The big launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S25 is fast approaching. THE first Galaxy Unpacked event of 2025 is confirmed for January 22 at 1 p.m. ET in San Jose, California, where Samsung’s “Next Big Thing” (to borrow a 14 year old marketing slogan) will be revealed. What exactly will be on the menu? Well, apart from a few sure values and a few likely leaks, only those who have taken a blood oath under an NDA know for sure. But here are the most likely products and features we’ll see.
Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra
Just as Apple unveils its latest iPhones at its first fall eventSamsung usually launches its main Galaxy S flagships at its first unpacked party of the year. You can bet the farm is there will be Galaxy S25 phones at this event. And considering Samsung’s recent trend of launching three tiers of flagships: Standard, Plus and Ultra – you can bet we’ll see this again. (Samsung could technically change the brand names, but the three-tier lineup is all but guaranteed.) There’s even a FCC certification (First of all spotted by 91Mobiles) to dispel any doubt.
The degree of certainty drops sharply once we look at the phones’ features. A subtle redesign with rounded corners, flatter edges and thinner bezels appears likely based on a leak video posted on Reddit and pictures from renowned tipster Ice Universe. But we don’t expect this to be the generation where Samsung hiring of a former Mercedes-Benz designer will result in drastic aesthetic changes.
At least in the US, phone usage is virtually guaranteed Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which the chipmaker revealed in October. (Qualcomm same listed Samsung among the companies that will launch devices with this processor “in the coming weeks.”) Like almost all flagship processors these days, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is designed for on-device generative AI, which s ‘aligns with Samsung’s Galaxy AI blitz in recent models.
We don’t know if the company will split its S25 processors between Snapdragon (US and other markets) and Exynos (everywhere else), but Ice Universe has claimed it will be all Snapdragon this generation. That would be a good thing, given the often glaring disparity in performance and battery life in favor of Qualcomm.
The phone will work Samsung One UI 7 above Android 15. We know this because Samsung said in October that its user experience (based on Android 15) would be launch on the next Galaxy S flagships. It is already available in beta for Galaxy S24 phones.
Samsung is rumored to stick with the latest generation OLED displays (made with M13 organic materials) instead of the brighter and more efficient M14 OLED panels used in the iPhone 16 Pro And Google Pixel 9. Logic suggests that Samsung would want its best home-made display in its best phones, especially when its competitors are already using it. But it could stick to cheaper panels to reduce the bill of materials. Perhaps he calculated that better displays don’t enable better generative AI (the obsession of almost every tech company these days), unlike the latest Qualcomm chip.
Speaking of AI, expect Samsung to dedicate a possibly extremely long portion of the event to generative AI features. Chance DigiTimes reported last month, the Galaxy S25 series will feature “an AI agent that provides personalized clothing suggestions and transportation information.” What that would look like in practice, no one knows, but I’m not sure I want to know.
On the camera side, Ice Universe complaints (via Android titles), it is “confirmed” that only the ultra-wide sensor will get an upgrade in the Galaxy S25 Ultra – from 12 MP to 50 MP in last year’s model. The leaker says the S25 Ultra will feature a 200 MP main sensor, 10 MP 3x zoom, and 50 MP 50 MP zoom.
Samsung will add Qi2 wireless charging standard to its new flagship products – and this comes straight from the horse’s mouth (aka the Wireless Power Consortium). However, leaker chunvn8888 (aka “yawn”) said Samsung phones won’t have built-in magnets for Qi2 native MagSafe in everything but name charge. Instead, the leaker says Samsung will sell a proprietary case with a Qi2 magnetic ring to enable this. (I gotta move these props, baby!)
Rumors have buzzed about a purported Galaxy S25 Slim with a – you guessed it – slimmer design joining the trio at some point this year. This is something Apple is it is also said that he would work on. However, given that the FCC certifications only appear to cover the familiar trio of flagships, this phone (if it’s in the works) might not arrive until later in the year.
Galaxy Ring 2, Samsung XR and AR glasses
DigiTimes reported in December, Samsung would showcase (or maybe just tease) the Galaxy Ring 2 and augmented reality (AR) glasses at its January Unpacked event.
The Taiwanese publication says that the Galaxy Ring 2 will add two more sizes to the nine of the original modelwhich was only launched in July. The second-generation wearable health tracker would add new AI features (surprise!) and updated sensors for more precise measurements. The Galaxy Ring 2 is also rumored to last longer than the current model’s seven-day maximum.
DigiTimes also claims Samsung’s AR glasses – which the company has confirmed that it works — will look like regular prescription glasses and weigh around 50g. He says the futuristic glasses would use Google’s Gemini AIwhich matches what we already know about the Samsung partnership with Google and Qualcomm on Android XR. But given the lack of supply chain rumors surrounding the glasses, it’s likely that any mention at the event would be little more than a teaser, a la its big reveal of… it stinks give back for the first Galaxy Ring at Unpacked 2024.
We also know that Samsung is co-developing an Android XR (extended reality) headset – codenamed Project Moohan – alongside Google and Qualcomm. The “lightweight” and “ergonomic” headset will have a “state-of-the-art display,” video passthrough and natural multi-modal input. Google renders show a laptop reminiscent of Apple Vision Pro at $3,500.
Given that Google only recently began offering a SDK and API for the platform, any preview of it on Unpacked would likely not include an imminent release or in-depth analysis of its hardware.
Engadget will provide full coverage of Samsung’s first Unpacked event in 2025. More to come on January 22!
