Samsung's Galaxy S* phone series has a very annoying naming issue. The S25 series includes - S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, S25 Edge, and S25 FE. If I want a case for an S25 Edge, I search Amazon with "S25 Edge", and similarly for the others, until I get to the S25. For the S25, I need "S25 NOT + Ultra Edge FE", but Amazon search doesn't support that. Why not call the S25 the "S25 Compact". Then I could do useful searches for it.
I was waiting on the Samsung Galaxy S26, due in a month, to get a new phone. But all indications are - slightly bigger, no anti-reflective glass. The S25 Ultra has a new anti-reflective glass that I was hoping would be used on the S26 - apparently not. The S25 is slightly smaller than the S26 and I didn't see any disadvantage. Switching phones is a major pain. Copy the old phone (easy), but then update settings (do not disturb schedule, suppress picture in picture in Maps, Maps sound levels, brightness settings), log into calendar app, TV web page, Amazon, Google, Facebook, recreate my home page in Nova (launcher), turn on my alarms, set up the always on display, turn off all gestures, set up the fingerprint reader, set up app permissions and other app settings. Hours of work. Then transfer the SIM - done!
The fingerprint reader seems to be noticeably improved - faster, more reliable. And the side buttons are a bit easier to push.
Huge phones have taken over the market. The base Galaxy S* series is the smallest mainstream Android phone. Why do they make their small phone larger? Its primary feature is that it is small.
After two and a half years, my S23 was as good as new. And that's without ever using a screen cover. The only reason for upgrading was to get app widgets on the always on display (AOD). The S23 had this feature at one point, and then it was dropped. That would normally cause me to drop Samsung. But, to my knowledge, no other phones ever had the feature. The S25 does let you put app widgets on the AOD. But they are dimmed relative to the clock, so not as useful as they should be. Anyway, I have time zone and next alarm on my AOD again, if not quite bright enough to see in some conditions. And the AOD clock no longer roams the screen since the new screens, apparently, do not have a burn in problem.
The S25 screen is blinding. I keep turning the brightness down, but the slide bar is in the lower 5% of its range so it is not easy to control. Single step buttons on each side of slide controls would be very useful on touch screens. Why do phone manufacturers keep pushing brighter screens? Why do reviewers keep praising them for it?
Samsung Game Booster is supposed to help you with action games - preventing interference from other apps. I don't know or care what else it might do. But any app that declares itself to be a game is captured - chess, word games. A pop up menu is controlled by an added button in the lower left corner of the screen, right about where my thumb is holding the phone. So the menu is constantly popping up over the game. And of course there is nothing on the menu that improves the game.
But you can't delete the app, you can't turn it off, and you can't filter what games it controls. I finally found a good way to kill it - this is mostly from a YouTube video. Update Samsung Game Booster (it was already installed but didn't show up on my settings app list). Then in Setting - Apps - Game Booster, Change system settings - not allowed and Appear on top - off. So the annoying pop up button still shows up on the navigation bar, but it doesn't have permission to put a menu on top of the game. And it is not allowed to give itself permission. Problem solved. But the whole situation is an example of software design stupidity. Why don't you just let me delete the app? Or tell it to ignore specific types of games.
Maybe in a year or two anti-reflective screens will make it to the mainstream. I suspect that by the time that happens, all phones will be huge.
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