Samsung launched its Galaxy S24 series back in January, alongside its new Galaxy AI toolkit.
Consisting of the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus and premium Galaxy S24 Ultra, all handsets in the series received at least a four-star rating from us, with the latter earning a near-perfect 4.5-star.
Even though the series is still fairly new, that hasn’t stopped Samsung fans from speculating about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S25 series. Although we don’t have any confirmed specs yet, we’ve put together all the rumors circulating around the series, from the rumoured release date to the expected specifications.
We’ve also shared what we think the Galaxy S25 series should include to help make the line-up a worthy successor to the Galaxy S24.
Samsung Galaxy S25: At a glance
- Likely to launch next January 2025
- Running on either Samsung’s new Exynos or upcoming Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon for Galaxy processor
- May see a price rise
- New rounded design for the Galaxy S25 Ultra
- New camera sensors across the series
Samsung Galaxy S25 rumored release date & pricing
Although Samsung hasn’t officially revealed when its S25 series will be launching, we can make an educated guess based on the launch dates of the previous S-series handsets, as all launched in either January or February of their respective years.
So, unless Samsung flips the script and changes things up completely, much like Google, then we can assume the Galaxy S25 series will launch in either January or February 2025.
Pricing has also not yet been confirmed, although there’s much speculation as to how much each handset could potentially set you back.
According to a post on Weibo, if the series does run on the not-yet-launched Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 then the handsets could see a “significant” price increase. This is because the price of the chip is expected to increase, resulting in handsets bearing the processor to increase too. However, this has not been confirmed by either brand.
On the other hand, we can assume that the S25 series will otherwise stay fairly close to the pricing of the S24 series, starting at £799/$799 for the Galaxy S24 and rising to £1249/$1299 for the Ultra model.
Samsung Galaxy S25 design and screen rumors
- The S25 Ultra may see a new rounded design
- The S25 Plus might be scrapped
Although there haven’t been any credible leaked renders yet, there are still a few rumors circulating about the design and display of the S25 series, especially the S25 Ultra. According to a tipster on X, the S25 Ultra may be “as round as the Galaxy Note 7”.
They continue in another post that a rounded S25 Ultra will help animations look more natural in comparison to the S24 Ultra.
There have been conflicting reports regarding what the S25 lineup will consist of. A reporter for Android Headlines noticed that while the S25 and S25 Ultra were found to be registered into the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) database, the S25 Plus was seemingly missing and suggested this means Samsung could be scrapping the Plus model.
The website has since retracted this statement, however there’s still confusion about why the S25 Plus hasn’t been registered yet. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this rumour, as we’d be disappointed to see the Plus model go.
Samsung Galaxy S25 camera rumors
- Galaxy S25 Ultra could keep the same lenses as S24 Ultra
- New Samsung sensors, but unsure if these will appear on Galaxy S25
The cameras of the S24 series remained fairly unchanged from its predecessors, although Samsung did swap out the S24 Ultra’s 10MP 10x periscope lens for a 50MP 5x alternative to offer better quality images in the 5-10x range.
According to a tipster on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, the S25 Ultra will retain the four sensors of the S24 Ultra.
Samsung has also recently unveiled three new camera sensors which have been heavily rumoured to appear across the S25 series, although this is still unconfirmed. There’s the ISOCELL HP9, a 200MP sensor that enhances light-gathering capabilities to deliver more vivid colour reproduction and improved focus, as well as a serious boost in low-light conditions.
There’s also the ISOCELL GNJ 50MP dual-pixel sensor, which enables fast and accurate autofocus while using less power. Finally, there’s the versatile JN5 50MP which reduces noise in extreme low light conditions for a clear image.
Samsung Galaxy S25 performance and software rumors
- The Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus will run on the Exynos 2500 chipset in most markets
- All handsets in the US and China will use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipsets
- Running on Android 15 and OneUI 7
The Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus run on different chipsets depending on your location, with US users getting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy (the same chipset found across the S24 series) and the rest of the world receiving the Samsung-designed Exynos 2400.
Although we haven’t had any confirmation yet, Samsung has just unveiled its latest Exynos 2500 chip which the brand explains will be used for its “flagship products”. With this in mind, it is expected that Samsung will use the Exynos 2500 chip for the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus across the majority of markets, excluding the US and China.
For the US and China markets, it is expected that Samsung will then use the not-yet-announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 for Galaxy chipset.
Otherwise as Android 15 is expected to launch later this year, we would expect the entire S25 series to come running on the new OS with Samsung’s updated OneUI 7.
Trusted Take: What we think the Samsung Galaxy S25 needs
Although we enjoyed using the Galaxy S24 series, boasting impressive camera setups, powerful performance and the Galaxy AI toolkit, that’s not to say there weren’t missing features from each of the handsets.
One of the biggest issues came from the chipset, with much of the world missing out on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processor on the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus handsets, instead running on the Exynos 2400 processor.
Although it’s perhaps not uncommon for a more budget-friendly handset in a lineup to receive a slighter chipset, the rest of the world felt slightly hard done knowing that US users boasted the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. This time round, we’d like all handsets to receive the Snapdragon equivalent.
In addition, an area where Samsung (and Apple) need to improve is charging speeds, with Samsung offering a relatively slow 45W. We’d love to see the S25 series finally receive a boost and bring things in line with much of the Android competition.
While we do appreciate the camera setup of the S24 series, with all handsets able to comfortably take vibrant images across various lighting conditions, the setup now feels tired as Samsung hasn’t made any notable hardware changes since the Galaxy S21 series. We’d love to see a complete overhaul of the camera setup, especially on the regular and Plus models.
