Image: Samsung

Samsung has announced the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra, the latest entries in its flagship smartphone lineup. The phones have a heavy emphasis on AI, but also feature the company's highest-end camera systems.

The Ultra is the highest end model, and has a 6.9" display with four rear-facing cameras. The company says the phone's ultrawide camera is an upgrade from the previous generation, and uses a new 50MP sensor behind an F1.9 lens – the S24 series' ultrawide camera used a 12MP Type 1/2.55 (5.6 x 4.2) sensor. The company hasn't released specifics on the new sensor's size.

Beyond the ultrawide, the S25 Ultra's camera layout appears to be relatively unchanged compared to the S24 Ultra. It still has a 200MP F1.7 main shooter – the S24 Ultra used a Type 1/1.3 (9.8 x 7.4) sensor, which is likely unchanged – as well as two telephoto cameras: a "3x" F2.4 lens in front of a 10MP sensor, and a "5x" F3.4 lens in front of a 50MP sensor. In the S24 Ultra, these cameras used Type 1/3.94 (3.7 x 2.7) and Type 1/2.52 (5.7 x 4.3) sensors, respectively.

The new ultrawide camera also comes to the 6.2" S25 and 6.7" S25 Plus. The main camera and 3x telephoto appear to be the same 50MP Type 1/1.56 (8.2 x 6.1) and Type 1/3.94 (3.7 x 2.7) models as their predecessors.

Many of the S25's camera improvements come from software, such as the Virtual Aperture feature. Image: Samsung

While there may not have been many hardware updates, the company did announce some new software tricks for the phones. A feature called "Virtual Aperture" lets you control how much simulated depth-of-field your image has, and the phones now feature a Galaxy Log color mode, which should help anyone who hopes to color grade the footage they take with their phones. The company also says it's updated its image processing, saying that it's upgraded its object recognition and improved how it handles color.

The S25 also features filters that the company says are inspired by classic film photos. It also allows you to create your own custom filter, based on a photo that you give it; it'll try to tweak parameters like saturation and color balance to match the reference image.

Probably the biggest software announcement, though, is a feature called "ProScaler," which is available on the S25 Plus and Ultra. While there aren't a ton of details available on it yet, the company says it allows for "advanced, efficient AI image processing."

The phones are powered by a chipset called the "Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy," which utilizes Qualcomm's latest technology. Samsung says it delivers "a performance boost of 40% in NPU, 37% in CPU and 30% in GPU compared to the previous generation."

New generations of AI can give you tips on how to improve your pictures of your pets. Image: Samsung

The company's announcement also placed a heavy focus on AI. In a demo of the Gemini Live AI, Samsung showed a person asking the assistant about how they could improve a photo they took, with the assistant giving tips on how to improve composition and color, as well as suggestions on what type of edits the person could make.

The company also announced that it's working with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) to ensure that AI-generated images from its phones will have metadata marking them as generated imagery.

The phones will be available starting on February 7th. The standard S25 starts at $799 and comes with 128GB of storage, while the S25 Plus costs $999 and comes with 256GB. The S25 Ultra will start at $1,299 – by default it has 256GB of storage, but you can upgrade it to up to 1TB.

Details of the phones are currently being announced via a Samsung live stream, which you can watch here.

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