The age of Agentic AI arrives with the Samsung Galaxy S25 phones. At its latest Unpacked conference, Samsung revealed the the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra. Even if you ignore the newfangled “integrated AI platform” and talk about cross-app capabilities, the new devices already feel like the upgrade Galaxy fans were waiting for, especially the ultra-expensive S25 Ultra.
Though they all share the same chip and RAM specifics, the three phones maintain the S24’s pricing structure. The starting $800 Galaxy S25 comes back with more curved corners. It shares a very similar frame to the $1,000 S25+. The flagship $1,300 Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has had its corners clipped to better resemble the rest of the S25 line and, by extension, the latest iPhones. In person, the Ultra still looks more squared than the other devices, so it remains distinct—albeit less so than previous generations.
See Galaxy S25 Ultra at Samsung.com
Samsung Galaxy S25 Specs
© Photo: Adriano Contreras / GizmodoLet’s ignore all the mumblings around AI and focus on the phones themselves. The S25 lineup features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. It’s a powerful 3nm CPU we enjoyed in an overclocked form with the ROG Phone 9. Even better, no matter which Galaxy phone you go for, you’ll get 12 GB of RAM (the unified memory is necessary for the phone’s AI processing, but it’s welcome in any case). Other than that, there are the typical storage options up to 1 TB and a 5,000 mAh battery on the most-expensive Galaxy S25 Ultra. You only get super-fast charging and ultra-wide band support on the S25+ and Ultra variants.
The screen is bigger on the S25 Ultra thanks to shrunken bezels, though the regular, plus, and Ultra variants maintain the same overall length and width of the Galaxy S24 phones. The phones are thinner overall, with the S25 Ultra at 8.2 mm, 0.4 mm less than the Galaxy S24 Ultra. It’s not glass-pane thin, but to ease your wrist strain the phones do feel significantly lighter than the previous generation. The S25 Ultra weighs 218 grams, or 0.48 pounds. The regular Galaxy S25 is 162 grams, compared to the S24’s 167 grams. I’ve held the S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra side by side, and the difference in weight is obvious.
As for color options, the regular Galaxy S25 and S25+ comes in a light “icyblue” plus a mint colorway, though the real star is the deep navy blue. There’s also a dark silver shadow color. For the Ultra, your choices are between the deeper titan black, gray, “silverblue,” and “whitesilver.” Samsung also promised a black colorway that blackens the rims of the device; that will be exclusive to those who order from Samsung’s website.
Samsung Galaxy S25 New AI Features
© Photo: Adriano Contreras / GizmodoEach phone is running on Android 15 and Samsung’s OneUI 7. Though older Samsung devices may get the upgraded OS, only the Galaxy S25 phones will feature an “Integrated AI Platform” with cross-app AI capabilites at launch. When you long-press the Galaxy S25’s side button, you’ll see a popup box where you can either type or speak your prompt. If you wanted to search for your favorite sports team’s next big game and add it to your calendar, the AI should do all that without needing any extra action from users. If you wanted to drag your friend to a nearby vegan restaurant, you could ask Galaxy AI to look for local spots in Google Maps, then form that into a text. The AI won’t hit send, so you can change anything the AI may (and likely will) get wrong.
The platform works across all Samsung and Google apps, alongside WhatsApp and Spotify. Samsung reps told us that app developers can use a free APK to get their apps working with Samsung’s AI. When that happens, users will only need to install the app update to get it working with Galaxy AI.
There’s plenty of other AI features in store, including an AI-powered settings and photos search to make it easier to find that one pic or setting that regularly eludes you. The new Galaxy S25 also sports a so-called “personal AI” that interacts with the new “Now Bar” and “Now Brief” widgets that appear near the bottom of the lock screen. This normally shows a “Morning Brief,” offering a quick glimpse of the weather and other daily info. Depending on whether you use many Samsung Health features or need up-to-date info on current game day scores, the Galaxy S25 should show you those first before you unlock your phone.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra also had 12 GB of memory, though Samsung hasn’t said yet which AI features will come to past phone generations. The company told us it will take some time to trickle these AI features to older devices. We’ll have to wait and see if the company grants its first phones to feature Galaxy AI with agentic capabilities.
Samsung Galaxy S25 New Camera Features
© Photo: Adriano Contreras / GizmodoThe sensors on Samsung’s previous flagship phones take great photos, but—in our own tests—not to the level of detail of the iPhone 16 Pro or Google Pixel 9 Pro. If you’re hoping to see improvements to Samsung’s camera technology, the company has more in both hardware and software. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has the same 200 MP wide and 50 MP telephoto lens with 5x optical tele zoom as the S24 Ultra, though it now features a 50 MP ultra wide for taking more detailed landscapes.
On the software side, Samsung says it updated the phones’ ability to shoot video at nighttime. However, the more interesting feature is an Audio Eraser built into the gallery. This analyzes a video for up to six different tracks, whether they’re speech, wind, music, or any other background noise, then lets you adjust them individually. The feature worked surprisingly well in a short demo to keep speech crisp while eliminating the sound of wind blowing past the mic, though we’ll need more time with it to see if it will work to block out the constant stomping from upstairs neighbors while we try to record videos for social media.
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