Kerry Wan/ZDNETSamsung just unveiled its new lineup of flagship smartphones at its Unpacked event, and it’s safe to say the company designed the Galaxy S25 Ultra More
Kerry Wan/ZDNETArtificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere, and during its Unpacked event, Samsung proved that the company is all over AI. In addition to upgrading its new flagship Galaxy S25 series smartphones More
Apple Watch, Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses, and Samsung Galaxy Ring. Jason Hiner/ZDNETSamsung says it’s working with Google to enter the AR glasses race, confirming rumors and speculation circulating for months. Ahead of its Samsung Unpacked event today, Samsung confirmed to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that the two companies will be working as “one team” to develop a pair of augmented reality glasses, joining the likes of Apple and Meta.Also: Everything announced at Samsung Unpacked 2025: Galaxy S25 Ultra, Gemini AI, moreBoth of those companies have products in various stages of development but have yet to fully deliver on a practical pair of glasses that are actually wearable (and affordable). Meta’s Orion prototype glasses, for example, reportedly cost around $10,000 a pair to produce.But Samsung and Google are expected to be co-developing the Android XR operating system, setting the stage for a pair of smart glasses that would potentially be useable across the Android ecosystem. The Android XR would then act as a unifying operating system for additional headset models from other developers. More
Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETSamsung’s Unpacked event just concluded, and while we didn’t see a new pair of smart glasses or ring at the end of the show this year, the company did tease a new product — one that’s arguably even more significant.Also: Everything announced at Samsung Unpacked 2025: Galaxy S25 Ultra, Gemini AI, moreThe Galaxy S25 Edge is what the company is calling it, and from the teasers and seconds-long sizzle reel we got at the end of the presentation, there’s one obvious takeaway: it’s super thin. So thin that the phone will only feature two cameras, not three like the rest of the Galaxy S25 lineup.According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the S25 Edge will launch in the first half of this year, with pricing expected to be below the S25 Ultra’s $1,299. More
Matthew Miller/ZDNETI remember so vividly when, seven years ago, Samsung introduced Bluetooth wireless connectivity to the S Pen with the Galaxy Note 9. It was such an innovative feature because the Note 9 would automatically and burdenlessly charge up the stylus whenever it was inserted into the phone. Once charged, which took less than a minute to do, the pen could be used as a wireless clicker for taking photos and videos, scrolling through presentations, and more.Also: Everything announced at Samsung Unpacked 2025: Galaxy S25, Gemini AI, moreWith the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, much of that pizzazz is no longer available, and I don’t blame the company. According to Samsung, most users simply didn’t use the wireless, air gesture features enough. Instead, more handy methods (pun intended) for taking photos, for example, such as waving a hand on-screen to prompt a countdown timer, overshadowed the S Pen. More
Screenshot by Nina Raemont/ZDNETMuch like your own New Year’s resolutions, Samsung seems to be going all-in on health this year. The tech giant unveiled several new Samsung Health features at its Unpacked event on Wednesday, alongside the launch of its Galaxy S25 phone lineup. Also: Everything announced at Samsung Unpacked 2025 The features provide a more personalized approach to wellness, from health coaches that provide recommendations based on the data gathered to your bedroom environment before bedtime. Many of these features are coming soon, according to Praveen Raja, who presented them at the Unpacked event. More
Kerry Wan/ZDNETToday at its Unpacked event, Samsung announced its new lineup of AI-packed Galaxy smartphones, including an on-device LLM that learns from your habits and multimodal AI that can take action based on what it sees and hears. After some users gave a lukewarm reception to Apple Intelligence in the iPhone 16, Samsung’s Galaxy S25 lineup remains focused on innovative AI features, while doubling down on integrations across its ecosystem of products.Samsung wants its ecosystem to be persistent across all its devices, understanding that the lines between tablets, smartphones, and laptops are starting to blur. “Consumers’ lives are not as binary as they used to be,” Danielle Moten, Samsung’s director of PC product told me in an interview. “We’ve taken the ability to continue what you’re doing from device to device.” Also: Everything announced at Samsung Unpacked 2025 Samsung repeatedly referenced its “shared vision for an open AI ecosystem” during its Unpacked keynote event, highlighting its partnership with Google and positioning the pair as leaders in AI innovation, with AI existing across devices and operating systems.”We want to offer a truly cross-OS platform experience,” MC Lee, Samsung corporate VP, elaborated in the same interview. “When it comes to the Galaxy ecosystem, we made no compromises.” More
Like past January Unpacked events, Samsung released three new Galaxy S models, with the base models getting some subtle but meaningful upgrades, including a thinner and lighter design. Other changes include the introduction of new colors, including Icyblue, Navy, Mint, Silver Shadow, as well as online-only exclusive colors like Blueblack, Coralred, and Pinkgold. The vibrance of the Coralred colorway stands out amongst the rest of the lineup’s more muted finishes, and made a splash among reporters at Unpacked. Also: I went hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S25 – and the AI features were surprisingly polishedAt the heart of the devices is the newly launched Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. According to Samsung, the chipset will be dramatically different than the variants found on competing Android phones.For example, Samsung claims it delivers a performance boost of 40% in NPU, 37% in CPU, and 30% in GPU compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Beyond AI, the chipset will help provide a smoother experience when gaming, equipped with Vulkan Engine, a high-performing graphics platform, and improved Ray Tracing. Other specs remain the same as last year’s model, such as its 6.2-inch and 6.7-inch display, 4,000mAh and 4,900mAh batteries,120Hz Adaptive Refresh Rate, 50 MP main lens, a 12MP ultrawide, a 10 MP telephoto, and a 12MP selfie camera. Also: Best One UI 7 features coming to Samsung Galaxy S25 models (and older phones, too)Despite the camera hardware remaining the same, the software upgrades should significantly improve the experience. For example, 10-bit HDR recording is now applied by default, allowing users to capture better detail, and a new Galaxy Virtual Aperture, integrated into the Expert RAW app, gives users better depth-of-field control, similar to when using a DSLR. Galaxy S25+ and S25 Ultra also feature advanced AI image processing with ProScaler, which, like Samsung TVs, uses AI to digitally enhance the resolution of videos. Just know that the phones need to be set to QHD+ resolution to take advantage of the feature.Pricing for the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus starts at $799 and $999, respectively. That’s the same as past years’ retail price, which is good to see, provided you’re getting improvements — some in hardware and more in software. More
