The first of Samsung’s biannual Galaxy Unpacked events took place in San Jose, California yesterday, introducing the latest line of Galaxy S smartphones amongst other innovations from the South Korean tech giants.
Not much more introduction is needed, so let’s get straight into unpacking everything from the live event.
Samsung Galaxy S25 range
As usual, January brings the newest additions to the Samsung Galaxy S range, with its usual slate of three options leading the way - although this time around, there was a sneak peek at something new to come later this year…
Galaxy S25 & 25+
The Galaxy S25 and S25+ are the two standard variables of the new phone, being practically identical internally with the only noticeable difference being the larger size for the plus.
Overall, the Galaxy S25 range will feature a thinner and lighter design than before, a great achievement considering the added firepower inside the devices. More colourways have been introduced as well, with the vibrant Coralred really taking reporters’ fancy.
Onto the more important things, Samsung are boasting a new and improved chipset in their S25 devices, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is exclusive to Galaxy devices and supposedly delivers more power - a performance boost of 37% in CPU and 30% GPU compared to the S24 Ultra.
This power boost helps put a strong edge over the company’s various rivals, particularly other Android devices. It will help deliver a smoother experience, especially when gaming, as it will also be equipped with Vulkan Engine, a high-performance graphics platform, which will allow for accelerated RTX ray tracing.
While there are some hardware changes, there are also many components that are remaining the same. The overall size of the phones are staying the same (6.2 inch for S25, 6.7 inch for S25+), as are the batteries for each (4000mAh and 4900mAh respectively), and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate.
The camera setup is unchanged with the three lens rear camera setup made up from a 50MP main lens, a 12MP ultrawide, a 10MP telephoto, and a 12MP selfie camera on the front.
However, new software included in the devices will allow for better photography, including 10-bit HDR recording as default and a new Galaxy Virtual Aperture, integrated into the Expert RAW app, giving users better depth-of-field control.
As expected, the integrated Galaxy AI system helps make these features possible, as it does with ProScaler, its advanced AI image processing, which will digitally enhance the resolution of videos.
The final thing that remains unchanged from the S25s predecessors is the price, which will once again start from £799 and £899 respectively.
Galaxy S25 Ultra
The flagship every year, much like the S25 and S25+, the S25 Ultra features some worthwhile upgrades, most noticeably starting with its more rounded edges design, moving it away from the Apple iPhone brick look.
Despite also boasting a lighter and thinner look, the Ultra will be more durable than ever thanks to Corning Gorilla Armor 2, which provides advanced drop protection and scratch resistance.
The camera setup stays largely the same, only with an improved 50MP ultrawide sensor (upgraded from 12MP). Other than that, it still features a 200MP main lens, a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, a 50MP telephoto with 5X optical zoom, and a 12MP selfie camera.
The 5000mAh battery remains unchanged, as does the inclusion of the embedded S pen only without the wireless air gestures.
It will boast seven colourways in total, with four being available as standard and three being online exclusives.
Once again, the price remains the same as last year, starting at £1299 for the 256GB storage option.
Galaxy S25 Edge
While it wasn’t properly announced, after the main part of the event had ended, Samsung teased a new product, a future edition to the S25 range named the ‘S25 Edge’.
Typically, Samsung will release the three main S25 phones at the start of the year then produce a sort of lite version later on. These are usually known as the S FE range (S24 FE, for example), but this year they seem to be doing something different.
The teaser for the Edge was not long, but the biggest takeaway we got from the device is that it is veeery thin and features only two rear cameras.
We don’t know anything else about the device so we suspect it will be the replacement to the FE and will be announced properly during their second Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, which will likely come sometime in the early second half of the year.
Galaxy AI upgrades
2024 saw the true full introduction of integrated AI within most major brands’ flagship line phones, so this year there was a highlight on the upgrades being made to said AI.
We’ve mentioned already about how AI is implemented in creating enhanced photos and aiding in general photography, but there is plenty of AI scattered throughout the internals, many of which are on hand to aid in functionality.
Here are some select new features that we think are most impressive and handy:
- AI Select: Similar to Google’s Circle to Search feature (which also saw some upgrades), AI Select allows the user to circle something on the screen, in which the phone will then bring up all the actions available. For example, by circling a date, it will suggest adding the date and event to your calendar.
- Now Brief: Now Brief gives the user suggestions that will anticipate their needs. Through AI’s analysis of usage, Now Brief can suggest things based on habits and makes the controls available in the Now Bar.
- Cross-app action: Voice commands through Gemini can now be used to perform actions across multiple apps. For example, you could ask “Search for upcoming Liverpool match and add to calendar.”
- Improved Generative Edit: Improvements on the photo image editor. Elements such as shadows can now also be removed for images for more seamless edits
- Personal Data Engine: As mentioned, the AI can pick up user habits and personalise the phone to them. This creates a personal data profile, but one that is not stored on the cloud but instead locally on the device, so that if the device is damaged, that data is gone forever. Helps for features such as Now Brief.
One UI 7 upgrades
The One UI 7, Samsung’s user interface, saw some upgrades too that work in tandem with the new Android 15 and Galaxy AI features.
One UI 7 will feature improvements to the general user interface, security changes, additional AI features, and expanded ways for users to customise your device.
One of the most exciting new features is the introduction of the Now Bar, which will be a handy tool that appears on the lock screen. It can be used to provide information or as a control panel of sorts, housing controls for ongoing tasks like the music player or timer.
What’s more, the Now Bar will adapt to the user's habits to provide a more unique and personal feel.
Project Moohan
There was a small update on Samsung, Google and Qualcomm’s collaborative Project Moohan, an upcoming mixed reality headset that will rival that of the Apple Vision Pro.
Samsung treated attendees and viewers to a first look at the headset, prompting thoughts as to when it will be released.
They are keeping mum about a potential release date for now, although with a physical model shown this soon after it was first announced only in December, it will likely come sooner rather than later, and we may get more details about it when the next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked rolls around later this year.
