Samsung unveils the Galaxy S25 series

Samsung Electronics held its “Galaxy Unpacked 2025” event on Jan. 22 at the SAP Center in San Jose, unveiling the Galaxy S25 series, a true AI smartphone.

“Since launching the world’s first AI smartphone last year, Samsung has led the mobile AI market through continuous innovation. The new Galaxy S25 series will deliver our easiest and most intuitive AI experience yet, powered by a more advanced Galaxy AI,” said TM Roh, president and head of Samsung Electronics’ Mobile eXperience (MX) Business. “With One UI 7, a platform optimized for mobile AI, the Galaxy S25 series will transform users’ everyday lives.”

Opening a new era of advanced mobile AI

The Galaxy S25 series is the first Galaxy lineup to feature One UI 7, an integrated AI platform that provides a natural, intuitive user experience. It understands users’ situations and analyzes their preferences across text, voice, images and other interactions to deliver personalized AI experiences.

In particular, the Galaxy S25 series uses advanced natural language understanding to make everyday mobile interactions feel more natural.

When searching photos in Gallery, users can enter keywords such as a date or location, and AI will find matching images.

The new Now Brief feature analyzes users’ smartphone habits and data to provide personalized information briefings.

Like a personal assistant, it provides information users need, such as the weather, schedule and sleep score. For example, users who read the news every morning will receive recommendations based on news pages they frequently visit.

The Galaxy S25 series combines AI agents with multimodal AI that can analyze and process different types of information at once, including text, images and voice, making everyday tasks easier and more convenient. When a complex task requires multiple apps, users can enter a single instruction on the Galaxy S25 series to connect and launch the apps they need.

Users can press and hold the AI button on the side of the phone and speak naturally, as if chatting with a friend, to give commands and complete tasks.

For example, checking a favorite sports team’s schedule and adding it to the calendar would normally require several apps, such as Search and Calendar. Now users can simply say, “Find next week’s [team] game schedule and add it to my calendar.”

Circle to Search, first introduced on the Galaxy S24 series through collaboration with Google, has also evolved. Multimodal capabilities let users search not only images and text, but also sounds playing on their device.

For example, users curious about the music in a YouTube video can press the Home button, launch Circle to Search and search for the music to identify the song immediately.

Samsung and Google will continue working together to build a true AI ecosystem that brings together partner companies and developers.

The Galaxy S25 series also further enhances communication features that help overcome language and expression barriers.

Live Translate, which provides real-time, two-way interpretation during calls, now supports 20 languages, enabling easier communication with people in more countries.

The Galaxy S25 series also introduces Call Transcript, which converts calls into text, and Call Summary, which briefly summarizes key points from a conversation.

The Galaxy S25 series also features a new Writing Assist, enhanced by Galaxy AI.

Writing Assist brings together generative AI text-editing tools, including text summarization and spelling and grammar checks, so users can edit text quickly and easily on any screen.

Galaxy-exclusive processor delivers the most powerful performance yet

The new Galaxy S series is powered by the Snapdragon® 8 Elite for Galaxy, developed in partnership between Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm.

The most powerful Galaxy-exclusive chipset yet, Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy delivers a 40% improvement in NPU performance and 37% and 30% gains in CPU and GPU performance, respectively, compared with its predecessor, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy.

Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy is designed to maximize display quality and efficiency. It introduces ProScaler, which uses an AI-based image-processing algorithm built into the chipset to render content more clearly, improving image quality by about 40%.

Samsung’s mDNIe (Mobile Digital Natural Image) picture-quality enhancement solution is built into the chipset, improving image quality and visibility while boosting power efficiency.

The thermal system has also been upgraded to maintain stable performance for longer during smartphone use.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra features a vapor chamber about 40% larger than its predecessor. The Galaxy S25 series also uses an efficient thermal system with a new thermal interface material (TIM), enabling users to enjoy high-performance mobile experiences for longer.

The Galaxy S25 series also supports improved ray tracing for natural, lifelike visuals and Vulkan, a 3D graphics API, delivering a more immersive and stable gaming experience.

A complete camera experience without the need for professional equipment

The Galaxy S25 series also brings major camera upgrades over its predecessor.

With high-resolution sensors and the next-generation, AI-powered ProVisual Engine, the Galaxy S25 series delivers detailed, high-quality images even from a distance.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra features a new 50MP ultra-wide camera, enabling higher-quality landscape photos and other shots with a wider field of view.

Low-light camera performance, a hallmark of the Galaxy S series, has also improved.

The Galaxy S25 series uses a low-light video enhancement solution to analyze moving and stationary subjects more precisely. It applies the optimal noise-reduction solution to each subject, enabling clear video capture even in low light.

The Galaxy S25 series also sets 10-bit HDR as the default video mode option, allowing users to capture video with richer colors.

The Expert RAW app for professionals and photography enthusiasts now includes Virtual Aperture. This feature lets users create depth-of-field effects similar to those of a professional camera.

※ Expert RAW: A Galaxy camera app offering professional shooting and editing features

The Galaxy S25 series also introduces new AI video-editing features.

Audio Eraser uses AI to identify sounds in recorded videos, including voices, ambient sounds, noise and wind. Users can remove or adjust the volume of identified sounds with a simple tap for more professional video editing.

Building on the Galaxy S series’ modern, refined design heritage and expanding the use of recycled materials

All three Galaxy S25 models feature a unified design with rounded corners, carrying forward the Galaxy S series’ modern, refined design heritage.

The display features thinner, more uniform bezels for a cleaner look. The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s front display is protected by Corning® Gorilla® Armor 2. Corning’s new glass reduces reflections compared with conventional glass, providing a clear viewing experience in a range of lighting conditions.

The Galaxy S25+ and S25 are the first models to use recycled Armor Aluminum in their frames.

The Galaxy S25 series also uses batteries made with more than 50% recycled cobalt. Samsung is building a battery recycling loop by recovering cobalt from collected Galaxy smartphone batteries and reusing it, contributing to a sustainable future.

The Galaxy S25 series will receive seven OS upgrades and security updates for seven years. Extending the product life cycle will allow users to enjoy the best possible experience for longer.

Stronger Galaxy security for personalized experiences

The Galaxy S25 series is the first to feature PDE (Personal Data Engine), which analyzes personal data such as users’ habits and preferences. Information analyzed by PDE is securely stored on the device and protected by Knox Vault.

Users can enjoy personalized mobile AI experiences with confidence, protected by Samsung’s robust security.

The series also introduces a range of new security features designed for an increasingly connected world.

The new Maximum Restrictions feature provides stronger protection against cyber threats by, among other things, preventing automatic reconnection to unsecured Wi-Fi networks and blocking the use of 2G networks.

The new Theft Protection feature requires biometric authentication or prevents security settings from being changed for a set period if someone attempts to change them in an unfamiliar location.

Samsung Electronics will begin rolling out the Galaxy S25 series worldwide, including in Korea, on Feb. 7.