It shouldn’t be a surprise that Samsung is working on the Samsung Galaxy S25; that’s to be expected since a new flagship generation gets launched every year. What is surprising is just how early Samsung has decided to confirm the existence of the upcoming device. It did so in the latest earnings call, confirming not just the existence of the S25 series ,but also some of the specs.
“So, on your second question, we’ve consistently upgraded the hardware in our S Series to deliver industry-leading experiences to customers, and we’ll continue to enhance key experiences as well (as) upgrade hardware so that we can offer top performance,” said Samsung MX Vice President Daniel Arujo. “For camera and display specs in particular, where we’ve been leading, the S25 at launch will have top-of-the-line upgrades. And we’re also preparing industry-best APs and memory to boost AI performance and offer an overall premium experience,”
A top-of-the-line processor and industry-leading camera and display specs are to be expected in any flagship phone, so again, this isn’t exactly a surprise, but it does confirm some early rumors about the S25.
All indications are that the S25 Ultra is the device Arujo is talking about. When we reported on Samsung’s camera tech earlier, it seemed likely that the S25 Ultra would come with a 200-megapixel primary rear camera, a 50MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, a 50MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom, and a 50MP ultrawide camera.
Under the hood, we expect the S25 Ultra to have the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip with Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU. While the Gen 4 has not been officially announced, it’s expected to be unveiled at Snapdragon Summit 2024 in October. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus may have Samsung’s in-house 3nm Exynos 2500 processor, which Samsung also mentioned in the earnings call months before its anticipated launch.
Aside from that, Samsung also mentioned that it’s continuing to steam full speed ahead into AI. The company is planning to acquire Oxford Semantic Technologies, a U.K.-based AI firm that works on knowledge graphs, which is apparently vital to the AI industry.
It’s interesting that Samsung has chosen to tip its hand this early about the Galaxy S25, but it didn’t really reveal anything we didn’t already suspect. Expect to get more concrete information on the Galaxy S25 specs as we get further into the year. A lot of leaks are likely to pick up after the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 becomes official in October.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.
Apple's next cheaper iPhone could get a brand-new processor while keeping its most stubborn display compromise. Digital Chat Station tips the iPhone 18e for a 2027 release with a 2nm A20 chip and a 6.12-inch OLED screen still limited to 60Hz.
The rumored camera setup includes a single 48MP rear camera and a possible 24MP selfie camera. There's new hardware to consider, but buyers hoping Apple would extend that upgrade generosity to smoother scrolling could be disappointed.