Samsung Galaxy S25 Unpacked live blog — all the big launch day news as it happens

Refresh 2025-01-22T14:35:56.220Z Reddit leak reveals all Galaxy S25 models (Image credit: senzu_B @ reddit) Would you look at that! Just hours before Galaxy Unp

Would you look at that! Just hours before Galaxy Unpacked is scheduled to kick off, a leak showing all three Galaxy S25 models comes to us courtesy of Reddit. The Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra are in plain view with their respective retail packages.

Out of the three on display in the leak, it’s the striking new color of the Galaxy S25 Plus that commands the most attention. This blue color looks striking and a bit deeper in tone that last year’s color.

Additionally, we get a closer look at their camera lenses, which are surrounded by these concentric circles. They match the subtle silhouette that we’ve seen in Samsung’s official teaser invite for Galaxy Unpacked.

When the Galaxy S25 Ultra arrives, it’ll be Samsung’s ultimate phone alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 foldable. But which will be the true no. 1 device in Samsung’s smartphone portfolio: the Galaxy S25 or the Galaxy Z Fold 6?

Obviously the ability for the Z Fold 6 to offer two displays, including one that folds in half, offers utility that the Galaxy S25 Ultra never could. But the S25 Ultra will still offer better cameras, battery life and value for money, going by the rumors and the current S24 Ultra’s specs

If Galaxy AI isn’t enough artificial intelligence for you, then you might be interested in the rumor that Samsung will offer up to a free year of Gemini Advanced with the purchase of a Galaxy S25 device.

Gemini Advanced, normally priced at $20 a month, allows access to several features locked off from regular free users. That includes image generation, internet search capabilities for up-to-date info, Gemini Live voice chat and access to the 1.5 Gemini Pro model for more detailed responses and analysis of larger bodies of data, especially with the Deep Research mode activated. There’s 2TB of Google One storage bundled in too.

Users with the current best Galaxy model or who are wondering if the 2024 version is a better deal than the new one will want to read our full Galaxy S25 vs Galaxy S24 comparison story, going off the numerous leaks we’ve seen about the S25 so far.

Looking at the basic models specifically, the most important change will be the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which looks to bring a big performance boost compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or Exynos 2400 chip seen in the Galaxy S24 series (depending on where you bought it). Otherwise, beyond the colors the phone is offered in, it’s going to come down to the unique Galaxy AI features tied to the Galaxy S25 that will determine its value to you over the S24.

It’s not certain what Galaxy AI will gain with the launch of the Galaxy S25 series – software leaks are much rarer than hardware ones after all. But the TG team has a few ideas as to what Samsung should add.

Our requests range from a Google At a Glance-inspired widget for all occasions, a smart subscription manager to avoid paying for services you aren’t using and improvements to speech-to-text input. No doubt there will be plenty for Samsung to show off in San Jose, but hopefully these features are among them.

If you’re not sure if upgrading to a new Samsung phone now or in a year’s time is the smarter decision, here’s one factor that could impact your decision: the Galaxy S26 could use silicon-carbon battery, a more energy-dense material blend that means more power in the same-sized space.

Samsung’s rivals in China, such as OnePlus and Honor, already use this technology to great effect. Galaxy phones’ batteries are hardly small, but a longer battery life is always beneficial for users, and if Samsung wants its phones higher than 9th on our best phone battery life guide, embracing silicon-carbon is a smart way to go about it. It’s just a shame that, as far as we know, the Galaxy S25 series won’t be upgrading its batteries at all from the Galaxy S24 series.

One of the biggest competitors that Samsung’s new phone will have to face comes from Google, another phone company focused on AI features for its flagship phones. Which is why we’ve been looking intently at the Galaxy S25 vs. Pixel 9 comparison.

From the official and unofficial specs we have, the two phones should still sell for the same price, and offer a similar-sized display. But the Galaxy should have an advantage on camera hardware and performance, while the Pixel will likely be best for battery and photo processing. Google could hold on to its AI feature advantage too depending on how Samsung deepens and broadens its range of Galaxy AI abilities for the S25 series.

We won’t have a full verdict on anything Samsung announces today for a little while yet — proper testing takes time after all. But let us hope these phones review better than another of Samsung’s newest products, the Samsung Music Frame, a speaker designed to look like wall art.

While it’s a unique design with reasonable sound quality and plenty of settings to tweak via the companion app, the high price and lack of bass mean there are better rounded speakers on offer, even if none of them will hang from your picture hook like this one.

But what about the Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra comparison? There are quite a few more changes to look at here, going by the rumors.

A change to a higher-res ultrawide camera sensor, a new chipset, a slightly larger display and a refreshed design with rounder corners seem to be the most notable alterations between generations. But the Galaxy S24 Ultra shares most of its other specs with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, again potentially offering better value for users who don’t mind missing out on a few brand-new features.

For users with older phones, you’re perhaps considering the Galaxy S25 vs. Galaxy S24 as the clock ticks down to the S25 series’ debut. If you’re on an older device, both of these models could be an upgrade, but which would be the best for you?

Going by the upgrades the Galaxy S25 is tipped to get, users prioritizing performance and the latest AI features may want to go for the newer phone, while users trying to get a cheap price or who care about camera or display hardware could go for the Galaxy S24, as it’s rumored that these won’t change much, if at all, for the new phone.

If you want to know more about the chip that’ll power the new Galaxy S25 models, then allow us to introduce you to the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Already found in the OnePlus 13 and Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, this is likely to be the most powerful chip around for Android phones for the rest of the year. And if we’re lucky, Samsung will get a “For Galaxy” version for the S25 series, as it has with the past two years of Snapdragon 8 series chips, with even more power to offer.

We don’t expect the display on the Galaxy S25 to be anything other than a typical, albeit high-quality, rectangle of toughened glass. But Samsung has more imaginative screens to show off elsewhere.

Earlier this month at CES 2025, we saw Samsung’s Stretchable MicroLED in action. This is only a concept, but a display that can bend to match the action on-screen. Not sure it belongs on a regular smartphone, but perhaps some advanced foldable down the line could make use of it.

If you got a Galaxy S22 on contract when it launched three years ago, chances are you’re due for an upgrade. And the Galaxy S25 is arriving at just the right time.

Our full Galaxy S25 vs. Galaxy S22 comparison will explain more, but a size increase, better performance and a larger battery are just the headline upgrades you’ll enjoy if you trade in your S22 for the latest model.

A recent leak of Galaxy S25 marketing info includes references to “insights” the phone will be able to offer, including what looks like a series of briefing pop-ups for the morning, evening and commuting time.

Various smartphones and apps are able to collect together key information for users to review at a convenient moment, and Google Pixel phones’ At a Glance widget is particularly good at surfacing calendar events or tickets just as you need them. But Samsung looks like it may have the most comprehensive version of this yet.

One thing you’ll notice when you consider Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Ultra battery rumors is that the battery sizes of the new models aren’t expected to change from what the comparable S24 versions offered. If that holds true, that means the Galaxy S25 will have a 4,000 mAh battery, the Galaxy S25 Plus will feature a 4,900 mAh power pack, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra will turn to a 5,000 mAh cell. It also means that any gain in battery life will have to come from improved power efficiency in the chipset those new phones run on.

We’ll see if the Snapdragon 8 Elite is up to the task, but the Galaxy S24 lineup set a high bar for how long Samsung phone’s can last on a charge. The Galaxy S24 Plus and S24 Ultra still have spots on our best phone battery life list, and the Galaxy S24’s time of 13 hours and 28 minutes on our battery test is about 3.5 hours better than what the average phone can do.

That’s not something we’re going to be able to find out today — we need to test the phones to see what their battery life is like. But it should be interesting to see what Samsung has to say about how long its phones can last.

It’s not even the end of January, and by the end of the day, we’re going to know how one of the biggest Android phone battles will pan out. We’re going to see the Galaxy S25 later today, of course, but Samsung’s flagship has already been beaten to the punch by the OnePlus 13, which arrived earlier this month.

Looking for a phone with a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a triple rear camera setup and a bunch of AI features? I could be describing either the OnePlus 13 or what we expect to see from the Galaxy S25. Our updated Galaxy S25 vs. OnePlus 13 face-off looks at how these phones figure to compare now that we’ve had a chance to test the OnePlus 13.

Spoiler alert: The cameras on the new OnePlus flagship have improved dramatically, and Samsung will need to step up its game to compete.

Do you care about the S Pen on the Galaxy S25 Ultra? If the answer is yes, there could be notable downgrade on the way. According to leaker Ishan Agarwal (via Android Central), the S25 Ultra could lose Bluetooth functionality on the S Pen. That means you wouldn’t be able to perform various gestures, such as activating the shutter on the camera remotely.

It’s not clear why Samsung would make this call, but it could be cost-cutting measure.

We have potentially good news and bad news for the Galaxy S25 series when it comes to Qi2 charing — at least based on the rumors. The good news is that Samsung has said itself that it plans to support the Qi2 wireless standard. This means that we could see fast 15W wireless charging, as well as a ring of magnets that should support a wide array of accessories. The bad news is that you may have to spring for a Qi2-compatible case in order to get this functionality. But we’ll have to see what Samsung actually announces.

Hey, this is Mark Spoonauer, the global editor in chief for Tom’s Guide. And I’m here in San Jose for Samsung Unpacked.

As someone who has reviewed the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I’m super curious how the Galaxy S25 Ultra will stack up to Apple’s best. Based on the leaks I feel like Samsung has a real chance to leapfrog Apple Intelligence with its new Galaxy AI and Google Gemini features.

Based on a leaked promo video of AI features in the S25 series from Evan Blass, it looks like Samsung will be able to perform actions on your behalf using just your voice. In the video we see a woman pressing the side button of a Galaxy S25 and asking to find “a pet-friendly Italian restaurant with outdoor seating nearby and texting it to Tony.” Apple can’t do that…yet.

Galaxy S25 prices remain a moving target some 15 hours ahead of the Unpacked event, with many rumors pointing to a potential price hike for some models. However, there is some call for optimism based on a report from Korea’s FNNews.

The translation of that report suggests that Samsung is “freezing” prices — that is, keeping them the same on entry-level models of its new phones, at least in Korea. There is a possibility for higher prices should you upgrade the storage, however.

Android Authority, which picked up the FNNews report, goes on to say that prices should remain steady in places like Korea and Europe; other regions like India could see prices go up from the S24 models. There’s not a lot of reporting on what this might mean for U.S. prices of the Galaxy S25, though.

One other bit of good news in the FNNews story: the site says Samsung will have a promotion where you can order a phone with upgraded storage for the same price you’d pay for the smaller capacity model — getting a 512GB Galaxy S25 Plus for the cost of a 256GB version, for example. That’s a frequent preorder promotion at Samsung, and if it returns for the Galaxy S25 launch, we’ll be happy to welcome it back.

One factor to pay attention to with the Galaxy S25 series that you might have ignored on earlier phones is how much RAM Samsung includes. Memory is important a lot of times, but when on-device AI is involved, it’s really important.

The Galaxy S24 came with 8GB of RAM, but that’s likely getting bumped up to 12GB on the Galaxy S25. Leaked specs have the S25 Plus and S25 Ultra still with 12GB of RAM, though we wouldn’t be surprised to see a 16GB configuration (though rumors suggest that model will be limited to select regions).

We’ve raised the possibility of a Project Moohan reveal at Galaxy Unpacked, because Samsung has already confirmed a 2025 release date for a virtual headset, and we can look at a calendar. But BusinessKorea is going one step further: it’s reporting that Project Moohan will launch at Unpacked.

The article doesn’t cite a specific source other than “the electronics industry,” which expects “prototypes or teaser videos of Project Moohan at the Galaxy Unpacked event.” So that’s maybe not as definitive as the article headline would suggest. But if you’re looking for more evidence of a mixed reality headset from Samsung at Unpacked, there it is.

It’s not exactly a secret that we’re going to see the debut of One UI 7 on Wednesday. That’s the latest version of Samsung’s phone software built on Android 15.

Of course, some Samsung phones area already running One UI 7, as the software has been available in public beta since December. If you didn’t download the software then, our One UI 7 beta guide goes into greater detail, but the highlights include:

There could definitely be one more thing at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, but what could it be? We’ve already gotten a tease of Samsung’s new XR headset in Project Moohan running Google’s XR platform, so yet another preview would seem to be lame. But how about Samsung smart glasses?

Back in late December, Digitimes Asia reported that Samsung would unveil its first pair of smart glasses. They’re rumored to weigh 50 grams and are being developed in collaboration with Qualcomm and Google. They’ll feature Gemini on board. These would be a direct competitor to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. We’ll have to wait and see.

We’ve already seen leaked video of the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s better Nightography performance, but what about the camera hardware? Based on the leaks we expect one major upgrade in the form of a 50MP ultra wide camera, up from 12MP on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

This is a pretty big jump in resolution. A separate leak in December claimed that the lens will reportredly have a 23.2mm focal length, a f/1.7 aperture, EIS stabilization and 4080 x 3060 resolution. The S24 Ultra featured a 12MP ultrawide with 13mm focal length and a f/2.2 aperture. So expect brighter and sharper images.

Over the weekend, I listed the five biggest questions I had heading into Galaxy Unpacked, with the first one centering around Galaxy AI. Really, it was kind of a two-part question: what new AI features are we going to see on the Galaxy S25 series and will Samsung extend those to older phones as it did with many of last year’s Galaxy AI capabilities.

Since then, we’ve had a bit more detail leak out on Galaxy AI’s new features in the form of a leaked video. The question about what phones will ultimately support the new Galaxy AI tools is more up in the air — though I would argue, it’s almost more important.

Knowing if your Galaxy S24 or Galaxy S23 will benefit in some way from the software tools added via that Galaxy S25’s AI update will go a long way toward helping people determine whether to upgrade or not. I would imagine anything tied to the One UI 7 update is going to work across multiple Galaxy S models; specific Galaxy AI features that rely on on-device hardware may not.

It’s a difficult balance Samsung has to strike, because it likely doesn’t want to give away too many new tools for free, but at the same time, it doesn’t want to come across as if it’s forcing people to upgrade.

Philip Michaels, managing editor for mobile coverage here, and I’ll be posting periodically this evening, as the clock counts us down closer to Unpacked. Having reviewed the Galaxy S24 last year, there’s something on my mind about its likely successor — is the Galaxy S25 going to retain that compact size?

This is not idle speculation. A very early Galaxy S25 rumor claimed the size of the screen might increase on the new model. And while it seems a lot of that rumored extra screen space may come from smaller bezels on the new model, any time there’s talk of a larger screen, you wonder if that will require a bigger frame to support it.

Leaked specs for the S25 model suggest that I have nothing to worry about. If anything, the Galaxy S25 may turn out to be slightly smaller than its predecessor. The specs I’ve seen suggest a 5.78 x 2.77 x 0.28-inch frame, which is smaller all around from the 5.79 x 2.78 x 0.30-inch Galaxy S24. Great news, if true, as the nice thing about phones like the entry-level Galaxy S model is how they balance 6-inch-plus-sized displays with compact frames.

With less than 18 hours ahead of Unpacked’s start, it’s time to face reality on what won’t be showing up. Leading up to Unpacked, we had kicked around these possibilities as would-be contenders for at least a sneak preview. But recent events have us thinking that we won’t see them on Wednesday.