The smallest model in Samsung's Galaxy S flagship lineup has gone from strength to strength and been the best compact top-of-the-line smartphone money can buy these last few years.This year's model, the Galaxy S25, isn't much different from its predecessor, with the primary upgrade being the bonkers Snapdragon 8 Elite ‘For Galaxy' chip. It also has a thinner and lighter design and newer versions of Android and One UI out of the box.Do those improvements justify buying the Galaxy S25, or can you save some money by grabbing last year's model?DesignThe Galaxy S25 design is similar to the Galaxy S24. The one notable change is the ringed design of the camera modules. I think the rings look nice, and while you may disagree, I don't think you will care about it after the first few days.Features like IP68 water and dust resistance, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back, and a flat aluminum frame carry over from the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S23.Most people will appreciate the phone's in-hand feel thanks to the 7.2mm profile and a weight of just 162g. That makes it around 0.4mm thinner and 5g lighter than the Galaxy S24. The bezels are minimal, and if comfortable one-hand use is what you're after, you will love the Galaxy S25, even if you use a thick case to protect it.Display, audioThe entire Galaxy S24 lineup brought with it major display upgrades, with a big bump in brightness being one of the highlights, so it's not surprising that Samsung hasn't changed anything this year.The display provides an excellent viewing experience and supports features like Super HDR. It has a refresh rate that can go as high as 120Hz and drop as low as 1Hz. The display resolution maxes out at Full HD+, and since it's a 6.2-inch screen, that resolution is more than enough to keep everything looking sharp.I just wish Samsung had equipped all models with the Gorilla Armor glass. Gorilla Armor massively reduces reflections and glare, and once you see it in action, you just can't go back to previous versions of Gorilla Glass.The audio experience has been enhanced as well. Like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the base model's speakers have deeper bass. They are also slightly louder than before.CameraSamsung has equipped the Galaxy S25 with the same camera hardware as the S24. Overall, picture and video quality is pretty solid, but there's nothing groundbreaking.Photos captured in daylight with the 50MP main camera are great, with excellent detail and dynamic range and pretty accurate color reproduction. Photos are less impressive at night, with a lack of fine detail even though the phone doesn't aggressively reduce noise (stronger noise reduction results in less detail).The 3x zoom camera is also good during the day. Like the main camera, it finds it hard to capture sufficient detail at night. Anything beyond 5x zoom in tough lighting looks disappointing.As for the ultrawide camera, it's good enough for daylight shots and indoors with good ambient lighting. But it's best left untouched at nighttime.Here are some pictures from shot from the main and ultrawide rear cameras:And a few shots from the zoom camera at various zoom levels (3x, 10x, 20x, 30x):Thanks to the improved image signal processor in the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, Samsung has managed to reduce shutter lag across all cameras. It's still not perfect, though, especially indoors.If you like taking portrait photos, you will like the ability to capture those at any manual zoom level between 1x and 5x. That's a first for a Samsung phone. On older devices, you could only zoom to 1x, 2x, 3x, and 5x in portrait mode, which could feel a bit limiting, especially if you were coming from an iPhone.Here are some portrait photos:Samsung continues to keep features like autofocus support on the ultrawide camera and long-range zoom exclusive to the Ultra model. However, when it comes to the camera's software features, you don't miss out on much.The Galaxy S25 series phones shoot at 10-bit HDR by default, and you can turn on HDR10+ recording for even better colors and contrast using Samsung's Camera Assistant app. There's also the option to shoot in the log format, which captures more information from the camera sensor and lets you adjust the colors and tone of the video in post-production.The selfie camera will satisfy most users. When the lighting is right, selfies have good detail, and the S25 more accurately captures skin tones. However, when things get dark, selfies are soft. They are also prone to shake if the camera activates Night mode and uses the screen flash.PerformanceThe Galaxy S25 is the most powerful base Galaxy S model yet. It's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite; unlike last year, there is no variant with an Exynos chip. Samsung has also bumped minimum RAM from 8GB to 12GB.The Galaxy S25 is super fluid and fast and a joy to use. There's nary a hint of stutter or slowdowns in general use. It feels smoother than the Galaxy S24 thanks to the improved animations in One UI 7.The Galaxy S25 is super fluid and fast and a joy to useThe Snapdragon 8 Elite brings tangible performance improvements. AI features process a bit quicker on the S25, and it's faster at tasks such as saving videos edited in the gallery app, at least on the 256GB variant we tested. The 128GB variant uses slower storage, though real world performance difference should be negligible.Gaming performance is excellent as well. But because of the compact body, the Snapdragon 8 Elite throttles quickly when running high-end titles.Because of the compact body, the Snapdragon 8 Elite throttles quicklyIn the new game GRID: Legends, which features console-quality graphics, the throttling brought a drastic decrease in frame rate. The phone also reached temperatures of up to 48C.So while the Galaxy S25 is capable of running every kind of game available on the Play Store, it's not the best choice for long gaming sessions, particularly in graphically demanding titles.SoftwareThe software on the Galaxy S25 is the same as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, so you should read our review of the latter and the video below for all the details. The long and short of it is that the One UI experience is better than ever.One UI 7 brings some neat visual updates and usability improvements. Samsung has made many Galaxy AI features that were introduced in One UI 6.1 better. Samsung has also added a couple of new AI features, with Audio Eraser and Now Brief being two of the highlights.The Galaxy S25 series is eligible for seven major OS upgradesThe default digital assistant has been switched to Google Gemini, though the Gemini features are not exclusive to the Galaxy S25 lineup. Features like Audio Eraser are likely coming to older devices as well, or to the Galaxy S24 at the very least.The Galaxy S25 series is eligible for seven major OS upgrades and seven years of security updates. Seamless updates are supported, so updates are installed in the background while you use the device and just a regular ~1-minute restart is required to start using the updated software.Battery lifeThe Galaxy S24 made great use of the 4,000 mAh battery inside it. The Galaxy S25 does it even better. If you use the phone outdoors on cellular data for many hours, you can expect to have to charge it by late evening, or by early evening if you use it aggressively.If the phone is on a Wi-Fi connection most of the day, battery life can be amazing, and the phone can last anywhere between 24 to 36 hours on a single charge.If the phone is on a Wi-Fi connection most of the day, battery life can be amazingThe longest it lasted for me was 40 hours, with 8 hours and 40 minutes of screen on time. That included watching YouTube and Netflix videos for 2 and 1.5 hours each, browsing for 40 minutes, and checking and replying to messages on the SamMobile Slack channel for a little over an hour.The phone was on Wi-Fi all day, but still, those are some insane numbers for a phone this small. We can give the Snapdragon 8 Elite some credit, and also Samsung's optimization skills that enable Galaxy phones to last much longer than the competition despite featuring notably smaller batteries.The Galaxy S25 supports 25W charging, and a full charge takes around 80 minutes. The battery goes up to anywhere between 50-60% depending on whether the phone was shut down while charging.Wireless charging maxes out at 15W, and there's support for the Qi2 standard. Qi2 is based on Apple's MagSafe standard and features magnetic alignment for supported devices. However, the phone doesn't have the necessary magnets built-in, so you will need to buy a Qi2 or MagSafe-enabled case.VerdictThe Galaxy S25 is a fantastic phone. It's got oodles of power thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The battery life is solid for a device of its size. The display is great and so are the speakers.The cameras aren't the best but they get the job done for the most part. The software experience is the best there is in the Android ecosystem (and even compared to Apple's ecosystem when considering the AI features).The only reason you shouldn't buy it is if you find the Galaxy S24 at a solid discount. Neither device is perfect, but both provide a well-rounded experience that's unmatched by any other small Android flagship.The post Samsung Galaxy S25 review: Pocket-sized powerhouse appeared first on SamMobile.