The first Samsung Galaxy Unpacked of 2025 is sure to be a phone-focussed event, where we’re predicting to see the Samsung Galaxy S25 range, spearheaded by the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
While these phones are expected to be iterative upgrades over the Galaxy S24 lineup, their big party tricks could be a suite of new and improved features on the Galaxy AI side; a new powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset should help power these tools.
If you want to watch the event yourself then check out our guide on how to watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025. But for all the news and rumors ahead of Unpacked, you’re in the right place; read on.
Good afternoon or morning or evening, depending on where you are, I (Roland Moore-Colyer) am here to chat about the Galaxy S25 rumors so far and what we can expect to see at the first Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event of 2025, which takes place on January 22.
So what’s all the fuss about? Well as mentioned, this Unpacked is very likely be one that’s fully focused on the next-generations Galaxy phones. We’re not expecting much else in terms of hardware.
This could be disappointing to some as the Galaxy S25 family as a whole has been tipped to be somewhat of an iterative upgrade over the Galaxy S24 lineup, which brought in Galaxy AI.
There’s no murmur on any wearables at this Galaxy Unpacked. But as we had the Galaxy Ring launch mid last year, alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, there’s already enough wearables from Samsung to keep us ticking over for now.
I’d predict osme AI upgrades for the Galaxy Ring and Galaxy Watch series, though how these will manifest isn’t clear.
Speaking of Galaxy AI, I’ll buy a hat and eat it if there’s no mention of new AI features for the Galaxy S25 series. I’m expecting a host of upgrades and new features, likely an improved Generative Edit being one of the first upgrades out of the gates.
I’d also like to see Galaxy AI better integrated across the One UI operating system, as my colleague and Senior Editor Philip Berne noted in his Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review, Galaxy Ai feels somewhat fiddly to access and use.
Right before I muse more on AI and other bits, first dsome new: just about every single Samsung Galaxy S25 spec has been shown up in what appears to be a new leak. Check them out in the tweet below.
25 pic.twitter.com/rW5EGZJbY9January 17, 2025
So going by those ‘leaked’ specs, it looks like there’s not going to be a lot change with the Galaxy S25 series as a whole. 12GB or RAM for the standard S25 looks promising and should help with snappy AI workloads. And the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy would appear to be a custom version of an already powerful chipset, so there’s scope for that to bring some serious performance grunt to the table,
In reference to those seemingly leaked specs, it’s over to my colleague and staff writer Jamie RIchards for some context on the tipped Snapdragon chipset.
Snapdragon after all
There’s been some back and forth in the months leading up to Samsung Galaxy Unpacked about which chipset the Galaxy S25 lineup would make use of. Some tipsters pointed to Samsung’s troubled Exynos line of chipsets for the new flagships, but production issues seem to have taken too much of a toll for these proprietary processors to make it into this year’s lineup.
The latest major specs leak (courtesy of noted tipster @MysteryLupin) points to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for the Samsung Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra. As Qualcomm’s flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is one of the fastest mobile platforms on the market, which bodes well for the S25 series’ performance.
From my perspective, I’m hoping the new Qualcomm chipset brings in a big uptick in gaming power for the Galaxy S25, especially the Ultra. Apple’s A18 Pro and the A17 Pro before it allowed for true console-quality games to be played on the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro, so I’d like to see Samsung manage the same, especially since it used to work closely with Microsoft; imagine proper Xbox games on the Galaxy S25 running natively.
Throwing the ball back over to Jamie, as we take the specs conversation over to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra cameras and their rumored upgrades.
A new Ultra ultrawide?
Keen photographers will be looking to the Galaxy S-series Ultra’s somewhat iconic quad-camera system, and if the latest rumors are anything to go by, there is one key upgrade on the way. We’re expecting to see the Galaxy S25 Ultra equipped with a new 50MP ultra-wide camera, up from the 12MP ultra-wide found on the S24 Ultra.
Sure, it’s not a revolutionary improvement, but this should lend well to a more consistent camera experience across the phone’s four optical zoom levels.
When it comes to cameras, I’m hoping the Samsung takes a hard look at the photos the Galaxy S24 phones kick out and makes some tweaks to its computational photography.
While Samsung has curtailed some of the color saturation excess found in yesteryear’s Galaxy models, right now phone photography from Samsung, Apple, Google and perhaps OnePlus, is all a little flat, with processed photos that look very similar and lack the contrast between shadows and highlights to really sing; at least in their default shooting modes.
So I’d like to see Samsung let the next-gen Galaxy cameras sing and not let image processing even everything out excessively,
It’s late in the night UK time, where I am, so I’ll be back in the morning to talk more about Galaxy Unpacked and the tipped Galaxy S25 range. And expect some chat about AI.
Until, then farewell.
Good morning, I’m back to chat Galaxy Unpacked. And let’s kick things off with a little overview of how to watch the showcase tomorrow.
Samsung Galaxy Unpacked kicks off at at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm GMT on Wednesday, January 22, and there are a number of ways to watch the livestream.
Samsung Galaxy Unpacked will be available to watch on Samsung’s website, Samsung Newsroom, and the Samsung YouTube channel.
Of course, we’ll be reporting and breaking down the reveals and updates as we hear them, both here on our live blog and through our dedicated Samsung Galaxy phones coverage.
To slightly mix things up a bit, we’ve seen a tipster claim that Samsung will launch four foldable phones this year. If that holds true, then it could make this Unpacked seem a little tame.
Supposedly, Samsung has plans to launch a Galaxy Z Fold 7, Flip 7, a cheaper foldable phone, and a tri-folding phone; the latter would get my attention.
Now a public service announcement: this is your last call to secure a Samsung Galaxy S25 reservation and score a bonus while you’re at it.
Over to our Deals Editor Alex Whitelock: “Why reserve? Well, you’ll not only secure yourself a guaranteed slot once preorders go live but also get a handy $50 in-store credit and the chance to win $5,000 in a sweepstake. These gifts will stack on top of whatever preorder promotions that Samsung decides to offer tomorrow so it’s a handy bonus that’s well worth signing up for.
“To sign up, all you need to do is head on over to Samsung and provide an email address. This particular promotion is completely free and doesn’t lock you into a preorder – so there’s no real commitment if you change your mind tomorrow.”
Check out the box below.
Samsung Unpacked: reserve the next Galaxy smartphone now and get $50 Samsung credit
Reservations are now open for the upcoming new Galaxy smartphones. Simply sign up by email, and you’ll get $50 Samsung credit on the house when it comes time to pre-order, as well as the chance to win $5,000 in a sweepstake. These devices will be officially unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked event on January 22 so stay tuned for updates.View Deal
So there have been rumors of the so-called Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim, which as its name would suggest will be a slimmer version of the Galaxy S25 or S25 Ultra.
I doubt we’ll see that phone pop up tomorrow, and I’m not 100% convinced it’ll be a thing. The Galaxy phones are already pretty svelte without feeling like they’d leap out of one’s hands, so I’m not sure I can see Samsung mess with that formula too much. I could be wrong, of course.
Right we’re a little over 24 hours away from Galaxy Unpacked 2025… let’s have a quick rundown of things thus far.
We’re expecting to see three new phones at the Unpacked showcase, in which our Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff and our Social Editor Viktoria Shilets will be attending in person in the USA’s San Jose.
These phones are tipped to be iterative upgrades over the Galaxy S24 lineup, Expect new colors, a new chipset across the board, likely 12GB of RAM for all the phones, new colors, and new AI features.
Don’t expect any major design changes. But do expect new Galaxy AI features and improvements.
Don’t place any bets on wearables being present as we had the Galaxy Ring debut less than a year ago.
And forget seeing a Galaxy S25 Slim, as I don’t think that phone is happening.
Do expect a whole host of AI upgrades to filter into the heart of the Galaxy phones, and be retrofitted into older models; that’s my prediction at least. And I suspect AI upgrades will filter intp the wider Galaxy ecosystem; I’d like these to play nice with other Android-based systems but I won’t be holding my breath.
There could be some word on the virtual reality headset Samsung is working on with Google but the tips and rumors have been a little scant on that laterly, so don’t hold your breath.
And there you have it, that’s a rapid fire summary of what to expect from Samsung in a little more than 24 hours. Phew.