Video and photo test with the best smartphones of 2025: Samsung and portraits are not a good match

Thanks to a high level of detail, all four flagship smartphones impressed us with their main cameras. The Vivo X200 Ultra stands out with excellent sharpness and high dynamic range, but its colors sometimes appear a bit too vibrant. Oppo’s Find X8 Ultra and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra also deliver strong results. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra appears a bit softer overall and shows minor weaknesses. In demanding portrait scenes with fine textures, the Samsung phone performs surprisingly poorly.

For users who prioritize maximum detail in photos and videos under less-than-optimal lighting conditions, the Oppo Find X8 Ultra is likely the best choice.

Low-light photography remains the ultimate challenge. The large 1-inch sensor in the Oppo Find X8 Ultra performs well in these situations and captures many details even in very low light without long exposure times. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra also delivers good results in low-light shots but falls slightly short compared to the Oppo phone due to a minor blurring. While the Vivo X200 Ultra takes quite appealing night photos despite its smaller sensor, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra lags somewhat behind.

In terms of video recording, all smartphones perform well in daylight. Xiaomi and Oppo offer the best image stabilization in our test footage. When there’s less light, the two Ultra smartphones also dominate with their 1-inch sensors, while Samsung and Vivo fall behind in quality.

Check out the first part of our camera review here.

US prices for the unlocked Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with 256GB of storage currently start at roughly $1,100 on Amazon.

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is also available significantly below its MSRP of €1,500, currently starting at roughly €1,060. Via import, the Xiaomi flagship can even be found for as low as €750.

In daylight, the flagship smartphones only show some differences in fine details. Additionally, it’s immediately apparent that the 35mm camera of the Vivo X200 Ultra has a significantly narrower field of view compared to the classic wide-angle lenses of its competitors. The extreme artificial sharpening, which was quite common not too long ago, is barely visible anymore.

In our camera test, Vivo’s flagship scored with excellent sharpness and very good dynamic range. However, the colors sometimes appear a bit too vibrant. We also liked the daylight photos from the Oppo Find X8 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra, although the Xiaomi flagship tends to overexpose in our view.

The level of detail is high across the board, although the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra renders subjects a bit softer overall. In terms of sharpness, the flagship smartphones from Oppo and Vivo perform the best. Furthermore, our house photos show that Samsung's HDR processing doesn't work as well as Vivo’s, for instance.

For portraits, the differences are more pronounced than in photo mode. The fine hair structures of the kitten are very well isolated and create a nice separation between the subject and the background. However, this only applies to the Chinese phones, as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra appears very unnatural here. Since we always take multiple shots, this isn't an anomaly for the Galaxy phone.

Nighttime photography remains the ultimate challenge for smartphone cameras. In this discipline, Oppo takes advantage of the large 1-inch image sensor.

However, let’s start with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Its 200-megapixel sensor takes pretty good pictures at night. However, the Samsung phone takes comparatively grainy and noisy images. Furthermore, there's a slight deficit in terms of details, which means that fine textures like on the facade of the building are not captured well. The long exposure of the Galaxy S25 Ultra is also noticeable. While this allows more light onto the sensor, it also increases the risk of blur.

Night shots from the Vivo X200 Ultra are also very appealing. Although the Sony sensor is smaller than the one found in the Oppo or Xiaomi devices, it still manages to produce impressive low-light photos. This illustrates that even smaller sensors, with the right image processing, can deliver excellent results at night.

left: Xiaomi 15 Ultra - right: Oppo Find X8 Ultra

That being said, the Oppo Find X8 Ultra truly excels in low-light conditions. With its 1-inch sensor, it shows appealing sharpness and retains many details in very dark scenes, like the test photo of the house. It doesn’t require long exposure times either. In comparison, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra lacks a bit of sharpness in poor lighting conditions, even though it also utilizes the same Sony LYT900 sensor.

Both the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Oppo Find X8 Ultra offer excellent sharpness in darkness and also process bright image areas quite well. Their HDR algorithms perform exceptionally well here. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra isn't quite as impressive in this regard, as light sources sometimes appear significantly overexposed.

One of the most crucial criteria for video recordings is the 4K image quality. That’s why we'll take a closer look at clips shot in 4K30. First, we compare the rear main cameras of the four flagship smartphones in good lighting conditions in order to achieve the best possible results.

Focusing is very reliable and fast, which results in sharp videos. All devices perform well here, significant blurring is nowhere to be found with sufficient light.

While the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Vivo X200 Ultra show slight weaknesses in terms of stabilization, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Oppo Find X8 Ultra remain very steady even during brisk walking, thanks to their OIS+EIS system. The Galaxy phone struggles with the latter.

In scenes with direct sunlight, Oppo and Xiaomi perform very well. The X200 Ultra reacts to sunlight with slight overexposure, leading to washed-out colors. Samsung also occasionally reveals some image artifacts in direct sunlight. But in daylight, the sharpness and detail across all four smartphones are generally at a high level.

In low light, there are obvious differences. While the two contenders with 1-inch image sensors have advantages in darkness, the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Vivo X200 Ultra experience a drop in video quality. Compared to the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, the Oppo Find X8 Ultra offers even higher dynamic range and slightly more realistic colors.