The Samsung Galaxy S25 was left house alone this yr. In all the thrill over Galaxy AI, the redesigned Galaxy S25 Ultra, and ProScaler on the larger telephones, I feel Samsung forgot one thing vital: it forgot to convey the Galaxy S25 into 2025.
The Galaxy S25 appears to be like quite a bit like final yr’s Galaxy S24, and the Galaxy S23 from the yr earlier than that. It’s a bit thinner and a tad lighter, however not a lot else has modified.
It makes use of the identical cameras because the Galaxy S23. This yr’s mannequin comes with 12GB of RAM as an alternative of 8GB, however it nonetheless begins at 128GB of storage, a paltry gallery area for all of the AI photographs you will create, certainly.
The battery hasn’t grown greater than 3% bigger over the previous two years, although I surmise primarily based on my time testing different Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite telephones (just like the OnePlus 13) that the Elite chipset inside this cellphone ought to show a boon for battery life. Still, we could not have had an even bigger cell? Or quicker charging? Nope. Same, similar.
Why not simply promote the Galaxy S23 with a more recent processor inside and name it a day? Shhhhh, I feel that is just about what Samsung has achieved.
I jest, and hopefully we’ll see an even bigger refresh subsequent yr, however this yr is all concerning the software program inside, and the AI that’s completely, assuredly coming quickly.
I do not imply the improved photo-editing instruments, or the audio eraser AI for movies, or the higher Bixby that may discover settings utilizing pure language questions. I’m speaking about next-generation AI brokers, so-called agentic AI.
The Galaxy S25 goes to collect details about you from in every single place. It will use your cellphone, your Galaxy Ring, your Galaxy Watch, and even your good house units, like your lights and your TV. It will study you, and hold the whole lot it learns in a safe lockbox in your cellphone.
It will collect that data in order that it may well… um, really I’m undecided. Samsung urged it’d flip off the TV once you go to sleep, or recommend higher lighting for mattress time, however most of what we heard thus far is guarantees of what is to return. Not fairly a preview, only a trace.
Look at how Samsung talks about this cellphone. In its official press launch, Samsung MX Business President TM Roh says the Galaxy S25 “opens the door to an AI-integrated OS…” and the discharge says “It’s the start line of a shared imaginative and prescient with Google…” This is not a completed product. It’s a begin, an empty vessel, and also you fill it with information about you.
I like the longer term that Samsung is constructing in direction of. It clearly understands that AI must make your cellphone simpler to make use of and extra accessible, and I feel the most effective enhancements we’ll see within the Galaxy S25 will likely be Bixby’s means to assist parse Samsung’s wealth of options.
I like that Samsung is taking private information so severely with its Personal Data Engine. I’m very interested by what Samsung and my Galaxy S25 will do with all of my private information, and if Galaxy AI will really enhance because it learns extra about me and my habits. There’s quite a lot of potential, however Samsung has solely demonstrated a patchwork of potentialities, not a coherent entire.
I believe this can be a cellphone with an extended, rising tail, so we’ll need to overview this cellphone and revisit it as Samsung retains enhancing and evolving Galaxy AI.
Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on overview: Price and availability
The Samsung Galaxy S25 was unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on January 22. It’s out there to pre-order now in a selection of 4 colours: Icyblue, Navy, Mint, and Silver Shadow. In regular parlance that is mild blue, darkish blue, mild inexperienced, and silver.
The cellphone ships in both 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB storage configurations, relying in your area, and each variant comes with 12GB RAM.
The Galaxy S25 will start delivery on February 7 for the next costs:
| Storage | US worth | UK worth | AU worth |
| 128GB | $799 | £799 | N/A |
| 256GB | $859 | £859 | AU$1,399 |
| 512GB | N/A | £959 | AU$1,599 |
Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on overview: Specs
Here’s a take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S25’s key specs:
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Samsung Galaxy S25 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 146.9 x 70.5 x 7.2mm |
| Weight | 162g |
| OS | One UI 7, primarily based on Android 15 |
| Display | 6.2-inch AMOLED, 120Hz |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy |
| RAM | 12GB |
| Storage | 128GB / 256GB / 512GB |
| Battery | 4,000mAh |
| Rear cameras | 50MP predominant, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP telephoto |
| Front digital camera | 12MP |
| Charging | 25W wired, 15W wi-fi |
Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on overview: design and show
I’m spending a lot time speaking about AI developments on the Samsung Galaxy S25 as a result of in any other case this technology of Galaxy S is confoundingly unchanged from final yr, and the yr earlier than. Except for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which now merely appears to be like like an excellent larger model of the Galaxy S25 Plus, the essential design will likely be recognizable, and a bit drained.
I don’t fault Samsung for not making big adjustments this yr. There are costly new elements inside, so a large redesign would have pushed the value greater. Samsung has laudably managed to maintain the value secure with final yr’s Galaxy S24 launch, which is a feat in itself, contemplating the rumors I’ve heard about sky-high costs for Qualcomm’s coveted Snapdragon 8 Elite chips.
More on these later; first the Galaxy S25’s design. To borrow a automotive analogy, the Galaxy S25 is just like the Toyota Camry of the smartphone world, versus Apple’s Honda Accord. In different phrases, these telephones look the identical yearly, and for those who squint they type of appear to be one another.
We’re long gone the purpose of anticipating a brand new look yearly. We get minor adjustments, some prospers and enhancements, however many of the enhancements occur below the hood.
Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on overview: cameras
Nothing to see right here thus far, a minimum of on paper. I believe we’ll see precise enhancements as soon as we have had time to check the brand new Galaxy S24 cameras, due to the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which features a new picture processing pathway that has proven nice outcomes on competing Snapdragon telephones.
The specs appear to be precisely the identical as we have seen on Galaxy S telephones for the final two years, a minimum of the not-Ultra fashions. While the Ultra this yr acquired a brand new 50MP digital camera to exchange its previous 12MP ultra-wide, the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus each retain the identical 50MP predominant digital camera, 10MP 3x zoom, and 12MP ultra-wide lens.
Maybe Samsung wasn’t paying consideration, however cellphone makers have began to respect smaller telephones by giving them higher digital camera specs. The Apple iPhone 16 Pro and Google Pixel 9 Pro provide a smaller, inexpensive possibility than the Pro Max and Pro XL fashions, with out sacrificing megapixels or zoom.
Image 1 of 3
I want we acquired the identical on a smaller or inexpensive Galaxy S25, however as an alternative we get the mighty Ultra, after which the remainder. Instead, Samsung has targeted on enhancing photographs by means of AI, each earlier than and after you’re taking the shot.
I acquired to strive Samsung’s improved photo-editing instruments with generative AI, they usually have been very spectacular. When the Gallery app eliminated somebody from a photograph, the wooden flooring beneath their ft was left unbroken, with clear wooden plank traces.
Still, software program looks as if a poor substitute for higher glass and extra superior sensors. With the cameras and in too many different methods, the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus appear to be afterthoughts for Samsung this yr.
Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on overview: efficiency and battery
The Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset is the actual deal, and the Galaxy S25 continues Samsung’s three-year custom of getting a barely overclocked model of Qualcomm’s finest chip. We’re undecided precisely what meaning, however the final two ‘Snapdragon for Galaxy’ chipsets overclocked the large major core by 5%. It’s a minimal benefit that solely issues in benchmarks, however anyone needs to be #1, proper? So Samsung will get the bragging rights.
Besides the overclocked Snapdragon for Galaxy, there’s extra fascinating {hardware} on this Galaxy than I anticipated to search out. The Personal Data Engine is an precise {hardware} partition, ruled by the on-chip Samsung Knox safety that’s adequate for many three-letter US Government businesses. The data that you just feed your Galaxy AI will keep on the cellphone, retaining your information safe.
If you get a brand new cellphone, you should use Samsung Smart Switch to switch that private information, however for those who lose your cellphone, all the information you saved will likely be misplaced.
That’s type of unhappy, as a result of the promise of AI will likely be how a lot it may well adapt to your wants because it will get to know you. I’m wondering if the Galaxy S25 will appear to be an entire totally different animal as soon as it has two, three, and even seven years of my private information saved inside its engine.
For charging, Samsung hasn’t stepped into the fashionable age with quicker wired or wi-fi charging, and the Galaxy S25 is caught at round 45W whereas the OnePlus 13 can push 80W, with a 100W adapter on the way in which. The distinction means lacking out since you have been ready to your cellphone to get up.
Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on overview: software program
The Galaxy S25 is a cellphone that may get to know you… ultimately. Samsung’s new flagship cellphone might be probably the greatest telephones of 2025, however it’s arduous to get too enthusiastic about it… but. That’s as a result of Samsung is handing us tabla rasa, a clean slate, ready to be full of our private information.
If asking your smartphone to study the whole lot – out of your sleep habits to your photograph gallery to your complete messaging historical past – sounds scary, Samsung is nicely conscious of that, which is why probably the most fascinating a part of the Galaxy S25 is the so-called ‘private information engine,’ a safe container for all the private information that the Galaxy S25 gathers about you.
What will it do with all of that info? It’s arduous to say, as a result of we have not gotten that far. If the final technology of AI options appeared like occasion methods, the subsequent technology goes to work arduous to get to know you, after which… yada yada, we’ve acquired AI!
Galaxy AI will collect info from extra than simply your cellphone. It will get data out of your Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Ring, and it’ll examine that with information collected out of your Samsung SmartIssues smart-home units.
Image 1 of 4
Samsung says, for instance, that Galaxy AI may discover for those who go to sleep higher with sure lights turned on or off, and make ideas. Your Galaxy Ring will discover that you just’re asleep, and it’ll inform your cellphone to inform your Samsung TV to close down.
We’re nonetheless studying about the whole lot that Galaxy AI may do, however this appears like the subsequent step for cellular AI. This isn’t sleight-of-hand; it feels helpful.
The Galaxy S25 makes use of Bixby to manage Galaxy apps and smartphone settings, and Google’s Gemini for issues like producing textual content in Messages, and Circle to Search, however Samsung is properly retaining the names to itself. Users don’t must know in the event that they’re partaking with Bixby or Gemini or Galaxy AI; it should simply work, a minimum of based on Samsung.
Unfortunately it doesn’t simply work simply but, a minimum of not in my transient hands-on time with the Galaxy S25. Many of the brand new AI options weren’t engaged on the pre-production demo models I acquired to strive. Samsung reps had telephones with extra options, however I don’t assume the whole lot will likely be prepared at launch.
Most of it should want much more information from you and me, in any case.
