Hands On: Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus are more of the same, with artificial intelligence in focus

If you want to be impressed by the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, you need to take the phrase “It’s what’s inside that counts” to heart.

That’s not to say Samsung’s new Galaxy phones don’t leave an impression – I immediately fell in love with the range of color options and appreciate the sleek look and feel of the devices. But that means the biggest flexes come in the form of AI improvements. It includes everything from AI-powered agents to new navigation tools to camera improvements.

That’s no surprise given how AI stole the spotlight in Samsung’s Unpacked invite. Ahead of Wednesday’s keynote, the company heavily teased updates to Galaxy AI and also mentioned the new Galaxy lineup — namely how it relates to AI, of course.

Appearance-wise, the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus borrow heavily from their predecessors (a common theme across phones these days), with smooth rounded edges and three stacked camera lenses on the back. They come in Navy, Icyblue, Mint and Silver Shadow, as well as the online-exclusive colors Blueblack, Coralred and Pinkgold. (Why have one color when you could have two?) The phones are both equipped with Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and have aluminum frames.

The Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus come with a number of expected features as a IP68 ratinga trio of rear cameras, Android 15 and Samsung’s One UI 7. And like the Pixel 9 series, you get seven years of OS and security updates to help you get the most bang for your buck. But ultimately, it’s the new AI features, powered by a custom-built Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, that Samsung hopes will make their latest lineup stand out from the competition.

How much does the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus cost?

Let’s start with the big question: Should you pay more for this year’s Galaxy devices? Fortunately, the answer is no.

The Galaxy S25 starts at $800, while the S25 Plus starts at $1,000. If you want to go for the most premium option, the S25 Ultra rings in at $1,300. All three units are priced the same as last year’s models.

CNET has rounded up all the best pre-order deals for the Samsung S25 that you can take advantage of right now.

What’s new with Galaxy AI?

While the term “artificial intelligence” has been thrown around incessantly over the past few years, Samsung emphasized at an early press event on Tuesday that the Galaxy S25 series is “purpose-built” with Galaxy AI in mind.

What does that mean? This means you can use a more natural conversational language when searching for an image in your gallery. This means you can long press the power button on the side and ask when the next Warriors game is, get it added to your calendar and Text your friends about it, all with one voice command. That means your phone will pick up your habits and show you the weather, remind you of today’s meetings, and share news articles you might be interested in when you wake up, all without asking, via the Now Brief widget.

The S25 series also introduces a tool called AI Select, which you can access via a panel on the edge of your screen. AI Select detects what’s being shown and then makes suggestions, like turning part of a YouTube video into a GIF or summarizing text on a web page. Circle to Search is also better at recognizing objects on your screen and displaying relevant information and links. It can now also be used to look up sounds, like the song playing on your Instagram feed or a tune you’re humming or singing. (I can confirm that it accurately detected my humming rendition of Taylor Swift’s love story.)

These new Galaxy AI features will be available on the S25 series at launch and will eventually expand to older models, Samsung says.

What about camera improvements?

Both the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus have a 50-megapixel wide camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto camera. They can record both 4K video at 60 frames per second or 8K video at 30 frames per second.

For the biggest camera upgrade, look to the S25 Ultra, which gets a new 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera. While the lenses on the S25 and S25 Plus remain the same as last year’s models, it’s again AI that kicks things up a notch, according to Samsung.

Night videos, for example, get a boost with a new removal tool that examines individual pixels to detect any noise. It then uses AI to correct these issues and deliver clearer, more lifelike footage, according to Samsung. The company also says the latest phones do a better job of differentiating between moving and static objects to maximize and enhance color, contrast and motion so you don’t get a blurry person walking through a video. It all takes place in real time on the device. I look forward to testing these features myself during a more in-depth review.

Generative editing, which lets you move, resize or remove objects and change backgrounds, is faster and more accurate, and can recognize shadows attached to objects you remove for a cleaner final image. Portrait Studio, which creates a series of stylized portraits, also becomes more accurate and adds detail to the final images. My own demo with this impressively captured the color and flow of my hijab in the 3D cartoon rendering of Portrait Studio, which is what I imagine I would look like as a Pixar character.

Ultimately, AI fine tunes what the S25 and S25 Plus’s cameras capture and gives photo generation and editing a boost.

Does the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus support Qi2 wireless charging?

The Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus support 15W-watt wireless charging, which is the same as what you get with Qi2. You can use Samsung’s own case with the magnetic Qi2 profile or a compatible third-party case to take advantage of these wireless capabilities.

What makes the Galaxy S25 different from the S25 Plus?

The short answer: not much.

A more detailed answer: The S25 Plus is, unsurprisingly, larger than the base model with a 6.7-inch QHD Plus Dynamic AMOLED display compared to the base line’s 6.2-inch FHD Plus Dynamic AMOLED display. They both have a 120Hz Adaptive Refresh Rate. This makes the S25 Plus clock in at 190g compared to the baseline’s 162g – but they both feel nice and relatively light in the hand.

More space means higher battery capacity, with the S25 Plus having a 4,900 mAh battery compared to the baseline’s 4,000 mAh battery. We’ll have to see more hands-on experience and test how these batteries hold up.

The parallels between the S25 and S25 Plus may place the latter in an awkward position; while it’s a larger device, it’s still not as advanced as the more premium (and more expensive) S25 Ultra. But it will still cost you $200 more than the base model. Whether it’s worth it ultimately comes down to personal preference, but based on my initial impressions, it looks like you won’t be sacrificing much in terms of performance by pocketing that money and sticking with the base model. But again, this is something we will explore more with further testing.