What we expect at the Samsung Galaxy S25 Unpacked 2025 event

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What we expect at the Samsung Galaxy S25 Unpacked 2025 event

Get ready for new Samsung Galaxy phones. That’s the safe bet for the headliner today at the company’s Galaxy Unpacked event which kicks off today at 1PM ET in San Jose, CA. Engadget will offer you two ways to follow the launch in real-time: our Galaxy S25 livestream (live video of the event) and our Galaxy Unpacked liveblog (commentary from our resident phone experts). While the event is imminent, this story collects the full list of leaks, rumors and assumptions as to what we can reasonably expect from the presumed Galaxy S25 phones.

Before we detail everything we know, take note: If you’re enough of a Samsung fan to preorder sight unseen, it’s your last chance to do so. Reserving “the next evolution of Galaxy AI” at Samsung.com will get you a $50 credit and up to $1,250 in additional savings (both of which must be applied to other Samsung products, alas). The reservation window ends exactly as the event begins.

Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra

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Galaxy S24 Ultra (Sam Rutherford for Engadget)

Much like Apple reveals its latest iPhones at its first fall event, Samsung typically launches its mainline Galaxy S flagships at its first Unpacked shindig of the year. You can bet the farm that there will be Galaxy S25 phones at this event. And given Samsung’s recent trend of launching three tiers of flagships — standard, Plus and Ultra — you can bet we’ll see that again. (Samsung could technically change the brand names, but the three-layered lineup is practically guaranteed.) There’s even an

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(first

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by 91Mobiles) to dispel any doubts.

The degree of certainty falls sharply once we dig into the phones’ features. A subtle redesign with rounded corners, flatter edges and thinner bezels appears likely based on a leaked

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posted to

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and

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from reputable tipster Ice Universe. But this isn’t expected to be the generation where Samsung’s hiring of a former Mercedes-Benz designer will lead to drastic aesthetic changes.

Android Headlines also

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of the purported Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra that confirm the relatively minor redesign. The site also claims the screen size for the Galaxy S25 and S25+ are unchanged from last year at 6.2 and 6.7 inches, respectively. The Ultra gets an ever-so-slightly ******* display at 6.9 inches.

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Qualcomm

At least in the US, the phone is practically guaranteed to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which the chip-maker revealed in October. (Qualcomm even

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Samsung among the companies launching devices with that processor “in the coming weeks.”) Like just about every flagship processor these days, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is built for on-device generative AI, which aligns with Samsung’s Galaxy AI blitz in recent models.

We don’t know whether the company will split its S25 processors between Snapdragon (US and other markets) and Exynos (everywhere else), but Ice Universe has

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it will be all Snapdragon this generation. That would be a good thing, given what’s often a glaring performance and battery life disparity favoring Qualcomm. There would be precedence, too: although the vast majority of Galaxy S generations have had different processors regionally, the S23 had the same “Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy” chip globally.

Samsung is rumored to stick with last-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

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Pixel 9. Logic suggests Samsung would want its best homemade screen in its best phones — especially when its competitors are already using it. But it could stick with the cheaper panels to keep the bill of materials down. Perhaps it calculated that better displays don’t make for better generative AI (the obsession of nearly every tech company right now), while the latest Qualcomm chip does.

Speaking of AI, expect Samsung to devote a perhaps agonizingly long portion of the event to generative AI features. The hit-or-miss DigiTimes

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last month that the Galaxy S25 series will include “an AI Agent that provides personalized clothing suggestions and transport information.” What that would look like in practice is anyone’s guess, but I’m not sure I want to know.

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Samsung

The phones will run Samsung’s One UI 7 on top of Android 15. We know this because Samsung said in October that its user experience (based on Android 15) will launch on the next Galaxy S flagships. It’s already available in beta for Galaxy S24 phones. Samsung has said that One UI 7 will be its “first integrated AI platform.” It added that Galaxy phones “will become true AI companions” that are able to understand natural language derived from speech, images and text. And to drive things home,

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that the “One UI 7 will be officially released with the upcoming Galaxy S series devices.”

On the camera front, Ice Universe

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(via

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) it’s “confirmed” that only the ultra-wide sensor will see an upgrade in the Galaxy S25 Ultra — to 50MP from 12MP in last year’s model. The leaker says the S25 Ultra will stick with a 200MP main sensor, 10MP 3x zoom and 50MP 5x zoom.

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Galaxy S24 Ultra (Sam Rutherford for Engadget)

Samsung will add the Qi2 wireless charging standard to its new flagships — and that comes straight from the horse’s (aka, the Wireless Power Consortium’s) mouth. However, leaker chunvn8888 (aka “yawn”)

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Samsung’s phones won’t have built-in magnets for Qi2’s native MagSafe in everything but name charging. Given that’s the main benefit of Qi2, this would be disappointing news. Instead, the leaker says Samsung will sell a first-party case with a Qi2 magnetic ring to enable that. (Gotta move those accessories, baby!) Is it really Qi2 if you need a case?

Rumors have

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about an alleged Galaxy S25 Slim with a — you guessed it — slimmer design joining the trio at some point this year. That’s something Apple is also rumored to be working on.

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have posted numerous renders this past week comparing how the different size options may compare to each other. A

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from Ice Universe puts the S25 Slim at 6.4mm. However, given the FCC certifications only appear to cover the familiar trio of flagships, that phone (if it’s in the pipeline at all) may not arrive until later in the year.

Galaxy Ring 2, Samsung XR and AR glasses

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Galaxy Ring (Sam Rutherford for Engadget)

DigiTimes

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in December that Samsung would show off (or maybe just tease) the Galaxy Ring 2 and augmented reality (AR) glasses during its January Unpacked event.

The Taiwanese publication says the Galaxy Ring 2 will add two more sizes to the nine from the original model, which only launched in July. The second-gen wearable health tracker is said to add new AI features (surprise!) and updated sensors for more accurate measurements. The Galaxy Ring 2 is also rumored to last longer than the current model’s maximum of seven days.

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DigiTimes also claims Samsung’s AR glasses — which the company has confirmed it’s working on — will look like regular prescription glasses and weigh around 50g. It says the futuristic glasses would use

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’s Gemini AI, which aligns with what we already know about Samsung’s partnership with

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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 amount to little more than a teaser, a la its grand reveal of… a stinkin’ render for the first Galaxy Ring at Unpacked 2024.

We also know Samsung is co-developing an Android XR (extended reality) headset — codenamed Project Moohan — alongside

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and Qualcomm. The “lightweight” and “ergonomically designed” headset will have a “state-of-the-art display,” passthrough video and natural multi-modal input.

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’s renderings show a wearable reminiscent of Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro.

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Project Moohan (

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/ Samsung)

Since

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only recently began offering a developer kit and API for the platform, any glimpse of it at Unpacked wouldn’t likely include an imminent release or deep dive into its hardware.

Engadget will have full coverage of Samsung’s first Unpacked event of 2025. More to come on January 22!

Update, January 13 2025, 12:58PM ET: This story has been updated with purported images and more details on the Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra from Android Headlines.

Update, January 14 2025, 3:20PM ET: This story has been updated with some more information about One UI 7.

Update, January 17 2025, 12:45PM ET: This story has been updated with more details on the Galaxy S25’s processor and the history of processors in the Galaxy S series.

Update, January 19, 2025, 12:15PM ET: This story has been updated with more information about the rumored Galaxy S25 Slim.

Update, January 20, 2025, 3:35PM ET: This story has been updated to include Samsung’s recent affirmation that the One UI 7 interface will be present on new Galaxy devices.

Update, January 21, 2025, 2:29PM ET: This story has been updated to include reservation details for the new (as yet unannounced) Samsung products.

Update, January 22, 2025, 9:45AM ET: This story has been updated to add the link to our liveblog.

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#expect #Samsung #Galaxy #S25 #Unpacked #event

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