② In Depth: Photo, Video & Everyday Results

Analysis based on Samsung’s published specifications and DXOMARK’s retested camera test as attributed third-party lab evidence — each figure labelled by origin.

The main camera: 200MP at ƒ/1.7, and why the aperture correction matters

The headline lens is a 200MP Wide camera at ƒ/1.7, 24mm, with optical image stabilisation and multi-directional PDAF (manufacturer specifications). The aperture is the number roundups most often get wrong for this model: ƒ/1.4 belongs to the S26 Ultra’s main camera, not this one, and any review that prints ƒ/1.4 here has copied the newer generation. At ƒ/1.7 with OIS, the main camera is the phone’s default for almost everything — daylight, portraits, and the low-light shots where stabilisation matters most — and it is the lens the 200MP resolution actually belongs to. Resolution alone is not a quality claim, and this review makes none: the lab verdict below is the measured check on what the hardware delivers, and it is a third-party result, not a FixUpPhone measurement.

The Ultra Wide: ƒ/1.9 with autofocus — the close-up lens most buyers overlook

The 50MP Ultra Wide at ƒ/1.9, with a 120° field of view and Dual Pixel PDAF (manufacturer specifications), is the generation’s real camera upgrade: the S24 Ultra’s ultra wide was 12MP, and this lens is four times that resolution with autofocus present — which is what makes it the macro-capable lens. Samsung’s own product copy headlines macro shots on the 50MP Ultra Wide. Two cautions travel with it. First, no ultra-wide focal length is printed anywhere in this review, because none exists in the verified sources — Samsung gives the 120° field of view instead, and inventing a millimetre figure would be fabrication. Second, the ultra wide is the lens where the lab’s “limitations in challenging scenes” note is most likely to bite in everyday use: wide lenses and low light are a hard combination on any phone, and the lab result is the honest check on that, not the megapixel count.

Zoom, labelled honestly: 3x and 5x optical, 10x optical-quality, 100x digital

The zoom system is two optical lenses and two honest labels. The 10MP Telephoto at ƒ/2.4, 67mm, gives 3x optical zoom with OIS; the 50MP Periscope Telephoto at ƒ/3.4, 111mm, gives 5x optical zoom with OIS (manufacturer specifications — never ƒ/2.9, which is the S26 Ultra’s periscope aperture). Beyond 5x, Samsung’s own footnote is the labelling: 10x is an “optical quality” crop and 100x Space Zoom is the digital maximum, with Super Resolution. Never present 100x as optical, and never present 10x as a third optical lens — it is a crop of the 5x periscope. Laser AF is present across the system. In everyday terms, the honest zoom range is 3x and 5x for anything you want to keep, 10x for a usable crop in good light, and 100x for the “look at that” shot rather than the keeper.

Video and the front camera: the everyday second system

Video reaches up to 8K at 24/30fps (spec-database figure), and the front camera is a 12MP lens at ƒ/2.2 with an 80° field of view and a 26mm focal length — the focal length is printable for this model because GSMArena and PhoneArena agree on it, a deliberate contrast with the S26 Ultra pack, which omits it. DXOMARK’s retested Video score is 150, against a Photo score of 152, and the lab notes a wide dynamic range in bright-light video among the phone’s strengths. For everyday use, the front camera is the calls-and-selfies lens, and the rear system is the one that decides whether the phone earns its keep as a camera — which is why the repair angle below matters: a cracked rear lens cover or a failed camera module is a quoted-after-diagnosis repair, not a published-price one.

What DXOMARK’s retest found — and what it did not

DXOMARK’s retested camera test (Camera v6 protocol), checked 5 November 2026, gives the Galaxy S25 Ultra 151 overall — Photo 152, Video 150 — and describes a solid performance that was unable to secure a position among the very best in its ranking, with its limitations showing more clearly in challenging scenes when tested under the new protocol. The lab’s noted strengths are good detail in zoom shots, natural skin tones, and a wide dynamic range in bright-light video. Its engineers capture and evaluate more than 3,800 test images in controlled lab environments as well as outdoor, indoor and low-light natural scenes, using the camera’s default settings, and almost three hours of video. That is the measured, third-party verdict this review rests on — not a FixUpPhone score, and not a claim that the phone is the best camera phone available. Buyers who shoot mostly in bright light get the phone at its best; buyers who shoot mostly in challenging light should read the lab’s caveat as the decision point.

The camera is a repair story too

The rear cameras are individual lenses on the back panel — there is no raised “camera island” housing story on this model — and iFixit’s teardown coverage describes the rear camera array as modular, with each camera module removable and replaceable separately (attributed third-party evidence). That matters when a single lens fails: the repair is a module job, not a whole-system job. But Samsung US publishes no static rear camera repair price for this model — it is quoted through Samsung’s service flow after diagnosis — and the same is true of the back glass that surrounds the lenses. Under Care+, cracked screen and back glass are $29 per claim on the standard plan and $0 per claim with Theft and Loss. A case with a raised lens surround and a screen protector matched to this 6.9-inch panel belong in the first week’s budget, because the camera is the most expensive thing on the back of the phone to fix after the fact.

Questions to ask before you buy for the camera

Ask which lens you will actually use most — wide, ultra wide, 3x or 5x — and test the phone’s zoom at 10x in the shop’s light before you trust the 100x headline. Ask whether the listing’s camera figures are this model’s: ƒ/1.7 and ƒ/3.4 here, never the newer Ultra’s ƒ/1.4 and ƒ/2.9. Ask whether the rear lenses and back glass are free of cracks and haze on a used unit, because a rear camera repair is quoted after diagnosis and no Samsung price is published for it. And ask what charger is included, because a day of heavy shooting is also a battery day: Samsung’s 65%-in-around-30-minutes claim is a 45W wired claim, and the battery’s only published usage figure is video playback up to 31 hours.