Pre-orders are up: demand for Samsung's new flagship is many times higher than last year's demand

Pre-orders for the new Samsung Galaxy S25 have turned out to be significantly higher than for the S24 last year - some sellers are talking about a 3-4.5-fold increase. The flagship, presented just over a week ago, is being actively ordered, despite the fact that the prices for the novelty at the start are 12-14% higher than for the previous lineup. Buyers are attracted by the new features of artificial intelligence: there is a lot of interest in it, moreover, now practically only its presence distinguishes some modern smartphones from others, experts point out.

Samsung Galaxy S25 pre-order

The new flagship Samsung Galaxy S25, presented by the South Korean corporation on January 22, at the pre-order stage overtook its predecessor - Galaxy S24. This was told to "Izvestia" sellers of electronics, most of which began accepting applications for the new device almost immediately after the presentation - January 22-23. They plan to start selling the Galaxy S25 in early February.

- We see a lot of interest in the Samsung Galaxy S25 lineup. In less than a week since the start of pre-order the number of applications from our customers was 4.5 times higher than for the S24 during the pre-order period in January last year, - said "Izvestia" general director of the retail network MTS (will start selling the novelty on February 3) Andrei Gubanov.

Vimpelcom, where smartphone sales will start a day later, sees a significant increase in interest in the new model: the number of pre-orders is already three times higher than the previous one.

- According to the results of the first week of pre-orders, the demand for the Galaxy S25 line of smartphones has increased by 45% compared to last year, - reported "Izvestia" in the press service of "M.Video-Eldorado". - Thus, Galaxy S25 Ultra turned out to be more popular than S24 Ultra by 58%, the most popular model - 512 GB. Galaxy S25+ surpassed S24+ in sales by 15%. The base Galaxy S25 sold better than the S24 by 27%. The most popular colors across all models are black and gray.

Samsung galaxystore network (it is managed by Inventive Retail Group) has an increased demand for all models of Galaxy S25 line, but the S25 Ultra models are of special interest, said the group's representative Lyudmila Semushina.

As reported earlier by Citilink, according to the interim results, for the first three days the demand for the new Samsung Galaxy S25 lineup has increased by almost five times compared to the last year's series. The most popular model was the flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra, it accounted for 57% of the total number of applications: the second most popular model by the number of pre-orders this year - the basic Samsung Galaxy S25.

As noted by electronics retailers, demand has increased, even despite the fact that at the start of sales the new model is more expensive than last year. Thus, Ozon points out that prices for the new line of Samsung Galaxy smartphones this year increased by 12-14%, depending on the model and memory capacity.

Galaxy S24 Ultra 512 GB cost 159.99 thousand rubles at the start of sales, and S25 Ultra 512 GB - already 179.99 thousand, that is, 12.5% more, notes Lyudmila Semushina.

On average, the price of Samsung Galaxy S25 is higher than the price of similar models last year by 10 thousand rubles, that is, by 5-10% depending on the model, which reflects the rate of inflation and takes into account currency fluctuations, noted in the network "Sviaz.ON".

- Such an increase almost never affects the number of sold devices, because even if the buyer can not pay the entire amount at once, retailers today have a large arsenal of fintech tools to be able to afford the desired purchase, - said the company.

Prices for new smartphones have increased below the inflation rate in Russia, in turn, believe in "M.Video-Eldorado".

What the new Samsung attracts buyers

According to the leading analyst of Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtazin, in the market as a whole pre-order for Galaxy S25 this year was almost twice as much as in the previous year. According to his data, about 25 thousand devices have been brought to the Russian Federation so far, which will go on sale next week. Further their realization will depend on how often and in what quantities the new flagship will be supplied by parallel import.

- At the end of the year, however, sales of the Galaxy S25 will probably be no higher than the Galaxy S24 a year earlier. Now the market of electronics and smartphones in particular is shrinking under the pressure of unfavorable factors, including the high Central Bank rate. We expect an overall decline in smartphone sales of about 15% this year," he added.

The hardware of the Galaxy S25 is not much different from the hardware of the previous flagship, experts said after the presentation. Eldar Murtazin agrees with this opinion. Attractive for buyers the new model is made by software, updated artificial intelligence capabilities, he believes.

Andrei Gubanov agrees that the interest is related to the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in smartphones. AI is becoming a tool of competitive struggle between smartphone manufacturers, he argues.

- For many years this market has not seen any truly breakthrough innovations, and artificial intelligence can be counted among them. Now we see that other manufacturers have become more active in incorporating AI into their devices in whole or in part. For example, Chinese brands are introducing elements of neural networks, and Apple has already launched Apple Intelligence in several countries," the expert said.

Artificial intelligence is present in the smartphones of such Chinese brands as, for example, Honor and Huawei, said a source in the electronics market. But it is primarily focused on processing photos and videos, he added. Apple Intelligence can be used in Russia, but it will launch only if the user specifies the U.S. as the country of residence, and some functions support only English, he said. At the same time in Samsung Galaxy S25 AI works normally in Russia, the Izvestia interlocutor added.

Samsung has improved technical specifications, such as the processor, camera and autonomy, in turn, noted in M.Video-Eldorado.

- In addition, the Galaxy AI artificial intelligence features have been updated. For example, "Smart Editor" allows you to move and delete objects in the photo. "Quick edit" collects the best moments from the gallery and automatically creates a themed video, for example, with your pet. "Text Generator" quickly creates texts on any given topic - easy and convenient, and "AI Drawing" turns sketches into images, - listed in the company.

The demand for the line can also be explained not only by the presence of the latest AI capabilities, but also by the high performance of the gadgets due to their new processor, according to MegaFon.

Wildberries is observing a steady upward trend in sales of smartphones in the high price segment (from 50 thousand rubles), reported "Izvestia" in the marketplace. For example, last year, demand for such devices on the site tripled compared to 2023, and the share of Apple among smartphone sales in 2024 almost doubled, his representative noted. The 25% increase in the average check for smartphones confirms the trend.

- Thanks to the early start of sales of the new flagship S line from Samsung, we expect increased demand for new products, - said the representative of the company.

The smartphone is becoming more and more advanced assistant to the user, artificial intelligence significantly expands the possibilities, so the interest in it is great, said Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily. At the same time, modern smartphones do not differ much from each other: new cameras, processors, batteries do not impress buyers as much as before, so AI is almost the only way to emphasize the competitive advantage, he believes.

A good pre-order does not mean that sales of the gadget will go up within a year, the demand may not be as great as in the past, because the high cost of the device may stop some potential buyers, summarized the expert.