The all-new Samsung Galaxy S25 comes with a deeper Galaxy AI integration and a more powerful chipset than its predecessor. However, does it offer enough upside for Galaxy S24 to upgrade? Let’s find out.

Price and Availability

The Samsung Galaxy S25 (128GB) is available for $799.99. Pre-orders for the smartphone begin today, with general availability starting on February 7, 2025.

The one-year-old Galaxy S24 also debuted at the same price. However, with some digging, you can find the phone for excellent discounts. For instance, the baseline Galaxy S24 (128GB) is available at Best Buy for $549.99 (if you agree to connect the phone to a carrier at the time of purchase).

Galaxy S25 Is Slimmer and Lighter Than Galaxy S24

Available in new colors like Icyblue, Navy, Mint, and Silver Shadow and online-exclusive colors like Blueblack, Coralred, and Pinkgold, the Galaxy S25 shares its basic blueprint with the Galaxy S24 but with some noteworthy changes.

For instance, the Galaxy S25 measures 146.9 x 70.5 x 7.2 mm, a hair shorter and narrower but considerably slimmer than the Galaxy S24, which measures 147 x 70.6 x 7.6 mm. Samsung has managed to shave off a few grams of weight from the S25’s chassis; it now weighs 162 grams as opposed to the Galaxy S24, which weighs up to 168 grams.

Both the Galaxy S25 and its predecessor have an Armor Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front and back protection, and an IP68 dust and water resistance rating. However, the Galaxy S25 has textured outer rings on the cameras.

Galaxy S25 Offers the Same Screen as the Galaxy S24

Last year, Samsung equipped the vanilla Galaxy S24 with a Dynamic AMOLED 2x screen that supports up to 120Hz refresh rate and 2,600 nits peak brightness. Based on the embargoed specifications sheet we received, the baseline Galaxy S25 ships with the same panel, with a similar refresh rate and peak brightness.

On the one hand, I am satisfied with the Galaxy S25’s screen, as it already offers a variable refresh rate (1-120Hz) and enough peak brightness for outdoor usage. However, the enthusiast within me isn’t content with Samsung repeating the specifications for a consecutive year, especially when competitors are equipping their handsets with brighter panels. Perhaps the phone makes up for this with other hardware components?

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

This year, Samsung has replaced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 on the Galaxy S24 with the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy on the Galaxy S25, and right off the bat, the newer chipset offers a 37% improvement in CPU, thanks to the redesigned cluster that contains two prime cores clocked at 4.32 GHz, compared to one 3.39 GHz prime core on the predecessor.

The Adreno 830 GPU on the Snapdragon 8 Elite is about 30% faster than the Adreno 750 on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Combined with the inclusion of the Vulkan Engine API and improved ray tracing, the Galaxy S25 should provide a significantly better gaming experience. Samsung’s 2025 flagship also features a larger vapor chamber to facilitate prolonged gaming sessions.

With Snapdragon 8 Elite’s advanced NPU, the Galaxy S25 series can now handle features like Generative Edit entirely on the device, which wasn’t possible on the Galaxy S24. Moreover, the Galaxy S25 series receives the performance boost it deserves, and this should be evident when using the phones side by side, whether for day-to-day tasks or demanding workflows like video editing or gaming.

Galaxy AI Is Now an Integral Part of One UI 7

Up until the Galaxy S24, Galaxy AI was like a set of features that you could invoke for several instances. However, with the Galaxy S25, Samsung has integrated Galaxy AI deep within its One UI 7 user interface (based on Android 15).

The Galaxy S25 comes with multimodal AI agents that can interpret text, speech, images, and videos with an improved understanding of natural language. This enables the phone to understand the context of your requirements and suggest better solutions. Samsung has also partnered with Google to improve the popular visual look-up feature called Circle to Search, which can now recognize phone numbers, email IDs, and web URLs on the screen.

Those who like to use Gemini can now ask it to fetch data from different Samsung and Google apps (along with third-party apps like Spotify). For instance, you can ask the AI assistant to find specific photos in Gallery, adjust the font size in Settings, or fetch a concert’s date and add it to your calendar, all with one voice command.

With on-screen awareness and deep integration with apps, the Galaxy AI has made big strides in improving the user experience. However, it could also be a point of concern for some users who aren’t comfortable sharing their apps’ information with the chatbot.

Like the Galaxy S24, the Galaxy S25 will also receive seven years of major Android and security upgrades. However, whether Samsung will release the new Galaxy AI features for the Galaxy S24 is something we have yet to figure out.

Is the Similar Camera Hardware With Few Tweaks Enough?

The Galaxy S25 comes with a triple-camera setup, including a 50MP (f/1.8) primary camera with optical stabilization, a 12MP (f/2.2, 120°) ultrawide camera, and a 10MP (f/2.4) sensor with 3x telephoto lens. On the front, users get a 12MP (f/2.2) selfie shooter.

Together, the sensors make up for a tried and tested camera setup that provides versatility. Further, the primary camera can record 8K videos in 30 fps. However, the fact that we’ve also tried and tested the same camera setup on the Galaxy S24 is a bit upsetting; we expect better from you, Samsung.

It’s not like the Galaxy S25 doesn’t include any camera-related upgrades at all. In fact, Samsung has improved the smartphone’s low-light video recording abilities (with reduced noise and cleaner footage). Further, it has also added a new Audio Eraser feature that can separate background noises and vocals in a video and remove the former.

Then there are minor additions like the Virtual Aperture button that allows users to control the depth-of-field while in the Expert RAW mode, the ability to record in Galaxy Log, improvements to the Portrait Studio, and new filters. However, these are software-based features, and sooner or later, they might trickle down to the Galaxy S24 series (at least to the Ultra variant).

Samsung could have improved the front camera resolution on the Galaxy S25, but it seems to be following the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rule. At the moment, rival models like the iPhone 16 and the Pixel 9 still have a two-camera setup, giving the Galaxy S25 an edge over them.

Even the Battery Capacity Is the Same on Both Phones

The Galaxy S25 borrows its 4,000 mAh from the Galaxy S25, along with the maximum charging speed (25W), Fast Wireless Charging (compatible with WPC), and reverse wireless charging.

Given that the smartphone features an overclocked version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, it might not be as power efficient as the standard variant, which consumes 44% less power than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. As a result, the Galaxy S25 might not show a major boost in battery life.

Did Samsung at Least Improve the Connectivity Options?

Compared to Wi-Fi 6e and Bluetooth v5.3 on the Galaxy S24, the Galaxy S25 features Wi-Fi 7 for enhanced download/upload speed and Bluetooth v5.4 for a more stable connection with accessories. Beyond this, both phones support sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G.

Which Phone is Right For You?

Writing this comparison between the Galaxy S25 and the Galaxy S24 reminds me of the iPhone SE (2020) and the iPhone 8. In both cases, the phones share a similar form factor (with minor changes like weight and color) with slightly improved specifications. If you already have the Galaxy S24, I won’t recommend an upgrade to the Galaxy S25. Your phone can already do 90% of the things that the latest version can do.

If you’re using an older Android smartphone and reading this article to make up your mind between the smartphones, I will recommend the Galaxy S24 (128GB) at $549.99 and the Galaxy S24 (256GB) at $609.99 any day over the new Galaxy S25 (unless you absolutely have to get the latest smartphone and can make the best of the pre-order and trade-in offers).