Samsung Galaxy S25 First Look and Unboxing with S24 cover

Samsung Galaxy S25 First Look and Unboxing – First impressions of their latest compact AI companion

The new Samsung Galaxy S25 series is an interesting proposition. Unlike the sea of contenders out in the market that typically opt for aesthetic tweaks or simplistic hardware upgrades, Samsung has placed particular emphasis in offering enhanced capabilities to their Galaxy AI and deeper integration with Google Gemini to make it a bona fide AI companion along with subtle yet critical refinements to its design.

Fresh off its Galaxy Unpacked 2025 global debut, Samsung put on an impressive laser light show taking place across the entire facade of the Merdeka 118 tower that could be seen across much of Kuala Lumpur as well as a fireworks show to kick off their Galaxy S25 series preorder programme for Malaysia.

Samsung Galaxy S25 First Look and Unboxing icy blue

We managed to get our hands on the Galaxy S25 for field testing. While it is the smallest sized offering in the line-up alongside the larger Galaxy S25+ and Galaxy S25 Ultra, the new Galaxy S25 is every bit as powerful as its siblings with the same hardware running under the hood – the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset along with a set of unique upgrades. Here’s our Samsung Galaxy S25 first look and unboxing where we share our initial impressions of their compact wunderkind.

Samsung Galaxy S25 first look – Build and Design

At a glance, the Samsung Galaxy S25 is a spitting image of its predecessor though closer inspection reveals that it has subtle differences. While it looks similar in terms to the older Galaxy S24, the new Galaxy S25 is actually 0.4mm thinner, 0.1mm narrower and is 0.1mm shorter while also being 5g lighter too, weighing in at 162g.

The design language is maintained for the most part with rounded corners and a flat back and display. However, the Galaxy S25 differs slightly in that it has slightly thicker, rounded camera rings done up in matte black protecting each of its triple cameras on the rear along with the obligatory new colourways. 

Samsung Galaxy S25 First Look and Unboxing with S24 bottom

Samsung Galaxy S25 First Look and Unboxing – The Galaxy S25 (left) is a tiny bit slimmer than the Galaxy S24 (right) but has the same button and port layout.

For 2025, Samsung is issuing the Galaxy S25 as well as its larger sibling the Galaxy S25+ in a dark blue Navy, Silver Shadow, Mint and in the case of our Galaxy S25 first look sample a light bluish shade of Icyblue. There are also three colourways which are online exclusives which consist of Blueblack, Coralred and Pinkgold which can only be obtained online at Samsung’s official site.

Samsung Galaxy S25 First Look and Unboxing with S24 rear

Samsung Galaxy S25 First Look and Unboxing – Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 (left) has the same design language as its predecessor the Galaxy S24 (right) but is 5g lighter while having a larger vapour chamber, a superior processor and a host of new Galaxy AI features. Note the larger, chunkier camera housings on the Galaxy S25 versus the slimmer ones on the S24.

Much like its predecessor, the Galaxy S25 uses Gorilla Glass Victus 2 to protect the front and rear of the phone with the same Armor Aluminum 2, their own proprietary formula of toughened metal, as part of the frame to create a relatively durable chassis that can survive modest mishaps like a short drop to the floor.

While our Galaxy S25 first look sample does retain a respectable IP68 dust and water resistance rating, many competing phones have advanced towards more durable, higher ratings including IP69 which offers increased resistance against high pressure jets of water, however unlikely it may be. In any case, IP68 is more than sufficient for normal day to day use as it confers full dust ingress and resistance to immersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water – your usual swimming pool basically – for up to 30 minutes at a time.

When it comes to one-handed phones, Samsung has refined their design into an art and they remain one of the best compact flagship phone makers in business today. When held, the Galaxy S25 retains the proven ergonomics of its predecessor with an even heft, the ability to be comfortably held one-handed and an exquisitely premium tactility. 

In terms of button placement and design, our Galaxy S25 first look sample is identical to the Galaxy S24 with a power button and volume rocker on the right, a base with a USB-C port, a grille for one of two speakers and a nano SIM card tray. The left and top portions are otherwise unremarkable.

The backplate itself has a vertically aligned triple camera array on the rear along with a Qi-wireless charging coil for wireless charging or reverse wireless charging of other gear.

There’s not much altered on the rear cameras with our Galaxy S25 first look sample featuring a similar configuration as the prior Galaxy S25 that consists of a 50MP primary camera, a 12MP ultra wide angle camera and a 10MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom though the new Galaxy S25 does have an improved AI Provisual Engine that leverages the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor for better camera performance.

Samsung Galaxy S25 First Look and Unboxing with S24 front

Up front, you get a 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate, 2,600 nits peak brightness and 1080 x 2,340 pixels resolution protected by the aforementioned Corning Gorilla Glass 2 which is otherwise unchanged from its predecessor. Up top in a small rounded punch hole, you get a 12MP camera for selfies and video calls along with a tiny slit for the earpiece.

Samsung Galaxy S25 first look and unboxing – Specifications

While it is the smallest of the triumvirate of new Galaxy S25 series phones, the titular Galaxy S25 is just as powerful and effective as its larger sized siblings the Galaxy S25+ and Galaxy S25 Ultra. 

Powering the entire range is the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, a customised chipset that is exclusive to the Galaxy S25 series for now and offers improved performance than the stock Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. On paper, the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy has a faster 4.47GHz prime core which is about 150MHz faster than the stock variant along with a slightly faster GPU. 

Paired with the custom chipset, our Galaxy S25 first look sample also has a 15% larger vapour chamber for improved cooling performance. Interestingly, its predecessor the Galaxy S24 had two variants, one using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and another using their own inhouse Exynos 2400. Units for Malaysia released last year used the latter.

On top of the custom chipset and larger vapour chamber, the Galaxy S25 also has 12GB LPDDR5X RAM across the board and either 256GB or 512GB of onboard non-expandable storage. This RAM and available storage configurations match its higher end siblings save for the Galaxy S25 Ultra which also has a 1TB online-exclusive variant. The standardisation to 12GB RAM in the Galaxy S25 is a step up from the older Galaxy S24 which only had 8GB RAM.

Powering the Galaxy S25 is a 4,000mAh battery which is the same capacity as the older Galaxy S24. Charging speeds have also been kept conservative with no change from last year’s model, with 25W wired charging, 15W wireless charging and reverse wireless charging available. Running under the hood is the latest Android 15 and Samsung’s One UI 7 which has a host of AI enhancements and features which we’ll get into after we’ve fully tested the Galaxy S25.

Samsung Galaxy S25 First Look and Unboxing with S24 angled

Following their prior sustainability policy that has been in place since the Galaxy S21, there is little else bundled with our Galaxy S25 first look sample save for a USB-C cable, warranty paperwork and a SIM card pin.

At first blush, One UI 7 is a massive step up in smoothness and responsiveness when navigating the menus that surpasses prior versions of One UI. The enhanced NPU and additional features including conversational inquiries when interacting with Google Gemini and the new Now Brief that summarises your activities for the day look extremely promising – we’ll share our findings after we put it through its paces.

Samsung Galaxy S25 First Look and Unboxing galaxy AI

If you’re keen, you can prorder the Galaxy S25 and get up to RM1,600 in bonuses. The preorder period for the Samsung Galaxy S25 is still ongoing until 13 February 2025 with the base 256GB model going for RM3,999 and the 512GB going for RM4,599 though the preorder enables you to get a free storage upgrade, effectively paying the cost of the base model for the double storage variant which makes for exceptional value.  In the meantime, stay tuned for our full review! 

Samsung Galaxy S25 first look sample courtesy of Samsung Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.samsung.com/my/smartphones/galaxy-s25/buy/