Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025 live blog – get ready for the Galaxy S25 launch and a whole lot of AI
All the last-minute news and rumors ahead of the first Unpacked of 2025
The first Samsung Galaxy Unpacked of 2025 is sure to be a phone-focussed event, where we're predicting to see the Samsung Galaxy S25 range, spearheaded by the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
While these phones are expected to be iterative upgrades over the Galaxy S24 lineup, their big party tricks could be a suite of new and improved features on the Galaxy AI side; a new powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset should help power these tools.
If you want to watch the event yourself then check out our guide on how to watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025. But for all the news and rumors ahead of Unpacked, you're in the right place; read on.
I'm here to take you through the early stages of this live blog. As the Managing Editor of TechRadar's Mobile Computing division, I'm well versed in the world of smartphones. I've also been covering flagship Galaxy phones for years and pretty much always have one within reaching distance. So come with me on this blogging journey as I chew over the rumors so far, and what I'd like to see from the first Unpacked of 2025.
In reference to those seemingly leaked specs, it's over to my colleague and staff writer Jamie RIchards for some context on the tipped Snapdragon chipset.
Snapdragon after all
There's been some back and forth in the months leading up to Samsung Galaxy Unpacked about which chipset the Galaxy S25 lineup would make use of. Some tipsters pointed to Samsung's troubled Exynos line of chipsets for the new flagships, but production issues seem to have taken too much of a toll for these proprietary processors to make it into this year's lineup.
The latest major specs leak (courtesy of noted tipster @MysteryLupin) points to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for the Samsung Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra. As Qualcomm's flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is one of the fastest mobile platforms on the market, which bodes well for the S25 series' performance.
So going by those 'leaked' specs, it looks like there's not going to be a lot change with the Galaxy S25 series as a whole. 12GB or RAM for the standard S25 looks promising and should help with snappy AI workloads. And the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy would appear to be a custom version of an already powerful chipset, so there's scope for that to bring some serious performance grunt to the table,
Right before I muse more on AI and other bits, first dsome new: just about every single Samsung Galaxy S25 spec has been shown up in what appears to be a new leak. Check them out in the tweet below.
25 pic.twitter.com/rW5EGZJbY9January 17, 2025
Speaking of Galaxy AI, I'll buy a hat and eat it if there's no mention of new AI features for the Galaxy S25 series. I'm expecting a host of upgrades and new features, likely an improved Generative Edit being one of the first upgrades out of the gates.
I'd also like to see Galaxy AI better integrated across the One UI operating system, as my colleague and Senior Editor Philip Berne noted in his Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review, Galaxy Ai feels somewhat fiddly to access and use.
There's no murmur on any wearables at this Galaxy Unpacked. But as we had the Galaxy Ring launch mid last year, alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, there's already enough wearables from Samsung to keep us ticking over for now.
I'd predict osme AI upgrades for the Galaxy Ring and Galaxy Watch series, though how these will manifest isn't clear.
So what's all the fuss about? Well as mentioned, this Unpacked is very likely be one that's fully focused on the next-generations Galaxy phones. We're not expecting much else in terms of hardware.
This could be disappointing to some as the Galaxy S25 family as a whole has been tipped to be somewhat of an iterative upgrade over the Galaxy S24 lineup, which brought in Galaxy AI.
Good afternoon or morning or evening, depending on where you are, I (Roland Moore-Colyer) am here to chat about the Galaxy S25 rumors so far and what we can expect to see at the first Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event of 2025, which takes place on January 22.
