The start of the tech year includes Samsung announcing its new flagship Galaxy S series of smartphones – this year Samsung did it a little earlier than usual, but we again have three new devices—Galaxy S25 Ultra, S25+ and S25. While the S25 Ultra starts at Rs. 1,29,999, the S25+ is available starting at Rs. 99,999, and the S25 comes at a base price of Rs. 80,999. What's new and how do they feel like, let's try and find:
All three devices are equipped with Qualcomm's high-end Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset for Galaxy (up to 4.4Ghz octa-core processor, Adreno 830 GPU, X80 5G Modem) along with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS4.0 base storage (up from 8GB on the S24, though it's with 128GB storage). The SIM card slot tray sits at the bottom, next to the USB type-C port on all three devices.
The S25 Ultra features a slightly bigger 6.9-inch AMOLED (3120 x 1440) display (than the 6.8-inch on the S24 Ultra) but at the same time, it is slightly slimmer and thinner. There's Corning's Gorilla Glass Armor 2 on top for added protection along with DX anti-reflective coating. The phone weighs 218grams and is framed with Titanium Grade 5 (upgraded from Grade 2), has rounded edges this time, and is a little less blocky in look and feel. It has a similar looking four-camera setup on the back except for the silver circle around the lenses, while the S pen retains a slot at the bottom. There's now a 50MP ultra-wide camera along with the cameras – a 200MP main camera, a 12MP periscope camera and a 10MP telephoto camera along with the same laser autofocus. Oh, and you can now record videos in long format. I found the phone slightly more comfortable to use and carry around. It comes in titanium black, titanium gray, titanium blue and titanium white silver colour options.
The middle sibling, S25+, has a 6.7-inch AMOLED (3120x1440) display and 4,900mAh battery unit. In terms of size and display in place, I again found this to be the best suited for comfort and typing something on the go. You get a very similar Armor Aluminium frame but rounded corners as well as Corning's Gorilla Armor 2 on its front and Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back.
The S25 features a 6.2-inch (19.5:9 aspect ratio) full HD+ (2340x1080) AMOLED with support for up to 120Hz refresh rates and has the same camera setup as its predecessor but whether Samsung has done any tweaks and colour tuning would need to be checked with prolonged use. It is powered by a 4,000mAh battery unit. Both S25+ and S25 are available in ice blue, mint, navy and silver shadow colour options.
Also read
- Premiumisation: Average cost of a smartphone to exceed Rs 25,000 in India this year
- Why you should not wait to buy that dream phone any longer
- Samsung layoff: Around 200 jobs to be slashed in India amid dip in sales as rivals prove competitive
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6: Improved battery life and camera experience
These Galaxy devices run on Android 15-based One UI 7 and come with promised seven years of OS updates as well as security updates. One of the new features is ‘Now Bar’ which sits on the lock screen and gives you actions based on your routine and locations – an advanced version of Samsung's existing modes and routine feature. There's also an AI-assisted ‘Audio Eraser’ for video recording, to remove continuous unwanted noises such as strong winds when you're outdoors under such conditions.
Google will also be bringing Gemini's advanced screen reading AI capabilities based on its Project Astra to this series first, before any other smartphones – taking multiple joined commands in a single voice request. The Galaxy S25 Series (and Google's Pixel 9 series) is also adding the LE Audio hearing aids support under accessibility features.