Samsung debuts Galaxy S25 line with a heavy focus on AI

Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 1:00 PM 5 min read

Available Feb. 7, the Google (GOOG, GOOGL) Android-powered lineup includes the $799 Galaxy S25, the $999 S25+, and the $1,299 S25 Ultra. The biggest differences between the phones are their screen sizes and camera arrangements. The S25 packs a 6.2-inch display, while the S25+ gets a larger 6.7-inch panel. The S25 Ultra gets a 6.9-inch screen.

On the camera front, the S25 and S25+ get 50MP wide angle, 12MP ultra-wide angle, and 10MP telephoto lenses with 3X zoom. The S25 Ultra, however, gets a 200MP wide-angle and 50MP wide-angle lenses, as well as 10MP 3x and 50MP 5x telephoto lenses.

While hardware improvements traditionally drive sales, Samsung is leaning on AI to entice consumers to upgrade this time around. Specifically, the company points to its Galaxy AI platform and its slew of features, including the ability to interact with different apps on your behalf via AI agents.

Samsung's S25 Ultra is all about the AI upgrades. (Image: Howley) · Howley

Using what Samsung calls Cross App Action along with the company’s Bixby assistant and Google’s built-in Gemini AI, your Galaxy S25 will be able to look up information online and use it in a separate app. So you’ll be able to ask your device to look up the next Kansas City Chiefs game and add it to your calendar and it will find the date and time of the next game via Google Search and create an event for it in the Calendar app.

If you’re watching a YouTube video that includes a recipe for a dish you want to make on your own, you can ask your Galaxy S25 what ingredients you’ll need to get cooking and the feature will pull the list from the video and add it to your Notes app.

These kinds of generative AI capabilities could prove to be far more useful for customers than the kind of text and photo-editing tools smartphone makers rolled out in their first stab at commercializing the technology.

At launch, Samsung says Cross App Action will work with certain Samsung and Google apps, as well as some third-party apps like Spotify, and the company hopes to expand the feature by working with other developers in the near future.

Samsung is adding its Now Brief to the S25 lineup, as part of its big AI push. (Image: Howley) — Samsung is adding its Now Brief to the S25 lineup, as part of its big AI push. (Image: Dan Howley) · Howley

In addition to Cross App Action, Samsung debuted what it calls its Personal Data Engine, which powers S25 features like the ability to perform AI-powered on-device searches using natural language to find photos in the Gallery app. The Personal Data Engine also powers Samsung’s Now Brief, which provides you with proactive updates throughout the day including a Morning Brief and Evening Brief in the Now Bar on the lock screen.

If you’ve got a number of Samsung devices in your home, such as a smart Galaxy Ring, Samsung-compatible connected thermostat, and Samsung TV, the Personal Data Engine can combine information from those disparate sources to make helpful suggestions about how to best use them via the Now Bar.

For instance, if your Galaxy Ring, which offers sleep tracking, recognizes that you sleep better when the temperature is set to 68 degrees in your room, but the current temperature is 70 degrees, you’ll receive a notification in the Now Bar suggesting you set up a routine that automatically turns the temperature down when you fall asleep at night.

If you’ve got a Samsung smart TV and sleep with the TV on at night, you’ll similarly get a recommendation via the Now Bar asking if you want to turn off the TV when your Galaxy Ring detects that you’re snoozing.

The S25 Ultra gets 5 different camera lenses including two telephoto lenses. (Image: Howley) — The S25 Ultra gets 5 different camera lenses including two telephoto lenses. (Image: Dan Howley) · Howley

If you don’t want to use these AI features, Samsung says you’ll also be able to turn off data collection at any time and delete any data if you’ve already used the tool but don’t want to anymore.

The personal data engine is only processed on-device, and the company says no apps can access it.

Any services that use cloud-based AI, Samsung claims, provide end-to-end encryption that uses post-quantum cryptography to prevent hacking, even via quantum computing systems. Though those are still some time away from becoming a threat.

All of these new capabilities come with the regular bells and whistles Samsung includes in its yearly smartphone update, including improved processors and performance. This time around, Samsung says the S25 line will run on Qualcomm’s (QCOM) latest Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip. You’ll also get a choice of 128GB or 256GB of storage with the S25 and S25+ and 128GB, 256GB, or 1TB of storage with the S25 Ultra.

Whether Samsung’s latest Galaxy AI features will actually get customers to buy new smartphones is an open question. AI smartphones haven’t exactly sparked the kind of widespread upgrade cycles experts had predicted.

Apple’s (AAPL) stock, for instance, was hit with two downgrades this week on fears of weaker-than-anticipated iPhone sales. Now Samsung has to prove its latest offerings are worth the price of its latest smartphones.