Samsung’s Galaxy S25 event was an AI presentation with occasional phone hardware

Samsung announced the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra at its Unpacked event today. What is different from last year's models? With the phones themselves, not much, other than a new chipset and a wide camera. But pure AI optimism? Samsung managed to pack a whole lot more of that into its launch event and promotional materials. The corners on the S25 Ultra are a bit more rounded, the edges are flatter, and the bezels seem to be slightly thinner. The S25 and S25+ models have the same screen size as the S24 models, at 6.2 and 6.7 inches, respectively, while the Ultra notches up slightly from 6.8 to 6.9 inches.

The S25 Ultra, starting at $1,300, touts a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, a new 50-megapixel ultra-wide lens, and what Samsung claims is improved detail in software-derived zoom images. It comes with the S Pen, a vestige of the departed Note line, but as The Verge notes, there is no Bluetooth included, so you can't pull off hand gestures with the pen off the screen or use it as a quirky remote camera trigger.

It's much the same with the S25 and S25 Plus, starting at $800. The base models got an upgrade to a default of 12GB of RAM. The displays, cameras, and general shape and build are the same. All the Galaxy devices released in 2025 have Qi2 wireless charging support—but not by default. You'll need a "Qi2 Ready" magnetic case to get a sturdy attachment and the 15 W top charging speed. One thing that hasn't changed, for the better, is Samsung's recent bump up in longevity. Each Galaxy S25 model gets seven years of security updates and seven of OS upgrades, which matches Google's Pixel line in number of years. At the very end of Samsung’s event, for less than 30 seconds, a “Galaxy S25 Edge” was teased. In a mostly black field with some shiny metal components, Samsung seemed to be teasing the notably slimmer variant of the S25 that had been rumored. The same kinds of leaks about an "iPhone Air” have been circulating. No details were provided beyond its name, and a brief video suggesting its svelte nature.

An AI UI with two AIs inside

Samsung's Android flavor, One UI 7, is present on the S25 series. One UI 7 is, according to Samsung, "designed to be a true AI companion,... setting new standards for mobile AI,... and... seamlessly integrates AI agents and multimodal capabilities into every touch point." It also features a "Now Bar," which is suspiciously similar to the modern iPhone's Dynamic Island. On any screen, "AI Select" can suggest which AI tools would be most useful, like summarizing a long text message chain or editing photos. Somewhat confusingly, Google's Gemini app is also part of the Galaxy's AI package, separate from Galaxy AI. Google and Samsung announced at the beginning of Samsung's event that live screen and video sharing with Gemini, such that the AI can comment on purchases or your dough-folding technique, is a temporary exclusive on Galaxy phones. Notably, Samsung's Bixby is no longer the default assistant on the S25 series and One UI 7, with Gemini stepping in as the default assistant. Samsung touted a customized neural processing unit (NPU) in the Galaxy phones, aiming to speed up the S25's AI offerings. It also showed off the "Now Brief," showing morning, mid-day, and evening summaries of events, weather, and the like. Samsung highlighted the Personal Knowledge Graph as well, one that also boasts about its privacy as providing cross-app knowledge of your life. AI images generated by Samsung will contain C2PA watermarks and metadata so as not to obscure their generative nature. While this mass of AI was pitched at Samsung's S25 event, the company has said it intends to bring these AI features to every capable Galaxy device, including last year's S24 series. But the S24 will only get AI features for free until the end of 2025; after that, a subscription cost seems likely. S25 buyers do get six months of Google's Gemini Advanced service and 2TB of Drive storage for free. Preorders for Galaxy S25 phones have started at major carriers and through Samsung, with the phones shipping and arriving in stores February 7. This post was updated to note that Bixby is no longer the default assistant on the S25 series.