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The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy is chart-topping in bursts — and gives back a large share of that speed under sustained load. GSMArena’s stress tests measured a 41% CPU performance loss and a 50% GPU drop, while the phone stayed warm, never hot, and showed no visible stutter in long gaming sessions.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is a fast gaming phone in short sessions and a throttled one in long ones — and no honest review of it can quote a frame rate, a temperature or a gaming-hours figure, because no source that tested this exact model published one. GSMArena measured a 50% GPU drop under continuous stress but saw no visible stutter in long gaming sessions.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel is sharp and unusually readable in sunlight — but Samsung’s 2,600-nit figure is a peak rating, not an everyday one. GSMArena’s lab measured around 1,400 nits in adaptive mode and under 800 nits manually, and the phone dims down from maximum unusually quickly.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra pairs a titanium frame with Corning’s toughest phone glass — and still shattered in independent drop tests from six feet onto concrete. Allstate’s front-down drop made the phone unusable, the back-down drop shattered the rear panel while the phone kept working, and only the side-down drop left the titanium frame with minor damage.
The S25 Ultra camera covers every focal length — 200MP ƒ/1.7, 50MP ultra wide with macro, 3x and 5x optical — and DXOMARK’s retest scores it 151 overall.
One published usage figure — video playback up to 31 hours — a 5,000 mAh cell, and 45W charging measured at 72% in 30 minutes by GSMArena’s lab.
Around twenty months after the 7 February 2025 US launch, the launch cohort is out of warranty and Care+ enrolment has closed for them — while list prices have not moved.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is Samsung’s previous-generation Ultra at launch list prices that have not moved — titanium frame, passive S Pen, and one published repair price.
A case for the Galaxy S26 has one job above all: protect a 6.3-inch, 167 g phone whose front-screen-only repair is $209 at Samsung’s suggested price and whose back glass has no published Samsung US price at all. The case must be cut for the base S26 specifically — S25, S26+ and S26 Ultra cases do not fit — and, because the phone itself has no built-in Qi2 magnets, a Magnet Case is also how you get magnetic snap-on alignment.