Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Review: Mr. Average
Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Intro
Samsung has quietly refreshed its lineup of affordable phones, and one of the cheaper ones that is worth a look is the $300 Galaxy A25 5G.
There was not a lot of buzz around its launch, but you can already buy the Samsung Galaxy A25 5G on Amazon, Best Buy and also at a few smaller carriers like Xfinity Mobile and US Cellular. It should work fine on the big carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile as well, but you cannot buy it directly from them. This phone is also available internationally in the UK and Europe.
So... what is special about it? Well, yes, it's all about the price. At $300, the Galaxy A25 5G offers a big and beautiful 120Hz AMOLED screen, a large 5000mAh battery and a healthy 6GB of RAM coupled with 128GB of storage.
We have earlier reviewed the even cheaper, $200 Galaxy A15 5G and found that phone to be just too slow and stuttery, which is why you might want to consider the Galaxy A25 5G instead, with its faster chipset and more RAM.
Samsung Galaxy A25 5G
Now, the galaxy A25 5G review score is presently lower than one might expect. That is not because of some newly discovered flaw, but because we have implemented a new rating system at PhoneArena that gives readers a better idea of the performance of a phone across different categories. Remember to look at the scores and compare them to the average for the class, and we believe you will find these scores tremendously useful. Learn more about the new PhoneArena Review Scoring system here.
Table of Contents:
Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Specs
The faster chipset compared to the A15 5G is nice to see
Let's start with an overview of the Galaxy A25 5G specs:
| Specs | Samsung Galaxy A25 5G |
|---|---|
| Size and Weight | 161 x 76.5 x 8.3 mm 197 grams |
| Display | 6.5" OLED 120Hz 1000 nits |
| Processor | Exynos 1280 |
| Software | Android 14 with One UI 6.0 |
| Cameras | 50MP main, f/1.8, 27mm 8MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 2MP macro, f/2.4 13MP front |
| Battery Size | 5,000 mAh |
| Charging Speeds | 25W wired charge no wireless charging |
| Prices | 6/128GB for $300 |
Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Design and Display
Not the best looking phone around, it's made of plastic and has big bezels
This checkered pattern is somehow more noticeable in pictures than in real life (Image by PhoneArena)
Samsung has settled on flat sides for its phones in 2024, and the Galaxy A25 5G fits in that picture.
But it's nowhere near as pretty as the company's pricier models.
It's all plastic which feels a bit cheap in the hand, but on the flip side, you don't need to worry about the glass back of your phone breaking, so that's good. Aslo, you have big bezels around the screen and an even bigger one at the bottom of the phone.
One new design element is the raised edge on the right side of the phone (the "Key Island", if you ask Samsung), where the power and volume keys are. Speaking of these buttons, the power key doubles as a fingerprint reader and it is flush with the side of the phone.
Ladies and gents, the new Samsung Key Island!
On the bottom of the phone, you find a USB-C charging port and... a 3.5mm headset jack is also here. Yep, budget phones still have that, probably because the assumption is that people who buy them typically cannot afford wireless earbuds.
The phone is only available in one color, which Samsung calls "Blue Black" and has a checkered pattern on the back.
In the Galaxy A25 5G box, you have a cable and a user manual, but no charger (Image by PhoneArena)
In the above image, you can see all the contents of the box the Galaxy A25 5G comes in: a charging cable, a user manual and a SIM tool.
No charger, no pre-installed screen protector, no case included in the box. Those are things some phone makers still include with their phones, even if less commonly then in years past.
Beautiful screen, surrounded by a not so beautiful bezel (Image by PhoneArena)
One area where Samsung has not compromised, however, is the screen. It's a 6.5-inch gorgeous AMOLED screen that gets up to 1,000 nits of peak brightness and runs at a smooth 120Hz.
Display Measurements:
We do our own lab tests, and for typical max brightness (we measure that at 100% white) the A25 5G reached 931 nits, nearly 200 nits higher than the Galaxy A15 5G. That is much better for outdoor use.
One thing a trained eye could notice that is not in the specs sheet is the reflectivity of the screen: it's a bit more reflective than on pricier phones.
And for biometrics, you get a traditional fingerprint scanner embedded in the power key on the side. This one we found to be reliable, but just a tad bit slow.
Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Camera
A decent performer, but far from great
A decent main camera, a less good ultra-wide shooter and an almost useless macro camera (Image by PhoneArena)
So what about the camera quality?
You can see three camera lenses on the back, but as always with budget phones, not all of them are amazing.
The main 50MP camera comes with an f/1.8 lens and OIS, and it's a very decent performer. It does quad pixel binning, which helps for less noisy pictures at night and during the day it captures images that look quite good.
The ultra-wide camera has a much lower 8MP resolution, and while it's fine for the occasional day shot, it is still a big step down in quality from the main shooter.
And finally, the third camera is a measly 2MP macro shooter, and images with it just lack detail.
In the photos above, you can see the Galaxy A25 5G does a decent job in good lighting. Colors are typical for a Samsung phone, a bit more saturated than real-life, but pleasing nonetheless, and exposure and white balance were spot on.
You start to notice the lack of detail when you use the ultra-wide camera, and colors on it are also bleaker.
You only have digital zoom up to 10X and the quality isn't great, but that is to be expected. We were, however, pleasantly surprised by the good looking selfies and nice skin tones on the Portrait mode photos (you only have 1X portrait mode here).
You can also shoot at the full 50MP resolution for more detail, and overall, it was nice to see that the camera was not too slow.
Video Quality
You get 4K video quality on the Galaxy A25 5G, so that's better than the A15 5G, which only supports 1080p.
But video is very wobbly and not stabilized properly, which makes it far less useful. Another big downside is that you cannot use the ultra-wide camera in 4K. There are a few smaller issues too: you can notice noise in the skies even when shooting on a bright sunny day and colors are just slightly washed out, but enough to notice.
It might be a better idea to record 1080p video on this phone where video stabilization is better and where you can actually switch to the ultra-wide camera as well as zoom.
We have rigorously tested the camera on the Samsung Galaxy A25 5G and above you can see the results of those tests. We carefully measure the performance of all cameras in various test scenes, ranking the performance across important metrics like exposure, subject exposure, color accuracy, detail, artifacts and more. We do these tests for both photos and videos.
You can learn more about our PhoneArena Camera Score testing protocol here.
Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Performance & Benchmarks
The Exynos 1280 inside does a decent job, but it won't impress
The best thing we can say here is that it's not too slow (Image by PhoneArena)
Under the hood of the Galaxy A25 5G you will find the Exynos 1280 chipset coupled with 6GB of RAM, and this is actually something one can live with.
Cheaper phones tend to go with even slower processors and less RAM, which makes the user experience much worse, and this is not the case on the A25 5G.
You can also play some games on it, including more demanding shooters. That said, it is not a stellar performer either if you look at the benchmarks.
Performance Benchmarks:
It is much faster compared to the cheaper Galaxy A15 5G, but it is far slower than the only slightly more expensive Nothing Phone (2a).
In summary: performance is decent, but not any better than that.
In terms of storage, you have a base 128GB model in the United States, and in other markets also a 256GB version. Both come with a microSD card support for expandable storage, which many users will appreciate.
Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Software
In terms of software, you have Android 14 with One UI 6.0 on top of it.
This is one step behind the latest One UI 6.1 that you have on other Galaxies and you don't get any of the fancy new Galaxy AI tricks, you might have heard about.
The One UI 6.0 software on the A25 5G feels incredibly familiar, and if you've ever used a Samsung phone before you'll feel right at home.
The big promise Samsung makes is with software updates: four years of major OS updates and five years of security patches. This is great for a budget phone, and something you don't get with other brands.
Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Battery
The 5,000mAh battery size has become the norm for Android phones this size
Just like other Galaxy A series, and also like most other Android phones of this size, the Galaxy A25 5G features a 5,000 mAh battery.
This is a perfectly good size, which ensures a full day of real-world use with no issues.
We run a few battery tests here at our PhoneArena labs, and the Galaxy A25 5G scored very well on the web browsing test, which consists of a script looping a set of webpages and scrolling around over a Wi-Fi connection.
Interestingly, though, the Galaxy scored below average for YouTube video streaming, again over a Wi-Fi connection.
On our final test, 3D gaming, the A25 5G did well, but not quite at the very top of the rankings.
Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Charging Speeds
Awesome battery life (Image by PhoneArena)
We also tested charging speed using a Samsung 25W charger and we measured a full 1% to 100% top-up takes 1 hour and 21 minutes, about the same as most other budget phones.
There is NO wireless charging support on the A25 5G.
Samsung Galaxy A25 5G Audio Quality and Haptics
The Galaxy A25 comes with dual stereo speakers, which in itself is an upgrade over the single speaker on the cheaper Galaxy A15 5G.
And yes, the audio quality is better as well as the phone gets boomier and it is not as easy to muffle the sound when you are watching a video in landscape mode.
You also have the good old 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom, so you can plug in your wired headphone and never worry about charging a pair wireless buds.
Haptic feedback is just fine, strong enough not to miss a notification, but nowhere nearly as tight as on more expensive phones and it does feel buzzy and vague.
Should you buy it?
We could not recommend the cheaper Galaxy A15 5G for most people because it was so slow, but this here Galaxy A25 5G is a phone one can live with (Image by PhoneArena)
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A25 5G?
In this $300 price class, it offers good value for the money. You get a pretty screen, a substantial upgrade in processor and RAM compared to the cheaper A15 5G, a decent main camera and solid battery life. You can kind of live with this phone.
But it's hard to be terribly excited about the Galaxy A25 5G. The design is disappointingly bland and plastic. And while the phone is not terribly slow, it's definitely not fast either. The OnePlus Nord N30, which is much older, still feels zippier than this here Galaxy A25 5G. And for just a bit more, at $350, you can also buy the flashier and more powerful Nothing Phone 2a.
But if you want to own a Samsung phone and like the user interface, this is certainly a decent budget phone at a good price.
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