Samsung Galaxy S25 Series: Specs, Release Date, Price, Features

Samsung’s latest Android smartphones may give you déjà vu. The company showed off the new Galaxy S25 series at its Galaxy Unpacked event today in San Jose, California. Samsung has once again loaded its flagship phones with artificial intelligence capabilities, and while many of those features are tricks we’ve seen before—even almost a decade ago—they have now been infused with large language models that make them more effective.

No, really. One of the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s stylus features is being rebranded from “Smart Select” to “AI Select,” and a Samsung executive joked, “Smart Select really wasn’t that smart,” highlighting the efficacy of the new multimodal LLMs powering the feature (and the lengths these companies go to make every little feature sound “smart”).

Samsung also teased another device at the end of its keynote, the Galaxy S25 Edge. It seems to be an ultra-thin version of the Galaxy S25, but outside of a brief image, the company did not share any other details. A Samsung representative says there’s nothing else to share at the moment. The S25 Edge would be a direct competitor to the rumored iPhone 17 Air arriving later this year, reigniting the battle for the thinnest phone around.

Currently, the Galaxy S25 range is comprised of the Galaxy S25 ($800), Galaxy S25+ ($1,000), and Galaxy S25 Ultra ($1,300). The phones are available for preorder today and will officially go on sale February 7. Here’s what’s new, including a breakdown of the AI features that were given the spotlight.

The Hardware

The hardware is not much different from last year’s Galaxy S24 series. I still find Samsung’s design language rather anemic—these are rectangular slabs with very little flair. Even Apple is doing something different with all the new buttons available on the iPhone 16.

The phones go up in size, with the Galaxy S25 being the smallest and the Ultra being the largest. In an annual tradition, the bezels around the screens have been shaved down, and that’s how Samsung says the Galaxy S25 Ultra achieved its slightly bigger 6.9-inch screen size despite having close to the same dimensions as its predecessor. The corners of all three phones are rounded now—the Ultra is no longer boxy—though Samsung flattened the edges for a nicer grip.

The Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra, screens up.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Samsung employs Corning’s new Gorilla Armor 2 glass on the S25 Ultra, which supposedly has 29 percent better resistance to fractures than the original Gorilla Armor on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Interestingly, Samsung says it saw a 60 percent drop in screen repairs from the S24 over the S23 series, which could mean the S25 is even more durable.

The phones are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which has debuted in phones like the Honor Magic 7 Pro and OnePlus 13. This will be the processor in all Samsung Galaxy S25 series phones globally, unlike prior years when Samsung opted for its own Exynos chips in some markets. Samsung claims this chip offers a 37 percent CPU upgrade, a 30 percent graphics boost, and a 40 percent improved neural processing unit when compared to the S24 series.

Samsung and Qualcomm collaborated on optimizing the chip, and that close tie has enabled new features like ProScaler. On the S25 Ultra and S25+, this feature can upscale images on the screen to match the display resolution. Say you’re browsing Instagram and someone uploaded a 1,080p image—it will be upscaled to QHD+.

The vapor chamber cooling system is larger on all three—a crucial component to keep the phones from getting too hot during intense gaming sessions—with the chamber in the S25 Ultra getting a 40 percent size bump. Samsung also says sitting on top of the chip is a new “tailored thermal interface material” that leaves zero gaps for air, pulling heat from the processor directly to the vapor chamber cooling system to increase performance and reduce stress on the battery.

Arguably the most disappointing part of the hardware story is the lack of support for Qi2 charging. This is the new version of the Qi wireless charging standard, which borrows a lot of features from Apple’s MagSafe charging system. It embeds magnets into the phone, allowing users to magnetically attach the phone to a Qi2 charger for more efficient and faster wireless charging, plus the convenience of magnetic accessories to enhance the phone. I expected to see several Qi2 Android phones in 2024, but all we got was HMD’s Skyline. Now, in a move that’ll make things more confusing, the Galaxy S25 series is being classified as “Qi2 ready.”

This is a new classification for phones that won’t have the built-in magnets but will feature official and third-party Qi2 cases with magnets inside, essentially bringing a similar if not the same magnetic experience as a proper Qi2 device. Android users who want MagSafe’s utility have had to rely on these cases so far, so it’s just a shame that Qi2 is still not natively part of these brand new phones.

Camera specs are roughly the same as before, with the ultrawide being the exception on the Galaxy S25 Ultra—it now packs 50 megapixels instead of 12. Samsung says this in turn boosts the quality of macro photos. There are some more interesting changes to the image processing algorithm. Samsung’s next-gen ProVisual Engine uses a “spatial-temporal filter” to distinguish between moving and stationary objects to ensure photo subjects don’t blur when capturing a picture in low-light conditions. Double-analysis noise removal analyzes every pixel for noise, looks at eight pixels around it, and removes the noise to clean up the image.

The backs of the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Samsung has routinely tried to match Apple with camera features, but it has typically skimped on all the “pro” video capabilities Apple offers, like ProRes or Log video recording. Well, now that’s changing. The Galaxy S25 series supports “Galaxy Log” recording. This is a niche feature for a subset of creators, but it offers greater control over the colors and dynamic range of video clips. Videos are also now captured at 10-bit HDR.

There’s not much else in the way of hardware innovation. You won’t find any fancy silicon-carbon batteries that are available on phones like the OnePlus 13, nor charging speed improvements. In fact, something’s missing this year on the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s S Pen: Bluetooth. The stylus is still baked into the phone but it no longer features Bluetooth, eliminating some remote control features Samsung says barely anyone used.

The AI Party

The Galaxy S25 is a tale of two AIs: Gemini and Bixby. Yes, while Google’s Gemini AI assistant sits at the forefront—it can finally be triggered through a long press of the power button—Samsung is bringing its original Bixby voice assistant out from the shadows.

Long-press the power button to give Gemini a prompt.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Bixby has been enhanced with large language models but is still designed to handle phone functions, like changing device settings. Gemini is meant to be used for general web queries and more complex actions. You can even have two hot words, one for each assistant. I foresee all of this being confusing; in a quick demo, I asked Gemini to change the device font settings, and it said it couldn’t do it. I asked Bixby, and it did the job. I have no idea why Gemini couldn’t hand off this task to Bixby.

The highlight AI feature debuting on the Galaxy S25 series is “cross-app experiences.” These are tasks you can ask Gemini to perform, even if the task requires multiple apps. For example, you can ask for the schedule of this season’s Arsenal matches and then add it to your calendar; Gemini will then search and add every Arsenal FC game in the season to your schedule. Or you can ask it to find pet-friendly vegan restaurants nearby and text the list to a friend. It even works with images too—snap a pic of your fridge and ask Gemini to find you a recipe based on the available ingredients. These cross-app experiences work with Google apps, Samsung’s Galaxy apps, and select third-party apps, like WhatsApp and Spotify.

If these sound familiar, it’s because phone makers have been promising variations of these commands for close to a decade. Now, they’ll hopefully work better, especially since Gemini is adept at natural language and queries don’t need to be so rigid. Speaking of, you can now search conversationally in Samsung’s Gallery app to find old photos, much like what Google rolled out to Google Photos last year. Circle to Search can listen for audio sources to determine the name of a song—yet another long-available feature getting spruced up for the AI age.

All these AI features have culminated in a new app: Now Brief. Samsung calls this proactive assistance (remember Google’s Now on Tap?) where a morning brief arrives with the weather, upcoming calendar events, stock details, news articles, and suggestions to trigger routines. There’s also an evening brief with a summary of the day’s events with photos. Since the feature can plug into email, it’ll send reminders about expiring coupons and upcoming travel tickets. Samsung claims it can even suggest changing an 8:45 am alarm even earlier if it sees a 9 am meeting on the schedule.

On the lock screen, a “Now Bar” widget persists at the bottom, much like Apple’s Live Activities. It’ll offer quick access to the Now Brief app, but it will also show updates for favorite sports teams, along with glanceable directions from Google Maps.

Generative AI art, a big screen, and a stylus. You too can have it all.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

The rest of the AI features are playing a bit of catch-up to Apple and Google’s Pixel phones. There’s Drawing Assist, a generative AI tool to craft new images in different art styles based on sketches or text prompts. AI Select works with the S Pen stylus on the S25 Ultra and understands what is selected—for example, if a video is selected, it will suggest turning it into a GIF. Audio Eraser is an editing tool to cut out background noise in videos post-capture, canceling out the sound of a crowd’s chatter or an ambulance’s siren. Finally, Samsung’s Generative Edit feature, which lets you erase unwanted objects in images, now works locally on the device and is much more accurate and faster.

Some good news on the sustainability front: Every Galaxy S25 device uses a minimum of 50 percent recycled cobalt in the battery, sourced from older Galaxy devices or discarded batteries during the manufacturing process. Samsung also says every external component of the S25+ and S25 uses at least one recycled material.

Yes, I captured this photo in the days before the presidential inauguration.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Lastly, there’s one bit of news Samsung announced but won’t be available at launch for these phones, and it pertains to Samsung Wallet. The company’s tap-to-pay app will soon support a buy now, pay later system, allowing customers to create instant installment plans even when shopping offline. Also, it will support peer-to-peer payments regardless of digital wallet—meaning you might be able to send cash to a friend even if they’re not on Samsung Wallet.

I’ll have a review of the phones soon to vet all the new features. Preorders are open now, and it officially hits stores on February 7. Samsung has a new Galaxy Club early upgrade program that’s somewhat similar to Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program. After purchasing the phone, either via a trade-in or installment plan, you can pay $8.33 per month for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, for example, and upgrade to the next Galaxy device after 12 months. Samsung will pay the remaining installments or 50 percent of the retail price with a trade-in to the next upgrade.

Julian Chokkattu is a senior reviews editor at WIRED, and has been covering personal technology and reviewing consumer products for nearly a decade. He specializes in smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches, and covers augmented and virtual reality devices, office chairs, electric scooters, home office equipment, and more. Previously he was the… Read more