Sony Xperia 1 VII vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.5-inch Sony Xperia 1 VII (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite) that was released on May 13, 2025, against the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which is powered by the same chip and came out 3 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Sony Xperia 1 VII
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
  • The rear camera has a 7.1x optical zoom
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 2048GB
  • Weighs 21 grams less
  • Includes a 3.5 mm headphone audio jack port
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
  • Shows 22% longer battery life (28:43 vs 23:28 hours)
  • 26% higher pixel density (498 vs 396 PPI)
  • Has a 0.4 inch larger screen size
  • More recent OS version: Android 16 versus 15
  • Slow-motion recording at 240FPS
  • Thinner bezels – 5.9% more screen real estate
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 30W)

Review

Evaluation of Sony Xperia 1 VII and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
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Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
12 / 256 GB
VS
12 / 256 GB
39.5
(Mediocre)
Value Index
38.2
(Mediocre)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type OLED Dynamic AMOLED
Size 6.5 inches 6.9 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1440 x 3120 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 396 ppi 498 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1300 nits -
Max rated brightness in HDR - 2600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz 240 Hz
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Corning Gorilla Armor 2
Screen-to-body ratio 86.5% 92.4%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space 100% 97.7%
PWM 240 Hz 240 Hz
Response time 1 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S25 Ultra
6.9″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 18.1 in2
Xperia 1 VII
6.5″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 16.1 in2
~12% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
1487 nits
1429 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 162 mm (6.38 inches) 162.8 mm (6.41 inches)
Width 74 mm (2.91 inches) 77.6 mm (3.06 inches)
Thickness 8.2 mm (0.32 inches) 8.2 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 197 g (6.95 oz) 218 g (7.69 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Green, Purple Black, Silver, Gray, Blue
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-button Yes, in-display
Repairability Bad (1.78/5) Good (3.23/5)
Drop resistance Very good (B) · 181 drops Excellent (A) · 270 drops
Screen-to-body ratio
86.5%
92.4%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Sony Xperia 1 VII and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
Max clock 4320 MHz 4470 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 6) 8 (2 + 6)
Architecture - 6 cores at 3.53 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix M)
- 2 cores at 4.32 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix L)
- 6 cores at 3.53 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix M)
- 2 cores at 4.32 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix L)
L3 cache 8 MB 8 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 3 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 830 Adreno 830
GPU shading units 1536 1536
GPU clock 1100 MHz 1100 MHz
FLOPS ~3379.2 GFLOPS ~3379.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Sony Xperia 1 VII and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
10347
Compute Score (GPU)
22537
26581
Compute Score (GPU) 22537 26581
Single-core score 3094 3202
Multi-core score 9293 10347
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
2994112
3128552
CPU 894222 987646
GPU 1129058 1190760
Memory 372780 362214
UX 598052 587932
Total score 2994112 3128552
Samples Less than 3 [66 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 64% 61%
Graphics test 17 FPS 17 FPS
Graphics score 2240 2272
3DMark Solar Bay
10520
Graphics test 40 FPS 40 FPS
Section 1 46 FPS 50 FPS
Section 2 39 FPS 40 FPS
Section 3 33 FPS 29 FPS
Graphics score 10520 10441
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability - 56%
Graphics test - 34 FPS
Graphics score - 5827
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
19524
19901
Web score 19154 21582
Video editing 8199 8625
Photo editing 34682 34425
Data manipulation 18223 17556
Writing score 24878 26844
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (112th and 82nd place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Sony Xperia 1 VII
No benchmark results yet
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-06 (Trexsotiy)Battery lifeSOT 12:30 / 03:16
📘 2026-09-02 -> Mohamed_136Battery lifeSOT 8:02 / 17:11
📘 2026-08-29 (PaWK)AnTuTu 113034536
📘 2026-08-23 (Apple Slayer)AnTuTu 113254557
📘 2026-08-08 (Minh Tùng)AnTuTu 112954951

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory clock 5300 MHz 5300 MHz
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 4.0
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 2048 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 15 Android 15 (Can be upgraded to Android 16)
ROM - One UI 8.0
OS size 32 GB 30.4 GB
OS updates 4 years 7 years
Security updates 6 years 7 years

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 30 W 45 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes Yes (25 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging - Yes
Fast charging Yes (51% in 30 min) Yes (72% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:27 hr 0:59 hr
Battery cycles 1400 cycles 2000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:18 hr 11:10 hr
Watching video 18:31 hr 19:32 hr
Gaming 06:32 hr 06:22 hr
Standby 90 hr 132 hr
General battery life
23:28 hr
28:43 hr

Main camera

Matrix 48 megapixels 200 megapixels
Image resolution 8000 x 6000 16320 x 12240
Zoom Optical, 7.1x Optical, 5x
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No Up to 30FPS
4K video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 120FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 240FPS
Slow motion 120 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 123° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 48 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 48 MP
1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Telephoto: 10 MP
4) Ultrawide: 50 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 48 MP 200 MP
Aperture f/1.9 f/1.7
Focal length 24 mm 23 mm
Sensor Sony IMX888 Samsung ISOCELL S5KHP2
Sensor size 1/1.35" (≈ 0.74 inch) 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 0.6 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Laser autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 12 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.3 - 3.5 f/3.4
Focal length 170 mm 111 mm
Sensor Sony IMX650 Sony IMX854
Sensor size 1/3.5" (≈ 0.29 inch) 1/2.52" (≈ 0.4 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 48 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/1.9
Focal length 16 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX906 Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN3
Sensor size 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/2.5" (≈ 0.4 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh - 165
Preview - 81
Zoom - 137
Samples - Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4000 x 3000
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length 24 mm 26 mm
Sensor Sony IMX663 Samsung S5K3LU
Sensor size 1/2.9" (≈ 0.34 inch) 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron 1.12 micron
Autofocus No Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 6.0 5.4
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes Yes, DP 1.2
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot Yes No
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack Yes No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
89 dB
93 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced May 2025 January 2025
Release date June 2025 February 2025
Launch price (MSRP) $1499 $1299
Successor - - Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
SAR (head) - 1.25 W/kg
SAR (body) - 1.42 W/kg
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Not included
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S25 Ultra:
    - Supports up to 2 eSIMs. The international model has 2 physical SIM slots, while the U.S. version has 1.
    - Uses Grade 5 titanium and Corning Gorilla Armor 2 glass on both sides.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

These smartphones have a lot in common, but we would recommend the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. It has a better display, battery life, software, and design.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
118 (56.7%)
90 (43.3%)
Total votes: 208

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