Samsung's been sitting pretty as king of the Android smartphone heap and Apple's main mobile competition for years, with the Galaxy S series being the company’s top-tier line, and the S25 Ultra being as good as it gets in Samsung land in 2025.
Despite an unwavering position at the top alongside Apple, Samsung’s faced some stiff competition over the last 12 months, especially from Chinese powerhouse smartphone makers. The Honor Magic 7 Pro has just dropped with its 180MP periscope zoom camera, and Vivo’s Zeiss co-engineered X200 Pro is hands-down one of the best smartphones for telephoto photography we’ve ever used. Xiaomi’s Leica partnership, meanwhile, has produced the indomitable Xiaomi 14 Ultra, with its 1-inch sensor, variable aperture and classical tuning designed to scratch photography enthusiasts’ camera itch like no other, and let’s not forget Oppo and OnePlus. The Oppo Find X8 Pro and OnePlus 13 are battery powerhouses with Hasselblad co-development, nuanced photo processing and exceptional portrait performance.
