It’s that time of the year again. Samsung has unveiled its new Galaxy S25 series, comprising the S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra. Pre-orders kick off on January 23, and official availability starting February 14, 2025. With AI integration at the heart of these devices, the S25 lineup leans further into personalised experiences, privacy, and, of course, the usual wealth of performance upgrades.
More and more like an AI assistant
The Galaxy S25 series features deeper AI integration through its Gemini Live feature, turning it into a brainstorming buddy or an analysis tool at your fingertips — just hold the side button. With improved context awareness, Gemini can better interpret text, speech, images, and videos with cross-app actions that improve multi-tasking — imagine editing a photo and posting it on social media seamlessly without switching apps manually. They’ve made it a more natural experience; for example, Circle to Search can now identify music just by you humming or pull up relevant photos with natural language queries like, “Show me pictures of sunsets from [insert overrated tourist location of your choice].”
The lock screen also gets more useful with Now Brief, which offers tailored insights like reminders and daily schedules at-a-glance.
Upgraded elite performance (of course)
Under the hood, the S25 series runs on the customised Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform for Galaxy, delivering 40% better AI processing, 37% faster CPU speeds, and 30% improved GPU performance. It also receives improved heat dissipation thanks to a 40% larger vapour chamber and an upgraded thermal interface material that offers 20% improved thermal efficiency — all compared to the previous generation.
The S25 Ultra, with its 200MP primary camera, 50MP ultrawide and telephoto secondaries, should satisfy the avid mobile photographers. Along with the upgraded resolution (from 12MP) of the ultrawide, its macro capabilities have improved as well. Meanwhile, the S25 and S25+ receive a 12MP ultra-wide camera, a 50MP wide camera, and a 10MP telephoto camera.
Video creators will like that 10-bit HDR video recording is now default, and the new Audio Eraser feature — which can eliminate distracting background noise like wind or crowds — will undoubtedly be a lifesaver in cleaning up audio.
The S25 Series also feature the new Corning Gorilla Armor 2 glass, which is not only a mouthful to say, but it is the first anti-reflective glass ceramic for mobile devices that also reduces surface reflections and improves the display’s contrast ratio.
Availability
Prices start at $1,288 for the S25 and go up to $2,368 for the 1TB S25 Ultra, which isn’t bad at all — in fact, the base model S25 seems to have better value than its predecessor with 12GB of RAM.
The S25 series is also packed with extras: six months of Gemini Advanced and 2TB of cloud storage are included, as is Samsung’s Care+ protection for accidental damage. And if you’re down to use this phone for as long as possible, the S25 Series comes with seven years of OS upgrades and security patches, putting it on par with the Google Pixel 8 series.
Pre-orders are open now through Samsung’s online and physical stores, major e-commerce platforms, and selected telcos. Buyers will enjoy free storage upgrades and can start collecting their devices from February 5. Subscription plans start at SGD54/month, with interest-free instalment options available for certain credit cards.
The Galaxy S25 series may not reinvent the smartphone, but its deep AI integration and focus on privacy make it one of the more compelling releases of 2025. Whether the tech lives up to the hype remains to be seen, but early impressions suggest a well-rounded, innovative package.
If you need a hands-on experience, head down to the Galaxy AI Town (24 Jan – 14 Feb) in New Bahru to test drive the phone and its AI features.