Week 50 in review: iPhone 16 prototypes leak, Galaxy A15, A25 official

2023-12-17

We're at the end of week 50 of the year - just two more to go! Samsung decided not to wait until 2024 to announce its latest crop of Galaxy A-devices with the new Galaxy A15 duo and Galaxy A25 5G. Galaxy A15 is available in 4G and 5G trims with both phones sharing the same core specs apart from the chipsets. Galaxy A25 features more capable cameras and Samsung’s in-house Exynos 1280 SoC. All three new phones share 6.5-inch Super AMOLED displays with FHD+ resolution and Infinity-U notch cutouts. The A15 models get a 90Hz refresh rate while the A25 features a 120Hz panel which also peaks at 1,000 nits of brightness compared to 800 nits on the A15s. Open sales in Vietnam start on December 16 and we can expect Samsung to launch all three devices in more markets in the coming weeks.

MacRumors released preliminary renders of the vanilla iPhone 16 series that show the two camera lenses as one, similar to the iPhone X. One prototype features a unified volume rocker button instead of the separate volume up and down buttons seen on every iPhone since 2010. All three devices feature capacitive Action Buttons above the volume controls with the black model housing a visually larger button. The black model also features a capacitive Capture Button located below the power button. Apple is likely playing with different ideas to see which one it likes best.

A massive One UI 6.1 leak came out, revealing some AI-powered features coming to Samsung phones next year. The One UI version 6.1 will likely arrive alongside the Galaxy S24 lineup coming early next year. One UI 6.1 will allow you to generate custom wallpapers and apply weather and portrait effects to the lock screen. The image editor will become more powerful as well. You will be able to even expand images beyond their original borders and move objects from one image to another. Samsung Notes will also be able to summarize big blocks of text with bullet points. Additionally, the AI is planned to help you out with calls, just like the Pixels. Real-time translator, ambient noise suppression and transcription are all call-related features coming to One UI 6.1.

Speaking of the Galaxy S24 series. Emergency texts via satellite are seemingly confirmed, and the prices will remain the same as on the Galaxy S23 series - yay! A report from Korea said that the Galaxy S24 Ultra will keep the 10x zoom camera but add a 5x in the place of the 3x unit. The main camera will remain the 200MP unit.

A final note on Samsung, a highly debatable rumor surfaced that Samsung will change the design of its phones in 2026 - meaning the Galaxy S25 series will be the last with the current minimalist design.

You can find the rest of the top stories of the week below!