The much-leaked Samsung Galaxy S25 series of smartphones were officially released Thursday, in a long and somewhat repetitive event in San Jose, California.
Like every other smartphone maker in the world, Samsung is bedevilled by the annual release cycle and the fact that its most recent devices are rather good. Tech specs do not mean a whole lot to most people. Unless there's a killer feature, few people will upgrade their more-than-good-enough expensive device every year to a new one.
Samsung knows this of course. It has put together comparison pages like the one that attempts to set out the case why the $2399 Galaxy S25 Ultra (this is the top model) beats the Galaxy S24 Ultra, priced at $2449.
Long story short, the S25 Ultra and other models will no doubt be better because technology improves constantly. Whether or not the improvements sway buyers, particularly in an economy that's been taken out the back etc, remains to be seen.
Do the new Galaxies have a killer feature? Samsung hopes that the new and improved artificial intelligence (AI) is it. In fact, the launch event was all about AI via Samsung's One UI 7 Android skin, courtesy of Google which has supplied the Gemini technology for the purpose.
Initial impressions suggest Samsung and Google have worked very hard to make Gemini AI attractive to users. It seems well integrated, better perhaps than Apple Intelligence. The presentation was slick marketing though, and the only way to tell is to try out Gemini AI on the devices for yourself.
AI is black-box technology that's hard to understand, but people know that it interacts directly with their sensitive personal information. Understandably, this makes many users uncomfortable. To address this, Samsung made heaps of references to privacy, and data staying and remaining on users' devices and not being sent to the cloud, although this doesn't appear to be the default setting according to the presentation.
There's specialised hardware like the Personal Data Engine in the Galaxy phones for that; Samsung's really taken a leaf out of Apple's book here.
From a corporate cage fight point of view, Samsung's current tight Google partnership is noteworthy. Microsoft and Samsung were best buddies not so long ago, but that's now forgotten. Instead, Microsoft-backed OpenAI is found in Apple Intelligence via ChatGPT.
Gemini AI isn't quite at that stage yet, but it seems eventually, the tech could spell the end of most apps. In the operating system itself at least. This was hinted at very strongly in the presentation, and it might actually be what users want like those know-all personal devices in sci-fi stories.
"Agentic" (a horrible word that autocorrect hates) AI which means the tech can do things autonomously will add to that, provided it doesn't go rogue like HAL 9000, which by now is an absolutely ancient but potentially still valid reference.
From that point of view, AI might become a true game changer, but it could potentially undermine the billion dollar app markets that Android makers and Apple rely on for income.
That said, it's worth looking closer at what this means for users too. Samsung only provides the full version of Google's Gemini AI, with a big two terabytes of cloud storage, for six months. After that, it's subscription time presumably (I hope Samsung can clarify how that will play out.) If so, it's a safe bet that paying another subscription charge to access the full features of your phone will grate.
Pricing for the S25 model on Samsung's confusing website starts at NZ$1599 including GST, for a 6.2-inch display, Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite processor with eight cores, 512 gigabytes of storage and 12 GB of memory. There's a three-camera system at the back, with 50 megapixels for the main unit.
The S25+ plus has a bigger 6.7-inch display, and starts at $1999. Top of the line is the S25 Ultra, which as mentioned starts at $2399 for 512/12 GB, and a 6.9-inch screen. The main camera in the latter has a whopping 200 megapixel resolution.
More on the devices later, if Samsung sends any for review. Ideally for a little longer than six months to give it a good workout.
13 Comments
Going to have to drop down from the flagship models now, just stupid expensive and covered in cameras I don't need. Take away all the rubbish and it would be $1000 plus cheaper. I just need something rugged that is IP67 and has long battery life with the best possible reception. Looks like a new phone is going to be required for the Space X, even for texts as Samsung probably cannot be bothered with the software updates for the older phones even if they are capable. I need an AI phone like I need another hole in the head, more crap you have to pay for.
My Note20 Ultra 5G is still going strong. Upgraded from a Note9 which was physically broken, which I'd only upgraded to from an S5 due to the latter running out of HDD space for the OS.
I expect one day Samsung will do an Apple and release an update that simply kills the phone.
I do miss 14 days of battery life though, but the cameras on the Note20 are still pretty damn good.
You could say the same about Cars. all sorts of bells and whistles.
I'm keeping my old ice for now - an example as to why.. the last windscreen was under $300. Compare that to the latest models which runs to thousands.
And with our roads like they are now it can be a regular thing. How long before insurance is based on k's travelled as well?
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