Samsung Galaxy S25 vs Galaxy A12

80 out of 100
Samsung Galaxy S25
VS
37 out of 100
Samsung Galaxy A12

Here we compared two smartphones: the 6.2-inch Samsung Galaxy S25 (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite) that was released on January 22, 2025, against the Samsung Galaxy A12, which is powered by MediaTek Helio P35 and came out 4 years and 3 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

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Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S25
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • 14.3x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2920K versus 204K)
  • Has 6x more RAM: 12GB versus 2GB
  • Delivers 196% higher peak brightness (1393 against 470 nits)
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • 54% higher pixel density (416 vs 270 PPI)
  • Handles wireless charging up to 15W
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.4)
  • Optical image stabilization
  • More recent OS version: Android 17 versus 13
  • More energy-efficient CPU – Snapdragon 8 Elite
  • Ability to record video in 4K resolution
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy A12
  • Comes with 1000 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 4000 mAh
  • Shows 8% longer battery life (26:02 vs 24:10 hours)
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • Has a 0.3 inch larger screen size
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Includes a 3.5 mm headphone audio jack port

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S25 and Galaxy A12 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.
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
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📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 88% Yes
Yes, this is a clear and meaningful upgrade.
Updating from Samsung Galaxy A12 to Samsung Galaxy S25 is a clear step forward, and the improvements should be easy to notice.
Main improvements: performance, gaming, and display.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED PLS TFT
Size 6.2 inches 6.5 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 720 x 1600 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 20:9
PPI 416 ppi 270 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-120 Hz) No
Max rated brightness 2600 nits 450 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ No
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz -
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 91.1% 82.1%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
-
Display tests
RGB color space 97.4% 96.3%
PWM 240 Hz 337 Hz
Response time 2 ms 52 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity 864:1
Screen space comparison
Galaxy A12
6.5″ (20:9 ratio) = 15.8 in2
Galaxy S25
6.2″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.6 in2
~8% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Galaxy S25 +196%
1393 nits
470 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 146.9 mm (5.78 inches) 164 mm (6.46 inches)
Width 70.5 mm (2.78 inches) 75.8 mm (2.98 inches)
Thickness 7.2 mm (0.28 inches) 8.9 mm (0.35 inches)
Weight 162 g (5.71 oz) 205 g (7.23 oz)
Waterproof IP68 No
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Plastic
Frame material Metal Plastic
Colors Black, Silver, Gray, Blue, Green, Pink White, Black, Blue, Red
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-button
Repairability Good (3.23/5) -
Drop resistance Excellent (A) · 270 drops -
Screen-to-body ratio
Galaxy S25 +11%
91.1%
82.1%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S25 and Samsung Galaxy A12
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite MediaTek Helio P35
Max clock 4470 MHz 2300 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 6) 8 (4 + 4)
Architecture - 6 cores at 3.53 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix M)
- 2 cores at 4.32 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix L)
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A53
- 4 cores at 2.3 GHz: Cortex-A53
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 3 nanometers 12 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon No
GPU
Graphics Adreno 830 IMG PowerVR GE8320
GPU shading units 1536 32
GPU clock 1100 MHz 680 MHz
FLOPS ~3379.2 GFLOPS ~43.5 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S25 and Samsung Galaxy A12
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Galaxy S25 +904%
3012
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Galaxy S25 +1085%
9766
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 19829 -
Single-core score 3012 300
Multi-core score 9766 824
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
Galaxy S25 +1330%
2920032
204161
CPU 899843 98355
GPU 1139434 9461
Memory 330975 57623
UX 549780 38722
Total score 2920032 204161
Samples [44 tests] [2 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 59% -
Graphics test 16 FPS -
Graphics score 2216 -
3DMark Solar Bay
Graphics test 38 FPS -
Section 1 48 FPS -
Section 2 37 FPS -
Section 3 29 FPS -
Graphics score 10045 -
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 51% -
Graphics test 33 FPS -
Graphics score 5664 -
Sources: 3DMark [5]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 21815 -
Video editing 8619 -
Photo editing 34466 -
Data manipulation 17708 -
Writing score 27109 -
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#126th place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S25
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-12 (Niki)AnTuTu 123324487
📘 2026-09-24 (Icecream)AnTuTu 123297029
📘 2026-09-18 (S25 owner)AnTuTu 123476989
📘 2026-08-23 (S25 owner)AnTuTu 113149606
📘 2026-08-14 (Atharva0999)AnTuTu 113027002
Samsung Galaxy A12
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-25 -> a05stechAnTuTu 12261637
📘 2026-08-09 (Fintex)AnTuTu 11193141
📘 2026-06-12 -> Karlue392007CPU Throttle78%
📘 2026-06-03 (Renzs)AnTuTu 11204161

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 2 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR4
Memory clock 5300 MHz 1866 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 32 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 eMMC 5.1
Memory card No MicroSD
Memory card max size - Up to 1024 GB

Software

Operating system Android 15 (Can be upgraded to Android 17) Android 10.0 (Can be upgraded to Android 13)
ROM One UI 9.0 One UI Core 5.1
OS size 30.1 GB 13 GB
OS updates 7 years 2 years
Security updates 7 years 4 years

Battery

Capacity 4000 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 15 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) No
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Bypass charging Yes -
Fast charging Yes (56% in 30 min) Yes (20% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:17 hr 3:03 hr
Battery cycles 2000 cycles -
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:09 hr 11:00 hr
Watching video 17:15 hr 13:25 hr
Gaming 05:32 hr 06:03 hr
Standby 108 hr 133 hr
General battery life
24:10 hr
26:02 hr

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8000 x 6000
Zoom Optical, 3x Digital
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Digital
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS No
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 30FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) No
Angle of widest lens 120° 123°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 48 MP
2) Ultrawide: 5 MP
3) Macro: 2 MP
4) Depth: 2 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/2.0
Focal length 24 mm 26 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN3 Samsung S5KGM2
Sensor size 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/2" (≈ 0.5 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 0.8 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Digital
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 10 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Focal length 67 mm -
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5K3K1 -
Sensor size 1/3.94" (≈ 0.25 inch) -
Pixel size 1 micron -
Stabilization Optical -
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 5 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm -
Sensor Sony IMX564 -
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) -
Pixel size 1.4 micron -
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution - 2 MP
Aperture - f/2.4
Stabilization - No

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Samples - Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy A12 from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 8 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 3264 x 2448
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.0
Focal length 26 mm -
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU CMOS
Sensor size 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch) -
Pixel size 1.12 micron -
Autofocus Phase autofocus No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 30 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 4 (802.11 b/g/n)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
Bluetooth version 5.4 5
Bluetooth features LE PBAP/PAB, PAN, OPP, MAP, HSP, HID, HFP, DIP, AVRCP, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 -
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes No
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* - 7
5G support Yes No

Sound

Speakers Stereo Mono
Headphone audio jack No Yes
FM radio No Yes
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
Galaxy S25 +13%
91.7 dB
80.9 dB

Other

Category Flagship Budget
Announced January 2025 November 2020
Release date February 2025 December 2020
Launch price (MSRP) $799 $180
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon) - Samsung Galaxy A17 4G
SAR (head) 1.29 W/kg 0.67 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.36 W/kg 1.38 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Proximity sensor
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included -
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S25:
    - Supports up to 2 eSIMs. The international model has 2 physical SIM slots, while the U.S. model has 1.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Samsung Galaxy S25 is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
8 (88.9%)
1 (11.1%)
Total votes: 9

User opinions

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