The subsequent technology of Samsung flagships is sort of right here – we’re anticipating to listen to official information of the Samsung Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra by the top of the month – and I believe that this 12 months’s most consequential Galaxy improve can have nothing to do with the brand new telephones’ look.
It’s simple to get excited in regards to the prospect of cutting-edge tech every time a cellphone maker publicizes a brand new flagship mannequin, however in actuality, we’ve usually seen year-on-year progress decelerate in relation to the key elements and features of recent smartphones – no less than these that you would be able to see.
The Samsung Galaxy collection, for its half, has inhabited roughly the identical type issue for half a decade; the Google Pixel collection has centered on stabilizing efficiency with every model; and the iPhone 16 is the primary actually new-feeling handset from Apple in years.
We’re once more anticipating to see a slew of marginally improved specs for the S25 lineup this January, significantly so on the base-model S25 and its identically-specced huge sibling, the S25 Plus; each will miss out on the highest-end upgrades destined for the S25 Ultra. For the 2 ‘customary’ fashions, the newest S25 specs predictions recommend a bit extra RAM, a barely bigger display, and possibly some bumped-up storage choices. Cameras and battery sizes are as a consequence of keep the identical. It’s hardly Christmas, is it?
There is, nevertheless, one class the place we’re anticipating to see way more of an enchancment this 12 months, and it’s not one you’ll be able to see – not with out ripping your cellphone in half, anyway (which TechRadar famously advises towards).
Each and each Galaxy S25 mannequin is tipped to launch with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, the newest in Qualcomm’s line of class-leading cellular chipsets. Put merely, this may very well be a game-changer for efficiency and immediately rocket Samsung to pole place within the efficiency race with Apple. Allow me to clarify why.
Elite by identify, elite by nature
For these not within the know, the Snapdragon 8 Elite follows up the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – already probably the most highly effective cellular chipsets ever produced – and improves (by Qualcomm’s personal metrics) on that chipset’s single and multi-core efficiency by 45%; it additionally presents vastly improved energy effectivity.
When TechRadar’s US Mobiles Editor Philip Berne ran preliminary benchmarks on the 8 Elite, he discovered that Qualcomm’s newest effort virtually doubled the scores attained by the A18 Pro within the iPhone 16 Pro.
Keep in thoughts that, at a predicted worth of $799 / £799 / AU$1,399, the baseline S25 will compete with the iPhone 16 and its much less highly effective A18 chipset, somewhat than with the iPhone 16 Pro. Should these benchmarks translate into real-world efficiency, the race between Apple and Samsung might find yourself resembling me chasing after a Dodge Charger on foot (as per our Google Pixel 9 Pro assessment, Google’s Tensor chipsets aren’t fairly within the dialog but).
What does this imply for the common person? Essentially, a good sooner Galaxy handset – speedier load instances, smoother app switching, and expanded AI prospects. “Benchmarks aren’t all the things,” Qualcomm instructed us at Snapdragon Summit final 12 months, and though, as talked about, the 8 Elite’s benchmark scores are certainly mightily spectacular, Qualcomm is equally eager to shout in regards to the tangible, real-world advantages of its newest chipset.
With rumors swirling of a large AI push from Samsung this 12 months, we might see the S25 lineup enter our listing of the perfect AI telephones due to this elevated {hardware} energy, which ought to empower customers to make higher use of Samsung’s productiveness and generative AI alike. What’s extra, the S25 and S25 Plus are tipped to launch with 12GB of RAM, 4GB greater than the earlier technology, giving these new telephones much more headroom for AI and multitasking.
We don’t even want to attend for the S25 collection to launch to see the Snapdragon 8 Elite in motion – the primary globally out there telephones to sport the brand new chipset landed in December 2024 within the type of the Asus Rog Phone 9 and Rog Phone 9 Pro gaming telephones. In our Asus Rog Phone 9 Pro assessment, the latter attained a 5/5 rating for efficiency due to its distinctive consistency, improved gaming, and glorious graphical efficiency. It’ll be as much as Samsung to optimize across the wants of the on a regular basis person with the S25 collection.
Samsung has by no means been a slouch in relation to efficiency – in our Galaxy S24 assessment, we discovered the corporate’s most up-to-date baseline flagship to be scorching on the heels of the S24 Ultra within the energy division – however the features caused by the Snapdragon 8 Elite might show actually superlative, and will even provide S24 customers a compelling purpose to improve this 12 months.
All that being mentioned, a lot of the above continues to be based mostly on rumors in the interim, so be sure you sustain with our Samsung telephones protection for the newest official data as put on hear it from Samsung.
