As expected, Samsung took advantage of its Unpacked conference to unveil its new high-end smartphones, the Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra. Powerful models, but without any big surprises, and above all packed with AI.
At Samsung, the month of January remains the preferred period for the first Unpacked of the year. Understand, one of two global events (the second takes place during the summer) during which the Korean giant unveils a wave of new products. And as usual, it is the Galaxy S smartphones, the most high-end models, which take the spotlight at this major “unboxing” conference. to see or rewatch online. Welcome to the Galaxy S25 which is available in three models as for several years with the S25, the S25+ and the best of the best, the S25 Ultra.
And like last year with the S24 series, it is clear that the developments of the S25 on the hardware level ultimately prove to be few. The majority of efforts are focused, once again, on the software aspect with increasingly omnipresent artificial intelligence. It’s very simple, Samsung wants to make the S25 a true life companion and even a “digital friend” from whom you can ask anything.
Samsung Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra: many points in common
The Korean did not wish to make any radical changes in terms of design. Quite the contrary. A bit like Apple with the almost unchanged look of its iPhones for many years, Samsung wanted to maintain the now easily identifiable appearance of its devices. The photo modules remain neatly aligned vertically on the back of each model and the edges retain their flat appearance.
Two differences should, however, be noted. The S25 Ultra, the largest and most expensive of all, abandons the protruding corners inaugurated on the S24 Ultra for rounded corners like on the others.
It also sees its screen increase from 6.8 to 6.9 inches thanks to thinner borders. Furthermore, the three devices are thinner by losing 0.4 mm in thickness. The S25 and S25+ benefit from an Armor Aluminum chassis and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 glass, while the S25 Ultra benefits from a Titanium chassis and a more resistant Gorilla Glass Armor 2 glass.
Samsung Galaxy S25: a standardized engine
On the screen side, nothing changes compared to the S24, except for the Ultra model which gains 0.1 inch of diagonal. The S25 retains its “compact” format with its 6.2-inch Amoled FHD panel, the S25+ benefits from a 6.7-inch QHD+ Amoled panel and the S25 Ultra also has a 6.9-inch QHD+ panel. Like last year, the brightness caps at 2600 nits and the refresh still oscillates from 1 to 120 Hz.
It is at the engine level that Samsung innovates. Last year, the first two models were powered by an in-house SoC, the Exynos 2400, while the S24 Ultra was powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 from Qualcomm. For the S25 series, it will be Snapdragon 8 Elite for everyone. Ditto for the quantity of RAM set at 12 GB. The key is also Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. We are therefore curious to see how the small size of the S25 will cope with cooling this processor. Indeed, almost all the smartphones that we have tested so far and which are equipped with it have shown a significant rise in temperature sometimes leading them to stop the tasks in progress. Not to mention the impact on the battery. The S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra use the same batteries as their predecessors S24, namely 4000 mAh, 4900 mAh and 5000 mAh. The charging power does not vary either: 25W for the S25 and 45W for the other two. This is becoming a real refrain: it is time for Samsung to adopt faster charging devices like we now find from all other manufacturers (except Apple).
There remains the storage which has hardly changed except for the first model of the family offered in 128, 256 and now 512 GB versions. We can choose between 256 or 512 GB for the S25+ and between 256 GB, 512 GB or 1 TB for the S25 Ultra.
Nothing is moving on the photo equipment side either. The S25 and S25+ retain a 50 Mpx wide-angle, a 12 Mpx ultra-wide-angle and a 10 Mpx 3x telephoto lens. Only the S25 Ultra sees a small evolution. Its ultra wide-angle module goes from a 12 Mpx sensor to 50 Mpx for more precision in details. The rest of the equipment remains identical to the S24 Ultra with a 200 Mpx wide-angle lens, a 5x 50 Mpx telephoto lens and a second 3x 10 Mpx telephoto lens.
Samsung Galaxy S25: AI at every level
With the S24 family released just a year ago, Samsung had already relied on AI to promote the advantages of its high-end smartphones. Rebelotte in 2025. Delivered with OneUI 7, the in-house software overlay applied to Android 15, all Galaxy S25s are adorned with new AI tools which are added to those already present.
• Circle to search now comes with an audio module. A bit like with Shazam, it is possible to have a piece of music recognized. We can also sing or hum a tune that’s stuck in our head to identify it. Circle to search also offers contextual actions to, for example, make a phone call directly if there is a telephone number in the search results.
• Now Bar resembles, in idea, the Dynamic Island available in iOS. The difference? It nestles at the bottom of the lock screen. For example, it allows you to display in real time the score of a football match in progress, a route, traffic information if a route is programmed in order to know when to leave, audio player controls, instant translation, etc. The possibilities are very numerous.
• Cross App Actions is a kind of multitasking assistant. Samsung assures that it uses several AI tools (like Gemini or Bixby). It allows you to say complex queries out loud. For example: “find an Italian restaurant that offers vegetarian dishes and is less than 15 minutes walk from my house. And share the results with Paul.” The assistant will then use several apps (voice recognition, Maps and the messages app) to carry out its task. The assistant already works with a dozen Google apps (YouTube, Maps, Gmail, Messages, Home, Drive, Search, etc.), Samsung apps (Calendar, Clock, Notes and Alarm) as well as ‘with WhatsApp and Spotify.
• Simplified search allows you to carry out voice requests on the files present in the smartphone. For example, you can ask “find me the photo of my daughter on the beach at sunset” and the assistant will display the corresponding photos. Likewise, it is possible to quickly find settings to perform actions like “send my smartphone display to the TV screen”. The interface will not start the process but will then take you to the correct menu. Very practical.
• Now Brief is the feature that greets you when you first grab your smartphone in the morning. Depending on your habits (while it gets to know you), it presents the weather conditions, planned appointments, your health monitoring with your energy score as long as you wear a Galaxy Watch or a Galaxy Ring, etc. Now Brief tracks your activities throughout the day and presents, within a widget, past or upcoming events depending on the context with a summary of the day at the end of the day. Not recommended if you already have the feeling of being constantly tracked and monitored by your smartphone.
• Smart suggestions is a function which, again, is based on your habits and daily routines. For example, it allows you to launch your favorite GPS navigation app and trigger playback of a playlist as soon as you set foot in your car. It can also start the robot vacuum cleaner (it is compatible with all Matter devices) and turn off the lights as soon as you leave home. Better, if you wear a Samsung connected watch or ring, the function will be able to identify if you have fallen asleep in front of the TV. She can then turn it off and cut the lights.
• Audio Eraser is a function that we already appreciated on Google Pixels. It now joins the S25 (although Samsung does not specify whether it is the same version). It allows you to remove voices, wind noise or extraneous sounds from a video in order to focus on one or more audio elements.
• Group photo is a function also found on Pixels. It allows you to retouch group photos by choosing the best shooting moment for each of the protagonists present in the image.
• Writing tools powered by AI are no longer confined to the Samsung keyboard. They can be used with other keyboards and even with any selected text. They allow you to produce summaries, vary styles, etc.
• Creation tools who use generative AI to produce images can now leverage an existing image, drawing or prompt. The operation also applies to the creation of stickers in messages.
All these functions will be integrated into the new Galaxy S25 regardless of model. Samsung could not confirm to us that they will also join, at least, the Galaxy S24s when updating to OneUI 7. Note that the S25s will receive 7 years of Android updates and security patches.
Samsung Galaxy S25: price and availability
It’s a nice surprise. While we expected to see prices soar due to inflation and the presence of the new Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC from Qualcomm (source of a number of smartphone price increases since the end of the year last), Samsung does not touch its price list. The Galaxy S25 retains the prices of the Galaxy S24 when it was released last year.
- Galaxy S25 128 GB: 899 euros
- Galaxy S25 256 GB: 959 euros
- Galaxy S25 512 GB: 1079 euros
- Galaxy S25+ 256 GB: 1169 euros
- Galaxy S25+ 512 GB: 1289 euros
- Galaxy S25 Ultra 256 GB: 1469 euros
- Galaxy S25 Ultra 512 GB: 1589 euros
- Galaxy S25 Ultra 1TB: 1829 euros
The Galaxy S25s will be available from February 7. And as usual, for their launch, Samsung is doubling the storage capacity for free.