This Galaxy S phone is getting One UI 9 way ahead of schedule

The Samsung Galaxy S25 range could get to try out One UI 9 much earlier than any of us expected, according to esteemed leaker Tarun Vats (via Android Authority).

While One UI 9 coming to last year's Galaxy S phones was a certainty, very few people expected to hear about it being spotted on anything other than the S26 range for some time. Is this a sign that Samsung is moving a bit faster than usual on One UI 9's development?

Internal builds spotted two weeks earlier than last year

With all the hoo-ha around One UI 8.5, it's been hard to remember Samsung is already winding up to release the next big upgrade for Samsung phones. But as One UI 8.5 rolls out, our focus shifts to One UI 9, and all the new features that it will bring.

One UI 9 builds have been spotted on the Galaxy S26, but we thought it would be at least a few more weeks before any were spotted on older Galaxy hardware. That is, allegedly, not the case.

With no information about the build number we can't know much else about where development is for the Galaxy S25 range, but it's safe to assume it will lag behind the current S26 flagship phones.

However, it's important to note that this leak comes about two weeks earlier than we'd expected. As Vats mentions, the first time we saw a One UI 8 build for the Galaxy S24 range was on June 19 last year, a full two weeks earlier than this year.

It's possible leak sources are simply faster than last year, and development is running at roughly the same pace. But it's also possible that Samsung is zooming through the development of the next version of One UI, and we might end up seeing it much earlier than anyone expected.

Where does this leave a beta for Galaxy S25 phones? Vats doesn't have many details on that yet, but he confidently states that it'll either be "this month or next".