TL;DR
- Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S25 series phones support seamless updates.
- This allows you to keep using your phone while an update is installed, while also letting you quickly reboot into the new update.
- These are the first Galaxy flagship phones to support seamless updates, although the Galaxy A55 also supports this feature.
Samsung has just announced the Galaxy S25 series, and there’s plenty to know about these new flagship Android phones. One notable feature that might go under the radar is that these are officially the first flagship Galaxy phones to support seamless updates.
Seamless updates were first introduced in 2016, allowing users to keep using their phones while the update was installed in the background on a separate partition. Users are prompted to restart their device once the background installation is complete, and the phone then seamlessly reboots into the newly updated partition. Most Android OEMs have adopted seamless updates since then, including Motorola, Xiaomi, OnePlus, and others.
By contrast, the Galaxy S24 series and earlier Samsung flagship phones stuck with the old update system update method. This meant users had to stare at an “installing” screen and could not use their phones during this time.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus
Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus
Snapdragon 8 Elite power • 12GB RAM • 7 years software support
A powerful 6.7-inch phone, with 7 years of updates
The middle offering of Samsung’s 2025 flagship launch, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus is a 6.7-inch QHD+ device with a 50MP camera, 12GB of RAM, 256GB+ of storage, and the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC. UWB connectivity, a 4,900mAh battery, and ProScaler for QHD+ round out the upgrades over the base model phone.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
100x zoom • Big battery • 7 years software support
Samsung’s best for 2025
Simply put, this is Samsung’s very best phone in 2025. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is a 6.9-inch QHD+ device with 12GB of RAM, 256GB+ of storage, embedded S Pen, and the overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC. The key upgrade over the lower S25 models is a 200MP main camera and 100x Space Zoom.
Samsung Galaxy S25
Samsung Galaxy S25
12GB RAM • Vastly improved software • 7 years of support
Refined software, AI smarts, and next-gen hardware
With an emphasis on AI features, and a move to Gemini, the Samsung Galaxy S25 is an exciting update to the Galaxy S line. Equipped with a 6.2-inch FHD+ display, Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, 12GB of RAM, a powerful 50MP camera, and updated hardware materials, we expect big things from the base model of Samsung’s 2025 flagship phone.
The Galaxy S25 series won’t be the first Samsung phones to support seamless updates as that honor goes to last year’s Galaxy A55. Nevertheless, we’re glad to see Samsung confirm that this modern update method is available on flagship Galaxy devices.
Not everyone is happy with seamless updates, though. Colleague Zac Kew-Denniss opined that seamless updates were slow to install in the background. Zac said installation took roughly an hour on his Pixel 8a compared to Samsung phones taking a few minutes with the old update method. So we hope Google and its partners speed things up in the near future.
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