Update: June 20, 2024 (01:00 PM ET): We’ve updated our Galaxy S25 series rumor hub with apparent camera specs, more chip leaks, possibly battery specs, and more!
Original article: Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series launched in the middle of January 2024, arriving a little earlier in the year than the last couple of generations. Along with it, the company introduced Galaxy AI, a titanium frame, new camera tricks, and a number of other features. But now that the Galaxy S24 launch has come and gone, it is time to start thinking about the next iteration in the series. How will the Galaxy S25 series set itself apart from its predecessor? What new features will Samsung come up with for the next generation? Will 2025 finally be the year we see a major shift in the Galaxy S design philosophy? Here, we’ll break down everything we know so far about the Galaxy S25.
Samsung Galaxy S25: At a glance
- When is it expected to come out? We're still waiting on an official announcement. However, Samsung's Galaxy S series phones tend to release at the beginning of the year. We expect the Galaxy S25 series to launch sometime between January and March of 2025.
- What new features could there be? There are no definitive answers yet, but a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip is expected. Rumors also suggest new cameras, faster storage, and an increase in display size.
- How much might it cost? We won't know the true cost of each model until Samsung makes an announcement. However, it wouldn't be surprising if the company sticks with its current pricing of $799 (base), $999 (Plus), and $1,299 (Ultra).
Will there be a Samsung Galaxy S25?
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Samsung releases a new Galaxy S series phone on an annual cadence, and there’s no reason to believe it will stop at the Galaxy S24. But if that’s not enough to convince you, there have already been plenty of leaks and rumors about the incoming family of handsets that we’ll get into later on. Obviously, nothing is official until Samsung announces it. The company could always suddenly decide to shut down development, but that is extremely unlikely given how profitable its smartphones are. We would say it’s less of a question of whether Samsung will release a Galaxy S25 and more of a question of when it will launch in 2025.
What is the most likely Samsung Galaxy S25 release date?
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
- Galaxy S22 — February 9, 2022
- Galaxy S23 — February 17, 2023
- Galaxy S24 — January 31, 2024
The Galaxy S24 lineup launched in January, so we’re still a fair distance away from the expected release of the Galaxy S25 series. As such, it will be a while before Samsung provides an official launch date for the device. As far as leaks and rumors are concerned, there’s not really anything on that front, either. Given the lack of information, we’ll need to speculate on what the date could be.
The South Korea-based firm usually launches its Galaxy S phones near the beginning of the year. For the last three years, the release date has fallen in the months of January and February. We assume Samsung will keep the same cadence for the Galaxy S25. Unfortunately, we’ll need to wait to find out the exact date.
What rumored specs and features could the Samsung Galaxy S25 have?
Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority
Even before the Galaxy S24 launched in January 2024, we were hearing rumors about the Galaxy S25. Now that it has been a while since the release of 2024’s Galaxy phones, the rumor mill for next year’s phones has picked up a lot of steam. These rumors and leaks span the gamut from the SoC to the design and more. Let’s take a moment to break down all of the available information.
Design
The design of the Galaxy S series has hardly changed in the last few generations, but we might finally be in store for something a little different with the next iteration. Leaker Revegnus said that Ilhwan Lee, a former Mercedes-Benz designer, has been tasked with making the Galaxy brand feel “fresh” and that design changes are expected.
With the release of Samsung’s 2024 flagship devices, the company introduced titanium to the Galaxy S line, specifically for the Ultra model. There is reason to believe Samsung will continue to use the same metal in the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The question, however, is whether the firm sticks with the same type of titanium that appeared in the Galaxy S24 Ultra. It is also unknown if this build material will come to the regular and Plus models in 2025, though that seems unlikely.
In a now-deleted social post from PandaFlash (via Android Headlines), the tipster claimed, “I have doubts about the rumors of the Highest-Grade titanium in the Galaxy S25 Ultra.” In case you didn’t know, titanium comes in different grades. For example, Apple gave the iPhone 15 Pro series Grade 5 titanium, which is an alloy made of titanium, aluminum, and vanadium. The Galaxy S24 Ultra, on the other hand, uses Grade 2 titanium, which is all titanium. The difference is that Grade 2 titanium is softer, cheaper, and easier to work with than the Grade 5 version. If PandaFlash is correct, then it looks like the tech giant may stay on the same path.
On March 19, 2024, a tipster who goes by Kro on X (formerly Twitter) posted a brief but interesting statement. That statement simply reads, “S25 Series CAD Drawings in Development.” While these drawings have yet to leak, this would suggest Samsung is currently working on the design.
Another rumor, this one originating from a now-deleted social post from PandaFlash (via Android Headlines), suggests Samsung is testing four prototypes for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Although the tipster didn’t have renders of these prototypes, they did create mock-ups of what they thought the Ultra might look like based on their information:
According to the rumor, the main changes seem to revolve around the frame and bezels. We could see thinner bezels but the same frame as before, a thinner and flatter frame with slimmer bezels, thinner sides but a thicker top and bottom, or a thinner frame with rounded edges. Outside of that, it appears the front of the device will look mostly the same as the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Meanwhile, leaker Bennett Buhner claims that Samsung might increase the display size of the Galaxy S25 Ultra to something closer to 6.9 inches. This could mean that the device will be slightly bigger, but it could also just mean the screen has smaller bezels, giving it a slightly different aspect ratio.
The Ultra isn’t the only model rumored to see some design changes. Korean blogger yeux1122 has claimed on Naver that the base Galaxy S25’s screen size could grow by 0.16 inches, putting it at 6.36 inches. If this is true, it would be the second time in the last three generations that Samsung has increased the diagonal screen size of the base model.
Specs
One of the first pieces of information to leak about the S25 was the camera specs. Early rumors were very conflicted, with some claiming massive overhauls (such as going with a simple, triple-lens setup) and a big upgrade for the primary 200MP lens. However, as the year has gone on, most of those early rumors have been shot down. The most recent info points to a few upgrades for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but not a complete overhaul
Ice Universe posted a load of apparent Galaxy S25 Ultra camera specs on Weibo on May 27. They claimed that the Ultra phone would stick with a 200MP main camera and 50MP 5x periscope telephoto zoom but would switch to a 50MP 3x camera and a 50MP ultrawide lens. The 50MP 3x camera would be a big upgrade over the current 10MP 3x lens, which has been used since 2021’s S21 Ultra.
Later, leaker Sperandio4Tech posted info on sensor upgrades for those two upgraded lenses. Allegedly, the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s ultrawide lens could get “a new version of the 1/2.76-inch JN1 sensor.” Meanwhile, the 3x telephoto lens could get “a new 1/3-inch Isocell sensor.” These upgrades would be combined with the previously mentioned resolution upgrades to 50MP for both lenses.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra could offer upgraded 3x and ultrawide cameras, according to one significant leak.
Moving on to the display, not much is currently known about display specs outside of the rumor that the series could go bigger. However, Samsung has been working on next-generation OLED displays that would allow fingerprint scanning anywhere on the screen, as well as open up the ability to scan multiple fingerprints simultaneously. At the time, the CEO of Isorg, Dieter May, predicted that Samsung would be ready to deliver these displays by 2025.
Some of the biggest Galaxy S25 rumors so far have related to the processors. Samsung brought back its tradition of offering the Galaxy S series with a Snapdragon processor in selected markets and an Exynos chip for the rest of the world with the S24. This was after the much-welcome shift in 2023 of abandoning Exynos and offering Snapdragon processors for all handsets around the world.
Now, the most recent rumors suggest Samsung might return to its all-Snapdragon-everywhere policy in 2025, meaning that every Galaxy s25 phone, regardless of location, would have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. This is reportedly due to Samsung’s manufacturing issues with the supposed Exynos 2500 chipset, which would appear in the Galaxy S25 series. As of now, this is the strongest rumor we have, so it’s looking likely we could see only Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S25 phones next year.
It's possible we could see a return to all-Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S25 phones in 2025.
If Samsung does go all-in on Snapdragon, it looks like the Galaxy S25 could get a nice speed boost. Tipster Digital Chat Station claims that “Tongzi” — supposedly the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4’s codename — chips will hit 4GHz. This would be a notable improvement from the Gen 3 processor, which is capable of reaching 3.3GHz.
On to battery specs, it’s possible Samsung could be planning to use stack technology for the battery in the S25 series, according to a report from The Elec. This tech is commonly used in electric vehicles, but it appears Samsung’s research and development department is considering bringing it over to smartphones. Stacking refers to the way cells in the battery are arranged, which can lead to a higher energy capacity inside a smaller volume. According to the report, the arrangement could provide a 10% improvement in energy density.
So far, the only battery capacity rumor we have relates to the vanilla model. A report from GalaxyClub says the standard Galaxy S25 could have the same 4,000mAh capacity as the Galaxy S24. This isn’t bad news, but it might be disappointing for anyone hoping to eke out a bit more juice from the Galaxy S25.
Meanwhile, in a reply to a social post from Samsung, tipster Ice Universe claims that the base Galaxy S25 will once again have 8GB of RAM. Presumably, the leaker is suggesting that only 8GB of RAM will be available, regardless of the configuration. If true, this would mean the S25 will have the same amount of memory as Samsung gave the S24 and S23.
While it is possible we won’t see a change in the amount of memory, the storage story could be different. Samsung Semiconductor released a roadmap for the next generation of UFS. That roadmap states the company will release UFS 4.0 4-lane CS in 2025 before jumping to UFS 5.0 in 2027.
Based on the roadmap, UFS 4.0 4-lane CS will double the read/write rates of the current UFS 4.0 standard. The additional speed will provide a number of benefits, like faster load times and more efficient on-device AI applications.
What might the Samsung Galaxy S25 price be?
Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority
- Galaxy S22 — $799 (base), $999 (Plus), $1,199 (Ultra)
- Galaxy S23 — $799 (base), $999 (Plus), $1,199 (Ultra)
- Galaxy S24 — $799 (base), $999 (Plus), $1,299 (Ultra)
When it comes to pricing, Samsung has stayed fairly consistent over recent years. For the last three years, in fact, the base and Plus models have remained at $799 and $999, respectively. The only price change that happened during this time span was with the Ultra model, which went up by $100 in 2024. The good news is there’s not enough information to suggest there will be a price increase for any model. On the other hand, the bad news is that there’s also not enough information to suggest that Samsung won’t implement a price bump. If we had to guess, however, we believe the cost will be the same as it was in 2024.
Should you wait for the Samsung Galaxy S25?
Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority
Unless you’re dead set on getting the latest and greatest from Samsung, there’s not really any reason to wait. The exception to that is if you’re not in immediate need of a new phone. In that case, it might be worth waiting to see how the Galaxy S25 series pans out.
If you need something now, Samsung’s Galaxy S24 ($859.99 at Amazon), Galaxy S24 Plus ($1119.99 at Amazon), and Galaxy S24 Ultra ($1419.99 at Amazon) can likely serve all your needs. Likewise, you have your choice of perfectly capable non-Samsung handsets that range anywhere from premium to budget-tier and everything in between. For example, the Google Pixel 8 Pro ($999 at Amazon) is a solid device that has great cameras and neat AI features powered by Gemini. There’s also the Nothing Phone 2 ($699 at Amazon) if you want a flagship smartphone that won’t hurt your wallet.
Do you think the Galaxy S25 should have a removable battery?
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