Samsung’s top-of-the-line Galaxy S25 Ultra now has an even bigger screen and looks a lot more like the standard Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus — signaling a departure from the company’s previous design approach. All three of Samsung’s new phones will also have AI more tightly woven into the operating system for tasks such as serving up recommended actions or apps, allowing users to search for photos using natural language and stringing together multiple actions with a single voice command.
Samsung’s approach with the Galaxy S25 series is another sign that smartphone makers are increasingly leaning on AI to make their phones stand out. Several of the new features Samsung announced on Wednesday are competitive with Apple Intelligence, the suite of AI features available on the iPhone, iPad and Mac — further underscoring how tech giants are vying to offer the best AI experience. Samsung began its big push into new smartphone-based AI features last year with the launch of Galaxy AI.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis also announced that Samsung’s new phones will be among the first to incorporate technology from Google’s Project Astra AI assistant into the Gemini app — meaning the Gemini app on those phones will be able to analyze live video and content on screen to answer questions about the world around you. The move indicates both Samsung and Google are hoping to position Android as being the ideal mobile platform for AI assistants, with Samsung’s phones playing a big role in that ambition.
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The Galaxy S25 Ultra starts at $1,300 like last year’s Galaxy S24 Ultra. As the largest and most expensive phone in Samsung’s Galaxy S lineup, it includes a bigger 6.9-inch screen, a high resolution 200-megapixel main camera and new 50-megapixel ultrawide camera, along with the familiar S Pen stylus. It’s these features that differentiate it from the cheaper $1,000 Galaxy S25 Plus and $800 Galaxy S25, which Samsung also announced during Wednesday’s Unpacked event.
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Watch this: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Hands-On: A Bigger Screen and More AI
More AI
AI Select analyzes what’s on your phone’s screen and provides recommendations.
Galaxy AI was the biggest focus of last year’s Galaxy S24 series, and that continues to be the case with the Galaxy S25. But instead of focusing on individual AI-powered features, like Generative Edit for manipulating photos or Live Translate for translating phone calls in different languages, Samsung is incorporating AI into its phones on a more fundamental level.
For example, a new tool called AI Select will suggest actions based on what’s on your phone’s screen. The photo gallery app will also support conversational search queries, such as “Find bottles of wine from France,” much like photo apps from Apple and Google. What’s perhaps even more interesting is that Samsung is incorporating this into the settings menu so that you can type in a query such as, “My eyes are hurting, can you help with the screen?” to adjust the blue light filter or lower the brightness. Apple similarly gave Siri the ability to answer tech support questions about its devices with the arrival of Apple Intelligence.
Circle to Search, which emerged as being one of the more popular phone-based AI features in 2024, is also getting updated with the ability to recognize sound.
Samsung is improving the way voice commands work on the Galaxy S25 series too, undoubtedly a move to more closely compete with Apple’s Siri and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. You’ll be able to long hold the power button to issue more complex commands such as, “Get me the schedule for this season’s Arsenal matches and add them to my calendar” or “Find me a pet-friendly vegan restaurant nearby and send it in a text message.” Samsung and Google apps will be supported, as well as certain third-party apps including WhatsApp and Spotify to start.
Like many Galaxy AI features, these voice commands will use a combination of Google and Samsung’s models, with the difference depending on the task at hand. A search-related query might use Google, for example, while saving information to Samsung Notes would likely involve Samsung’s model.
Samsung is also using a large language model to make recommendations based on your personal routines by examining data from apps like the web browser, photo gallery, Samsung Health, Samsung Wallet and SmartThings. So if your bedroom’s temperature is too high and your Galaxy Ring knows you keep waking up in the middle of the night, Samsung might suggest that you set a routine to turn down the temperature on your SmartThings thermostat once you fall asleep. The company says personal data will be stored on the device in the same area of its Samsung Knox mobile security platform where biometric data is kept.
The Now Brief is available across Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 devices.
Samsung is attempting to make the lock screen and home screen more helpful with new features called Now Brief and the Now Bar. The Now Brief is exactly what it sounds like: a summary of information such as how you slept, the weather forecast, schedule reminders and routine suggestions based on your habits. The Now Bar, on the other hand, reminds me of the iPhone’s Dynamic Island and Live Actions. It’s a tiny space on the lock screen for showing information such as sports scores or real-time navigation without having to unlock your phone.
Some of these new AI features feel similar to tools that have emerged over the past decade in the Internet of Things era — such as the ability to surface recommendations based on personal habits and routines. Others, like the revamped voice assistant, seem like an attempt to keep pace with rivals like Apple’s Siri, which will also gain the ability to work with apps in the future.
However, Apple hasn’t launched this capability yet, as it’s been rolling out specific Apple Intelligence features in phases through software updates. Samsung says all of its newly announced AI tools will be available on the Galaxy S25 series at launch.
It’s promising to see smartphone AI moving in a direction that impacts general usage rather than individual features that are easily forgettable. Still, I would have liked to see AI software specifically designed for the Ultra or the S Pen to help it further stand out from its cheaper counterparts.
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Galaxy S25 Ultra gets a bigger screen and smooth corners
The Galaxy S25 Ultra has rounder edges that make it fit in more closely with the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus.
Since 2022, Samsung’s Ultra phones have essentially looked like replicas of the Galaxy Note, with their boxy edges and somewhat brutalist aesthetic. But Galaxy S25 Ultra has rounded edges that make it look more like a larger version of the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, along with slimmer bezels that give the phone a slightly larger 6.9-inch screen. I was a fan of the Ultra’s older look, but the new aesthetic feels like a nice bridge between the Note and the Galaxy S family. It’s also notably lighter than last year’s Ultra, which should make it less cumbersome for those who prefer phones with large screens.
In terms of performance, the Galaxy S25 series will run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, continuing the tradition Samsung has established in recent years of putting customized versions of Qualcomm’s latest chip in its new phones. The company claims this version of the chip is clocked higher than non-Galaxy editions, meaning it should enable faster performance. The Ultra in particular has a 40% larger vapor chamber for heat dissipation compared to the S24 Ultra, Samsung says, which may make it more suitable for gaming.
The new processor should also enhance power efficiency and battery life. However, Samsung isn’t making any claims about battery life improvements, and charging speeds also remain the same — which means the base Galaxy S25 will have 25W wired charging while the S25 Plus and Ultra will support 45W. That’s a bit disappointing considering the OnePlus 13 supports 80-watt fast charging.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera system is a big part of what sets it apart from the regular S25 and S25 Plus.
When it comes to the camera, the Galaxy S25 Ultra will see the biggest improvement in its ultra wide sensor, which is getting upgraded to 50-megapixels from 12-megapixels. Otherwise, it will have a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel 5X telephoto camera and a 10-megapixel 3X zoom camera like last year’s Ultra.
Thankfully, the Galaxy S25 series will get seven years of operating system and security updates like the previous models, meaning these phones should last quite some time.
Overall, the Galaxy S25 Ultra feels like an incremental step up from the Galaxy S24 Ultra. With minimal hardware changes, there’s a lot riding on AI to show how Samsung’s phones are evolving.
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