Hands-on: Everything that’s actually new on the Galaxy S25 series [Gallery]

2 hours ago 1

Samsung just announced the Galaxy S25 series and, ahead of that, we’ve had a chance to try out the new devices. At a glance, they look pretty familiar but, on closer inspection… they still look pretty familiar. Here’s everything we found new with the hardware.

Galaxy S25 Ultra gets curved corners, lighter build

Samsung has been fully embracing the Galaxy Note look on its highest-end Galaxy S flagship for the past few years, and I’ve never really been a huge fan of that. The sharp corners didn’t feel good in the hand, even in a case, and it felt out of place with the rest of the lineup.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra now swaps to curved corners and ditches the S24 Ultra’s curved frame for flat sides. While this results in an iPhone-like profile, it looks good and, more importantly, feels really good in the hand.

Adding to that, the device as a whole is much lighter, shaving off 14g from the previous model which actually feels noticeable even without comparing the two side-by-side.

I love the little camera color accents

Perhaps my favorite new hardware change on the Galaxy S25 series is Samsung’s new camera color accents. The camera module pieces now have a little ring of color to match the frame of the phone on the black rings around the camera. It’s a really nice look, and good attention to detail. I just wish Samsung had picked brighter colors. The best use of this is on the “Titanium Jadegreen” color which has a green backplate and a gold-ish frame.

The colors themselves are… pretty boring this year. The “Coralred” and “Jadegreen” exclusive colors are good, and the “Navy” for Galaxy S25 and S25+ is nice, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra is also available in three slight variations of silver that look nearly identical even side by side.

Samsung, you can do better.

50MP ultrawide camera

While there’s no visible difference on the outside, Samsung did finally give the Galaxy S25 Ultra a camera upgrade by swapping out the ultrawide camera with a new sensor. The 12MP shooter found on the past few generations has been upgraded to a 50MP sensor. That should result in much better wide-angle shots, but we’ll have to test it out in the coming weeks to find out for sure.

Gorilla Armor 2 on Galaxy S25 Ultra’s ‘bigger’ display

Corning’s Gorilla Armor debuted on the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the highlight was its stellar anti-reflective qualities. But it never ended up coming to other devices and, for some users, didn’t age particularly well.

Gorilla Armor 2 looks to be similar in terms of functionality, but Samsung says it’s even stronger against drops. In my hands-on time, I noticed that the coating is still prone to getting things stuck to it, but I never found that to be a huge issue with the S24 Ultra either. I’ll be curious to see how this generation ages.

The display goes up from 6.8 to 6.9-inches, but only due to the slimmer bezels, which is a win for everyone as it means the phone isn’t any bigger.

LOG video recording and HDR by default

Samsung is also making some big video upgrades this year. The Galaxy S25 series supports “Galaxy Log,” a way to record LOG footage. This footage is similar to RAW for photos, capturing more data at the time of recording to be make more advanced editing possible later on.

Another change to video recording is 10-bit HDR which is now enabled by default.

Galaxy S25 and S25+ – Third time’s the charm?

“Corporate wants you to find the difference between this picture and this picture.”

That’s how I felt looking at the base Galaxy S25 and the Galaxy S25+. They look identical in every way to the Galaxy S24 and S24+, which also looked incredibly similar to the Galaxy S23 and S23+. Samsung hasn’t changed… anything on this latest model beside the new camera design. They look and feel identical, though both are a little bit lighter.

More than before, AI is the main focus

Last year’s Galaxy S24 series already felt like a lineup where hardware was a secondary focus, but it’s extremely clear on the Galaxy S25 that Samsung just doesn’t care about the hardware. These phones are purely a vessel for AI features.

That’s not to say they’re bad phones without anything new. There are welcome upgrades and, realistically, Samsung is continuing to push a formula that clearly sells a lot of phones every year. I’m looking forward to spending more time with them, but I don’t think the phones stand out too far beyond the AI features that, if last year serves as precedent, will probably just be ported to existing phones anyway.

What do you think?

The Galaxy S25 series is now available for pre-order from Samsung.com, with up to $1,200 in savings, plus an additional $50 off when you click on our links and order within 30 minutes.