The best feature of the Samsung Galaxy S25 is probably the one you can’t see
Samsung’s next generation of flagships is almost here – we expect to hear official news on the Samsung Galaxy S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra by the end of the month – and I suspect this year’s most consequential Galaxy upgrade won’t amount to anything to do with the appearance of the new phones.
It’s easy to get excited about the prospect of cutting-edge technology when a phone maker announces a new flagship model, but in reality we’ve generally seen progress slow down year over year when it comes to the key components and features of modern smartphones – at least the ones you can see.
The Samsung Galaxy series, in turn, has had roughly the same form factor for half a decade; the Google Pixel series has focused on stabilizing performance with each version; and the iPhone 16 is Apple’s first truly new-feeling handset in years.
We expect another slew of marginally improved specifications for the S25 series in January, especially for the base model S25 and its identically specified big brother, the S25 Plus; both will miss out on the very best upgrades destined for the S25 Ultra. For the two standard models, the latest S25 spec predictions suggest slightly more RAM, a slightly larger screen and perhaps some expanded storage options. Cameras and battery sizes will remain the same. It’s hardly Christmas, right?
There’s one category where we’re expecting a much bigger improvement this year, though, and you can’t see it – at least not without tearing your phone in half (which Ny Breaking famously advises against).
Every Galaxy S25 model will launch with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, the latest in Qualcomm’s line of industry-leading mobile chipsets. Simply put, this could be a game-changer in terms of performance and immediately rocket Samsung into pole position in the performance race with Apple. Allow me to explain why.
Elite by name, elite by nature
For those who don’t know, the Snapdragon 8 Elite succeeds the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – already one of the most powerful mobile chipsets ever produced – and (according to Qualcomm’s own stats) improves that chipset’s single- and multi-core performance by 45 % ; it also offers vastly improved energy efficiency.
When Philip Berne, Ny Breaking’s US mobile editor, ran preliminary benchmarks for the 8 Elite, he found that Qualcomm’s latest effort nearly doubled the A18 Pro’s scores in the iPhone 16 Pro.
Note that, at a predicted price of $799 / £799 / AU$1,399, the baseline S25 will compete with the iPhone 16 and its less powerful A18 chipset, rather than the iPhone 16 Pro. Should these benchmarks translate into real-world performance, the race between Apple and Samsung could be akin to me chasing a Dodge Charger on foot (according to our Google Pixel 9 Pro review, the Tensor chipsets from Google not quite in the conversation yet).
What does this mean for the average user? Essentially an even faster Galaxy handset – faster loading times, smoother app switching and extensive AI capabilities. “Benchmarks aren’t everything,” Qualcomm told us at the Snapdragon Summit last year, and while, as mentioned, the 8 Elite’s benchmark scores are indeed hugely impressive, Qualcomm is just as eager to shout about the tangible, real-world benefits of its latest chipset .
With rumors swirling of a huge AI push from Samsung this year, we could see the S25 series appear on our list of the best AI phones thanks to this increased hardware power, which should allow users to make better use of making use of both Samsung’s productivity and its generative AI. Additionally, the S25 and S25 Plus are expected to launch with 12GB of RAM, 4GB more than the previous generation, giving these new phones even more room for AI and multitasking.
We don’t even have to wait until the S25 series launches to see the Snapdragon 8 Elite in action – the first globally available phones with the new chipset landed in December 2024 in the form of the Asus Rog Phone 9 and Rog Phone 9 Professional gaming phones. In our Asus Rog Phone 9 Pro review, the latter achieved a 5/5 score for performance thanks to its exceptional consistency, improved gaming and excellent graphics performance. It is up to Samsung to optimize the S25 series around the needs of the everyday user.
Samsung has never been slow when it comes to performance – in our Galaxy S24 review we found that the company’s most recent flagship was hot on the heels of the S24 Ultra in the power department – but the gains brought about by the Snapdragon 8 Elite would could really prove to be the superlative, and could even give S24 users a compelling reason to upgrade this year.
That said, most of the above is still based on rumors for now, so keep an eye on our Samsung phone coverage for the latest official information as we hear it from Samsung.