Introduction
Just when the world is all about the Galaxy S24 series, we bring you our Galaxy A25 review. Not the best timing, granted, but Samsung has been taking its sweet time shipping us any S24 review units, so in the meantime – we have another important device – the Galaxy A25. Important to Samsung and value-oriented users alike. Flagships make the headlines, but midranges and value devices are the bread and butter of the business, and they can make or break a company’s bottom line.
The Galaxy A25 is a globally available device too. It is already selling in the US, UK, Europe, and India to name a few. So, it is basically competing on all fronts in the midrange. And Samsung has made sure it has come prepared.
The new Galaxy A25 may be playing things safe and does not deviate too much from the established Galaxy A-series formula so the design has seen few changes but there are a bunch of updates under the hood.
Samsung Galaxy A25 specs at a glance:
- Body: 161.0×76.5×8.3mm, 197g; plastic back and frame, glass front.
- Display: 6.50″ Super AMOLED, 120Hz, 1000 nits (HBM), 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 396ppi.
- Chipset: Exynos 1280 (5 nm): Octa-core (2×2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 & 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G68.
- Memory: 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM; microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot).
- OS/Software: Android 14, One UI 6.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 120-degree; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 13 MP, f/2.2, (wide).
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 5000mAh; 25W wired.
- Connectivity: 5G; Hybrid Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 5; BT 5.3; NFC; 3.5mm jack.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); stereo speakers; Virtual proximity sensing.
There are some notable hardware upgrades over the A24. For one, it is a 5G headset thanks to an in-house Samsung Exynos 1280 chipset. This actually addresses one of the key criticisms against last year’s Galaxy A24, which only ever came in a 4G version. Kind of an odd choice, really, given that the lower-end Galaxy A14 did have a 5G variant.
Samsung is also upgrading the display refresh rate of the familiar 6.5-inch Super AMOLED panel to 120Hz, up from 90Hz on devices like the Galaxy A24 and the Galaxy A15.
While the camera setup on the A25 hasn’t changed in a major way, Samsung is introducing an 8MP ultrawide as a replacement for the 5MP one, which should result in better-quality photos and videos. Speaking of videos, thanks to the new chipset, the Galaxy A25 can do 4K@30fps video capture on its main camera. There is gyroscopic EIS support as well. The Galaxy A25 also offers a stereo speaker setup, unlike its predecessor.
All of these upgrades arguably push the A25 closer than ever to the A3X series of devices and the excellent Galaxy A34 in particular. You still don’t get a formal IP rating with the Galaxy A25, though and certain elements of its design, like the larger display bezels, continue to give away its more budget nature.
All that being said, we are very interested to see just how well the new Galaxy A25 stacks up against competitors in its highly competitive price bracket, including some other Samsung devices like the Galaxy A34 we mentioned. Join us on the following pages for the answer.
Unboxing
The Galaxy A25 ships in a simple slide-out cardboard box. Nothing too fancy, and we still don’t exactly trust how thin the sleeve part of the packaging is. Still, the phone doesn’t sit directly underneath that and remains well protected. There is no plastic in the packaging, but you still get a nice little cardboard cradle for the phone itself, which works well enough.
The accessory package is as basic as they get. Samsung only provides a white USB Type-C to Type-C cable with the phone and nothing else. Well, unless you count the SIM ejector tool. If it’s good enough for the S series, we guess it is good enough for the A. Though we can’t say, we particularly like this reality.
Design
As mentioned, Samsung didn’t introduce radical changes to the phone’s overall design. The middle frame does have a distinctive sculpted shape in this generation, which is by far the easiest way to tell the Galaxy A25 apart from, say, the Galaxy A24.
We find the new frame nicer to touch and better in in-hand feel and handling than the previous design. The difference isn’t huge, though.
Other than that, you still get the familiar triple vertical camera cluster on the back, without any discernable camera island or “area” of any sort. The back panel itself is perfectly flat.
The same goes for the front side with a flat glass piece covering it. The display bezels are still on the larger end and give away the budget nature of the device. The round teardrop notch for the selfie camera is also something we tend to associate with Samsung’s lower-end offerings.
The Galaxy A25 is available in a total of four colors. There is the eye-catching Personality Yellow variant, which we have for review, but there are also more subdued options: Brave Black, Fantasy Blue, and an Optimistic Blue.
The back panel has a very fine pattern to it. Something akin to very fine checkers. You can’t actually feel the pattern, though, since it is not on the top surface and it is hardly visible from a distance. It is very subtle.
Build quality
The Galaxy A25 is mostly made of plastic. This includes both the back panel and the middle frame. Both look great and also feel great to the touch.
We have sung praises to plastic as a phone-building material in the past and will continue to do so. It doesn’t quite scratch or dent like metal and doesn’t shatter quite like glass, either.
While the Galaxy A25 is definitely closer than ever to the Galaxy A3X line, proper ingress protection rating is still not a thing on the Galaxy A25.
There is no apparent gasket on the SIM tray, which you sometimes see on devices, even without a formal IP rating. We recommend against submerging the A25. By the way, the SIM tray is a hybrid affair. It holds two Nano-SIM cards, or one can be swapped out for a microSD memory card.
Handling and controls
We found the Galaxy A25 fits snugly in the palm. It is not particularly slippery and offers a good grip. Neither the back nor the frame shows fingerprints. The 6.5-inch display is fairly large but still manageable in one-hand operation. This reviewer does have fairly large hands, though.
There is nothing particularly noteworthy about the control set and layout of the Galaxy A25. Well, perhaps aside from the fact that the fingerprint reader is side-mounted instead of in-display. That is another small bit that Samsung still reserves for the Galaxy A3X line.
On the plus side, the capacitive side-mounted reader works very well – it is perfectly accurate and pretty snappy.
Speaking of the Galaxy A3X line and the A34 in particular, it does lack a 3.5mm audio jack. The Galaxy A25 does still get one.
It sits right beside the Type-C port and the bottom-firing speaker on the bottom side of the device.
Speaking of speakers, the A25 does get a stereo speaker setup. More on that later.