Samsung S25/ S25 Ultra

[Harthag]

So after trying out iOS 26 beta, I can safely say that the last thing holding me with iPhone - iOS, no longer holds. It completely lost its simplicity and minimalistic approach, it’s a mess.
I would love to give a chance to some Chinese brands like Oppo or Huawei, but in my country I can’t get those.. So the only one left is Xiaomi or Samsung..

Using both side by side, it's amazing how different the betas of iOS 26 and One UI 8 are from each other. I know it's only build 1 of iOS dev beta, but performance is atrocious and looks + feels like 20fps all the time. One UI 8 beta can be used as a daily driver right now and feels complete. It only took until iOS 26 to have the auto brightness toggle where it should be within the main display settings menu, rather than hiding in the accessibility options.

Xiaomi hardware is great. Had the regular 14 and 15 Ultra. Software doesn't come close to One UI. If you know you know.

 

[jamezr]

So after trying out iOS 26 beta, I can safely say that the last thing holding me with iPhone - iOS, no longer holds. It completely lost its simplicity and minimalistic approach, it’s a mess.
I would love to give a chance to some Chinese brands like Oppo or Huawei, but in my country I can’t get those.. So the only one left is Xiaomi or Samsung..

I am a huge Samsung fan....but...... if I could get the Xiaomi 14 ultra through my carrier i would jump at the chance.
The camera and performance is top notch. But the OS is not as good as One UI 8 imho....

 

[Ludatyk]

Using both side by side, it's amazing how different the betas of iOS 26 and One UI 8 are from each other. I know it's only build 1 of iOS dev beta, but performance is atrocious and looks + feels like 20fps all the time. One UI 8 beta can be used as a daily driver right now and feels complete.

In defense of Apple... One UI 8 is not some major redesign, One UI 7 was Samsung BIG update and that took longer than expected to arrive. Heck, One UI 7 hasn't completed it's rounds yet... not pushed to all compatible devices.

 

[mjschabow]

So after trying out iOS 26 beta, I can safely say that the last thing holding me with iPhone - iOS, no longer holds. It completely lost its simplicity and minimalistic approach, it’s a mess.
I would love to give a chance to some Chinese brands like Oppo or Huawei, but in my country I can’t get those.. So the only one left is Xiaomi or Samsung..

Yep. OneUI + GoodLock is way more user friendly than iOS.

 

[DennisdeWit]

So after trying out iOS 26 beta, I can safely say that the last thing holding me with iPhone - iOS, no longer holds. It completely lost its simplicity and minimalistic approach, it’s a mess.
I would love to give a chance to some Chinese brands like Oppo or Huawei, but in my country I can’t get those.. So the only one left is Xiaomi or Samsung..

The S25 Ultra is a fantastic smartphone. My iPhone 16 Pro Max still is my daily driver, but I like to use the S25 Ultra for a portion of the day. Still trying to get used to the Liquid Glass look of iOS 26. It’s not ugly, but the implementation of it, is very beta 1-ish. So, sometimes I get fed up and then decide to use the Samsung for a few hours.

I have been playing with Smart Launcher and Ares Lite Icons. The setting in the launcher is Mat Glass. It behaves like the iPhone: swipe up is apps, swipe down is search. I turned off the navigation bar for navigation gestures. It will make the gap between iPhone and Samsung very small. Your muscle memory will thank me.

 

[edubfromktown]

So after trying out iOS 26 beta, I can safely say that the last thing holding me with iPhone - iOS, no longer holds. It completely lost its simplicity and minimalistic approach, it’s a mess.
I would love to give a chance to some Chinese brands like Oppo or Huawei, but in my country I can’t get those.. So the only one left is Xiaomi or Samsung..

Is OnePlus an option?

I found the OP 8T (US unlocked) phone to be a great device. Not sure what they offer in terms of OS and security updates compared to others at this point. The OS and stock launcher were quite good...

 

[Ic3Ang3l]

So after trying out iOS 26 beta, I can safely say that the last thing holding me with iPhone - iOS, no longer holds. It completely lost its simplicity and minimalistic approach, it’s a mess.
I would love to give a chance to some Chinese brands like Oppo or Huawei, but in my country I can’t get those.. So the only one left is Xiaomi or Samsung..

I did the Same with the 25 Ultra. All I can say is that the S25 is clearly the better device

 

[UKapple]

I purchased a S25 ultra back in January this year and for one reason or another never got around to swapping it from my daily driver, 16 pro max.

Well I finally took the plunge two days ago and swapped over everything to the S25 ultra. Almost everything transferred over apart from one app/bank card that is causing issues.

First impressions, it’s an amazing phone. The screen, software etc. however, I have really struggled to get on with it as I have been a long time iPhone user and invested to the ecosystem, MacBook, Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple TV etc. the seamless integration is taken for granted when you use it all day in day out and I did struggle with the way apps work/look on the S25. The Facebook app,Amazon and WhatsApp apps just look different and I know this is due to the fact I have used iOS for so long.

Last night I finally buckled and went back to my iPhone

I hope that I can give the S25 ultra another go soon and before anyone says I need to give it longer I am just struggling to get along with the software as I guess I’m a creature of habit

 

[Ic3Ang3l]

seamless integration

You can basically do 98% of that seamless integration with an Samsung and your mac for example too. For Airdrop you can use Neardrop on the Mac and Quickshare on the Samsung. Every big Earbuds brand has multipoint, so you can connect the Buds to the Phone, Ipad and Mac and they work just like airpods.


But yeah, emojis and apps are looking different.

 

[HouseLannister]

I am going to dip my toes back in the Samsung pool. I traded my Pixel 9 Pro XL and Pixel Buds Pro 2 to a coworker for their S25 Ultra. We both just wanted to try something different and I figured if I want to go back to Pixel, the 10-series is just two months away. I think it's going to take me a few days to dial in settings and play with Good Lock and other launchers before I decide what I think. Any recommendations or hints?

 

[Sensamic]

Ok, so one more that joins the S25 party.

Yesterday I sold my S24+ 512GB and bought a S25 256GB. Main reason was I was really, really tired of the size and weight of the S24+, even though it is one of the lightest and thinnest phablets out there. Had it for around a year and a half, and at first I was ok with the size and weight, but recently I found it very annoying and was not enjoying using the phone so much.

I looked at different "small" flagships, like the iPhone 16 Pro (200gr), Xiaomi 15, Pixel 9 & 9 Pro, but decided to go with the S25 because I love OneUI 7 so much and I can customize so much settings and features to my liking. Also, iOS 26 looks kind of bad for readability, but I cannot know until I see it in the fall. Nevertheless, the iPhone 16 Pro or 17 (if it gets 120Hz), at 256GB, would have cost me much more than what I finally paid for the S25 256GB.

So far I'm REALLY liking the new small form factor. It's so delightful to use in hand. It's funny, because the screen is still very big and usable. I think I will stay away from biggers screens for some time. The S25 Edge was another option, but I still found it very big in hand and not much of a difference versus my S24+ other than weight.

Battery life so far seems very good and not as terrible as I would have thought. In time, if it gets bad, I shall replace the battery and keep going for as long as possible. I don't really want to change phones this often, but I was getting really tired of the big phone in my pockets, hands, etc.

Bought the Navy color, which is really nice.