You’ll soon be seeing a bunch of full online reviews for the Galaxy S25 from both pro reviewers and users who paid their own money for it. Chances are, most of them are going to tell you how great the thing is and that it is totally worth the money. Reviews are like that; it’s not a knock on anyone who writes them or implying anything inappropriate, it’s just that we like new things, especially when they are better than the things they’re designed to replace.
I’m not going to be reviewing a Galaxy S25. I hate reviewing phones, and I’m terrible at it, so my constant complaining about them has finally borne fruit, and I don’t get tasked with writing them now. Never let it be said that complaining over and over can’t be effective. I am, however, going to tell you that no matter how great the S25 seems to be, I’d wait until next year to buy one.
Android & Chill
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I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy one, so the pitchforks can be put away. I am saying that there are some good reasons to hold off on buying any new phone, and one that has this many new changes and features is definitely one you could wait on picking up.
I hate buying a new phone. I hate setting up a million things on a new phone, I hate it when apps don’t keep track of their associated data and start up empty, and I especially hate opening my dusty wallet and spending money. That’s why I love that phone makers support their products longer and longer — it means I can wait.
It didn’t used to be that way. I bought every new phone that tickled my fancy and never thought about a reason not to do so. That taught me a very important lesson — every new smartphone will have bugs. Some phones, namely anything chock full of new features, will be riddled with them.
I’m talking about both hardware and software bugs. Just because a new phone looks like the old model doesn’t mean everything under the screen hasn’t been changed. New phones get new hardware, and that means they have to make the changes to allow the software to work with it all.
The worst offenders, by a longshot, were always Google’s own phones. Nexus phones and the entire Pixel line all launched with a list of issues because they are a testbed for new features and new ways to use cheap hardware. Google should be the company doing this; it needs to experiment with ways to use and develop the platform, but putting a retail, consumer-grade label on testbed phones means a lot of people will see a lot of issues.
The Galaxy S25 is Samsung’s Pixel phone. It’s the beginning of completely integrating AI into every facet of the experience, not just the user-facing features, using new hardware to do it. The new Samsung-custom Snapdragon paired with a new AI accelerator is going to require plenty of software tweaking, and the user-facing software is never going to be completely finished. It will keep changing and improving until the phone reaches its end-of-life for support, only to be replaced with a new model that will be the same.
You might love this idea. I can relate — I used to feel the same back when I wanted to try and tweak everything in ways that broke warranties and circumvented corporate restrictions. Now, I’m not worried about trying new exploits to see if I can find a way to root a Snapdragon phone or break bootloader security. I don’t see the need like I used to so I pass that torch to others and happily watch them try and fail, knowing they love doing it. The joy is in trying, just as much as succeeding.
Regular users (like I’ve become) just want everything to work. Hopefully, it will be as good as promised or even better, but at least perform in a way that isn’t disruptive. The S25 will probably do just that — I don’t expect any actual problems with the device that would cause you to stop using it.
The Galaxy S24 is that way, too. I can get that near-excellent level of use without shelling out another $1,000. Next year, when they are half-price, would be the time I would look at buying an S25.