January has now become the official month for Samsung to unveil a new Galaxy S series smartphone, and they’re starting off with: Galaxy S25 Ultra, Galaxy S25+ and Galaxy S25. Building on the Galaxy AI foundations unveiled with the Galaxy S24 series, these new models look to set a new standard as a true AI companion in your pocket.

One UI 7 fuelling more AI

All Galaxy S25 devices are pre-installed with the One UI 7, building on the momentum of Galaxy AI from 2024. Fuelling more personalized AI experiences with privacy assured at every turn, it’s the starting point of a shared vision with Google to imagine Android with AI at the core.

Google’s Circle to Search can now quickly recognize phone numbers, email and URLs on your screen. This will let you call, email or visit a website with a single tap.

Qualcomm’s SnapDragon is back for everyone

The heart of every smartphone is the SoC chipset that powers it. Just like how they did with the Galaxy S23, the Galaxy S25 series being sold worldwide is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. That also includes those who buy it in the Middle East region, which is good news since they’re very performant.

Customized to the Samsung Galaxy’s specs jointly with Qualcomm, it’s built on the 3nm fab
delivering a performance boost of 40% in NPU, 37% in CPU and 30% in GPU compared to
previous generation.

This enables more AI experiences on-device, including previously cloud-based AI tasks such as Generative Edit. ProScaler (only on the S25+ and S25 Ultra) is Samsung’s AI image processing system, which enables a 40% improvement in display image scaling quality. Samsung’s mobile Digital Natural Image engine (mDNIe) embedded within the SoC enables greater power efficiency for the display.

Mobile gamers will feel at home, as the GPU side is equipped with Vulkan Engine and improved Ray
Tracing for smoother and more realistic mobile gaming.

With all the AI workloads and gaming, it’s definitely going to get hot in your hands. A new heat dissipation structure containing a 40% larger vapor chamber and a tailored thermal interface material (TIM) delivers extra improvement in thermal efficiency.

Even better step-up from the previous models is that 12GB is now the standard RAM across each model of the Galaxy S25 series, which is likely due to the workloads for on-device AI work and to standardize it across all of them.

Cameras for the AI-fuelled creation

The Galaxy S25 series look to set a new standard for mobile photography and videography, courtesy of ultra-detailed shots at every range with high resolution sensors and ProVisual Engine.

A new 50MP ultrawide camera sensor replaces the previous 12MP version for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, providing exceptional clarity and vibrancy. 10-bit HDR video recording is now applied by default, offering four times richer color expression compared to 8-bit. Low-light videos are clearer with Galaxy S25, leveraging the powerful SoC to analyze movement and time for effective noise reduction.

Galaxy S25 also introduces a range of AI-powered tools that you’d find in more specialized apps. Don’t have a microphone to capture a moment but there’s plenty of background noise? The new Audio Eraser helps with the removal of unwanted noise in videos: voices, music, wind, nature, crowd and noise. You get to control what to tone down or eliminate entirely.

Want to add some depth-of-field to your videos like on DSLRs? Virtual Aperture gives you more control on it, as it’s integrated with Expert RAW. Looking to go cinematic? The Galaxy Log recording format gives you precise color grading options for more professional video production, bringing more cinematic flair to your content.

Anything you create using AI will automatically see Content Credentials applied to it, courtesy of a watermark and added metadata to ensure AI-based content is recognized. This makes the Galaxy S25 the first smartphone to support it built-in.

Rounded and Durable design

Samsung’s ethos and principle of ‘Essential Design’ has been grounded in ‘Simple, Impactful
and Emotive’ elements for their smartphones. Galaxy S25 Ultra refines this essence, with a rounded edge for a comfortable grip that complements the series’ aesthetic identity. Galaxy S25 Ultra features durable titanium and the new Corning Gorilla Armor 2, a first-of-its-kind material that is more durable than glass. Combining Corning’s glass-ceramic with a proprietary anti-reflective surface treatment, helping to ensure advanced drop protection alongside anti-reflection surface treatment and scratch resistance.

Sustainability is still top of mind for both consumers and brands, and Samsung is really taking it even further. Every external component of Galaxy S25+ and S25 now includes at least one recycled
material. Their metal frame incorporates recycled armor aluminum for the first time. Regarding the battery, the Galaxy S25 will be the first Galaxy smartphone to feature batteries made with recycled
cobalt sourced from previous Galaxy devices or the batteries discarded during the manufacturing process.

Pre-ordering

Within minutes of the keynote, major local telecom operators in the Middle East have already gone live with their pre-order programs. Most are offering a free storage upgrade (ordering the lower storage option you’ll get the next one for the same price), and some are offering the option of a free Galaxy Buds as an alternative.

Additional free gifts includes a few months of Samsung Care+, along with streaming video subscriptions (varies by country). Best to check your local telecom operator for more details. Regardless of the model and pre-order stage, Google is giving users six months of Gemini Advanced and 2TB of storage for free with each Galaxy S25.

Those who crave to have the latest tech, Samsung is debuting the New Galaxy Club 22. This flexible
subscription model is designed to make owning and upgrading Galaxy devices more convenient
than ever. Will this come to the Middle East region? It’s still TBC as news of this program is still scant on details.

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Image Credit: Samsung Newsroom