As we race towards the end of the year, it is the time to look back at what has been an amazing year for smartphones. Samsung started the year by releasing its flagship line of the new S24s and kickstarted the discussion of smartphone of the year. Its biggest competitor Apple Inc took its time for the response (as they always do) and introduced the much awaited iPhone 16 later on in the year. However, when it comes to design and aesthetics, there is not much to expect from Apple and apart from just a new camera format arrangement in the base models, the new iPhones pretty much look identical to its predecessors.
A bit of recap
Samsung hasn’t been the frontrunner as well when it comes to the design department. This year’s model looks pretty much the same as the S23 and S22 before. However, just like Apple, Samsung made some structural changes to its flagship devices. The S24 Ultra had a titanium frame, instead of the boring old aluminium. It also said goodbye to the edge screen and featured a flatter one and that’s pretty much it when it comes to the physical side.
Of course the internals are where things got a little more interesting. The S24 line up was beefed up with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. This came as standard for all three devices for the US market but could only be found in the Ultra models elsewhere around the world. The others, S24+ and the regular S24, had the Exynos 2400 chipset from Samsung itself. All new models came with the latest Android 14 OS masked by Samsung’s One UI 6.1.1.
The biggest and baddest reveal this year by the Korean giants was the announcement of Galaxy AI in their devices. This revolutionary feature came with some mind blowing quirks, such as the magic photo editing, live call translation, the circle to search and many others. We expect this to continue on to the upcoming models and might even a new version of it.
The 25
As the number suggests, the S25 will be the phone for the year 2025. I don’t know why I am stating the obvious as Samsung has been doing that since 2020 after they leapfrogged ten numbers and introduced the ‘S20’ after the S10 in the previous year.
The upcoming lineup of the Samsung’s top dog devices is expected to have the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen Elite (Gen 4). Although that would be regional specific. The lower flagship models (S25 and S25+)are expected to feature the latest Exynos 2500 chipsets in most parts of the world.
When it comes to design, the rumoured major change is expected to be in the Ultra model. It could now feature slight curved corners. So, good news for people that complained about it being too boxy looking. I liked it tbh. Apart from this minor update, the rest of the lineup will be exactly the same as this year’s model. Although we could expect some new colours for distinction.
At this point, all we can do is just anticipate. All the articles floating around the web are just fillers, like the one you just read. In just about a couple of months, we shall find out. Although, judging from recent history, the leaks and the mockups have been pretty accurate. So there you have it.