Artist Review: Samsung S25 Ultra for drawing

Not a sponsored review

After years of using the iPhone, I've switched back to an Android phone. I bought the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. This is not a sponsored review but I did borrow the S25 and S25+ from Samsung Singapore so that I can talk about some differences.

This review will cover the user experience of drawing on a phone, and also my thoughts on switching from Apple to Samsung.

I switched for two reasons.

1. I wanted to have a portable digital sketchpad with me at all times and the S25 Ultra has pen support. So instead of bring my 11-inch M4 iPad Pro and iPhone out, now I just have to bring one phone out. The downside of course is the much smaller display to draw on.

2. I actually started out with an Android phone but switched to iPhone because it can record videos at 25 FPS, a setting important to prevent flickering lights. Samsung's default camera app cannot record 25 FPS, but nowadays there are third party camera apps that can record 25 FPS, e.g. BlackMagic Camera. I must say the iPhone's default camera app is more user friendly, but the photo viewing UI has been dumbed down with iOS18.

I've also thought of switching to the Samsung Z Fold 6 for the larger display, but I'm unsure about the durability of the folding mechanism, the form factor for recording videos, and the video quality from the cameras.

Bottom line

The Samsung S25 series of phones are obviously great since they are the flagship phones for the company.

While this is a great phone, it's a rather lacklustre incremental update from the previous models which are also great phones. That's to say that if you have a phone that's one, two or even three years old, there isn't much reason to upgrade if your old phone still works fine. I've reviewed the 23 Ultra and S24 Ultra and I like them.

This phone has top quality hardware, long battery life, smooth performance and Samsung OneUI is stable and Android is just so versatile.

Drawing on a rectangular phone is challenging. Holding the phone vertically means your other hand has nowhere to rest. Holding the phone horizontally means your other hand can rest but the canvas area for drawing is smaller. And finally there's the small display for drawing. 6.9-inch is huge for a phone but for drawing it's considered small. These are all things one has to get used to if you want to draw on a phone.

I did not buy the S24 Ultra because that display was still curved slightly on edges. The S25 Ultra's display is finally completely flat.

This was drawn while I was having lunch. That's the nice thing about having a phone with pen support. You can sketch anytime, anywhere. Sketching is just a more productive use of time compared to mindless scrolling social media. At the end of the year, you'll have loads of sketches to look back at compared to whatever you get from doom scrolling.

Shown above is a sketch drawn on my iPhone with my finger. Drawing on an iPhone is possible but the user experience of drawing with your finger or a dumb stylus is less than ideal, uninviting, inspired.

Specs

The main takeaway points from the specs are...

Ultra is the only model with anti-reflective coating which works quite effectively. But that won't matter if you put on a glossy screen protector. And the Ultra model has a Corning Gorilla Armor 2 glass back instead of version 1.

The main upgrade is the processor which is now the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

My S25 Ultra review will be using parts of my S24 Ultra review since the overall upgrade is just slight incremental.

Prices in Singapore (SGD)

• S25 256GB - $1288
• S25 512GB - $1468
• S25+ 256GB - $1478
• S25+ 512GB - $1658
• S25 Ultra 256GB - $1828
• S25 Ultra 512GB - $2008

Samsung always has pretty good pre-order and trade-in deals. One of the deals was you can get 512GB for the price of 256GB.

Anyway, I bought my phone (512GB with 2 years Samsung Care+) brand new from someone selling off a telco set and paid S$1590 instead of the $1828.

As to whether it's worth $1590, that's another question. You can certainly get really good phones at less than half the price.

My experience switching from iPhone to Samsung

The Samsung SmartSwitch app was able to transfer most of my data from iPhone to Samsung, including 1.7GB worth of Whatsapp messages. However, bank authentication has to be done again, and this time you'll be using fingerprint scanner instead of Apple FaceID as Samsung's camera does not have enough security clearance.

Passwords saved in the Passwords app are not transferred over. I've to recreate 2FA tokens for various websites that I use with Microsoft Authenticator. SingPass app has to be re-authenticated.

Gmail notifications are no longer instant and have noticeable delay compared to iPhone. I've read that this problem has been around for a long time. I recommend you sign out of Gmail and uninstall Gmail on the iPhone before using SmartSwitch.

After transfer, please go though the apps one by one to make sure all data has been transferred over.

When zooming while recording videos, Samsung has finally managed to achieve smooth zoom transition with the S25. This was not possible with the S24.

I use Mac so the lack of AirDrop file transfer from phone to Mac or phone to iPad is definitely something I miss.

The alternative is to use Samsung Quick Share to generate a QR code that can be scanned by another device for file transfer. Quick Share involves uploading files to Samsung servers so sharing videos will require long time to upload, and files will remain available for two days before deletion. To send files to my Mac, I would just upload the file to cloud storage.

Android File transfer app does not work with my Mac so I can't use cable file transfer.

My overall user experience after a few weeks is smooth with minor issues which usually just involve finding new workflows. There are no deal breakers.

Samsung default camera app cannot shoot 25 FPS videos and that's a deal breaker to me. But thankfully now there's the BlackMagic Camera app that can record 25 FPS. The downside is that app (v2.0.1) does not have access to ultra wide angle lens yet.

Design

Most noticeable design change is the rounded corners over the previous model. The less noticeable changes are the display is now completely flat without any curves at the edges, and weight reduction from 232g to 218g.

Main differences between the S25 series phones this year are just display size and battery capacity. Display size for the S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra are 6.2, 6.7 and 6.9-inches respectively. Battery capacity are 4000, 4900 and 5000 mAh respectively. Weight are 162g, 190g and 218g respectively.

The Dynamic AMOLED 2X displays are not new but they still look fantastic, gorgeous.

S25's selling point is portability.

S25+'s selling point is bigger display and extra battery life.

S25 Ultra's selling point is bigger display, extra battery life, extra 5X zoom, anti-reflective coating and S Pen support.

All three phones have good battery life that can last a day easily from my experience. You can search Youtube for actual battery stress tests.

The weight differences between the models are quite noticeable.

It's nice that there are three models to choose from. As mentioned earlier, the main selling point of the Ultra is the S Pen, the 5x zoom is nice to have but not a must-have.

One downside to the design is the gap between the camera lens ring and the body. That gap is so unnecessary and will attract dust, so I recommend you buy a phone case that can cover the gap.

Having the S Pen stored in the phone is incredibly convenient. The SIM tray can hold two nano-SIMs. Speaker has excellent audio quality. USB-C port supports 45W fast charging, USB3.2 transfer speed, and can output video so that you can use SamsungDex to get the computer desktop experience.

The S Pen is much smaller and thinner compared to the S Pen included with the Galaxy tablets. The pen uses Wacom EMR technology so the S Pens from tablets, and third party pens can be used.

The pens shown above are:

• S25 Ultra S Pen
• S7, S8, S9, S10 S Pen
• S Pen Creator Edition
• Staedtler Noris Digital Jumbo
• Wacom One
• A generic EMR pen I received as a free gift

Drawing with the included S Pen feels like drawing with a toothpick so I actually still bring another pen out. I recommend the Pilot Dr Grip EMR pen which has a retractable tip or the Lamy AL-Star EMR pen with a cap and side button.

The S Pen has a broad side which still makes it comfortable enough to hold and has a good grip. There's one side button with a shortcut that will vary depending on the app you use. Whether the side button can be customised will depend on the app you use.

Drawing on a phone is challenging since both the phone and the pen are moving parts. Lines will look more sketchy and less straight compared to writing or drawing on a stable non-moving surface. Even if your original style looks stiff, chances are it will look more loose on the phone.

The pen tip is soft with no sharp tapping sound. The pen glides on the display quite smoothly. The pen also supports tilt sensitivity.

Palm rejection may or may not be enabled by default depending on the app you use.

Palm rejection works only when the pen tip is near the display (you can see the cursor). When palm rejection is active, you can't use your finger to select other tools. So to select other tools while drawing, first you have to move the pen away from the display. This is unlike drawing with the Apple Pencil where you can still select tools even with Apple Pencil on or near the display.

Oh be sure to turn off Air Command, otherwise you may accidentally click on S Pen button to launch that.

This was sketched while I was standing on a train while commuting to work.

My main drawing app is Concepts which has minimal user interface elements and works well on small displays. Having said that, the phone display still feels kinda small. Drawing on the Z Fold 6's more squarish 7.6-inch feels much better.

This was my first sketch on this phone as a warm up.

Sketching very detailed scenes is possible, but that would involve a lot more zooming in and out compared to drawing on a bigger tablet.

Having a digital sketchpad in your pocket at all times allows you to sketch anytime inspiration strikes.

Whether to hold the phone vertically or horizontally depends on the subject you're drawing and personal preference.

Writing experience on the phone is good. Red text shown above was written with phone in hand, and black text was written with phone resting on the table.

AI features

Samsung spent a lot of effort to market AI features and there are many AI features. Since I don't use any of the AI features, I don't really have much to say about them. AI is not a selling point for me.

Samsung One UI

The phone runs on Android 15 with Samsung One UI 7.0 on top.

There are many useful features:

• You can install your own launcher for more features and to customise the home screen
• Install Good Lock app for more options with settings
• SamsungDex can be used with external display for a desktop UI, and phone can be used as trackpad
• You can share files to any device (including Apple products) by generating a QR code for sharing. QR code file sharing is limited to 10GB per day.
• Connect your phone to your computer and use it as an external storage device. Android File Transfer on Mac does not work consistently
• Android notification system is better than iPhone's
• BlackMagic Camera app (free) provides more manual controls for video recording. 25 FPS recording is possible. This app does not have access to ultra wide angle lens
• There's split screen mode
• Edge Panel can be swiped out to give you access to your favourite apps even when using other apps. I find this incredible useful.

Edge Panel works together with most apps, but not all apps.

You can now finally control volume from the control panel.

Battery life

The Galaxy S24 Ultra has 5000 mAh battery capacity and battery life is around 10 - 12 hours depending on brightness. It's very difficult for you to drain the battery completely with normal usage or even intense usage unless you're on the phone non-stop for 10 hours.

There's 45W fast charging which can give you 50% with 30 minutes of charging. There's also wireless charging.

Conclusion

The Samsung S25 Ultra is a great phone with very few compromises. If you compare it with previous models, it could be considered a lacklustre upgrade. But if you look at the phone alone, or compared to the competition, it's one of the better phones in the high-end category.

The main selling point for me is S Pen that can be used for drawing, and of course taking notes.

Overall performance is fast and smooth. It's a phone that packs enough processing power that it can be used as a computer too through SamsungDex when connected to an external display. So if you're someone who doesn't need to use specific desktop apps, this phone may even be able to replace your computer.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design with solid build quality
+ Vibrant, 2600 nits bright, sharp 120Hz OLED display
+ Anti-reflective laminated display
+ Display is completely flat now
+ 12GB RAM
+ Fast lag-free performance
+ 10-12 battery life with fast charging
+ S Pen included with a dedicated holder on the phone
+ Cameras have good image and video quality
+ Good audio quality
+ Samsung DeX is useful
+ IP68 rating for resistance against dust and water
+ USB-C port with USB 3.2 transfer speed
+ Samsung One UI 7 has many useful features
+ Android 15
+ Supports dual nano SIM cards
+ Good value for money at street pricing
+ Samsung offers good trade-in offers
- No micro SD card slot
- No 3.5mm audio jack
- S Pen is too thin, uncomfortable for long period of use
- Full backup only available to external storage
- No 25 or 50FPS PAL video recording with Samsung camera app

Availability

Do me a favour, if you have intention to buy the phone, consider using the affiliate links below to support my blog and the work I do here. I get to earn some commission but at no extra cost to you.

The phones are available on Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP)

And here in Singapore you can get them from Shopee SG and Lazada SG