After receiving my first early samples of Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra cases, I'm more stoked for Samsung's 2025 phone releases than ever. The Galaxy S25 Ultra seems to be getting the lion's share of the attention this time around, similar to what we saw earlier this year, but that doesn't mean the rest of the pack is any less exciting.
Quite the contrary, actually. It's actually been difficult narrowing it down to the three things I'm looking forward to the most, but I think I can be confident that the following list represents the best of what we're expecting to see from Samsung in January.
Round, yet square
The Galaxy S Ultra series has had a bit of a controversial design over the past few years. The Galaxy S22 Ultra took many design cues from the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, carrying on the Note line in everything but the name. Largely, this design meant sharp, square corners and rounded edges.
I've never been a fan of this design and apparently someone else hasn't either, as Samsung may be switching things up this time arounf, quite literally flipping the squared and rounded edges according to all the rumors and leaks we've seen so far. That means the Galaxy S25 Ultra may have round corners and flat sides just as we saw Samsung do with the Galaxy S24 earlier this year.
I just received the first samples of Galaxy S25 Ultra cases from Fiberborne, the new name for the Thinborne aramid fiber cases we've regularly crowned as the best Galaxy S24 cases.
These new Fiberborne cases aren't on sale quite yet, but they do reveal what may be the new design of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and I'm mostly loving it. I'm not the biggest fan of phones with completely flat sides — I said as much in my Google Pixel 9 Pro review — but the rounded corners will certainly go a long way to making this phone more comfortable than the last three years of Galaxy S ultra models with their overly sharp corners.
Laptop-grade processor
Mobile processors have been pretty boring for the past few years now. While we've seen performance gains year over year, most of those improvements end up being lost to excess heat when playing games for more than 20 or 30 minutes. A lot of emphasis has been placed on AI processing because of it, but the new Snapdragon 8 Elite processors substantially improve all aspects of mobile processing without breaking a sweat.
Early results from benchmark company Antutu paint the picture we were hoping to see. Not only does the Snapdragon 8 Elite run significantly faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the Galaxy S24 series, but it runs several degrees Celsius cooler, too.
According to Geekbench results from the Xiaomi 15, one of the first phones to ship with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the new processor runs about 40% faster than the one that launched earlier this year. That's a huge improvement!
This level of speed has been achieved because Qualcomm was able to pack its brand new custom Oryon processing cores into the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the same exact cores it uses in the Snapdragon X Elite that powers many popular Windows laptops in 2024.
One UI 7
One UI 7 won't be a Galaxy S25 exclusive but Samsung is using its next phones to launch its latest OS update. Built on Android 15, One UI 7 promises to be the biggest overhaul to Samsung's storied Android skin since the introduction of One UI exactly 6 years ago on November 7, 2018.
Aside from the potentially exciting visual refresh — which includes not only a fresh coat of paint but also some snazzy new animations — Samsung looks to be including fantastic new AI features that will make your everyday smartphone experience all the better.
I'm not talking about a better spell checker or some niche AI feature you probably won't use more than once, though. I'm talking about smart notification upgrades that summarize what's happening so you don't get overwhelmed and miss things.
I tend to leave my phone in my pocket or on a desk for a long time before picking it up, only to see a hundred notifications that quickly become too much to deal with. What happens then? I usually just hit clear all and figure it out later.
This new notification summary feature will help deliver quick, concise summaries of groups of notifications so I can stay in the know without feeling overwhelmed. That's the real AI upgrade I've been waiting for, and the phone's hardware will be perfectly equipped to handle these new AI features, especially with the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.
Why not wait?
My three favorite things about the Galaxy S25 certainly sound compelling, but they allegedly come with a price hike that no one wants to pay. That's where Galaxy S24 Black Friday deals come in. No matter what Samsung will be selling the Galaxy S25 for, it's impossible for the company to offer its phones at any better price than the Galaxy S24 is selling these days.
In just a few weeks, we'll be in the midst of Black Friday and all the crazy sales. Since the Galaxy S24 debuted 10 months ago, you know you'll be getting the best price possible on Samsung's 2024 phones so that they can make room for the 2025 models.
If price is a big concern in the coming months, it's probably best to stick with what's currently available, especially since Samsung offers seven years of software upgrades for its Galaxy S24 line. That means One UI 7 is the first of seven total OS updates that'll debut on the phones until support officially ends.
Getting a phone at a reduced price and getting seven years of guaranteed updates is a surefire way to ensure that you're getting the very best deal this year with no compromises.
Top of the line
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is one of the best phones to come out of 2024, and you won't be disappointed by its performance, camera quality, or collection of fun and useful AI features. Even with the Galaxy S25 on the horizon, 7 years of updates means you'll be supported for a long time with many of the latest features.
