The next generation Samsung Galaxy should be near the top of anyone’s upcoming phones list. The inbound flagship is just weeks away at this point, and now Apple has released its latest crop of iPhones all attention has shifted onto what will be Samsung’s reply: the Galaxy S25 series.
Samsung has officially announced the date of its next Unpacked event, and leaks have really started picking up steam, so we have a much clearer picture on what to expect from the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Ultra. The latter has a high bar to clear, as the Galaxy S24 Ultra remains one of the best all-rounder Android phones out there. Here’s everything expected, plus a wish list of features we’d love to see make the cut.
Updated 7 January 2025: Unpacked event date confirmed
Expected release date and price
Samsung hasn’t outright said the Galaxy S25 is imminent, but the firm has now confirmed it’ll be holding an Unpacked event on the 22nd of January. The event, taking place in San Jose at 10am Pacific (6PM GMT) will be live streamed on Samsung.com, Samsung Newsroom and Samsung’s YouTube channel.
The teaser trailer says phone fans can expect the new Galaxy S series to “set the bar once again for mobile AI experiences” and that “the next evolution of Galaxy AI is coming and it’s going to change the way you interact with the world every day”.
That’s a day earlier than many rumours had predicted, and a week later than when Samsung pulled the covers off the S24 in 2024, also in San Jose. The location was right around the corner from Google’s Mountain View campus – a sign of Samsung and Google’s closer working relationship, apparently. Expect more partnership talk this year.
The S24 series landed a month earlier than Samsung’s usual February reveal. You had to go back as far as 2017, when the Galaxy S8 arrived, for the last time it picked a different month. Samsung has done its own thing for phone launches for years now, rather than piggyback off of trade shows like CES (also in January) or Mobile World Congress (which is held in early March).
A look at previous Galaxy phone launches shows this broken pattern:
- Galaxy S24: launched 17th January 2024
- Galaxy S23: launched 1st February 2023
- Galaxy S22: launched 25th February 2022
- Galaxy S21: launched 29th January 2021
Expect pre-orders to open directly after the event, with phones likely on sale a few weeks afterwards.
Pricing is a total mystery right now. As a reminder, the Galaxy S24 arrived at £799/$800, the S24 Plus at £999/$1000, and the S24 Ultra at £1249/$1299. The UK actually saw a reduction compared to the Galaxy S23 (which landed at £849/$800) and S23+ (£1049/$1000), but there was no change from the S23 Ultra (£1249/$1199).
Hardware and design rumours
The most recent design leak comes from Winfuture.de, showing front and rear renders of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 inside their official silicone cases. All three look very similar to last year’s models, just with more rounded corners and camera lenses that protrude a little further. They also show off what might be the official S25 wallpapers, if that sort of thing gets you jazzed for new handset hardware.
The leak matches up with a Reddit post, that earlier showed the top half of what is apparently the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The handset has a flat frame and rounded corners – a departure from the S24’s curved frame and sharper angles, and more in keeping with the more mainstream S24. It’s a move that makes sense, giving the entire phone world has pretty much followed the iPhone’s flatter styling down to the letter.
According to regular Samsung leaker Ice Universe the video is genuine, and it lines up with dummy unit images and non-functional prototypes that were doing the rounds in the weeks prior. The tipster says it could also be Samsung’s thinnest and lightest flagship in generations: it’ll apparently keep the 6.8in screen size, but will be 8.2mm thick and 77.6mm wide – down from 8.6mm and 79mm respectively on the S24 Ultra.
Another source, Onleaks, previously shared a render of the Galaxy S25 Ultra complete with softer, more rounded edges and a slimmer screen.
On the hardware side, it looks like Qualcomm has bagged worldwide chip supply for the entire S25 line-up – at least, if the latest rumours are accurate. Instead of some territories getting Exynos-powered handsets, every version in every country will get a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. Whispers of this first came from Korean outlet Hankyung Global Market, and other leakers have since doubled down on it.
Storage and RAM amounts are unknown right now, as is battery capacity. Charging speeds are reportedly going to max out at 45W for the S25 Ultra. Qi2 wireless charging will apparently only be supported via official cases, which will be a disappointment to many.
A since-deleted tech leaker Twitter account indicated Samsung would move from home-grown camera sensors to Sony-supplied units for the S25 series, but other sources have said otherwise. Dutch site GalaxyClub suggests the S25 Ultra will get an improved 200MP main snapper, 50MP ultrawide, and two 50MP telephotos: one 3x and one 5x. The S25 and S25 Plus could see the same hardware as the previous generation, meaning a 50MP lead lens, 10MP telephoto and 12MP ultrawide.
Yogesh Brar also reckons a name change could even be in order: the S25 Ultra might become the S25 Note, and the S25 Plus will be known as the S25 Pro. There’s been little movement on this rumour since, however, so treat it with a grain of salt until Samsung says otherwise.
Samsung Galaxy S25 software details
All three Galaxy S25 variants should arrive running Android 15 and OneUI 7, which will bring a fresh look to Samsung’s long-running software skin. That apparently includes a new Game Assist function, which will upscale 60Hz-restricted games to 120Hz using Qualcomm’s Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.0 (AFME) frame interpolation tech.
A screenshot shared by Twitter user @Jukanlosreve shows a settings toggle for the function, which promises to deliver greater gaming performance while also generating less heat. There are plenty of Android games that don’t take advantage of 120Hz displays, so this could be a must-have mode for mobile gaming fans.
Samsung will almost certainly take plenty of time during its reveal event to show off Galaxy AI in all its forms.
What we’d like to see
As much as Stuff loved the Galaxy S24 line-up, awarding both the regular S24 and S24 Ultra full five star scores, there’s always room for improvement. Here are a few of the areas we’d like to see Samsung improve for 2025:
New camera hardware
While Samsung’s image processing is undoubtedly very good, it has lost ground on the photography front to other brands that have been quicker to adopt new sensor tech. Even the S24 Ultra sat behind the very best cameraphones, with two zoom lenses that couldn’t stack up against single camera setups from Vivo, Oppo and Huawei, and a lead sensor that had a high pixel count, but lacked size compared to rivals that use 1in sensors. With only minor changes in 2024, I think it’s time for a total overhaul.
Faster charging
Apple has really stepped up its charging game for the iPhone 16, with every model able to suck down juice at up to 45W. That’s not as quick as the fastest Android rivals out of China, but is still almost twice as fast as the Galaxy S24 can manage. Apple’s line-up has faster wireless charging, too. Samsung really needs to get on board with Qi2 magnetic charging, and increase charging rates for all its S25 models – not just the Ultra.
One sweet spot S25
With Apple and Google mixing things up on size for their latest generations, I’m wondering whether there’s still a need for an S25 Plus. Last year’s effort did at least stand out a little more from the vanilla model, but not enough to justify its higher price. If Samsung did one Galaxy S25 – maybe with a 6.3in screen – and one Ultra, it would let the firm focus on the upgrades mentioned above rather than stretching its development team across three models.
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