Just 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 the Personal Data Engine. Looking at the complete package, software may make up more than 50% of the value of the new Galaxy S25 and S25+.
They have new hardware too – a custom Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset that promises 37% higher CPU performance, 30% more GPU compute power and a 40% faster NPU compared to the previous generation.
Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25+
On the Samsung Galaxy S25, the Snapdragon is paired with 12GB of RAM – 8GB is finally a thing of the past! Actually, it’s 12GB across the board, it’s the only RAM capacity available for any S25 model. That said, the S25 remains the only S-phone to start with 128GB of storage. There are 256GB and 512GB capacities available too.
Since Samsung is making a push for performance, the S25 series brings 40% larger vapor chambers and a “tailored thermal interface material” to further improve cooling.
Samsung Galaxy S25 in Icyblue, Mint, Navy and Silver Shadow
The S25 and S25+ have the same size screens as last year’s models – a 6.2″ panel on the small one and a 6.7″ panel on the big one. However, Samsung engineers managed to make both phones 0.4mm thinner and a few grams lighter to boot (height and width are basically the same). This without sacrificing battery capacity but without increasing it either.
The Samsung Galaxy S25+ has a 1440p+ display, compared to 1080p+ on the small one. Both are LTPO OLED panels with 1-120Hz refresh rate. The Plus has a larger battery too, but as we noted above, there are no changes from last year: the S25+ has a 4,900mAh battery and the S25 a 4,000mAh battery. The charging situation is the same with 45W wired on the big one (65% in 30 minutes) and just 25W on the small one (50% in 30 minutes). For wireless charging, Qi is supported at 15W (no, there’s no Qi2 to be found here).
Samsung Galaxy S25+ in Icyblue, Mint, Navy and Silver Shadow
The cameras have upgrades, but they are concentrated in the ProVisual Engine. Samsung hasn’t confirmed the sensor model numbers, but we are looking at essentially the same 50MP main, 10MP 3x telephoto and 12MP ultrawide cameras that have been in use since the S22 series. And no, the 12MP selfie camera hasn’t changed either.
-Samsung Galaxy S25+
This year, however, the S25 series enables 10-bit HDR video recording by default (previously, it was available but disabled) and adds a Galaxy Log function (Samsung’s own take on a log profile). There is better noise reduction for nighttime videos too. The Audio Eraser can remove unwanted noise from your videos. It separates sound into different categories – voices, music, wind, nature, crowd and noise – and you can keep only what you want.
For stills, the Expert RAW feature is bringing a Virtual Aperture that lets you control the depth of field. Additionally, the 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 will move on to the software. The Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25+ have Armor Aluminum frames that now include recycled material. Additionally, the batteries have at least 50% recycled cobalt in them. Both phones are rated IP68 for submersion up to 1.5m (5ft) for half an hour.
Samsung Galaxy S25
The connectivity section features 5G (including mmWave in some regions), Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. The S25 still doesn’t have UWB, by the way. 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 is improved with the introduction of post-quantum cryptography – this means that data encrypted today will still be safe, even if in the future quantum computers start cracking older cryptography.
The Personal Data Engine powers on-device AI features – things like using a plain spoken request to find an old photo from your gallery. The AI will figure out what you want and find it for you, with no data leaving the device. The new Now Bar on the lockscreen will offer suggestions from Now Brief, things that might be contextually relevant throughout your day.
There’s more. Press and hold the side button (what Samsung calls the power button) to talk to Gemini. This works across Samsung and Google apps, plus some third-party apps like Spotify. By the way, all S25 phones come with 6 months of Gemini Advanced for free (including the 2TB of cloud storage that Google offers).
Circle to Search has been updated to recognize phone numbers, email, 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 the table below for all the pricing info 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 in these colors at launch from all retailers: Navy, Silver Shadow, Icyblue and Mint. Samsung.com will exclusively offer three more: Blue Black, Coral Red and Pink Gold.
