Samsung’s first Unpacked event of 2025 delivered the Galaxy S25 series — as expected. Although the phones don’t have dramatically upgraded specs, the company stuffed — you guessed it! — more AI into the devices. This latest batch is more context-sensitive and predictive, and some of it even squeezes more out of the phones’ mildly upgraded hardware.
Galaxy S25 Ultra
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is still the biggest, best and most expensive of the bunch. It has a 6.9-inch display and a more rounded edge for a “comfortable grip.” Samsung says it’s the “slimmest, lightest, and most durable Galaxy Ultra device ever,” rocking a titanium body with Corning’s Gorilla Armor 2 for “advanced drop protection” and scratch resistance.
Unlike the two smaller models, one of the Ultra’s camera sensors got a spec upgrade: Its ultrawide lens is now 50MP, up from the mere 12MP one in last year’s model.
Like its siblings, the S25 Ultra is powered by a customized version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which lets the trio of phones process many of their AI experiences on-device. Of course, that’s better for privacy.
Although the phone continues the tradition of including an S Pen (it’s now essentially the long-retired Galaxy Note), Air Commands — which bridged the gap between the two — have bit the dust. Samsung told Engadget in a briefing that fewer than one percent of S Pen-toting customers used the feature. And those who did mostly used it as a camera shutter, which is easily replicated in other ways. Samsung says the removal let it shed some weight and boost the S Pen’s durability.
Engadget’s Sam Rutherford got an early hands-on with the Galaxy S25 Ultra and said it “looks like a good phone” and described Samsung’s AI suite as “much more cohesive and easier to get into,” but also felt the company “could be doing more for its most expensive non-folding phone.”
The Galaxy S25 Ultra has 12GB of RAM, and it ships in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage tiers. It’s still quite the investment, though — starting at $1,300.
Galaxy S25 and S25+
The Galaxy S25 and S25+ saw their RAM upgraded to 12GB (same as the Ultra), up from 8GB in their 2024 predecessors. It combines with the Snapdragon 8 Elite to better handle the phones’ many AI features. (More in a minute.)
The rest of their hardware is remarkably similar to the S24 and S24+. They still have 6.2-inch and 6.7-inch displays, respectively. But Samsung’s new ProScaler AI tool can upscale images in real time to perhaps make up for the unchanged specs. Samsung says it can boost the quality of what you see by 40 percent.
Engadget’s Mat Smith tried the Galaxy S25 and S25+ and praised the phones’ “premium and solidly built” slim designs and “vivid, bright and gorgeous” displays. However, he was skeptical of the phones’ AI-centric focus. “In just a few years, Samsung has built up a substantial collection of artificial intelligence tricks, features and apps,” he wrote. “While some of them have been impressive, like live translation and annotation, others (often involving generative AI) aren’t actually helpful — or notable — enough to warrant regular use.”
Storage is also unchanged from the S24 series: 128GB or 256GB in the Galaxy S25 and 256GB or 512GB in the Galaxy S25+. Fortunately, pricing is also unchanged. You’ll pay $800 or more for the S25 and $1,000 and up for the S25+.
Galaxy AI
With most hardware upgrades (apart from the Snapdragon chip) coming in soft this generation, Samsung is leaning hard on AI features to make you want to throw down hard-earned cash on the new models. This year, Samsung’s One UI 7 on top of Android 15 combines to create what Samsung calls “a new AI-integrated OS.” It aims for a more personalized and context-sensitive AI, rather than just a series of one-off tools.
AI plays a central role in the phones’ camera features, with the Qualcomm chip making the phones better at analyzing noise — leading to what Samsung says is better low-light performance. Audio Eraser is a tool that Samsung claims will use AI to remove unwanted noises from videos like wind or a random stranger talking.
Samsung gathers its new collection of on-device AI tools into what it calls the Personal Data Engine. The series of multimodal (text, images, video, audio) machine learning agents leads to features like AI Select, which builds on Samsung’s legacy Smart Select tool. The new AI-powered version can scan your screen and suggest context-aware tasks — like creating a GIF from a YouTube video you’re watching.
You could say the AI-powered Now Bar is Samsung’s answer to the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. The pill-shaped bar sits at the bottom of the lock screen and below the digital clock when the phone is unlocked. It generates a series of reminders based on context. Within the Now Bar is another AI feature, the Now Brief, which generates morning, midday and evening summaries of info it thinks will be relevant to you.
Samsung’s Sketch to Image tool has been rebranded as Drawing Assist, and Samsung says the feature is more polished and accurate. It also adds an option to import existing images for your prompt. The S25 series also adds an upgraded version of Google’s Circle to Search (activated by long-pressing the home button). It can now recognize phone numbers, emails and URLs, letting you trigger their corresponding actions with a single tap.
Galaxy S25 Edge
Well, I hope you like being teased because, well, there isn’t much to go on here. Much like it did a year ago with its grand reveal of a… render of the Galaxy Ring, Samsung gave Unpacked viewers a teeny-weeny glimpse of its rumored “Galaxy Slim” phone, which will instead be called the Galaxy S25 Edge.
The teaser shows a quick glimpse of a phone that’s indeed slimmer, but the company showcased its vapor chamber, cameras and metallic frame more than the full-on handset. (And the engineers go wild.) We also don’t know its price or release date. However, Bloomberg reports that it will use many of the same components as the S25 Ultra but cost less.
Samsung Wallet updates
The company added two new payment features: Instant Installment and Tap to Transfer.
As its name suggests, Instant Installment is a “buy now, pay later” service that lets you turn purchases into an offline payment plan experience. It’s managed entirely on-device and available for Visa and Mastercard purchases.
Engadget’s Cherlynn Low was briefed by Samsung on the service. “It’s not that Samsung is pivoting to becoming a credit provider and taking on loans,” she wrote. “Instead, it facilitates your purchases and turns your payments into what the company’s rep said is ‘the first offline payment plan experience.’’
Meanwhile, Tap to Transfer is a peer-to-peer payment service, rivaling the likes of Apple’s Tap to Cash. Like the iPhone equivalent, you only need to bump phones with someone you want to pay (or be paid by). But it isn’t limited to Samsung Pay; you can use it with third-party apps, too, since it’s instead tied to the associated card or account. Like Instant Installment, it works with Visa and Mastercard.
Galaxy Watch for Kids
The Galaxy Watch for Kids may sound like a new piece of gear, but it’s instead a new setup option for the cellular Galaxy Watch 7 (and likely future wearables). You know, kinda like Apple Watch for Kids.
Samsung, which partnered with Google on the experience, says parents can set up a child’s watch from their phone and activate its eSim. From there, the kid can use the smartwatch without a paired phone. As you’d expect, parents can set up guardrails — like which apps are installed or a do not disturb status during school hours. Location sharing is optional, and Samsung and Google are offering new kid-focused apps and watch faces to keep things fun.
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