Samsung Galaxy S25 plans: what you need to know

Pre-orders are over, and the Samsung Galaxy S25 is available  on mobile plans or for outright purchase. The pricing for the S25 and its siblings are similar to last year, and while the pre-order deals are done there are still ways to snag a deal.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 is available from Optus, Vodafone, and Telstra and every telco is offering launch day deals.

If you lock in for a 24 or 36 month plan with Vodafone you'll get $250.08 (very specific) off the regular retail price of the device. This brings the monthly device repayment down from $58.29 to $47.87 for a 24-month plan. You'll still need to add on a SIM-only plan, but it is more than $10 off each month.

Optus is doing something similar, except you'll save $250.56 making the monthly repayment $47.85 for the 256GB model. You cn also get a Galaxy Watch7 for $0 from Optus if you opt in to a 24 or 36-month plan. Note that you'll still need to pay a $10/mth watch plan though.

Telstra is once again following suit, but Big T is capping the discount at $200 instead.

Each of these deals work the same way. The total discount is divided up, and subtracted from your monthly repayments over the course of the plan. If you do happen to pay your phone out earlier then you'll forfeit any remaining discounts.

Let's a look at the cheapest Galaxy S25 Plus plans for each storage option from each telco. Here are the cheapest Samsung Galaxy S25 plans (512GB version):

And here are Galaxy S25 plans for the 256GB model:

The only three providers that offer a Samsung Galaxy S25 on a phone payment plan are the big three: Optus, Vodafone, and Telstra. You can grab your GS25 on a 12, 24, or 36-month plan. The latter is the most popular and comes with the lowest monthly price tag, but a longer-term commitment to stay with your provider of choice.

As for which provider you choose, that's up to what you need from your mobile plan. Each provider has its own perks and plan features, which we'll cover below. But you also need to consider network coverage in your area.

The Telstra network is well known for having the widest coverage in Australia, with Optus in second place and Vodafone in third. But thanks to a network-sharing agreement between Optus and TPG (which owns Vodafone), things will be changing soon.

Vodafone's population coverage will increase from about 96% to 98.4%, putting it only 0.1% behind Optus and 1.3% behind Telstra. Unfortunately, there are still no firm details on what Vodafone's 5G coverage will look like after the deal kicks into gear.

In turn, Optus will get increased capacity in some parts of regional, rural and remote Australia. Its network footprint won't increase, but its performance should – if only during high-usage periods.

Optus' Galaxy S25 plans all have hefty data inclusions, but the more-expensive options also come with unlimited international calls to select destinations – great if you have friends or family overseas. If you're overseas sites are more about travel than conversation, Optus has good roaming add-ons, too. Get 5GB of data and unlimited local talk & text for $5 per day when roaming in select countries.

Optus mobile plans have no data overage fees. If you go over your monthly data cap, your speed is limited to 1.5Mbps, instead of being hit with an unexpectedly high bill that month.

There's also data sharing if you have multiple plans on the same account, which can be handy for families. That said, Optus' smallest plan has a big 50GB of data, which is well above the average national usage. And, while data sharing is nice, there's no data banking or rollover to hold onto your unused GB.

Being an Optus customer also gets you discounted access to Optus Sport, and access to SubHub – a platform that lets you combine multiple subscription services (such as Netflix, Microsoft 365, and others) into a single bill, along with a 5% or 10% discount, depending on whether you sync two or three-or-more services.

Vodafone's Galaxy S25 plans are roughly on par with Optus, when it comes to pricing. They have a large amount of data and come with a range of perks and extras. That said, the smallest plan is 50GB, which is much higher than the average national usage, which is a shame because there's no data banking or rollover for unused data.

There are no excess data fees, with Vodafone instead slowing your connection to 2Mbps once you pass your monthly limit. This is slightly faster than the 1.5Mbps speed cap that Optus and Telstra employ.

If you bundle multiple Vodafone mobile plans together on the same account, you get two benefits: discounts and data sharing. Bundle up to five mobile plans together and save between 5% and 20% off your total monthly bill, depending on how many you bundle.

Having multiple plans on the same account like this also lets you share data between them. Each month, all your data is put into a pool, instead of measured per device. Each plan then pulls from the pool, letting you get a more efficient use out of your total data.

All its plans come with unlimited international texts to select countries, and the more-expensive plans have international call inclusions.

But Vodafone's true stand-out feature is its international roaming. For just $5 per day, you can use your phone as normal while overseas. This kicks in automatically wheny our phone connects to an overseas network and lasts for 24 hours. But if you don't want to roam, all you have to do is pop your phone in flight mode and stick to WiFi. It's one of the best roaming options on the market.

Perhaps Vodafone's biggest drawback is network coverage. Its 4G network is only slightly smaller than the other two: 96% population coverage for Vodafone, compared to the 99.7% of Telstra and 98.5% of Optus. But its 5G network is smaller – enough so that Vodafone is the only major network provider to not publish clear 5G coverage figures, so we can't even make a direct comparison. That said, if you spend most of your time in the country's more-populated areas, you should be fine.

A last, (optional) small perk is three months of free Binge access, though be sure to cancel ahead of the cutoff if you don't want to end up paying once the free period ends.

Telstra's Samsung Galaxy S25 plans are the most expensive, but Australia's biggest telco is also well known for its wider network coverage, which is a must-have for some.

With a population coverage of 99.7% for 4G, Telstra is only a bit ahead of Optus' 98.5% and Vodafone's 96%. This shouldn't make a big difference in most populated areas, but can be everything in some locations.

When it comes to 5G, Telstra is much further ahead. With 87% of the population covered with 5G, it's well ahead of Optus' 80.5% – Vodafone doesn't even publish clear 5G coverage stats, so there's no comparison to be made here.

Once again, the smallest plan has 50GB, which is far higher than the average Australian uses each month. And while there are no overage charges for going past your data limit (instead you're slowed to 1.5Mbps) there's no data banking or rollover to hang onto your unused data.

You can share data between up to 10 mobile services on the same eligible account, which can help you make more efficient usage of your data – particularly useful for families.

All Telstra's Galaxy S25 plans come with 30 minutes of international calls to all destinations – not a lot of minutes, but without the usual limit on number of countries that are included. International calling packs are available for additional minutes.

Roaming is relatively easy to do, but not as affordable as Optus or Telstra in most circumstances. Travelling in NZ will cost you $5 per day, but other countries are $10 per day and the amount of data you get varies based on location.

A final perk is the Telstra Plus system. You earn points based on eligible plan payments, which you can put towards purchases from the Telstra Plus Rewards store, such as disocounted movie tickets and sport events, pre-sales for concerts, and a motley assortment of products.

These are Telstra's Samsung Galaxy S25 plans for the 512GB version:

And here's a look at Telstra Galaxy S25 plans for the 256GB model:

The Samsung Galaxy S25 doesn't boast impressive hardware updates over its predecessor, with a new processor and 50MP ultra-wide lens being the two most notable changes. This year, Samsung seems to be relying mostly on AI to entice shoppers. 

Samsung doesn't take too many risks with its smartphone design and the Galaxy S25 is no different. It looks similar to previous Samsung flagships, with only minor changes.

The most notable deviation is the larger display of the Galaxy S25 Ultra – now 6.9 inches, up from 6.8 inches. The Ultra has also been tweaked to look a little more like its siblings, sporting a slightly curvier design.

But the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus are still 6.2 and 6.7 inches, respectively. And look almost identical to their predecessors.

On paper, most of the camera specifications for each model in the S25 series are identical to last year's phones. As with the S24, this year's Galaxy S25 has a 50MP main, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP telephoto, and 12MP selfie camera.

But hardware isn't everything. With any luck, Samsung's new processor might be able to work some post-processing magic to dish out better pics.

As is all to standard right now, Samsung's marketing for the Galaxy S25 series focuses on new AI features coming to its Galaxy AI, which was introduced in 2024.

Some examples include:

• Call recording with automatic transcription
• Improvements to Circle to Search to identify audio, in addition to what's on the screen
• Multi-step tasks from one command via the virtual assistant
• Natural language search in the Samsung Gallery Settings apps
• Proactive briefs at the start and end of each day, providing information like calendar, sleep data, and weather.

Many of these new features will also be available on older Galaxy S devices, but the S25 should be able to handle them faster.

The display for the standard Samsung Galaxy S25 is a 6.2 inch AMOLED with 1080 x 2340 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Or, if you'd prefer: it's exactly the same as last year's model and should look just as great.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite processor is one of the few hardware upgrades between the Galaxy S25 and the GS24. There's also more RAM – 12GB, up from 8GB.

These two improvements should help it handle the new AI features faster, though are unlikely to make a big difference to day-to-day tasks, which are less demanding.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 has a 4000mAh battery – exactly the same as the Galaxy S24. That said, the new AI features and different processor could make a difference to real-world battery life, so we'll have to hold off on comments until we can go hands-on for a full review.

When buying a new phone, the two most common options are:

1. Buy it outright
2. Get in on a phone repayment plan from a mobile provider

The most important thing to remember when comparing these options is this: no matter if you buy the phone outright or on a payment plan, you pay the same amount for the phone itself, barring special discounts.

The real difference in cost is how much you pay for your mobile plan – i.e. your SIM's data inclusions and extra perks. There's also upfront cost to consider – can you afford a big, one-off purchase or do you need to spread it out?

Let's take a closer look at what each option brings to the table.

Buying your phone outright means you can sign up to a SIM-only plan from any provider, rather than being stuck with one of the big three. This gives you a lot more options to choose from, including plans that are significantly cheaper than you can get from Optus, Vodafone or Telstra.

The cheapest mobile plans are sold be Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), which are providers that buy access on one of the big three networks then resell it on the cheap. They can do this because they're smaller operations that have fewer overheads such as retail stores, and large staff counts. They also don't offer many additional perks such as streaming service discounts or special rewards points, which can be good because you only end up paying for what you need.

Over the same time you'd spend on a 12, 24, or 36-month phone repayment plan with one of the major telcos, you can save hundreds of dollars by grabbing a SIM-only plan from an MVNO. They even usually have the same coverage, except for Telstra MVNOs, which have a slightly smaller footprint than Telstra itself.

The appeal of grabbing an expensive phone like a Samsung Galaxy S25 on a plan is obvious: it's a lot of money to pay upfront. But ultimately, you pay the same retail price for the phone itself – you just spread the payments out over 12, 24, or 36 months.

Don't think of these 12, 24, or 36 month repayment terms in the same way you might a "contract" of yesteryear. There are no break fees for leaving early – all you have to do is pay out what remains on your handset, plus potentially forfeit any discounts that were available when you signed up.

The price difference doesn't come from the phone itself – it's that Optus, Vodafone and Telstra have more expensive mobile plans than you can get from smaller providers. The plans from the Big Three also start at 50GB, which is more than double the national average usage of 18.1GB on postpaid plans, according to the latest report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Plans from Optus, Vodafone and Telstra do come with some perks, which we've covered in detail in our Providers section above. But it's up to you whether these perks are worth the extra you'll pay in the long term.