It’s finally that time of the year when Samsung releases a new Galaxy S generation to the masses. Like the Galaxy S24, the Galaxy S25 series debuted at a mid-January Unpacked event, as Samsung is dying to start selling these AI handsets as soon as possible.
Yes, just like last year’s flagships, the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra are all about the Galaxy AI features. The Galaxy S25 launch event also marks an even deeper partnership between Samsung and Google. The Galaxy S25 phones come with deep Gemini AI integration, unlike anything we have seen in a Galaxy device before. You can tell Gemini to perform tasks for you inside various Samsung apps, and the AI assistant should comply. As for Samsung’s One UI 7 software, we know from the beta period that it will look more like iOS than ever before. That includes Samsung’s new “Now Bar” AI feature.
First, the “boring” stuff
The Galaxy S25 series features the same three phones you expect. The base Galaxy S25 and the Galaxy S25 Plus look identical, but one is bigger. They also look a lot like the previous year, not that there’s anything wrong with that. We’ve reached peak smartphones for both iPhone and Android designs. This is as good as it gets, and that’s perfectly fine, considering what these flagships can do.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra delivers the most notable improvement of the three. The phone features curved edges, which I think is an important upgrade. The massive phone will be easier to handle now that it doesn’t have sharp corners.
Everything else is flat in all phones, except for the corners: The screen, the sides, and the back.
When it comes to specs, the biggest upgrade for the Galaxy S25 series is the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. Qualcomm’s fast flagship processor powers all three handsets, as previously rumored. The chip’s efficiency gains over last year’s model should improve battery life. The Elite chip will also ensure the phone runs smoothly, AI features included.
Speaking of battery life, we’re looking at 4,000 mAh, 4,900 mAh, and 5,000 mAh batteris for the three phones. These capacities aren’t surprising, considering that we’re essentially dealing with the same three screen sizes for this year’s Galaxy S flagships: 6.2-inch, 6.7-inch, and 6.9-inch. A new ProScaler technology should make the screens sharper and brighter than last year’s Galaxy S24.
On the camera front, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is the only handset of the three to feature a 200-megapixel wide lens. You’llThe base S25 and S25 Ultra have 50-megapixel main shooters. Camera specs aside, the Galaxy S25 phones will come with a new Night Video with Audio Eraser functionality. The AI feature enhances low-light video capture and removes unwanted noise.
The other specs you might care about concern RAM and storage. All phones get at least 12GB of memory, with some flavors packing 16GB. Storage starts at 256GB for the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and Ultra. The latter goes up to 1TB, while the smaller models stop at 512GB.
Gemini and other new Galaxy AI tricks
The Galaxy AI suite that shipped with the Galaxy S24 last January had various exciting capabilities. Circle to Search, powered by Google, was a highlight. Samsung’s on-device translation capabilities, which included phone calls, were another.
Samsung then added impressive AI image editing and image generation capabilities to Galaxy AI last July when it launched the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 flagships.
Galaxy AI still lacked a vision closer to Apple’s Apple Intelligence for the iPhone. But Samsung promised that Galaxy AI would eventually get more AI assistant-like capabilities, including support for surfacing contextual information about the user to provide more helpful assistance.
That’s what the Galaxy S25 series will deliver in terms of AI improvements: Galaxy AI comes with features like the Now Bar and the Cross App Action feature (Gemini integration).
The Now Bar sits at the bottom of the lock screen and is similar to the iPhone’s Dynamic Island functionality. There’s no point dancing around it, as it’s clear where Samsung got its inspiration. But Samsung added an AI spin to its Dynamic Island take.
The Now Bar will grab information the AI thinks you’ll need at different points during the day. For example, the Now Bar will show weather information and commute suggestions in the morning. It might also surface music suggestions and remind you of events and promotions.
An Evening Brief will walk you through your day, providing information the AI thinks you might want to go over. Maybe it’s content you captured during the day or your health and fitness progress.
I find the Gemini integration (with Gemini Live) more interesting. Google’s AI chatbot/assistant will be able to surface information from several phone apps, including Samsung Calendar, Samsung Notes, and Samsung Reminder. But that’s not the best part. You’d expect the AI to be able to grab such contextual information.
Gemini on the Galaxy S25 will do things for you in those apps. It’s nothing groundbreaking, as Gemini will let you create Calendar events, create and summarize Notes, and help you manage Reminder entries. But it’s still a great start.
More importantly, Galaxy S25 users will be able to tell Gemini to perform several tasks with a single command. For example, you might want the AI to grab content from the web and add it to a new document like Notes. This is an early version of AI agentic behavior tailored to smartphone control.
Galaxy AI will continue to be free at least until 2025. It’s unclear what happens after that.
Galaxy S25 price and release dates
Speaking of prices for Samsung products, Galaxy S25 preorders will start on Wednesday. As the Galaxy S25’s release date is February 7th, you’ll be able to take advantage of the preorder deals for more than two weeks.
The Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra will start at $799.99, $999.99, and $1,299.99. During preorders, you’ll be able to double the storage for free. Buyers will receive complimentary Gemini Advanced access, depending on which model they purchase. All Galaxy S25 models get you six months of access, worth $120.
In addition, expect the usual trade-in deals from Samsung and carriers, which will let you score free Galaxy S25 versions if you trade in a relatively new device for the new handsets.
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