Samsung Just Launched Its Galaxy S25 Phones With Powerful Ai Features. Here Are The Key Upgrades And How To Order.
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The Galaxy S25 Ultra (pictured in hand) received the most upgrades in the new Galaxy S25 series.Les Shu/Business Insider
Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S25 series of flagship phones on January 22 during its latest Unpacked event. The lineup includes three models: the base Galaxy S25, the Galaxy S25 Plus, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The Galaxy S25 series received the usual gamut of hardware upgrades, including a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor customized for the S25 series. However, the Galaxy S25 Ultra received the bulk of the upgrades, with a refreshed design, the biggest display we've seen on a non-foldable Samsung phone, and an upgrade to the ultrawide camera. Interestingly, the S Pen stylus that comes with Samsung's top-of-the-line model received a downgrade in functionality.
Samsung introduced several useful AI-powered features with the Galaxy S25 series. Below are our hands-on impressions of the devices and their notable features and upgrades.
Samsung Galaxy S25: Specs
Specification | Galaxy S25 | Galaxy S25 Plus | Galaxy S25 Ultra |
Screen | 6.2-inch, 1080p, 120Hz adaptive, OLED | 6.7-inch up to 1440p, 120Hz adaptive, OLED | 6.9-inch up to 1440p, 120Hz adaptive, OLED |
Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy |
Rear Cameras | 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x zoom | 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x zoom | 200MP main, 50MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x zoom, 50MP 5x zoom |
Front Camera | 12MP | 12MP | 12MP |
Battery and Charging | 4,000mAh, 25W fast wired charging, 15W wireless charging, Qi2 ready | 4,900mAh, 45W fast wired charging, 15W wireless charging, Qi2 ready | 5,000mAh, 45W fast wired charging, 15W wireless charging, Qi2 ready |
RAM and Storage | 12GB / 128GB, 256GB | 12GB / 256GB, 512GB | 12GB / 256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
Starting Price | $799.99 | $999.99 | $1,299.99 |
Samsung Galaxy S25: Price
The series' pricing remains the same year over year.
The base Samsung Galaxy S25 starts at $799.99, the Galaxy S25 Plus at $999.99, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra at $1,299.99.
Samsung Galaxy S25: Release date
The Galaxy S25 series is available to preorder on January 22 from Samsung, Amazon, Best Buy, and nationwide carriers.
All Galaxy S25 phones are set for release on February 7 with availability from the same retailers and carriers.
Samsung Galaxy S25: Colors
The above color options for the Galaxy S25 series are widely available, but Samsung also offers online-exclusive colors.Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
The base Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus are available in "Icy Blue," "Navy," "Mint," and "Silver Shadow." Samsung's website offers exclusive colors for both models, including "Blueblack," "Coralred," and "Pinkgold."
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is available in "Titanium Silverblue," "Titanium Whitesilver," "Titanium Gray," and "Titanium Black." Samsung's online-exclusive colors include "Titanium Pinkgold," "Titanium Jetblack," and "Titanium Jadegreen."
Samsung Galaxy S25: Notable features and upgrades
The Galaxy S25 series runs on Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor. Earlier this month, we tested a version of the new-generation processor on OnePlus' latest flagship phone, the OnePlus 13, and its benchmark results outperformed all previous Android phones we'd tested.
As with previous Galaxy S generations, the new Qualcomm chipset on the Galaxy S25 series is optimized for Samsung's flagship phones. Accordingly, we expect the Galaxy S25 phones to be the best Android phones released to date for performance and provide a moderate-to-substantial improvement over the Galaxy S24 series in benchmark scores.
Samsung has also introduced or upgraded various AI-powered features across the Galaxy S25 series.
On any Galaxy S25 phone, a long press on the power button brings up Google's Gemini chatbot.Les Shu/Business Insider
New and updated AI features include the following:
Long-pressing the power button now brings up Google's Gemini AI chatbot assistant. It's similar to other AI chatbots, like ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot.
- You can use Gemini like a traditional phone assistant to add an event to the Samsung Calendar app, for instance, among the other more involved use cases detailed below.
Les Shu/Business Insider
- An evolution of a previous Smart Select feature, the new AI Select sees what you're looking at on the screen and offers recommended actions, like making a GIF from a video, summarizing an article, or translating a webpage. It can also identify and extract text anywhere on the screen, even if it's part of a video, and you can do anything you want with the text, like adding it to a message or the Samsung Notes app.
Les Shu/Business Insider
- You can now get transcriptions of calls in the format of text conversations, along with a summary of the conversation.
- Circle To Search now includes an Audio aspect that identifies music playing from the phone, even from a video.
The Samsung Gallery app can now identify context and location to let you find photos using natural search language, like "wedding in Pittsburgh."
The AI assistant can field indirect questions about issues with the phone and suggest troubleshooting options.Les Shu/Business Insider
- You can now search for any phone settings using your voice, even if you don't know what the setting is called. For example, you can ask in the Settings menu: "My eyes are hurting. What settings can I adjust?" In response, the AI assistant will pull up relevant settings and options.
You can use the AI assistant to perform tasks involving multiple apps, like creating a summary of a video and adding it to the Samsung Notes app.
Audio Eraser can effectively remove various unwanted noises from a video you've recorded.Les Shu/Business Insider
- A new Audio Eraser feature lets you eliminate specific types of audio in a list of presets from a video you've captured. You can remove voices, crowd noises, wind, music, nature sounds, and other noises. It's processed on-device and works immediately as you try it.
- Object removal in Samsung Photos has been improved to remove the shadows left behind by objects removed from an image.
Specific to the Galaxy S25 Ultra
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is larger year over year and more aesthetically in line with its series siblings than in previous generations.Les Shu/Business Insider
The best Samsung phone released to date, spec-wise, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a refreshed, rounder design that looks more similar to the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus than the distinct designs of previous Ultra phones, which had sharper rectangular edges that diverged from the prior base Galaxy S models.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra also has a 6.9-inch display, an increase from the previous generations' 6.8-inch screens.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra's 6.9-inch screen (right) displays significantly more app content than the base Galaxy S25 models.Les Shu/Business Insider
The following are among the other year-over-year changes to the Galaxy S25 Ultra:
- The bezels (black borders around the display) are incredibly thin, more so than the other Galaxy S25 models.
- It uses new Gorilla Glass Armor 2 glass, which Samsung claims has 29% greater fracture resistance than the original Gorilla Glass Armor in the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
It has a new 50MP ultrawide camera compared to the 12MP ultrawide from the Galaxy S24 Ultra to complement the 200MP and 50MP 5x zoom cameras.
- According to Samsung, there's also less noise thanks to AI-based real-time pixel analysis of an image.
- It should make for higher-quality ultrawide and macro photos.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra still includes the S Pen stylus, but unlike previous versions, this one doesn't connect to the phone with Bluetooth for interactions. That means you can no longer use the S Pen to perform remote "Air Actions," like taking photos or controlling presentations from a distance.
- Samsung said that very few users were using the S Pen for these remote interactions, and it removed the feature to make the S Pen lighter and more durable. The separately sold S Pen Pro still works with Air Actions.