Samsung’s first Galaxy Unpacked occasion was packed, and conserving with the model’s custom, it went via all of its information in a zippy vogue. The Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra have been all made official, alongside deeper partnerships with Google for brand new Gemini methods, a bevy of recent Galaxy AI options, main enhancements to content material creation, and a tease of what the corporate is cooking up with Google for its Android XR headset.
It was quite a bit, and whilst you can learn via our dwell weblog of the occasion – together with on-the-ground moments captured by the TechRadar group – right here we’re sharing the 9 most important issues we discovered from the January 22, 2025, Galaxy Unpacked.
And all of it begins with, you guessed it, AI.
1. Galaxy AI is getting even smarter and extra personalised
Just just like the Galaxy S24 household, the S25 is all about Galaxy AI, and for 2025, Samsung is doubling down on the efficiency of those options and their breadth. It begins with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset, which comes with 12GB of RAM and a devoted core for AI duties dubbed the Personal Data Engine.
The concept right here is that contained in the S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra is a core that may be devoted to dealing with AI duties, and ultimately create a form of personalised LLM for you. One that may study your habits and the opposite units you’ve and serve useful AI – within the type of Bixby, Gemini, or the brand new Now Brief performance – that will help you get issues executed quicker or full them for you with out you needing to do a lot.
Samsung needs its units to do extra for you – not simply the most recent Galaxy telephone, however different units inside the ecosystem too, corresponding to a Galaxy Ring, Watch, or perhaps a related equipment. Ideally, it might flip off your TV for you when your watch tells your telephone that you just’re asleep, or it might make a suggestion to activate a sleep mode to allow you to cease doom scrolling on TikTok and put the telephone down.
2. The Galaxy S25 Ultra goals to ship the whole bundle
The headline {hardware} announcement from Galaxy Unpacked was the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, aka Samsung’s greatest, baddest new flagship smartphone.
At first look, it doesn’t look too dissimilar to its predecessor, however there are some vital design variations value mentioning. For starters, the S25 Ultra has a lot bolder digicam rings, which now look extra like they do on the Galaxy Z Fold 6, and are constant throughout your complete Galaxy S25 lineup. The new telephone has a barely larger show than the S24 Ultra too; it now measures 6.9 inches, up from 6.8 inches on final 12 months’s mannequin, which is a rise made doable by a 15% thinner bezel.
The S25 Ultra can be thinner than its predecessor extra usually, and it weighs 15g much less, however the greatest distinction involves the corners, which at the moment are rounded moderately than sharp (iPhone followers, rejoice).
Under the hood, Samsung’s newest flagship boasts a For Galaxy model of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which is extra highly effective than the S24 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and may ship even higher gaming and AI efficiency. Speaking of which, the S25 Ultra will get a bigger vapor-cooling chamber than its predecessor, and also you’ll additionally get on the spot entry to some new Galaxy AI options like Now Brief and Audio Eraser.
For our first impressions of this new finest Android telephone contender, take a look at our hands-on Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra evaluation. Your transfer, Google and Apple!
@techradar Meet the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus: similar nice design, beware chip and extra AI!
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3. The Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus step issues up by way of worth
Compared to the Ultra, this 12 months’s new customary fashions aren’t all that thrilling, however they’re objectively higher than their predecessors and include a number of future-facing upgrades.
Design-wise, you’re trying on the similar fancy new digicam rings as on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and each the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus are 7% thinner than final 12 months’s fashions.
The huge information for these two telephones is the RAM capability: it’s now 12GB as a substitute of 8GB, which brings each fashions consistent with the S25 Ultra, and all three new units additionally share the identical Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. There’s no Qualcomm/Exynos cut up this 12 months, which is able to come as excellent news for European patrons.
Other {hardware} upgrades for the S25 embrace a bigger vapor-cooling chamber, which ought to facilitate higher gaming efficiency alongside that 8 Elite chipset, and on the software program entrance you’ll get on the spot entry to a number of new Galaxy AI options.
For an early take a look at each units, take a look at our hands-on Samsung Galaxy S25 evaluation and hands-on Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus evaluation.
4. The Galaxy S25 Edge is official, and it’s loopy skinny
While the telephone rumor mill has been speaking about an iPhone 17 Air for fairly a while, Samsung beat the Cupertino-based tech big to the punch. Just prefer it teased the Galaxy Ring on the finish of the January 2024 Unpacked, Samsung closed out this 12 months’s Unpacked with a glimpse of an ultra-thin smartphone.
The Galaxy S25 Edge exhibits varied elements stacking collectively in an incredibly slim construct for a telephone that seemingly guarantees the Galaxy AI powers of the remainder of the S25 lineup in an ultra-light construct. We bought to see it from afar at Galaxy Unpacked, and sure, it’s loopy, and tremendous skinny, however nonetheless has room for a predominant digicam bump and appears to boast matt titanium sides.
Of course, nothing greater than a fast look and a reputation was made official, however the minute Samsung provides us extra data on the Galaxy S25 Edge, we’ll you should definitely replace you.
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5. We bought one other take a look at Samsung and Google’s Project Moohan headset
Google and Samsung formally unveiled the Project Moohan Android XR mixed-reality headset in December of 2024, but it surely wouldn’t have been an Unpacked with out a tease, proper? It was solely a quick point out, however Samsung did certainly exhibit a recent take a look at the forthcoming headset.
The two manufacturers are nonetheless partnering on the Android XR platform, but in addition on the headset poised to ship a whole vary of XR experiences with eye- and hand-tracking. Samsung once more confirmed the headset is within the works, although nothing extra concrete was shared besides that it’ll combine with the present Samsung ecosystem.
Separately, talking to Bloomberg, Samsung’s TM Roh confirmed that the model can be engaged on glasses with Google, and that the 2 firms need to ship them as quickly as they’re prepared. It’s protected to say AR, XR, and sensible glasses are nonetheless heating up.
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6. You’ll get 6 months of Gemini Advanced with an S25, S25 Plus, or S25 Ultra
Considering Samsung highlighted a variety of new Gemini options throughout Galaxy Unpacked, it’s solely proper that folk ordering the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, or S25 Ultra are getting a freebie. With the acquisition of Samsung’s newest flagship, you’ll get six months of Gemini Advanced at no extra value, which ought to allow you to use all of the telephone’s AI capabilities to the fullest with out worrying about limits.
The deal additionally stretches the worth of the Galaxy S25 lineup; Gemini Advanced is $19.99 a month within the United States, so a six-month subscription is simply in need of $120 in worth.
7. The S25 sequence telephones are getting the iPhone and Pixel’s finest digicam options
The race for the title of finest digicam telephone goes to be tight once more in 2025, with Samsung revealing that its S25 clan will get some highly effective options we’ve largely seen from Apple and Google prior to now.
That contains the power to shoot log video (which is right for colour grading) and Samsung’s tackle Google’s Best Take for Pixels, which it’s calling Best Face. That’s preferrred in case your group pictures often include somebody with unlucky blinking timing.
If you favor to tweak and color-grade your nonetheless photographs, there’s additionally an equal of Apple’s Photographic Styles. This lets you choose an image and create a filter based mostly on its look, earlier than fine-tuning its white stability, saturation, and grain.
Interestingly, a demo of Gemini Live confirmed a presenter getting some photograph modifying suggestions from an AI assistant by speaking to them about their canine photograph. Snaps of your furry buddy won’t ever have poor composition once more.
While it wasn’t an enormous portion of the keynote, SmartThings had its second within the solar with the official announcement of recent ambient sensing know-how and Generative AI Map View instruments that will help you personalize your sensible house, all below the banner of Home AI.
Ambient sensing is arguably essentially the most thrilling function, marking the primary ecosystem-wide sensor-based know-how that can enable your sensible house units not solely to detect the place you’re and what you’re doing, but in addition optimize your surroundings accordingly.
Doing some press-ups? Well, your fridge may simply be watching you, prepared to present personalised recommendations on how one can enhance your kind, or recommend changes to the length of your exercise.
While the second replace may sound much less thrilling, it’s truly a part of how ambient sensing could be made much more efficient. Samsung’s new Gen AI Map View will will let you {photograph} and add your actual furnishings into Map View, which means your Home AI won’t solely know the place the furnishings is, but in addition what the furnishings is. This is already considerably doable with the Bespoke JetBot Combo AI robotic vacuum, however Gen AI Map View will open the gates for much more personalization and element.
Given that Samsung is already discussing its imaginative and prescient of bringing units just like the Samsung Galaxy Ring and even SmartTag 2 into the SmartThings fold, it’s not exhausting to think about simply how clever your Samsung sensible house may be about to develop into.
Both ambient sensing and Gen AI Map View are set to roll out all through 2025 and 2026.
9. There may be a Samsung tri-fold telephone sooner or later
Before closing out the keynote with the Galaxy S25 Edge, Samsung confirmed off what appeared like a roadmap that included a tri-fold telephone.
While Samsung did not share something additional, it possible exhibits the place Samsung is heading with its foldable smartphone lineup. We have already got the Flip and Fold, however there’ll have to be a brand new kind issue to push the class additional and ship one thing new. It appears that tri-fold is that construct sort, and Samsung may ship it earlier than we anticipated.