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Samsung is announcing its new Galaxy S25 phones. We’ll have all of the updates as they come in, but, as you can see below, we had a lot of this embargoed and got an early look.
But there may be some surprises! You can tune in to watch the event in the video below once everything gets started at 1PM ET / 10AM PT.
Expect Samsung to talk about AI. It’s the thing tech companies love to talk about as much as possible. Probably because they’re all spending a lot of money on it. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and others have used similar events to chat about how they’re implementing AI into their software, for example.
Whatever comes up, we’ll have it all here.
TM Roh in the house.
Roh is kicking things off, and as you guessed, his little opening speech tips that AI is the name of the game for today’s event. Starting with Gemini.
Google Gemini works across multiple apps at once on the S25 and will be the default.
Google’s AI assistant can now complete multi-app tasks in a single prompt, like finding a restaurant and sending it to a friend. The upgrade isn’t exclusive to the S25 phones, but it will work across Samsung and Google apps. It’s part of a wave of AI updates announced by Google today.
Source: Google
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra smooths out some sharp edges
The Galaxy S25 Ultra, announced today, sheds more of its Note roots this year with rounded corners and flat edges that align it more with the rest of the S series. It comes with Qualcomm’s latest chipset, an upgraded ultrawide camera, and not much else, hardware-wise. With no price increase over last year’s model — starting at $1,299 — it’s a light refresh of Samsung’s biggest phone, with a major emphasis on One UI 7.0’s AI upgrades.
Something about the shift from curved edges to flat sides makes the S25 Ultra look hefty in photos, like if the Cybertruck were a phone. But it’s actually slightly smaller and lighter than last year’s device, even with a bigger 6.9-inch screen thanks to slimmer bezels. It’s equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor tuned for Galaxy devices — that’s true for all S25-series phones sold in all regions, which hasn’t been the case recently. And it still comes with one more strong spec: seven years of OS updates and security patches.
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The S25 phones don’t have Qi2 — but they are Qi2 Ready.
Confused? It just means Samsung’s new flagships lack the magnets that Qi2 certification requires, but they will wirelessly juice at up to 15W on a Qi2 charger when using one of Samsung’s official Qi2 Ready magnet cases. They’re the first of what are expected to be a lot of Qi 2 Ready Android phones this year.
Samsung goes back to basics with the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s stylus
The “Ultra” model in Samsung’s Galaxy S lineup is typically the phone crammed full of every feature the company could think of. But this year, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is actually taking a step backward with the S Pen. The motion gestures and useful remote camera shutter function have been removed, and the stylus is back to being just a stylus. You can still wave it around like a magic wand, but the phone won’t do anything.
During a media briefing on the new S25 series last week, Samsung explained that customers rarely ever used the “Air action” gestures. So the company decided to try and cut costs by ditching them entirely. And no, the starting price of the S25 Ultra hasn’t come down as a result. Samsung believes other hardware upgrades are more than enough to maintain the same $1,299.99 price.
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Samsung’s S25 and S25 Plus offer more of the same
The Galaxy S25 (left) and the S25 Plus (right).
If the Galaxy S24 series heralded the triumphant arrival of Galaxy AI, then the S25 and S25 Plus may be a bit of a comedown: they promise more AI that’s smarter and sometimes slightly faster. You’d better like it because that’s pretty much all you’re gonna get.
Samsung changed as little as it could on the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, announced today alongside the larger and redesigned Galaxy S25 Ultra. There’s the obligatory jump to a new chipset — in this case, Qualcomm’s custom-tuned Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, included in phones worldwide this time around — and a welcome decision to offer 12GB of RAM as standard on every S25 phone, pulling the base model in line with the others.
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Samsung is bringing ambient sensing to SmartThings
Samsung announced a new AI-powered ambient sensing technology for SmartThings designed to make your smart home be more helpful.Image: SmartThings
Samsung announced today that its connected appliances and smart home devices will soon be able to act as motion and sound sensors for its smart home platform SmartThings. This includes its televisions, Music Frame speaker, Family Hub fridge, and more. The company said the updates are slated for release in 2025 and 2026 but didn’t provide specific timelines.
The move is part of its vision of “AI for All,” using AI to simplify technology in the home. By leveraging sensors in its appliances, Samsung’s new Home AI — an artificial intelligence layer that the company is applying to its connected devices — can gather “insights from everyday life to create personalized experiences to fit your needs, transforming your home into a smarter, more efficient space,” according to a Samsung blog post.
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Galaxy AI in the house.
No surprise there. Guessing AI is going to be a big part of this presentation. The place is filling up with about 10 minutes to go.
Today’s wait music has staff divided.
It’s a time-honored Verge tradition to critique the wait music before an event. Let’s say it’s... elevated elevator music, or as David said, knockoff jazz. Some of us are agog and aghast. Others say the jaunty tune has their toes a-tappin’. (They’re wrong.) Taking bets on whether it’s Galaxy AI-generated.
Samsung’s pre-show music is so weird Shazam can’t identify it.
The best way I can describe the vibe on the stream, 20 minutes before showtime, is “knockoff jazz music.” It sounds like the soundtrack for the waiting lobby in a video game, if the game you’re about to play is about to get sued by Nintendo. Does any of that make sense? All I know is it sounds AI-generated, and Shazam can’t even figure out what it is.
How to watch Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked 2025.
Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event kicks off at 1PM ET. We’re expecting the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Plus, and Galaxy S25 Ultra, but Samsung may have a few surprises. Who knows? We’ll also have a story stream with all the news from San Jose, California, if you want to follow along.
We're ready to unpack.
We're here in San Jose ready to see some new Galaxy phones! This is the second year in a row Samsung is hosting this event in a hockey arena, and all I'm saying is I’d better hear some air horns this time.
Samsung launches a kid-friendly mode for the Galaxy Watch 7
The new Galaxy Watch for Kids mode is enabled in Wear OS via Google Family Link.Image: Samsung, Google
Samsung dropped some wearable news ahead of its Unpacked event later today: parents can now use the cellular Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 as a smartwatch for their kids.
With a new Galaxy Watch for Kids mode, children can use the smartwatch to call and text trusted contacts, while parents can also track their kids’ locations via GPS. The option starts rolling out today and will work on Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T networks.
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What to expect at Samsung’s Galaxy S25 event
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Samsung is set to announce its Galaxy S25 phones at its Galaxy Unpacked event on January 22nd, at 1PM ET. The event typically focuses on its next smartphones and software features, which you can bet includes lots of AI, but there should be other things here and there, too. Here’s what we’re expecting and how you can watch along.
Samsung will stream the event on YouTube, its website, and its newsroom page, and we’ll post about the announcements as they happen right here on The Verge.
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Samsung needs to give us a reason to care about new phones every year
The Galaxy S25 phones will probably look a lot like the S24 and S24 Plus.Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
I take no pleasure in saying this, but if the rumors about the Galaxy S25 series are true, then these phones look boring as hell. That would be fine, except that Samsung is asking us all to get very excited about them by hosting a big, loud launch event. And I think it’s time for Samsung — and honestly, the industry as a whole — to look in the mirror and ask: do we really need this?
I’m not saying Samsung or any other tech company should throw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall and cram some questionably useful stuff into their phones just for the sake of it. That helps nobody. It’s just that getting up onstage and declaring that these phones are fundamentally different and new should be a truly special occasion. And that used to be true! But now, it’s just a thing we do every year that feels a lot like the thing we did last year.
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