Samsung announces the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Ultra featuring one of the best innovations from its 8K TVs

Samsung has unveiled its latest trio of flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S25 series. Comprised of the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra, this trio succeeds the impressive Galaxy S24 series with a plethora of design, feature, and (most importantly) picture upgrades to usher in what Samsung is calling its "most advanced smartphones yet."

Each device will also feature a Dynamic AMOLED display with a variable refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz; notably, the S25 Ultra and S25 Plus will feature 3160 x 1440 (quad HD) resolutions, whereas the standard S25 will sport a 1920 x 1080 (full HD) screen. And while Samsung itself hasn't mentioned it yet, we anticipate HDR10+ support on these devices, as was the case with previous generations, including the Galaxy S24 and S23 devices.

There is a rare AV upgrade in the spotlight with the S25 series, which has certainly piqued our interest; especially considering these sorts of features take a back seat when it comes to most mobile phone launches. Samsung is incorporating its new ProScaler feature with the S25, which upscales video and reportedly increases detail levels of lower quality content (think 480p or 720p videos) by 43 per cent – consider us intrigued.

Much like how Sony's Xperia smartphone allegedly confers with its Bravia TV division, Samsung has reportedly utilised the experience of its TV business to implement this new picture feature. It appears similar to the AI Upscaler Pro feature from its 2025 TV range and 2024 8K models, which is a promising sign considering how impressive the upscaling was on the QN900D.

We've also received word directly from Samsung that there will be no increase in brightness this year, with the same impressive 2600-nit figure quoted from the S24 range. The Ultra also gets a new Corning Gorilla Armour 2 display coating, which reportedly increases protection from scratches and fractures by 29 per cent.

Each of the new devices is notably lighter than their predecessors too; the S25 is 6g lighter, the S25 Plus is 7g lighter, and the S25 Ultra is 15g lighter. Samsung has also shrunken the bezels by 15 per cent, giving the S25 Ultra a 6.9-inch display – a small increase from the 6.8-inch screen of the S24 Ultra. The S25 and S25 Plus feature the same 6.2- and 6.7-inch display sizes as their predecessors.

Audio-wise, it doesn't appear as though much has changed. All three devices feature stereo speakers (consisting of a downward firing speaker and earpiece speaker) on all devices, Dolby Atmos support over the speakers and headphones, and Bluetooth 5.3 for connecting wireless headphones.

All three of the new devices will be powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor, which is once again a customised variant of the latest Snapdragon processor which is exclusively tuned for the new Samsung devices to feature a slightly higher clock speed. Furthermore, all devices in the range will feature 12GB of RAM regardless of their storage specification; this is a major upgrade which should see performance be silky smooth on the new handsets. The S25 series will also launch with the latest One UI 7 operating system (running over Android 15) with seven generations of promised software software.

These latest generational internal components will once again power the Galaxy AI system, which encompasses a variety of features including Circle to Search with Google, Live Translation, Generative Edit photo editing tools, Custom Wallpapers, and Chat Assist for tweaking the tone and grammar – plus many more. New for the S25 series is an on-device large language model, which powers an improved Generative Edit photo editing system with more natural-looking generative fill sections when removing subjects from a photograph.

On the subject of photography, Samsung has upgraded the system with a new 50MP ultra-wide lens on the S25 Ultra, which joins the same 200MP main camera, 10MP telephoto and 50MP periscope arrangement from the S24 Ultra. On the other hand, the S25 and S25 Plus feature a triple camera system comprising a 50MP main lens, 12MP ultrawide and 10MP telephoto camera. Users will now be able to experience four times more dynamic colours with 10-bit HDR support, and an on-device Audio Eraser feature will let you cut unwanted background noise from videos with the tap of a button.

Samsung has revealed that pre-orders for the Galaxy S25 series will begin today, and we can expect to see devices begin shipping on the 7th of February. As with previous generations, Samsung will run a promotion allowing users to double the storage of their device for no extra cost if they pre-order through the official Samsung online storefront. Pricing for new models is as follows (we are awaiting pricing for the US and Australia):

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