The Samsung Galaxy S25 is one of the most anticipated phones of 2025, and the good news is that it should also be one of the first new phones of 2025.
While there is no official date for Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025 yet, the event is typically held in late January or February. It should come as no surprise then that the rumors regarding the Galaxy S25 series are coming fast and furious in the waning days of 2024.
A pair of new rumors this week offer new insight into what we can expect at that event. The first is regarding one of the colors of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and it's sparking a common internet debate. The other points to a new entrant in the Galaxy S series potentially stealing Apple's thunder with an earlier-than-expected debut.
Blue or Gold Gray
The first rumor comes courtesy of one of the more prolific and accurate leakers in the business, Ice Universe, and it's simply one of the color options for the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The post on X merely shows a color field with "S25 Ultra" and "blue" above it.
S25 Ultra blue pic.twitter.com/aaPWBgdtIFDecember 26, 2024
Like the black and blue dress (or was it white and gold?), the source of the argument and confusion is that the color field appears gray to many in the comments on the post.
While we'll have to wait for the Galaxy S25 Ultra to reveal a definitive answer, a look at the Galaxy S24 Ultra colors can help to clear things up. It came in both Titanium Blue and Titanium Gray; if you look at them side-by-side below, the leak appears much closer to the Titanium Blue shade.
The rest of the Galaxy S24 Ultra colors were Titanium Violet, Titanium Yellow, Titanium Black, Titanium Green, and Titanium Orange. Samsung consistently switches colors yearly, so while Titanium Blue and Titanium Gray could both return, we expect at least a few changes; just don't get your hopes up for anything too bright as the titanium trend hasn't leaned that way.
A slim victory
The second rumor pertains to the "Galaxy S25 Slim," a new model in the Galaxy S series for 2025. As you might expect, this would be a much thinner version of the flagship phone, something Apple is also allegedly working on delivering with an iPhone 17 Air.
The earliest rumors regarding the S25 Slim date back to October 31, 2024, from ETNews.com, but all previous leaks regarding the phone suggested it wouldn't arrive until months after the typical Galaxy S25 flagship launch. This leak from the Korean site FNNews.com indicates that the S25 Slim will debut at a Galaxy Unpacked event at 1 p.m. EST on January 22.
However, while the leak claims that pre-orders for the main Galaxy S25 lineup will go live on January 24th ahead of a February 7th launch, there's no indication that the Slim model would ship alongside them. This suggests Samsung could mirror the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Ring, which was teased in January 2024 but did not launch until July 2024.
Details regarding the rumored Galaxy S25 Slim are as thin as the phone itself, with little more than the claim that it will be slimmer than the existing lineup.
What's next?
Before the arrival of phones like the Galaxy S24 Ultra running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset last year, I would have been extremely nervous about any manufacturer driving for a thinner and lighter phone. However, Qualcomm's chipset turned things around and delivered a massive leap in efficiency last year, giving us slightly improved performance with hours of additional battery life.
While not everyone will want to give up that newfound battery life for a thinner phone, it's at least now plausible that you can get all-day battery life with a phone that is less than 7mm thick. Now, whether Samsung or Apple can make these thinner phones resistant to the issues that kicked off "bendgate" over 10 years ago could be another question.
With both Samsung and Apple, at least allegedly on the verge of making a play for this market, it's clear that there must be some evidence of consumer interest in thinner and lighter phones. Reports that Samsung could be cutting foldable production significantly suggest that maybe slim is the new foldable.
We haven't seen any major shifts in phone hardware over the last few years, so 2025 could prove extremely interesting for anyone in the market for a new phone.
