In 2021, after a decade of unveiling a new Galaxy S phone in March, April or May, Samsung did something a little different and released the Galaxy S 21 on January 29. In the years since, the company has stuck to January or February launches, and it has long been rumored to continue this trend into 2025 with Samsung Galaxy S25.
Now we have a specific date in mind, thanks to prolific and reliable leaker Evan Blass. On his X accountthe leaker posted a screenshot of an official-looking Italian teaser poster. It’s private, but you can see it mirrored by another reliable leaker, Ice Universe, below.
From the renders we see the fourth smartphone, what will it be? source：@evleaks pic.twitter.com/u3cOnBcTKlDecember 18, 2024
The text isn’t exactly Italian, but if it’s not immediately obvious, “Gennaio” is “januari”. So Wednesday, January 22, 2025 — which isn’t surprising, since the last three winter Unpacked events have also been held on Wednesdays.
This is, of course, just two days after Donald Trump has been sworn in for his second term as president, making this something of a gamble for Samsung, as it will have to fight hard for media attention. But perhaps the company wants to release it as soon as possible to minimize the impact of potential incoming tariffs.
Four Galaxy phones?
More interesting than a date that had already heavily rumoredis the image to the left of the text. It appears to show the corners of four phones with a light shining through to show something that looks a lot like Galaxy AI logo.
In itself, that’s a not-too-subtle hint that the upcoming Galaxy phones will come with Galaxy AI — not terribly surprising, though may come via Samsung’s much-maligned Bixby this time. But what’s interesting is that until now we’ve only been expecting three phones in January: the Galaxy S25, a Plus model and the almighty Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Now it could just be because three phones arranged like this wouldn’t make the logo and one is duplicated. Alternatively, the fourth may be rumored Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim. But that won’t arrive until summer, possibly as an exotic rebrand for the FE line.
This doesn’t mean it’s wrong, of course, and if I were to guess, Samsung will simply tease the Slim at the event, with a promise of a release later in the year. Nevertheless, one look would be enough for it to be included as part of the poster, and if that’s true, it’s exciting because we may soon get an idea of exactly how thin it is and whether Apple should feel threatened when it continues to work with iPhone 17 Slim.
While it’s only 35 days away, the Samsung Galaxy S25 won’t be the first big phone of the year to arrive, of course. Yesterday it was officially confirmed that OnePlus 13 will get one global release on January 7. With both of these likely to be among best phones 2025 will get off to a strong start.
