Samsung uses Corning’s new Gorilla Armor 2 glass on the S25 Ultra, which has 29 percent better resistance to fractures than the original Gorilla Armor on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Interestingly, Samsung says it saw a 60 percent reduction in screen wear from the S24 over the S23 serieswhich may mean that the S25 is even stronger.

The phones are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which debuted in phones like Honor the Magic 7 Pro and OnePlus 13. This will be the processor of all The Samsung Galaxy S25 series phones worldwide, unlike in previous years when Samsung chose its own Exynos chips in some markets. Samsung claims that this chip offers a 37 percent CPU upgrade, a 30 percent increase in graphics, and a percent improved neural processing unit compared to the S24 series.

Samsung and Qualcomm work together to optimize the chip, and that close tie enables new features like ProScaler. On the S25 Ultra and S25+, this feature can upscale screen images to match the display resolution. Say you’re browsing Instagram and someone uploads a 1,080p image – it’ll be upscaled to QHD+.

The vapor chamber cooling system is larger among all three—a key component to keep phones from overheating during intense gaming sessions—with the S25 Ultra’s chamber getting a 40 percent increase in size. -on that bump. Samsung also says that sitting on top of the chip is a new “tailored thermal interface material” that leaves zero gaps for air, drawing heat from the processor directly to the vapor chamber cooling system. to increase performance and reduce battery stress.

Perhaps the most disappointing part of the hardware story is the lack of support for Qi2 charging. This is new version of the Qi wireless charging standardwhich borrows many features from Apple’s MagSafe charging system. It embeds magnets in the phone, allowing users to magnetically attach the phone to a Qi2 charger for more efficient and faster wireless charging, in addition to the convenience of magnetic accessories to improve the phone. I was hoping to see more Qi2 Android phones in 2024, but that’s all we got is HMD’s Skyline. Now, in a move that will make things even more confusing, the Galaxy S25 series is classified as “Qi2 ready.”

This is a new classification for phones that not have built-in magnets but feature official and third-party Qi2 cases with magnets inside, essentially bringing the same if not the same magnetic experience as a proper Qi2 device. Android users who prefer MagSafe functionality have to rely on these cases for now, so it’s just a shame that Qi2 isn’t still a native part of these new phones.

The camera specs are almost the same as before, with the ultrawide being the exception of the Galaxy S25 Ultra—it now packs 50 megapixels instead of 12. Samsung says this instead increases the quality of macro photos. There are some more interesting changes in the image processing algorithm. Samsung’s next-generation ProVisual Engine uses a “spatial-temporal filter” to distinguish between moving and stationary objects to ensure that photo subjects don’t blur when taking a photo in such conditions that the light is low. Double-analysis noise removal analyzes each pixel for noise, looks at eight pixels around it, and removes the noise to clean up the image.