Lewis Painter
2025-01-20 10:09:00
www.trustedreviews.com
Samsung is gearing up to host another of its famous Unpacked events later this week in San Diego – but what will the brand announce?
While it’s almost certain that we’ll be seeing the new flagship Galaxy S25 range at this week’s event, that’s not all that I expect to see Samsung reveal at this week’s event, with the likes of OneUI 7, Galaxy AI updates and possibly even the teaser of a brand new product also just as likely to appear as the top-end Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Ahead of the big reveal later this week, here’s everything I expect Samsung to announce at Samsung Unpacked 2025.
Samsung Galaxy S25
Of course, the big focus of Samsung Unpacked will be the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S25 range, starting with the entry-level Galaxy S25.
Given that we’ve not really seen many leaks about the regular Galaxy S25, I’m not expecting a huge overhaul here. It’ll likely offer improved durability in the form of boosted IP69 dust and water resistance to better compete with flagships like the Honor Magic 7 Pro and Oppo Find X8 Pro, and there could be new reinforced glass to boot, but that’s just hearsay for now.
The big question is whether the Samsung Galaxy S25 will get the same chipset as the S25 Ultra, which is assumed to be the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
While the S24 and S24 Plus offered the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset as the S24 Ultra in regions like the US, in the UK, EU and other regions, the regular models came with Samsung’s Exynos 2400 chipset in its place, and it’s safe to say there were differences in performance that consumers weren’t happy about.
I’m hoping that the entire Galaxy S25 range will offer the Snapdragon 8 Elite as standard, but let’s wait and see.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus
As with the regular Samsung Galaxy S25, I’m not expecting sweeping changes to the larger Galaxy S25 Plus’ offering aside from a potential boost to durability to match other 2025 flagships.
That has been the case with Samsung for the past few years, despite the fact that the regular Galaxy flagships share key specs with much older entries like the Galaxy S21 series, and without any leaks suggesting refreshed hardware is on the way, it looks like that trend will continue for at least another year.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
I expect most of the upgrades with the Galaxy S25 range to focus on the top-end Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. That has been the case for the past several years anyway; the S23 Ultra introduced the 200MP main sensor, while the S24 Ultra offered a flatter screen with slimmer bezels.
And, while rumours for the regular variants of S25 are light on the ground, the same can’t be said for the Ultra model.
Current online whispers suggest that the screen could increase slightly to 6.9 inches (or thereabouts), but the biggest change will be to its design; gone are the pointed corners of the S24 Ultra, replaced by much more rounded corners that bring it in line with the rest of the S25 range.
Leaked videos seem to confirm this, along with elements like smaller bezels, with one particular leak going even further by showing what looks to be new flat sides of the 2025 flagship.
Other supposed upgrades include a boosted 50MP ultrawide lens, as well as support for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor.
OneUI 7
As well as revealing its 2025 flagship smartphone range, Samsung will almost certainly reveal its next big version of OneUI, OneUI 7.
It’s probably the biggest secret around given that the OneUI 7 beta was released at the back end of 2024 for dedicated fans that wanted a sneak peak, but we’ve not yet seen the bug-free release candidate.
Still, based on the beta version currently available, Samsung has implemented several key new features as part of the OneUI 7 experience, including a refreshed notification center, a new Now Bar that provides updates from apps on the lock screen and a redesigned camera UX. There are other smaller changes to the overall UX to complement its refreshed feel, along with improvements to Galaxy AI’s writing assist tools.
It’ll almost certainly be exclusively available on the S25 collection initially, before rolling out to 2024 devices like the Galaxy S24, Galaxy Z Flip 6, and Galaxy Z Fold 6 in due course.
Updates to Galaxy AI
As confirmed by Samsung in the run-up to this week’s big reveal, Galaxy AI is getting upgrades. That includes improvements to Galaxy AI’s writing assist tools, which should now be available on many more apps, as well as upgrades to the Sketch to Image tech that allows you to not only doodle your ideas, but describe them using text or voice commands.
I’d also expect updates to other key parts of the Galaxy AI experience, including wider support for elements like website summaries that were exclusive to Samsung apps last year, as well as wholly new AI-powered features for the Galaxy S25 collection.
What the latter might look like, I’m unsure, but I’m confident that, as with the S24 range, Galaxy AI will play a huge role in the S25 collection.
Android XR teaser
Of all my predictions, this is the one I’m the least confident about, but it’s also the one I’m looking forward to most: the reveal, or at least tease, of Samsung’s first XR headset.
The company has been working with Google on Android XR, with the two brands confirming not only the existence of the upcoming platform in December last year, but also that we’d see the first headset appear sometime in 2025.
It’s internally dubbed Project Moohan, and while neither brand got specific as to what to expect, they teased that “you can effortlessly switch between being fully immersed in a virtual environment and staying present in the real world. You can fill the space around you with apps and content, and with Gemini, our AI assistant, you can even have conversations about what you’re seeing or control your device.”
This, to me, sounds more like a Vision Pro competitor than a fully-fledged pair of smart glasses, though it’s clear that this is the end goal for Samsung and Google with claims that “Android XR will also support glasses for all-day help in the future” with real-world prototypes now in use for testing.
So, yes, while we might not get the full reveal of Samsung’s XR headset, we could get a little teaser at the end of the show – that’s exactly what happened with the reveal of the Galaxy Ring at the S24 launch last year, anyway.
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