Updated November 15
• Leaked benchmarks paint rather a disappointing picture for Galaxy S25
• A new leak may have revealed when the Galaxy S25 launch event may be
• A leaker reiterates that all Galaxy S25 models will feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite system-on-chip
• Galaxy S25 Slim may launch in June with an "Ultra" camera
Time is ticking away before we inevitably get the next big phone from Samsung, the Galaxy S25. The company’s next flagship phones are sure to be some of the best phones when they come out, but we’re still a good ways away from it.
Naturally, we expect the Galaxy S25 to make all the necessary iterative improvements to retain a seat amongst the best Android phones out there. And given how all the Galaxy AI features that accompany the Galaxy S24, it’s almost certain that Samsung will follow up with more compelling features powered by artificial intelligence with the Galaxy S25.
Leaks have slowly been developing to give us clues and ideas on what to expect with the Galaxy S25 — so much so that we’ve listed what we’d want to see with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Here’s everything we know so far about the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Plus, and Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Samsung Galaxy S25: Rumored release date and price
Samsung has confirmed there will be a Galaxy S25 series, and that it will arrive in the first half of 2025. Thanks to a new leak we may know exactly when the phone is going to surface too: a Galaxy Unpacked event on January 23.
If Samsung sticks to its usual timelines, then the official release date should follow two weeks later. The Galaxy S24 was announced during Galaxy Unpacked on January 17, 2024, and released on January 31, 2024. Knowing that, we suspect that the Galaxy S25’s release will happen on February 6.
It's also been claimed that a thinner Galaxy S25 Slim could also be on the way, but it might not arrive until late spring. Sadly we have no idea how much it might cost, but it seems to be coming in addition to the other three phones. Read our Galaxy S25 Slim hub for more on what we know so far about that possible addition to the lineup.
We're hoping that there's not much change to the Galaxy S25’s price. Samsung launched the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra for $799, $999, and $1,299 respectively — with the S24 Ultra being the only one to see its price increase from the prior year. Since Apple didn't increase the price of its iPhone 16 lineup, it's less likely for Samsung to increase its prices..
That said, a leaker claims the price of the Galaxy S25 is going up, largely because of the cost of Snapdragon 8 Elite chip expected to power all the new phones. Worryingly, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo echoes that sentiment, noting that the 3nm process to be used for the Snapdragon 8 Elite is a costly one. We're still a ways out from the Galaxy S25 launch, so things could change between now and then, but this is a claim worth keeping an eye on.
Samsung Galaxy S25: Design and display
One immediate way Samsung could shake things up with the design of the Galaxy S25 by increasing the size of its display. Known leaker Yeux1122 reports the Galaxy S25’s screen will go from the Galaxy S24's 6.2 inches to a slightly larger 6.36 inches, which would effectively match the increased display size of the iPhone 16 Pro. We suspect that the phone itself would be a little larger than its predecessor, mainly to accommodate the larger screen because Samsung slimmed down the S24’s bezels over the S23. But to keep the phone easy to handle, Samsung may be making at least the Ultra model rounder on the back to help it sit in your hand.
Aside from the Galaxy S25 potentially getting a larger display, the rest of the design should be a familiar one. Meaning, both the S25 and S25 Plus should be rocking the same armor aluminum frame — while the titanium frame should still be exclusive to the S25 Ultra. But there’s still plenty of time for things to change as new leaks come around.
We've seen a potential design for the Galaxy S25 Ultra thanks to a rumor-based render. It's familar-looking enough, and still appears to come with a built-in S Pen, but it shows, as we've heard before, that the corners are rounder than previous Ultra Galaxys, and its display wider, giving it quite a different look. Recent case leaks also suggest that this rounded design could be coming — with a similar look to iPhone 16.
As for their displays, Samsung certainly made a point of detailing how all three versions of the Galaxy S24 offer 2,600-nit displays. Although, in our own benchmark testing, none of them came close to reaching those claims. While we hope Samsung will improve this in the Galaxy S25, Ross Young claims that the phone will come with the same M13 OLED displays as the S24 series — rather than the brighter M14 OLED used by Pixel 9 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro.
More importantly, however, Samsung can’t afford to have another display issue — like the Mura effect on the Galaxy S24 that causes a clouding effect when the display’s brightness is set to a low setting. We tested this out ourselves with the Galaxy S24 Plus and S24 Ultra, verifying that both phones produced the Mura effect.
Ross Young claims that the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus will be available in Moon Night Blue, Silver Shadow, Sparking Blue and Sparkling Green. Young reiterated that the S25 Ultra could come in titanium, black, green and blue.
Samsung Galaxy S25: Performance
One of the earliest Galaxy S25 leaks hint at a bigger speed boost, courtesy of Qualcomm’s next chipset. We now know that system-on-chip will be called the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and it promises big performance gains for both the CPU and GPU. Even better, multiple reports claim the Galaxy S25 models will all feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite exclusively.
That's not how Samsung handled things with the Galaxy S24. The Galaxy S24 Ultra did feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 exclusively, but that chip only appeared in the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus models that shipped in North America. Elsewhere, those two phones featured the Exynos 2400 chipset.
While one report claimed Samsung would turn to the Exynos 2500 as its system-on-chip exclusively, it sounds more likely that Samsung is going with the Snapdragon 8 Elite — not just in its Ultra model, but in the S25 and S25 Plus, too. Leaker Ice Universe reiterated that claim in November, after Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
We can certainly understand why Samsung would turn to Qualcomm's new chip. We had a chance to benchmark the Snapdragon 8 Elite on a Qualcomm reference device, and its graphics numbers blew away the iPhone 16 Pro running on Apple's A18 Pro chipset. The Snapdragon 8 Elite device also bested the iPhone in the multicore test for Geekbench 6, while coming close to the iPhone 16 Pro's pace-setting result in the single-core test.
Leaked benchmarks for the Galaxy S25 Ultra have offered up similar numbers, but sadly that isn't the case for the standard Galaxy S25. In fact the leak suggests Geekbench 6 scores of 2,481 in single-core testing and 8,658 in multi-core. Which is quite a bit lower than the Ultra's alleged 3,148 and 10,236 scores.
Another performance boost could be coming to the Galaxy S25 Ultra specifically, with that phone tipped to get UFS 4.1. Most Galaxy S24 models use UFS 4.0, so the improvement would be incremental, but still result in a performance uplift that would help any AI features included with the new phone.
And from a connectivity perspective, another big upgrade to come to the Galaxy S25 series — satellite connectivity. This would help users send messages, particularly to emergency services, while off-grid.
Samsung Galaxy S25: Cameras
Samsung has been nearly untouchable in the camera department with its phones, proven by the Galaxy S23 Ultra dominating all other phones throughout 2023 in our best camera phones list. Well, that changed with the release of the Galaxy S24 because of the controversial move of downgrading to a 5x optical zoom camera with the S24 Ultra.
We saw a noticeable difference with our zoom test between the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy S23 Ultra, so Samsung has its work cut out in redeeming itself with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. So far, the early rumors paint an enticing picture — an upgraded main camera, 50MP ultra-wide angle camera (up from the 12MP one on the S24 Ultra), and a new telephoto camera with “variable capabilities.”
The latter was rumored to happen with the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but the S25 Ultra seems like the more appropriate candidate. On one hand, it could mean that we could have a variable telephoto camera that could move to different zoom levels, but it could also be something different. Take for example the variable aperture of the recent Xiaomi 14 Ultra, which can dial down the aperture to different levels. Zooming has always been a specialty with the Ultra, so we’re really hoping Samsung delivers in this area to redeem itself.
However, there's a report that Samsung might be ditching the 3x telephoto zoom for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. This would result in a triple camera setup as opposed to the quadruple one the series is known for. Leaker @ISAQUES81 makes this claim based on a prototype that Samsung is testing. However, leaker Ice Universe says the opposite and claims that the S25 ultra still have four camera lenses. The leaker has gone on to say that both the ultrawide and secondary telephoto lenses on the Galaxy S25 Ultra are due an upgrade, with both cameras using 50MP sensors instead of the 12MP and 10MP sensors found on the S24 Ultra. That claim has been echoed by other leakers.
Meanwhile, there are fewer rumors about the cameras for the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus. One of the few hints to Samsung switching to a Sony camera sensor, instead of the ISOCELL sensor used previously. However, a leaker named The Galox says neither the S25 nor the S25 Plus will benefit from a megapixel or layout change to its cameras.
As for the Galaxy S25 Slim, it's been claimed by Ice Universe that it will come with an "Ultra" camera. They didn't elaborate on what this means exactly, but it's likely that the 200MP main lens is a shoo-in. Whether we'll see upgrades like the rumored 50MP ultrawide or variable telephoto lenses isn't clear yet.
Samsung has announced new camera sensors, and we'd imagine that one — the 50MP ISOCELL GNJ — might find its way into the S25 models as the sensor is approximately the same size as the one in the S24 and S24 Plus. The lens promises both an anti-refractive layer and pixel isolation, which should improve light capture, reduce reflections, deliver more accurate shadows and improve color reproduction.
Whatever ends up coming to fruition, Samsung can’t afford to come up short against the reigning king in our best camera phones list — the iPhone 16 Pro. That's because in our iPhone 16 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra photo shoot out, Apple's new flagship tops Samsung.
Samsung Galaxy S25: Battery & charging
The Galaxy S25 has the potential of breaking records, especially if the promised power efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Elite pans out when we get a chance to test the battery life of Samsung's upcoming models. All three models of the Galaxy S24 easily boast substantially better battery life than their predecessor; with the Snapdragon 8 Elite promising a 44% improvement to the CPU's power efficiency and a GPU that consumes 40% less power, you'd expect phones powered by that chipset to last a very long time.
Speaking of expectations, it looks like the Galaxy S25 could feature the same battery capacity as the S24. There have been rumors for a while now about Samsung adopting stacked batteries in its flagship series, but there’s no strong evidence we’ll get them yet with the S25. Meanwhile, multiple leaks indicate that Samsung will still go with a 5,000 mAh battery for the S25 Ultra.
One area that certainly needs upgrading would be the charging capabilities of the phone. Samsung has kept the same 25W wired charging speed with the Galaxy S24, so it would be a tremendous boost if the Galaxy S25 could get an upgrade. That’s because both the S24 Plus and S24 Ultra feature 45W wired charging speeds. But there’s even more opportunity to improve charging as a whole with the entire S25 series because the OnePlus 12 is proof that you can get a fully charged phone with 30 minutes of charging.
And finally, Samsung will also need to upgrade the wireless charging speed in the Galaxy S25 line because it’s been limited to 15W wireless charging as far back as the S9. An upgrade is long overdue at this point, more so when the OnePlus 12 flaunts a ridiculous 50W wireless charging speed.
Samsung Galaxy S25: Software and Galaxy AI features
After introducing a handful of Galaxy AI features with the S24, Samsung will have to come up with even more for the Galaxy S25. We’ve tested out many of the Galaxy AI features, like Instant Slow-mo, Generative Edit, and Voice Recorder Summaries, proving that many of them have practical applications. Others, however, still hover that fine line of being novel.
There haven’t been any leaks on what new Galaxy AI features we could see introduced with the Galaxy S25, although Samsung has confirmed AI will be a priority for the phone, and a Samsung executive did raise the possibility of infusing the Bixby personal assistant with generative AI capabilities. However, the question in everyone’s mind is how long they’ll remain exclusive to the Galaxy S25 — or passed down to older models. That’s because many of the once exclusive Galaxy AI features of the Galaxy S24 are coming to older Samsung phones through a software upgrade.
As for the S25's overall operating system, that will be One UI 7, an Android 15-based OS that Samsung announced in October 2024 and confirmed will be used on "the new Galaxy" launching next year. It counts a new design among its changes, but the rest of its new features have yet to be announced or discovered by beta users.
Samsung Galaxy S25: Outlook
Samsung has a huge challenge ahead of itself with the Galaxy S25. There’s certainly more pressure for its flagship phones because if you remove the processing performance and battery life of the Galaxy S24 out of the equation, the improvements are minor at best — more so when the same Galaxy AI features have been trickled down to the S23. There’s even greater importance to have bigger upgrades with the Galaxy S25 cameras and charging speeds.
