To set expectations right from the start, Samsung’s Galaxy S25 announcement spends a lot of time on One UI 7, its new AI features and Personal Data Engine. Looking at the complete package, more than 50% of the value of the new Galaxy S25 and S25+ could be software.
They also have new hardware – a custom Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset that promises 37% more CPU performance, 30% more GPU compute power and 40% faster NPU.
Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25+
On the Samsung Galaxy S25, Snapdragon is paired with 12GB of RAM – 8GB is finally a thing of the past! In fact, it’s 12GB across the board, the only RAM capacity available for any S25 model. That said, the S25 is the only S-phone to launch with 128GB of storage. 256GB and 512GB capacities are also available.
As Samsung pushes for performance, the S25 series brings a 40% larger vapor chamber and “optimized thermal interface material” to further improve cooling.
Samsung Galaxy S25 in Icyblue, Mint, Navy and Silver Shadow
The S25 and S25+ have the same screen sizes as last year’s models – a 6.2″ panel in the smaller and a 6.7″ panel in the larger. However, Samsung engineers managed to make both phones 0.4mm thinner and a few grams lighter to boot (the height and width are basically the same). This is without sacrificing battery capacity but without increasing it.
The Samsung Galaxy S25+ has a 1440p+ display, compared to 1080p+ on the smaller one. Both are LTPO OLED panels with a 1-120Hz refresh rate. The Plus also has a bigger battery, but as we noted above, it’s unchanged from last year: the S25+ has a 4,900mAh battery and the S25 has a 4,000mAh battery. The charging situation is the same with 45W wired on the big (65% in 30 minutes) and just 25W on the small (50% in 30 minutes). For wireless charging, Qi is supported at 15W (no, no Qi2 to be found here).
Samsung Galaxy S25+ in Icyblue, Mint, Navy and Silver Shadow
There is an upgrade to the camera, but it is concentrated in the provisional engine. Samsung hasn’t confirmed the sensor model numbers, but we’re essentially seeing the same 50MP main, 10MP 3x telephoto and 12MP ultrawide cameras used since the S22 series. And no, the 12MP selfie camera hasn’t changed either.
This year, however, the S25 series enables 10-bit HDR video recording by default (previously, it was available but disabled) and adds the Galaxy Log function (on Samsung’s own log profile). There is also better noise reduction for night time videos. Audio Eraser can remove unwanted noise from your videos. It separates sounds into different categories – voices, music, wind, nature, crowd and noise – and you can keep whatever you want.
For stills, the Expert RAW feature brings Virtual Aperture that lets you control depth of field. Additionally, Portrait Studio has been enhanced and now allows users to create true-to-life facial expressions.
Two more things about the hardware and then we’ll move on to the software. The Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25+ have Armor aluminum frames that now include recycled materials. Additionally, the batteries contain at least 50% recycled cobalt. Both phones are IP68 rated for submersion up to 1.5m (5ft) for half an hour.
In the connectivity department there is 5G (including mmWave in some regions), Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. By the way, the S25 still doesn’t have UWB. That’s it for the hardware.
The S25 series brings One UI 7 to users and will be kept up to date with software support for 7 years. Security has improved with the introduction of post-quantum cryptography – this means that data encrypted today will still be secure, even if quantum computers in the future begin to crack older cryptography.
The Personal Data Engine powers AI features on the device – things like using a simple spoken request to find an old photo from your gallery. AI will detect what you need and find it for you, leaving no data on the device. The new Now Bar on the lockscreen will offer suggestions from Now Brief, which can be contextually relevant throughout your day.
There are more. Press and hold the side button (what Samsung calls the power button) to talk to Gemini. This works across Samsung and Google apps as well as some third-party apps like Spotify. However, all S25 phones come with 6 months of Gemini Advanced for free (including the 2TB cloud storage that Google offers).
Circle to Search has been updated to recognize phone numbers, emails, URLs and more. The Call Transcript feature will summarize and organize your call history, while the Write Assist will summarize and auto-format your notes. Drawing Assist can turn your sketches or text descriptions into images.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25+ will be available for pre-order soon, check out the table below for all the pricing information we have so far.
| Galaxy S25 | Galaxy S25+ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 128GB | 256GB | 512GB | 256GB | 512GB | |
| UK | £800 | £860 | £980 | £1,000 | £1,100 |
The S25 and S25+ will be available at launch from all retailers in these colors: Navy, Silver Shadow, IceBlue and Mint. Samsung.com will only offer three more: Blue Black, Coral Red and Pink Gold.
