Exynos chips tended to overheat a few years ago, though they sometimes offer slightly better battery life than their Qualcomm counterparts. Samsung has an annoying habit alvexo of announcing a bunch of cool new features with its smartphones, then leaving them turned off by default. The following Samsung phones will receive seven years of software updates from their release date, which includes Android operating system updates and monthly security patches. Thankfully, Google began promising longer software update cycles to its Pixel phones, which ended up pushing Samsung to match it.
- I’ve been testing smartphones for years, including Samsung’s Galaxy lineup.
- Most of Samsung’s Galaxy A lineup earned full-fledged entries on our list, but the Galaxy A36 5G is one more option if you find yourself somewhere in the middle.
- The ‘Z’ branding is reserved for the company’s foldables, which are further split into the ‘Fold’ (larger book-style foldables) and ‘Flip’ (smaller ‘clamshell’ foldables).
- This leaves the Galaxy S25 Ultra as the only new Samsung phone to offer a stylus.
- The Flip 7’s coolest trick is using the cover screen as a viewfinder for high-res selfies, but the setup is held back by the lack of a dedicated optical zoom lens.
When you do need to top up, the phone supports fast charging that gets you to 50% in just 30 minutes. It’s exquisitely thin and light, and by finally adding a 200MP camera, it delivers an all-around experience that is almost perfect. 📱The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 feels like a true inflection point for foldables.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus – Best Battery Life
While it doesn’t offer all the features of the S25 Ultra, it comes at a significantly lower price. Nevertheless, battery life has improved, and most users can expect a full day of typical use. The camera system includes a 50MP main lens, a 12MP ultra-wide lens, and a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. Its compact size makes it the most pocket-friendly option among today’s flagship phones. There is a lot of software bloat, and of course you can get a lot more from Samsung if you spend more, but the Galaxy S25 is the best compact phone if you need a strong mobile champion for a bit less. Excellent battery life, topping even the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but the OnePlus 13 is far more impressive, with longer battery life and much faster charging.
Which Samsung phones will get Android 15?
When it comes to the cameras, the A56 is bested by the likes of the Pixel 9a and the Xiaomi 14T, but the main 50Mp lens does do a good job in settings with plenty of natural light. You now have the ability to edit photos to your exact liking, bring up Circle to Search for more information on anything you see onscreen, and even quickly translate an ongoing conversation in two different languages when you’re travelling abroad. On the former, Samsung has continued to refine One UI to the point where it’s now one of the best looking Android overlays on the market, and it’s only been made better with the inclusion of Galaxy AI. Even against increased competition from the likes of Google, Honor and Nothing, Samsung has proven time and time again that it is still a force to be reckoned with on the mid-range market, and the Galaxy A56 carries on that legacy.
Best Budget Samsung Phone
Samsung is one of the few smartphone manufacturers that can match Apple in its hardware ecosystem. If you’re looking to save some cash, it’s fine to buy Samsung’s Galaxy S23 range or the Galaxy S23 FE from 2023, as long as the prices are a good deal lower than the original MSRP. The Flip6 isn’t as nice as the newer Flip7—the bigger and brighter cover screen on the latest model is a step up—but it’s worth considering over the new Galaxy Z Flip7 FE. The fingerprint scanner is also optical and not ultrasonic, and while it was quite responsive for me, ultrasonic scanners are often more reliable. What you miss out on are a higher resolution display, extra RAM, and more storage options.
It has a much better camera, and it even weighs less, though it’s not as thin. The Galaxy S25 Edge preceded the iPhone Air, and it one-ups Apple’s thin phone in many ways. It feels like a normal phone when closed and a mini tablet when open. This isn’t just the best Samsung phone, it was one of our top contenders for the best phone of 2025, and it’s an engineering marvel. We’ve tested every Samsung phone and we can recommend the best Galaxy model for every buyer. The more RAM a Samsung Galaxy phone has, the better it is at multitasking — so if you plan on constantly toggling between many open apps, you should consider a phone with 8GB or more.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
If your needs are very minimal, it’s an OK phone, and the camera system is good, with day-long battery life, a nice AMOLED screen, and 6 years of software updates. It also suits those who want a better-than-average 90Hz AMOLED display — most phones in this price range have 60Hz displays for more stuttery animations — and a decent camera for everyday use, backed by long-term software support. It offers a sleek design similar to the pricier Galaxy S phones, a waterproof build, a versatile multi-camera setup, and long battery life. When new products launch, I put them through their paces as my primary phones for weeks to evaluate their design, hardware, performance, and battery life in comparison to older models. On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Series of foldable phones offers cutting-edge design and unmatched versatility with a high-end price tag to match.
Samsung Galaxy S25 FE: The best value Samsung phone
- If you don’t fancy holding off until the next launch, you can always peruse our collection of the best refurbished phone deals, and then pair one of those handsets with our best SIM-only deals.
- If your crowd is all Apple, all the time, check out the iPhone 17.
- These are among Samsung’s most expensive and powerful smartphones, marked by powerful specs and capable cameras.
- Despite some trade-offs with performance and cameras, this is a solid choice if your budget prevents you from getting a Samsung flagship.
When it comes to performance, we rely on such synthetic benchmarks as Geekbench 6 and 3DMark to measure graphics performance. In order for a smartphone to make our best phone list, it needs to excel on several tests that we run on every handset. If it’s primarily a productivity device, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is appealing despite its high price because it supports the S Pen. You’re not going to spring for a Galaxy S25 Ultra, for example, if you’re not prepared with at least $1,199 even if you opt to spread those payments out over time.
The triple camera of the Galaxy S25 is excellent, though it could use a longer zoom range. Save for the slightly thicker rings around the newcomer’s rear cameras and the different colors, it’s hard to tell the two apart. Metaphorically speaking, the Samsung Galaxy S is the iPhone of the Android realm — a product with a long track record of excellence that’s equally great for first-time users and Galaxy faithful. If those are not a priority, you’ll get more hardware and features for your money.
What do you look for in a good Samsung phone?
It offers a few select specs that put it ahead of the base Galaxy S25, featuring a larger 6.7-inch AMOLED panel and a massive 5,000mAh battery, which, in our experience, lasts for a long time. So far in our time with the phone, we’ve found that it both charges faster and lasts longer, and it’s pretty efficient with how it draws power from the in-house Exynos 2400 chipset. Sometimes that means firing up an ultra-thin Android flagship, and sometimes it means testing out a well-rounded budget phone, but no matter what, One UI always finds its way back into my pocket. I’ve been reviewing smartphones for a decade, but one of my earliest smart devices was a Samsung Galaxy Captivate, which I got for “free” from my carrier at the time. The Fold6 has a close to “normal” smartphone experience on the exterior 6.3-inch screen. You still get access to all the original Galaxy AI features, nearly the same triple-camera experience, the seven-year software update policy, and perks like IP68 water resistance and wireless charging.
📱 The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge successfully slims down the S25 Plus, offering a remarkably lightweight feel and top-notch performance that stays incredibly cool. I was disappointed with the cameras; the digital zoom doesn’t come close to the quality of the S25 Ultra, making it a poor choice if you take photos from far away. ❌ You need a versatile camera system with optical zoom. ✅ You’re a gamer who needs top-tier performance and cooling. The best camera modes in the biz, including great portraits and appetizing food shots.
Whether you’re in the market for a budget, mid-range, flagship or folding phone, there’s a Samsung Galaxy device to suit you. The Korean company combines premium hardware with slick software – including Galaxy AI features – on a wide range of different devices. Alongside Apple, Samsung is one of the leading mobile phone makers in both the UK and US, and it’s easy to see why.
Author: Anyron Copeman, Mobile Editor, Tech Advisor
Perhaps the biggest improvement is to battery life, as the compact size of the entry-level Galaxy S model has always placed a limit on just how big a battery Samsung could fit inside. It’s also got the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset — not just for phones released in North America, but around the world. The better photo processing allowed the S25 Ultra edge out the iPhone 16 Pro Max in an initial camera comparison — a great development for photo enthusiasts.
For content creators who need a phone that can help them record stable footage, and give their selfies a notable boost in quality, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and the Z Flip 7 FE are the go-to picks. All you have to do there is decide on how much you want to spend and choose the phone that best suits your budget. For instance, if you just want to have a sturdy phone for social media, entertainment and taking pictures then you’ll get on just fine with the Galaxy S25, the Galaxy A56 or even the Galaxy A36. Given that there’s an absurd amount of choice when it comes to buying a Samsung phone, the best thing to do is to consider how you intend to use your handset on a regular basis. Anyron Copeman is Tech Advisor’s Mobile Editor and exactly the person to get in touch with whenever you’re unsure over which phone to upgrade to. As one of the longest running consumer tech sites in the UK, Tech Advisor has reviewed every mainline Samsung phone ever since the original Samsung Galaxy handset first hit the scene back in 2009.
(We unfortunately have to skip this test on some phones due to app compatibility issues, but we attempt this benchmark with each device we get in to review.) We also run a real-world video transcoding test on each phone using the Adobe Premiere Rush app and time the result. See our detailed explanation on how Tom’s Guide tests and reviews smartphones for more information. It’s just the battery life and lack of hardware improvements over the previous S24 FE, especially in terms of the chipset, that makes it harder to recommend. Despite some trade-offs with performance and cameras, this is a solid choice if your budget prevents you from getting a Samsung flagship.
Also, you’re more likely to get software updates faster as they come directly from Samsung, and there’s often far less preinstalled bloatware to deal with. AT&T may entice you with a $36 per month payment for a shiny new Samsung flagship, when in reality, that means you’re paying $1,300 on a smartphone over 36 months. Carriers also mask the true cost of a smartphone.