AI from the ground up

Here is the Samsung Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, S25 Ultra

In Samsung's Galaxy S25 series, AI goes even deeper, and Samsung calls them the first human-like phones.

Published 22 January 2025 - 19:00

Three Galaxy S25 models are coming to Sweden. As before, the Galaxy S25 is accompanied by an S25 Plus and an S25 Ultra. In appearance (and for that matter, specifications), the S25 and S25 Plus are very similar to the Galaxy S24, with the main difference being the cameras, which have slightly different mounts. The Galaxy S25 Ultra, on the other hand, has a new look that is more similar to the other phones in the S25 series and less like the old Note phones, although it is still slightly less rounded at the edges. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is also noticeably lighter and more streamlined than its predecessor, despite still having an embedded pen, the same large battery, and an even slightly larger screen on roughly the same surface area. The bezels around the screen on the Ultra are, at 1.32 mm, Samsung's thinnest yet. The screen on the S25 Ultra is, as before, and unlike the other two phones, anti-reflective and also made of the new Gorilla Armor 2 material.

The main hardware news in the S25 series is of course the chipset, this year all three models get the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. In addition to the noticeable performance boost that Snapdragon 8 Elite provides in computing power, graphics, and neural operations, the addition "for Galaxy" means that Samsung's AI upscaling of primarily moving images in movies and games runs directly on the chipset. An example of what this feature does is, for instance, if a ball flies by in a movie, instead of being blurry and stretched, it should become sharp and get the right shape. Samsung has therefore not received any preferential treatment for Qualcomm chipsets with higher performance than other manufacturers' circuits.

The faster chipset is used, among other things, for the cameras, which have received completely new image processing software, called pro visual engine. It is supposed to provide better object recognition and color reproduction, be better at adapting images to different lighting conditions, and provide better night images, especially for videos.

When it comes to the camera hardware, they are the same as in the previous model in terms of both sensors and optics, which for the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus means a main camera of 50 megapixels, a wide-angle camera of 12 megapixels, and a telephoto camera with three times optical zoom of 10 megapixels. The exception is that the Galaxy S25 Ultra has received a new wide-angle camera of 50 megapixels, which particularly provides better images in macro photography. The other cameras on the Galaxy S25 Ultra are as before, a main camera of 200 megapixels and two telephoto cameras, one with three times zoom and a periscope camera with five times optical zoom.

Galaxy AI

Above hardware, it is of course artificial intelligence that Samsung themselves prefer to highlight. According to Samsung, the S25 series are the first human-like mobile phones, and by that, they mean that you can have a conversation in normal spoken language with the phone and get it to do what you ask it to, including functions in apps. This is all done through Google's assistant Gemini, and it is hardly a coincidence that Google announced yesterday that Gemini has received new capabilities to control apps like the calendar and the note-taking app Keep with voice instructions in spoken language. Samsung has done the same for their apps, and according to Samsung Sweden, it should work with all of Google's and Samsung's apps, with voice instructions in Swedish, at launch. As an example, Samsung gives an instruction of the type “Check when Brynäs plays the next match and put it in the calendar, or no wait, set a reminder for seven o'clock that I should book tickets,” and the phone manages to ignore the middle part of the instruction and sets a reminder in Samsung's Reminder app to book the next match and when it is. Several third-party apps are also supported, such as Spotify and Whatsapp, but not Microsoft's pre-installed apps like Outlook and Office.

Other new AI features include, for example, that Circle to Search has been expanded to recognize phone numbers, email, and web addresses and navigate to them. If you circle an equation, you are not only given the answer but also a step-by-step description of how to solve it as a kind of homework help. You can create an automatic gif animation from a YouTube video.

A feature we recognize from Google's Pixel phones is Audio Eraser, where you can filter out different categories of sound in a video, such as background noise, people talking, and more, while keeping the rest of the sound. This also works with video clips you have recorded earlier. Auto Trim is another feature where AI edits a video clip with the highlights from a recorded film.

Another new feature is that you can record phone calls and have them both transcribed and summarized.

All of these features will also come to the S24 series when it is updated with the new user interface.

One UI 7

We are talking about One UI 7 here, which is a bigger update to Samsung's user interface than the previous version was. Samsung has, for example (like several other Android manufacturers), followed Apple's lead and separated notifications and quick shortcuts, so that you access notifications by swiping down from the left side of the camera and quick shortcuts from the right side. Notifications will be sorted by priority instead of most recent first. Those who prefer how it was in One UI 6 should be able to choose that.

Two other new features Samsung calls Now Bar and Now Brief. Now Bar is a list displayed on the lock screen where your activities are collected, such as media playback, calls, and timer, and you swipe over it to switch between activities. Now Brief creates a summary of the day ahead based on health measurements, weather forecasts, calendar, podcast subscriptions, and more. One UI 7 will also have new security features such as automatic blocking of apps from unknown sources and a centralized place where you can easily manage your security settings.

The battery size is the same in the S25 series as in previous models, that is 4000 mAh in the Galaxy S25, 4900 mAh in the S25 Plus, and 5000 mAh in the S25 Ultra. However, the battery life is expected to be better thanks to the new chipset and other optimizations. According to Samsung, you can get up to 2 hours more battery life on social media and 1.5 hours longer time when gaming.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 series will be available in stores on February 7, but pre-orders can be made now. Samsung will offer various pre-order deals with different retailers.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 is sold with 128, 256, or 512 GB of storage and the price starts at 11,500 SEK. The Galaxy S25 Plus is available with 256 or 512 GB and costs 14,450 SEK in the lower configuration. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is available with 256, 512, or 1024 GB and costs from 18,000 SEK. This price includes six months of Gemini Advanced with 2 terabytes of cloud storage.