Samsung Galaxy S25 is now available: Pre-order now

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In the world of tech announcements, some years are about incremental upgrades and some years are about leaps and bounds. Apple’s September Glowtime event was incremental with the new iPhone and the slow rollout of iOS 18 and AI features. Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event, held on January 22, was also all about incremental upgrades – with the tech giant unveiling the S25 smartphone line (which looked not too dissimilar from the S24). Beyond the small tweaks, the big takeaway from Apple, CES and Samsung is that AI isn’t going anywhere.

As has been the case since the S22, the S25 has a base, a Plus and an Ultra model. Following the Unpacked presentation, all of Samsung’s new S25 phones are available for pre-order and will arrive on February 7.

Software: More AI, Bye Bixby

The S25 upgrades have been incremental, so there’s not a ton that’s new on the hardware or software front if you’re upgrading from the S24. But those coming from previous models might see a reason to upgrade, including the new Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset for faster processing.

The Galaxy Unpacked event was heavily heralded for Google Gemini – the two tech giants have increasingly collaborated in their quest to grab Apple’s market share, which surpassed Android in 2023 globally after long dominating the US smartphone market. Gemini is now the default assistant on the S25, replacing Bixby (which is still available but no longer default).

Samsung is also offering some freebies, including three months of Peacock Premium and SiriusXM and two months of Adobe Lightroom.

Hardware: Same specs, but thinner and lighter

On the hardware front, Samsung refreshed the colors and slimmed down the phones. The S25 is smaller than the S24 while retaining the same screen size and weighs 162g to the S24’s 168g. The S25+ and Ultra phones also lost weight. Otherwise, the only significant design change was to the Ultra, which swapped the tablet-inspired square edges for a more pleasingly rounded design.

The battery is the same size as previous generations, but the new models get an extra hour of video playback time. The phones are “Qi2 ready” for faster wireless charging, but do not have magnetic wireless charging. The base S25 is now available with up to 512GB of storage and has improved memory, while the Plus and Ultra models retain the same memory from last year. The cameras have the same specifications, with software updates and AI features to improve quality.

Still coming: Galaxy S25 Edge, AR Headset

Samsung also teased the S25 Edge, an ultra-slim entry into its smartphone lineup, but there’s no release date or specs yet. In addition to the new Galaxy S25 phones that can be pre-ordered now, Samsung teased new AR glasses, made in collaboration with Google, as the Californian company takes another stab at the category after the discontinuation of Google Glass.