Samsung Galaxy S25 Unpacked live blog — last-minute leaks and all the big news – Tom’s Guide

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We’re just hours away from the first Galaxy Unpacked event of 2025, which means we’re soon going to see what the new Galaxy S25 models have in store.But there’s more than just new hardware coming this year. All the Galaxy S25 models, including the premium Galaxy S25 Ultra, figure to usher in a new suite of Galaxy AI tools. If you remember, 2024 gave us our first taste of Samsung’s AI-powered features and the Unpacked 2025 invite — the silhouettes of four phones coming together to form the Galaxy AI logo — suggests that more features are on the way.Could anything else be on the agenda? Usually, Samsung has more in store than just a phone reveal. Read on for the latest rumors about Samsung’s likely phone announcements, and what could be joining the Galaxy S25 on state in San Jose, California on Wednesday, January 22.Galaxy Unpacked starts at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT / 6 p.m. GMT. We’ll be covering the event live here, but up until then, stay tuned for updates on what we’re hearing ahead of the show.When Galaxy Unpacked kicks off on January 22, you’ll be able to watch the live stream on the Samsung YouTube channel or on Samsung’s own website, starting at 1 p.m. ET/ 10 a.m. PT. Alternatively, keep it right here, and watch the embedded video below, along with our latest updates.Galaxy S25: The new Galaxy flagship phone is tipped to get a number of upgrades, including a mighty Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, Qi2 wireless charging support, new AI features and a slightly altered design from the Galaxy S24. The phone, as well as its other versions, will possibly go on sale on February 7, with pre-orders likely opening as soon as the launch event finishes.Galaxy S25 Plus: Just like the Galaxy S25, this larger version will apparently benefit from a new chip, better wireless charging, more AI and a new-ish look. But the existing benefits of a larger battery, bigger screen and faster wired charging still mean this will be the better choice of the two regular S25s for some people.Galaxy S25 Ultra: The new ultimate non-foldable Samsung is getting all the goodies that the other S25 models are, but also a new ultrawide camera with a higher resolution. Combined with the S24 Ultra’s current setup, this has a strong chance of becoming one of the top phones around when it goes on sale.One UI 7: Whichever phones we see at Galaxy Unpacked, One UI 7 will be driving them. Based on Android 15, Samsung promises its new smartphone software will be even smarter, thanks to the addition of more Galaxy AI features and a new “Now Bar” for more convenient notifications.Galaxy AR/Project Moohan: Samsung’s AR headset is the most likely candidate to join the S25 phones on Wednesday. Samsung revealed Project Moohan at the end of 2024 after almost two years of teasing. Built in collaboration with Google and Qualcomm, the headset launches this year, so the time’s right to provide us with more details.If you got a Galaxy S22 on contract when it launched three years ago, chances are you’re due for an upgrade. And the Galaxy S25 is arriving at just the right time.Our full Galaxy S25 vs. Galaxy S22 comparison will explain more, but a size increase, better performance and a larger battery are just the headline upgrades you’ll enjoy if you trade in your S22 for the latest model.A recent leak of Galaxy S25 marketing info includes references to “insights” the phone will be able to offer, including what looks like a series of briefing pop-ups for the morning, evening and commuting time.Various smartphones and apps are able to collect together key information for users to review at a convenient moment, and Google Pixel phones’ At a Glance widget is particularly good at surfacing calendar events or tickets just as you need them. But Samsung looks like it may have the most comprehensive version of this yet.One thing you’ll notice when you consider Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Ultra battery rumors is that the battery sizes of the new models aren’t expected to change from what the comparable S24 versions offered. If that holds true, that means the Galaxy S25 will have a 4,000 mAh battery, the Galaxy S25 Plus will feature a 4,900 mAh power pack, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra will turn to a 5,000 mAh cell. It also means that any gain in battery life will have to come from improved power efficiency in the chipset those new phones run on.We’ll see if the Snapdragon 8 Elite is up to the task, but the Galaxy S24 lineup set a high bar for how long Samsung phone’s can last on a charge. The Galaxy S24 Plus and S24 Ultra still have spots on our best phone battery life list, and the Galaxy S24’s time of 13 hours and 28 minutes on our battery test is about 3.5 hours better than what the average phone can do.That’s not something we’re going to be able to find out today — we need to test the phones to see what their battery life is like. But it should be interesting to see what Samsung has to say about how long its phones can last.It’s not even the end of January, and by the end of the day, we’re going to know how one of the biggest Android phone battles will pan out. We’re going to see the Galaxy S25 later today, of course, but Samsung’s flagship has already been beaten to the punch by the OnePlus 13, which arrived earlier this month.Looking for a phone with a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a triple rear camera setup and a bunch of AI features? I could be describing either the OnePlus 13 or what we expect to see from the Galaxy S25. Our updated Galaxy S25 vs. OnePlus 13 face-off looks at how these phones figure to compare now that we’ve had a chance to test the OnePlus 13.Spoiler alert: The cameras on the new OnePlus flagship have improved dramatically, and Samsung will need to step up its game to compete.Do you care about the S Pen on the Galaxy S25 Ultra? If the answer is yes, there could be notable downgrade on the way. According to leaker Ishan Agarwal (via Android Central), the S25 Ultra could lose Bluetooth functionality on the S Pen. That means you wouldn’t be able to perform various gestures, such as activating the shutter on the camera remotely.It’s not clear why Samsung would make this call, but it could be cost-cutting measure.We have potentially good news and bad news for the Galaxy S25 series when it comes to Qi2 charing — at least based on the rumors. The good news is that Samsung has said itself that it plans to support the Qi2 wireless standard. This means that we could see fast 15W wireless charging, as well as a ring of magnets that should support a wide array of accessories. The bad news is that you may have to spring for a Qi2-compatible case in order to get this functionality. But we’ll have to see what Samsung actually announces.Hey, this is Mark Spoonauer, the global editor in chief for Tom’s Guide. And I’m here in San Jose for Samsung Unpacked.As someone who has reviewed the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I’m super curious how the Galaxy S25 Ultra will stack up to Apple’s best. Based on the leaks I feel like Samsung has a real chance to leapfrog Apple Intelligence with its new Galaxy AI and Google Gemini features.Based on a leaked promo video of AI features in the S25 series from Evan Blass, it looks like Samsung will be able to perform actions on your behalf using just your voice. In the video we see a woman pressing the side button of a Galaxy S25 and asking to find “a pet-friendly Italian restaurant with outdoor seating nearby and texting it to Tony.” Apple can’t do that…yet.Galaxy S25 prices remain a moving target some 15 hours ahead of the Unpacked event, with many rumors pointing to a potential price hike for some models. However, there is some call for optimism based on a report from Korea’s FNNews.The translation of that report suggests that Samsung is “freezing” prices — that is, keeping them the same on entry-level models of its new phones, at least in Korea. There is a possibility for higher prices should you upgrade the storage, however.Android Authority, which picked up the FNNews report, goes on to say that prices should remain steady in places like Korea and Europe; other regions like India could see prices go up from the S24 models. There’s not a lot of reporting on what this might mean for U.S. prices of the Galaxy S25, though.One other bit of good news in the FNNews story: the site says Samsung will have a promotion where you can order a phone with upgraded storage for the same price you’d pay for the smaller capacity model — getting a 512GB Galaxy S25 Plus for the cost of a 256GB version, for example. That’s a frequent preorder promotion at Samsung, and if it returns for the Galaxy S25 launch, we’ll be happy to welcome it back.One factor to pay attention to with the Galaxy S25 series that you might have ignored on earlier phones is how much RAM Samsung includes. Memory is important a lot of times, but when on-device AI is involved, it’s really important.The Galaxy S24 came with 8GB of RAM, but that’s likely getting bumped up to 12GB on the Galaxy S25. Leaked specs have the S25 Plus and S25 Ultra still with 12GB of RAM, though we wouldn’t be surprised to see a 16GB configuration (though rumors suggest that model will be limited to select regions).We’ve raised the possibility of a Project Moohan reveal at Galaxy Unpacked, because Samsung has already confirmed a 2025 release date for a virtual headset, and we can look at a calendar. But BusinessKorea is going one step further: it’s reporting that Project Moohan will launch at Unpacked.The article doesn’t cite a specific source other than “the electronics industry,” which expects “prototypes or teaser videos of Project Moohan at the Galaxy Unpacked event.” So that’s maybe not as definitive as the article headline would suggest. But if you’re looking for more evidence of a mixed reality headset from Samsung at Unpacked, there it is.It’s not exactly a secret that we’re going to see the debut of One UI 7 on Wednesday. That’s the latest version of Samsung’s phone software built on Android 15.Of course, some Samsung phones area already running One UI 7, as the software has been available in public beta since December. If you didn’t download the software then, our One UI 7 beta guide goes into greater detail, but the highlights include:There could definitely be one more thing at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, but what could it be? We’ve already gotten a tease of Samsung’s new XR headset in Project Moohan running Google’s XR platform, so yet another preview would seem to be lame. But how about Samsung smart glasses?Back in late December, Digitimes Asia reported that Samsung would unveil its first pair of smart glasses. They’re rumored to weigh 50 grams and are being developed in collaboration with Qualcomm and Google. They’ll feature Gemini on board. These would be a direct competitor to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. We’ll have to wait and see. We’ve already seen leaked video of the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s better Nightography performance, but what about the camera hardware? Based on the leaks we expect one major upgrade in the form of a 50MP ultra wide camera, up from 12MP on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.This is a pretty big jump in resolution. A separate leak in December claimed that the lens will reportredly have a 23.2mm focal length, a f/1.7 aperture, EIS stabilization and 4080 x 3060 resolution. The S24 Ultra featured a 12MP ultrawide with 13mm focal length and a f/2.2 aperture. So expect brighter and sharper images.Over the weekend, I listed the five biggest questions I had heading into Galaxy Unpacked, with the first one centering around Galaxy AI. Really, it was kind of a two-part question: what new AI features are we going to see on the Galaxy S25 series and will Samsung extend those to older phones as it did with many of last year’s Galaxy AI capabilities.Since then, we’ve had a bit more detail leak out on Galaxy AI’s new features in the form of a leaked video. The question about what phones will ultimately support the new Galaxy AI tools is more up in the air — though I would argue, it’s almost more important.Knowing if your Galaxy S24 or Galaxy S23 will benefit in some way from the software tools added via that Galaxy S25’s AI update will go a long way toward helping people determine whether to upgrade or not. I would imagine anything tied to the One UI 7 update is going to work across multiple Galaxy S models; specific Galaxy AI features that rely on on-device hardware may not.It’s a difficult balance Samsung has to strike, because it likely doesn’t want to give away too many new tools for free, but at the same time, it doesn’t want to come across as if it’s forcing people to upgrade.Philip Michaels, managing editor for mobile coverage here, and I’ll be posting periodically this evening, as the clock counts us down closer to Unpacked. Having reviewed the Galaxy S24 last year, there’s something on my mind about its likely successor — is the Galaxy S25 going to retain that compact size?This is not idle speculation. A very early Galaxy S25 rumor claimed the size of the screen might increase on the new model. And while it seems a lot of that rumored extra screen space may come from smaller bezels on the new model, any time there’s talk of a larger screen, you wonder if that will require a bigger frame to support it.Leaked specs for the S25 model suggest that I have nothing to worry about. If anything, the Galaxy S25 may turn out to be slightly smaller than its predecessor. The specs I’ve seen suggest a 5.78 x 2.77 x 0.28-inch frame, which is smaller all around from the 5.79 x 2.78 x 0.30-inch Galaxy S24. Great news, if true, as the nice thing about phones like the entry-level Galaxy S model is how they balance 6-inch-plus-sized displays with compact frames.With less than 18 hours ahead of Unpacked’s start, it’s time to face reality on what won’t be showing up. Leading up to Unpacked, we had kicked around these possibilities as would-be contenders for at least a sneak preview. But recent events have us thinking that we won’t see them on Wednesday.In our most recent 200 photo shootout between the OnePlus 13 vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung’s current flagship narrowly beat out the latest from OnePlus. That’s shocking considering how the gap was wider in past years in the OnePlus versus Samsung debate.What stands out most to us were the improvements to the telephoto and low light performances for the OnePlus 13. This adds more pressure to the Galaxy S25 Ultra to overachieve in those areas. Since the OnePlus 13 leverages newer image processing algorithms and leans heavy on AI-enhancements, the Galaxy S25 Ultra could essentially do the same.The bigger test would have to be against the iPhone 16 Pro Max. That’s because in our 200 photos with the iPhone 16 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra, Apple’s flagship cruise to victory.In the battle at the $999 price point, the Galaxy S25 Plus could face stiffer challenge if it doesn’t get a much-needed upgrade. Tom’s Guide editor John Velasco explains why the S25 Plus can’t afford to have just another telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, which has been the case for the past few generations.He specifically calls out the Pixel 9 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro because of how they’re accompanied by telephoto cameras with 5x optical zoom. The Galaxy S25 Plus definitely needs an upgrade to match its main rivals.Taking a page out of Google and Apple’s playback, it seems as though the Galaxy S25 series could be getting a feature that remove unwanted background noise in videos. In one of the series of marketing materials leaked by Evan Blass, it mentions an Audio Eraser feature that minimizes unwanted noises.From the sound of it, this feature appears to be similar to Google’s Audio Magic Eraser. However, the marketing material doesn’t go into detail on exactly how it achieves this. Apple’s version uses the studio quality mics in the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max to tune out certain noises, but as we’ve seen in our own testing, there’s still room for improvement with this feature. Hopefully Samsung’s take can really deliver the proper results.Our Tom’s Guide team is on the ground early and getting a look at the venue location for tomorrow’s Galaxy Unpacked event in San Jose, California. The same teaser image that Samsung shared weeks ago is shown outside of the venue, with what appears to be four corners of one device, or perhaps four separate ones.There’s been a lot of speculation as to what phone Samsung will announce. Based on the image with the four corners, it’s possible that we could end up seeing four phones. In addition to the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra, there’s a possibility that a Galaxy S25 Slim could make special surprise.When it launched last year, the Galaxy S24 Ultra proved it had one of the best phone battery life out there, but given how all the S25 Ultra battery and charging rumors hint at the upcoming flagship using a 5,000 mAh battery, it has some people wondering if it will exceed the S24 Ultra given how heavy AI is expected to be ingrained into the experience.There’s still no cause of alarm just yet because it all could come down to one thing: the power efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. That’s what the S25 Ultra is tipped to be getting under a hood, which we’ve already seen deliver outstanding battery life with the Asus Rog Phone 9 Pro and OnePlus 13.Given how the former exceeded 20 hours in Tom’s Guide’s battery benchmark test, it’s going to be a tough challenge for the S25 Ultra to eclipse. Despite this, we expect a significant boost over the S24 Ultra’s mark of 16 hours and 45 minutes.Soon after its release, there were several reports about Galaxy S25 units plagued by a Mura effect that caused their displays to appear grainy under lower brightness. We tested this out for ourselves and did see how this Mura effect had difficulty in showing off different gradients, due to a banding effect that was apparent.Compared to other phones, the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s display didn’t look as vibrant, so we’re hoping that Samsung doesn’t skimp out this time with the hardware. What’s even more telling is that side-by-side, the Galaxy S24 FE’s display looks a lot sharper and vibrant compared to the S24 Plus.By far all eyes will be on Samsung’s top-of-the-line model: the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The last couple of months have given us a good picture on what to expect with the flagship model. Our own global editor-in-chief, Mark Spoonauer, details all the rumored upgrades for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. From a subtle new redesign, to perhaps newer Galaxy AI features, there’s a lot to unpack with this upcoming phone.There’s been a lot of speculation about incoming Galaxy AI features — including from us. But two videos offer some insight into what we can expect to see on Wednesday.The first video is a leaked one from Evan Blass that shows a couple different AI-powered tools. The first, Insight, gathers up information like the weather and your energy score to get you ready for the coming day. Another feature shows how you might interact with a smarter on-device assistant, which has been a persistent rumor about Samsung’s planned Galaxy AI improvements.In fact, the AI assistant in that Evan Blass video looks an awful lot like the one in a teaser video that Samsung posted where a woman asks for restaurant recommendations with a very specific set of criteria. In that same requests, she also asks the assistant to text that information to a contact while blocking out an appointment on a calendar.This is part of a push by phone makers to make assistants more context-aware. It will be interesting to see if Samsung will be one of the first to pull that off.There’s a lot of agreement about what Galaxy S25 colors Samsung is going to announce for its new phones, with the biggest debate surrounding which color options will be available no matter where you buy your phone and which ones will be Samsung exclusives.Here’s where we stand, according to the most recent color leaks:Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus: Ice Blue, Navy, Silver Shadow, Mint, Pink Gold, Coral RedGalaxy S25 Ultra: Titanium Black, Gray, Silver Blue, White Silver, Titanium Jade, Titanium Pink, Titanium GoldIf you recall last year’s Galaxy Unpacked event in January 2024, you’ll remember that Samsung previewed the Galaxy Ring in advance of that smart ring’s launch later in the year. With reports that the Galaxy Ring follow-up could ship earlier than expected, could we see a Galaxy Ring 2 preview during Unpacked?Sure — we could see a lot of things. But probably not a new ring.It’s not that there aren’t improvements Samsung could make to its smart ring, such as adding new features and extending battery life. But just last week, Samsung announced it was adding some more Galaxy Ring sizes, with a software update bringing new sleep and mindfulness tracking capabilities.The timing of that announcement would seem to make any kind of sneak peek unlikely. After all, you don’t start selling additional models of your current product only to tell everyone to hold out for the new version.Improvements to the displays of Samsung’s flagship phones hasn’t really been at the forefront of Galaxy S25 rumors, which seems a little bit odd. After all, Google’s Pixel 9 phones consistently post the highest readings on our light meter when we measure for brightness; the iPhone 16 Pro models are brighter, too. So you’d think Samsung would feel some pressure to upgrade the panels on its new phones given how displays have become an area where phone makers can set their flagships apart from the competition.Well, even if you have to struggle to find them, there are some rumors out there about Samsung’s display plans for its new phones. And we’ve put all the Galaxy S25 display rumors in one place.The Galaxy S24 Ultra offers a 5x zoom. The Galaxy S24 Plus does not. And if Samsung continues to have the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus share camera specs, the new Plus model won’t, either. Indeed, the latest leaked Galaxy S25 specs suggest the Plus model will continue to feature a 3x optical zoom on its telephoto lens.That’s a problem, according to John Velasco, who does a lot of the camera phone testing for us here at Tom’s Guide. The phones that best compare to Samsung’s Plus model — the iPhone 16 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro — both have 5x zoom features. Assuming the S25 Plus sticks to a $999 starting price like its predecessor, you’ll be paying the same as you would for the equivalent iPhone and Pixel models, but for a less powerful zoom. Which is why John thinks a better zoom lens really needs to happen with this year’s Plus option.Samsung may have tipped its hand on a new feature coming to the Galaxy S25 series back at CES in a press release put out by the Wireless Power Consortium on the emerging Qi2 wireless charging standard. To make a long story short, Samsung is pledging to support the updated standard for wireless charging. “The exceptional Qi2 growth story will continue in 2025,” Samsung said in a statement. “You can expect to see Android devices supporting Qi2 from Samsung Galaxy devices in 2025.”We don’t want to leap to conclusions, but it’s 2025 right now and new Samsung Galaxy devices should be announced this week. So that would seem to make Qi2 wireless charging a lock for the Galaxy S25. So what does that mean? It should be easier to keep chargers perfectly attached to the back of Samsung’s phones, and wireless charging should be faster. That’s the short answer, though — for a longer one, check out our guide on Qi2 wireless charging.Let’s face it — while Galaxy S25 vs. Galaxy S24 comparisons can be helpful in telling us how a phone changes from year to year, very few people are upgrading to a new phone 12 months later, especially in this day and age.Finding out what you get if you upgrade from a phone that’s a few years old can bey very helpful, though. So with that in mind, here’s a Galaxy S25 vs. Galaxy S22 comparison if you haven’t bought a new Samsung device since three years ago.One of the biggest revelations at Galaxy Unpacked will be the official price Samsung plans to charge for its new phones. Early pricing rumors have us bracing for an increase.The most definitive word we have so far on costs comes from a 91 Mobiles report featuring a screenshot of what appear to be Galaxy S25 model prices in Europe. The screenshot shows across-the-board price hikes for all three expected models, ranging from €60 to €100, roughly.We have no idea how accurate those figures are; we also don’t know if Samsung will raise its phone prices in some regions while leaving others untouched. But the writing on the wall seems to suggest a price increase for this year’s lineup. We hope that’s one rumor that doesn’t pan out.If you’re familiar with what Samsung’s last couple of Ultra models look like, you probably have a good idea of the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s basic appearance. Samsung isn’t planning a design overhaul from what we’ve heard, though there are some changes compared to the previous year’s models.S23 Ultra，S24 Ultra，S25 Ultra pic.twitter.com/9yynHzJnStJanuary 11, 2025A tweet by leaker Ice Universe that shows a Galaxy S25 Ultra render next to its two predecessors underscores a pair of modest yet noticeable changes. For starters, the corners on the new phone look much more rounded. For another, the bezel around the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s screen is a little bit thinner. That could squeeze in some more useable screen space on the new Ultra, which Samsung may be trying to do in light of the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s larger screen.Of all the rumored products likely to join the Galaxy S25 at Unpacked on Wednesday, the most likely choice would seemingly be Project Moohan, the mixed reality headset Samsung confirmed the existence of last month. For starters, Project Moohan isn’t a phone, so it’d be unlikely to steal any thunder away from the Galaxy S25 models. For another, Samsung has already confirmed that the headset will go on sale at some point in 2025.More evidence of a possible Project Moohan announcement comes from the fact that we just don’t know that much about the headset, giving Samsung the platform to confirm new details even if it’s not ready to set a ship date. All we know about Moohan — besides the fact that it’s apparently Korean for “infinity” — is that it will run on Google’s newly launched Android XR platform. Qualcomm, which is supplying the Snapdragon XR Plus Gen 2 silicon that powers the headset, also says that its chipset offers support for up to 4.3K resolution in each eye, running at 90 frames per second.Samsung has promised “state-of-the-art displays, Passthrough capabilities and natural multi-modal input” with Project Moohan. We’ll see this Wednesday if it’s ready to supply more insight into what all that means.Before every Galaxy Unpacked event, the steady stream of rumors that’s been happening for months on end gives us a pretty good idea of what Samsung is going to show off. And that’s why, a little more than 36 hours ahead of the January 22 Galaxy Unpacked, we can put together a table of what you’re likely to see when Samsung announces the Galaxy S25 lineup. Most of the specs below come courtesy of a report earlier this month at Android Headlines.Not all of these specs may materialize. But based on various reports and tweets from leakers with solid track records, this can at least be a good guide on what’s potentially going to happen with the S25 lineup.Pay attention to what Samsung announces about the cameras on its new phones — particularly the Galaxy S25 Ultra. On the positive side for Samsung, last year’s premium Galaxy S24 Ultra as one of the best camera phones we tested. But it also lagged behind the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Pixel 9 Pro XL in our head-to-head tests.At the same time, other phone makers are raising their game. The OnePlus 13 just came out, and our colleague John Velasco thinks it really narrowed the camera performance gap in a OnePlus 13 vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra 200 photo face-off. Clearly, the S25 Ultra is going to need to step up its camera game.Galaxy AI figures to be one of the main talking points at Galaxy Unpacked, as Samsung adds new capabilities powered by artificial intelligence to Galaxy S25 lineup. We’ve got two big questions about AI that we hope to have answered at Unpacked — 1) what are those new features going to be and 2) are they going to trickle down to older Galaxy S models?The answer to that second question will be how dependent on on-device processing power those features are going to be, though the rumor is Samsung wants to increase the number of Galaxy AI features that run entirely on a device. That may preclude older flagships from picking up features the way they did last year.As for the first question, we polled the Tom’s Guide phone team on what Galaxy AI features they’re hoping to see this year.Usually for a Galaxy S launch, we don’t have the luxury of knowing how the chipset powering the new phones might perform. But that’s not the case with the Galaxy S25 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon expected to be included in each model.It’s not just the fact that we’ve benchmarked Qualcomm’s new chip in a reference device shortly after it was released — though we did. We’ve also had the chance to test it in two already announced phones — the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro and the OnePlus 13. Both devices launched ahead of the new Galaxy S flagships and both offer Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon.The ROG Phone 9 Pro actually turned in faster times on the Geekbench CPU test than the OnePlus 13 did, though you’d figure that would be the case for Asus’ gaming-focused phone. Multicore scores were well ahead of what the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro Max posted, though Apple’s chip has the better single-core results on Geekbench. Graphics numbers for the new Qualcomm chip also set a new standard.We don’t know whether Samsung will optimize the Snapdragon 8 Elite for performance like the ROG Phone 9 Pro or go for an approach similar to the OnePlus 13’s, but that should give you some idea of the performance the new phones will bring to the table ahead of their launch.We’ve mentioned the Galaxy S25 Slim possibly joining the other S25 models as a sneak preview at Galaxy Unpacked. But some news that broke over the weekend makes us think that Samsung’s going to hold off on mentioning anything about a slimmer version of its new flagship.Tipster Evan Blass says the Galaxy S25 Slim might not ship in the U.S. Instead, this could be one of those phones Samsung releases in just a handful of markets to see what demand is like. That’s something Samsung has done with other phones like the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition that appeared in South Korea last year.If Samsung wasn’t going to distract from its S25 launch with a model that was unlikely to ship at the same time as the other phones, it’s certainly not going to show off a phone that’s not going to go on sale in the U.S. at a U.S. product launch. So maybe strike the Galaxy S25 Slim off your bingo card for Wednesday’s Unpacked.With Unpacked still a day and a half away, you still have time to take advantage of a Samsung deal that will let you save on whatever Galaxy hardware get announced during Wednesday’s event. And it won’t obligate you to buy anything if you ultimately decide to take a pass.Just register your name and email address with Samsung for a chance to pre-order any announced products, and you’ll get a $50 credit you can apply to your purchase. In addition, you’ll be eligible for a $300 instant credit when you do pre-order. You can save up to another $900 by trading in your current phone. So that’s up to $1,250 in potential savings.Galaxy S25 pre-orders: Save up to $1,250 @ SamsungYou don’t have to wait until Galaxy Unpacked to save on a potential Galaxy S25 purchase. Register to pre-order any device announced at the January 22 event, and you can get a $50 credit toward the new Galaxy device. There’s also an instant $300 credit when you reserve and pre-order a device, plus up to $900 in credit available for trading in your current device. You need to register before Unpacked on January 22 to take advantage of this offer.You need to be registered before the start of Unpacked so get your name into the queue soon.Galaxy Z Fold 7 may bring big S Pen changes — here’s what we knowMassive Galaxy S25 Ultra leak just revealed everything ahead of Samsung Unpacked — 5 key takeawaysHow to see deleted messages on iPhoneTom’s Guide is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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