It’s going to be an exciting week for Samsung fans. The smartphone maker is once again kicking the year off with a January Unpacked event to set the tone for what’s to come for the best smartphones in 2025.
This year’s event is being held on Wednesday, January 22, in San Jose, California, and it will almost certainly be headlined by its new Galaxy S25 phone lineup, but that’s far from all we’re expecting. Recent rumors have suggested a newer and slimmer entry in the flagship Galaxy S family, plus a smattering of new features and some interesting new wearables.
Be ready for a pretty fast-paced and full event on Wednesday. Here’s everything we’re expecting from Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked January 2025 event.
Samsung Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra
You can basically mark your calendars for when Samsung’s new Galaxy S series phones will arrive, so there’s no doubt that this event will herald the arrival of the usual suspects: the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra. Samsung hasn’t explicitly said it will be the “S25,” merely “the new Galaxy S series,” but it’s a safe bet that it will stick with tradition.
As for what these new Galaxy S phones will offer, we already have a pretty good idea of what to expect, thanks to the usual collection of rumors and leaks.
We don’t anticipate any major changes to the design of the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, which isn’t too surprising as Samsung already changed things up last year with completely flat edges. The Galaxy S24 Ultra also made the shift to a titanium frame. That’s expected to continue with the S25 Ultra, with a slight possibility it might also bring it to the S25 and S25 Plus.
A purported first look at the S25 Ultra from September reveals that it may fully embrace the flatness, eliminating the last vestiges of rounded edges and putting it in the same club as the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and iPhone 16 Pro Max. However, it’s also expected to be lighter.
Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max shed 19 grams when it switched to titanium as the previous model had a stainless steel frame; however, Samsung has used lighter aluminum all along, and last year’s Galaxy S24 Ultra only shed a single gram off the S23 Ultra when it switched to titanium, so a 13-gram reduction will be quiet significant.
We’re not sure how Samsung plans to accomplish this, but if reports are true, this year’s model could shed an astonishing 13 grams off its predecessor, coming in at 219 grams — just under the 227 grams of the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
All three S25 models are expected to get thinner bezels, which isn’t too surprising as that’s something every smartphone manufacturer is striving for. However, the Galaxy S25 Ultra could feature rounded corners for the first time, resulting in an aesthetic that’s far closer to the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus. A leaked photo of the three phones laid out side-by-side shows the entire family looking far more similar than ever, although the S25 Ultra still sets itself apart with its less rounded corners.
Other design changes include some slight modifications to the camera layout on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which will reportedly take a page out of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 design playbook, gaining black concentric circles but not the pill surrounding the camera array. Rumored colors for the S25 and S25 Plus include Moon Night Blue, Silver Shadow, Sparkling Blue, and Sparkling Green, along with a possible additional Midnight Black for the larger model. The S25 Ultra is expected to stick with its “Titanium” theme and come in Titanium Black, Titanium Blue, Titanium Gray, and Titanium Silver.
Under the hood, the entire Galaxy S25 lineup will go all-in on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. This dispels previous rumors that Samsung could use its own Exynos 2400 silicon for some of its new models, at least in international markets.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra should get its typical year-over-year camera improvements, but don’t expect groundbreaking changes. The primary lens will likely remain at 200 megapixels (MP) while adopting improved sensors. The periscope telephoto camera is also said to stay at 50MP and a 5x zoom, but the second 3x telephoto camera could move to a 50MP sensor from the 10MP one found in the S24 Ultra.
Sadly, Samsung will likely stick with tradition in keeping the Galaxy S25 Ultra as the flagship camera phone, with the S25 and S25 Plus delivering modest improvements over their predecessors. At best, they might get new sensors, but even that’s not a sure thing.
On the power management side, larger batteries combined with Qualcomm’s latest silicon should provide longer run times, but we could see downgraded wireless charging on the smallest S25, dropping speeds to 9W, while the wired charging for that model remains at 25W. The jury is also out on Qi2 charging, which may come to the Galaxy S25, but possibly only in the form of a magnetic case.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim
The dark horse in this year’s Galaxy S25 race could turn out to be an entirely new model that the rumor mill has dubbed the Galaxy S25 Slim. We’ve been hearing reports since early 2024 that Apple is working on an “iPhone 17 Slim” or “iPhone 17 Air,” so it stands to reason that Samsung may be hoping to beat its biggest rival to the punch.
However, with the rumors of the Galaxy S25 Slim only appearing in the past few weeks, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to get your hands on the new model alongside the rest of the S25 family. Samsung will likely announce it this week, but availability could be pushed to April or beyond. That still gets it out well ahead of Apple’s entry, which won’t show up until September.
The goal here is to create the slimmest Galaxy S series phone ever, but there’s no word on how much Samsung will be able to shave off. The Galaxy S24 is 7.6mm thick, so it will likely be thinner than that, but nobody has even offered any informed speculation on the actual dimensions. There are reports that it could pack in an “Ultra” camera, but it’s unclear whether that means a full multi-lens array or just a very powerful single lens akin to the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 200MP shooter. By all reports, Apple’s slimmest iPhone 17 will have only one camera. Beyond the cameras, it’s a safe bet that the Galaxy S25 Slim will have similar specs to the rest of the S25 lineup, including the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and the best AMOLED screen Samsung can put into it. However, a slimmer phone means a smaller battery, so we’ll have to wait and see what kind of run times Samsung can promise.
New Galaxy AI features
Make no mistake, it’s an AI world now, and smartphone manufacturers from Apple to Xiaomi are eagerly rolling out new AI features. Samsung entered the fray last year with Galaxy AI, a suite of tools for assisting with calls and chats, translating spoken conversations, transcribing notes, improving drawings and photos, and more.
There’s every reason to believe this week’s event will bring us ”Galaxy AI 2.0,” with some clever new features that could help extra useful information from YouTube videos and provide contextually useful real-time information throughout your day.
We won’t know anything for certain until Wednesday, but a “Now Brief” feature shared by one rumor source reveals an AI-driven feature to provide updates on the weather, traffic along your daily commute, and even things like coupons and other relevant details for your trip. This will reportedly tie into Samsung’s Health features to give you updates on your Energy Score and a rundown of your overall physical activity at the end of the day.
A YouTube-related feature could use Gemini AI (which underpins Galaxy AI) to do things like “List the places mentioned in this video and save a Note.” However, like last year’s introduction of Circle to Search, it’s unclear if this will be exclusive to Galaxy AI or merely the debut of a Google feature that will eventually make its way to other Android phones. The fact that it appears to be specific to YouTube suggests the latter.
Samsung likely has a few other surprises in store for this year’s Galaxy AI update, but we haven’t heard too many other rumors. It’s much easier for companies like Samsung to keep software features close to the vest, so expect some surprises on Wednesday.
Samsung Galaxy Ring 2
Last year, Samsung unveiled its first smart ring, the Galaxy Ring, during its January 2024 Unpacked. Now, it looks like it may already be preparing a sequel.
The original Galaxy Ring didn’t go on sale until the summer, so it’s possible the Galaxy Ring 2 may follow a similar timeline, but there’s a good chance Samsung will at least give us a teaser on Wednesday. Thanks to the usual assortment of leaks, we already know a fair bit about the Galaxy Ring 2, but we’re expecting this year’s model to mostly iterate on the original.
This likely means better battery life — rumors say over seven days — along with some additional health sensors and AI capabilities and two new sizes to accommodate those with larger fingers. Still, while we’re hoping for some key improvements, like making it work more as a standalone device with more phones rather than as the Galaxy Watch companion that it is now, we’re not holding our collective breath just yet.
Samsung’s VR headset
Samsung has dabbled in virtual reality (VR) for years, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a serious headset from the company. However, after Apple’s Vision Pro landed last year, rumors appeared that Samsung and Qualcomm were joining forces to build a competitor powered by the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2.
Apple eschewed the term “VR” for its Vision Pro in favor of its own “Spatial Computing” buzzphrase, and Samsung appears to be following a similar tack, going with the term “XR” for eXtended Reality. Samsung has teased enough information to confirm it’s working on something in this space, but the details are scant at best.
All that’s officially been said is that it plans to “improve connectivity among products, including upcoming XR devices.” However, we’ve known for some time that Samsung has been working on a mixed-reality AR/VR product with Qualcomm and Google for some time, and new support for XR headset apps on the Play Store suggests something is on its way from at least one Android player.
Over the past few months, it’s become even clearer that Samsung has an XR headset in the works that could launch sometime this year. We don’t know much about it, except that industry sources say it will undercut Apple’s extremely pricey Vision Pro by landing in the $1,000 to $1,500 range.
Samsung smart glasses
While Samsung’s XR headset will compete on the same playing field as Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s Quest 3S, the company is also reportedly working on some revolutionary smart glasses to accompany the Galaxy Ring.
To be clear, these won’t be a pie-in-the-sky “Apple Glass” project that was never realistically achievable, or Meta’s ambitious Orion glasses. Samsung is setting its sights on something lower and much more achievable, akin to Meta’s Ray-Ban Stories.
If the leaks are accurate, these will pack in Qualcomm’s AR1 Gen 1 chip for wearables, plus a 12-megapixel camera to capture the world around you, including photos and videos plus scanning codes and recognizing gestures.
While Samsung’s and Meta’s entries will share a common hardware platform, they’ll reportedly differ significantly on the hardware side, with Samsung looking to Google’s Gemini AI, which powers the rest of its devices.
What’s less clear is whether we’ll see these teased at Galaxy Unpacked this week. They aren’t expected to even begin production until later this year, which means they might not even see a release before early 2026.
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