Samsung's S25 could potentially serve as your genuine AI companion, according to some reports.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Series Unveiled with AI-Focused Upgrades
Samsung has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone series, the Galaxy S25, with a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI) features. The star of the show is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which boasts a new 50MP ultra-wide camera and a powerful custom Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra's standout feature, however, is its on-device "Personal Data Engine" that houses an LLM (Language Learning Model). This feature leverages user data and habits without sharing them with the cloud, setting it apart from many other AI-driven devices.
CK Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of the Digital Appliances Business Unit at Samsung Electronics, is the mastermind behind the development of Galaxy AI. At launch, the new Galaxy AI features work only with apps in the Google suite, Samsung apps, WhatsApp, and Spotify. Samsung plans to add more services over the course of the year.
One of the most popular AI features is Circle to Search, with 10 million users in the U.S. and 20% using it daily. Other notable features include AI Select, which allows users to convert video portions into GIFs, translate text between languages, or summarize long articles by sliding over the Edge panel. Galaxy AI can also offer search results when an image or text is circled on the display, and it can do the same for music if an audio element is detected.
In addition to these features, Galaxy AI now makes recommendations on settings to change based on user issues. For example, it can suggest turning on blue light reduction or dark mode for eye irritation, or increasing text size for reading difficulties.
Samsung Product Manager Charles Uptegrove stated that Galaxy AI was a key reason for users to purchase the Galaxy S24 and that customers are utilizing Galaxy AI. The company is taking a risk with the Galaxy S25 series, betting that Galaxy AI is enough to convince people to upgrade, despite the minimal hardware upgrades.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra sports a 6.9-inch display and a 5000mAh battery, while the S25 and S25 Plus have 4000mAh and 4900mAh batteries, respectively. The new Now Brief and multimodal natural language voice commands could prove the most impactful new Galaxy AI features. The new Galaxy AI features are designed to drive usage numbers up significantly in 2025, with upgrades to existing favorites like Circle to Search and AI Select.
The Galaxy S25 series, particularly the Galaxy S25 Ultra, focuses heavily on Galaxy AI as the defining feature. Samsung is making AI more accessible to users without expressly driving them to an AI app or hub, building out a compelling set of features. Whether the best AI apps and services will be worthless if users don't integrate them into their lives remains to be seen, but Samsung is certainly making a strong push in this direction.
