Samsung's Galaxy S25 Phones Once Again Lean Heavily on AI 25
At Galaxy Unpacked today in San Jose, California, Samsung unveiled the new Galaxy S25 series of flagship smartphones loaded with AI capabilities and LLMs. "Currently, the Galaxy S25 range is comprised of the Galaxy S25 ($800), Galaxy S25+ ($1,000), and Galaxy S25 Ultra ($1,300)," reports Wired. "The phones are available for preorder today and will officially go on sale February 7." Since the hardware is relatively unchanged from last year's Galaxy S24 series, here's what Wired has to say about the new AI smarts: The Galaxy S25 is a tale of two AIs: Gemini and Bixby. Yes, while Google's Gemini AI assistant sits at the forefront -- it can finally be triggered through a long press of the power button-- Samsung is bringing its original Bixby voice assistant out from the shadows. Bixby has been enhanced with large language models but is still designed to handle phone functions, like changing device settings. Gemini is meant to be used for general web queries and more complex actions. You can even have two hot words, one for each assistant. I foresee all of this being confusing [...].
The highlight AI feature debuting on the Galaxy S25 series is "cross-app experiences." These are tasks you can ask Gemini to perform, even if the task requires multiple apps. For example, you can ask for the schedule of this season's Arsenal matches and then add it to your calendar; Gemini will then search and add every Arsenal FC game in the season to your schedule. Or you can ask it to find pet-friendly vegan restaurants nearby and text the list to a friend. It even works with images too -- snap a pic of your fridge and ask Gemini to find you a recipe based on the available ingredients. These cross-app experiences work with Google apps, Samsung's Galaxy apps, and select third-party apps, like WhatsApp and Spotify.
All these AI features have culminated in a new app: Now Brief. Samsung calls this proactive assistance (remember Google's Now on Tap?) where a morning brief arrives with the weather, upcoming calendar events, stock details, news articles, and suggestions to trigger routines. There's also an evening brief with a summary of the day's events with photos. Since the feature can plug into email, it'll send reminders about expiring coupons and upcoming travel tickets. Samsung claims it can even suggest changing an 8:45 am alarm even earlier if it sees a 9 am meeting on the schedule. On the lock screen, a "Now Bar" widget persists at the bottom, much like Apple's Live Activities. It'll offer quick access to the Now Brief app, but it will also show updates for favorite sports teams, along with glanceable directions from Google Maps.
The rest of the AI features are playing a bit of catch-up to Apple and Google's Pixel phones. There's Drawing Assist, a generative AI tool to craft new images in different art styles based on sketches or text prompts. AI Select works with the S Pen stylus on the S25 Ultra and understands what is selected -- for example, if a video is selected, it will suggest turning it into a GIF. Audio Eraser is an editing tool to cut out background noise in videos post-capture, canceling out the sound of a crowd's chatter or an ambulance's siren. Finally, Samsung's Generative Edit feature, which lets you erase unwanted objects in images, now works locally on the device and is much more accurate and faster. A full list of specs can be found here. You can watch a recording of the event on YouTube.
The highlight AI feature debuting on the Galaxy S25 series is "cross-app experiences." These are tasks you can ask Gemini to perform, even if the task requires multiple apps. For example, you can ask for the schedule of this season's Arsenal matches and then add it to your calendar; Gemini will then search and add every Arsenal FC game in the season to your schedule. Or you can ask it to find pet-friendly vegan restaurants nearby and text the list to a friend. It even works with images too -- snap a pic of your fridge and ask Gemini to find you a recipe based on the available ingredients. These cross-app experiences work with Google apps, Samsung's Galaxy apps, and select third-party apps, like WhatsApp and Spotify.
All these AI features have culminated in a new app: Now Brief. Samsung calls this proactive assistance (remember Google's Now on Tap?) where a morning brief arrives with the weather, upcoming calendar events, stock details, news articles, and suggestions to trigger routines. There's also an evening brief with a summary of the day's events with photos. Since the feature can plug into email, it'll send reminders about expiring coupons and upcoming travel tickets. Samsung claims it can even suggest changing an 8:45 am alarm even earlier if it sees a 9 am meeting on the schedule. On the lock screen, a "Now Bar" widget persists at the bottom, much like Apple's Live Activities. It'll offer quick access to the Now Brief app, but it will also show updates for favorite sports teams, along with glanceable directions from Google Maps.
The rest of the AI features are playing a bit of catch-up to Apple and Google's Pixel phones. There's Drawing Assist, a generative AI tool to craft new images in different art styles based on sketches or text prompts. AI Select works with the S Pen stylus on the S25 Ultra and understands what is selected -- for example, if a video is selected, it will suggest turning it into a GIF. Audio Eraser is an editing tool to cut out background noise in videos post-capture, canceling out the sound of a crowd's chatter or an ambulance's siren. Finally, Samsung's Generative Edit feature, which lets you erase unwanted objects in images, now works locally on the device and is much more accurate and faster. A full list of specs can be found here. You can watch a recording of the event on YouTube.
Great, More Crap I Don't Want (Score:4, Insightful)
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The S24 does have an extended life span. I upgraded my S20 to the S24 mostly because it went EOL and I didn't want my work to cut me off if it wasn't secure enough.
But the S20 worked fine without any issues. The S24 is fine too. The AI features mostly the search by image and translate is handy, but still I mostly just want to browse the web quickly.
NIMBY (Score:2)
Let them have fun at whatever they do, as long as they don't infect my Xcover 7.
And if it comes with a future update, if it can even run on this "budget" phone, there's always adb to disable it. Even if I have to disable everything up to call and SMS functionality.
Puzzling. (Score:2)
If customers do actually care about 'AI' that will help Samsung shift this year's featureless black slabs in the face of competition from last year's; and might drive some people a bit upmarket rather than the usual 'meh, they're all pretty fast by historical standar
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Like Microsoft shoving LLM bullshit down the throats of Office users. That's because in Redmond there's someone whose bonus
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Global warming is really a secret plot hatched by dolphins and octopus to cover the land with water!
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What I find curious is the (as best I can tell not even handwaved) explanation for why the hardware OEMs would be so bullish on capturing all the Glorious AI Value, rather than either application vendors or silicon vendors, in this situation.
You don't understand why a corporation is pursuing profit?
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The history of consumer hardware OEMs(Apple excepted) has not been one of particularly encouraging results in terms of getting customers to care about OEM shovelware. At the retail level it's mostly down to vendor software being abject trash that's often of negative perceived value;
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the part I'm puzzled by is why they think they have a sufficiently good shot at actually capturing it to justify their efforts to do so and making it more or less the core of their sales pitch.
Consumers have been buying their bullshit, why would they stop?
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It's fairly easy to understand. First, the level of hype around AI is very very high, you know that, so the MARKETING will talk about AI, just to take advantage of the hype. Then, you have to look at what the actual features are, skip the AI hype, just look at the features. Hold the "home" button, screen dims, circle something with your finger or S-pen, and you get a search and identification of what you circled. Call it AI, or whatever, that's useful. Interpreter and live translate in places like
Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
All the features I never asked for, at a price I can never afford. It's perfect. For keeping me on my current phone.
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All the features I never asked for, at a price I can never afford. It's perfect. For keeping me on my current phone.
To quote Marvin, the Paranoid Android, "“Ghastly, it all is. Absolutely ghastly. Just don't even talk about it."
I've been dropping serious coin for my last couple phone purchases (Pixel Fold, Surface Duo), but the selling points have been physical. These AI examples aren't remotely encouraging. It can look up and add the schedule for a team to my calendar? That the most exciting example they can come up with? I mean... are sportsball fans known for "fuck me, I just never know when the team I lik
Samsung Phones Are Just Android Mad Worse (Score:5, Informative)
My last phone was a Samsung because I figured all Android phones were the same. Unfortunately, what I learned is that Samsung replaces the standard Google suite of apps (phone, calendar, etc.) with their own Bixby suite ... and that suite is terrible. Every app, across the board, is inferior to their Google equivalent.
Of course, you can still install and use the Google apps, but you can't get rid of the Samsung ones. Also, the Samsung ones are triggered when you switch to the left-side apps pane, hit the Bixby button, etc. There's no way to change that behavior, even if you never use Bixby, so you wind up always triggering the Samsung thing when you want the Google one.
This time I learned my lesson ... and just bought a Pixel phone.
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Not replaces, just has their own set of apps that have been on Samsung phones for a decade or longer. The Google apps are still there, or you can download them. There are some things that haven't let you decide if you want the Samsung or Google versions, but that may have already been changed(I haven't bothered because I don't use an assistant most of the time).
Re:Samsung Phones Are Just Android Mad Worse (Score:4, Informative)
That is false. Having only just factory reset the S24 about 3 weeks ago, the Google suite of apps are installed along side Samsung's. Yes I agree Samsung's are inferior but half of them are installed on first boot (meaning they can be completely removed) and the balance can be disabled (meaning they are effectively removed - you just don't recover space beyond what your core OS image provided).
In fact just for fun I made a list of the Samsung apps that can't be disabled or uninstalled:
- Contacts - Yeah no shit you can't remove that.
- My Files - A file manager that you don't need to use.
- Samsung Pass - Password manager / autofill.
- Samsung Store. - Of course
- Bixby Assistant. - Tied to a hardware feature.
That's it. Every other Samsung app can be uninstalled / disabled except for those 4 - and yes I had to go into list all system apps to check since I have most disabled.
I do find it annoying that the Bixby button can't be configured outside of the Bixby Assistant but hey 5 apps out of the 150 on my phone is nothing that people typically give a crap about.
This time I learned my lesson ... and just bought a Pixel phone.
You just substituted one vendor's uninstallable apps for those of another. The only lesson here is that you like one vendor more. Congrats.
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>You just substituted one vendor's uninstallable apps for those of another. The only lesson here is that you like one vendor more. Congrats.
Or to put it another way, if I pick one vendor I get good uninstallable apps, and if I pick another I get bad ones? It seems like people should pick the first vendor then, no?
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Sure. If you choose your phone based on 4 apps that can be entirely ignored then yes you pick the first vendor. If on the other hand you care about different aspects of the phone you do something else.
The reality is that vast supermajority of people don't give a shit if there's a couple of icons they never click on in their system. I bet you have one on this device you're looking at this post on right now. If your primary criteria for owning a device is to have the warm fuzzy feeling of getting rid of an ic
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Ran into that with my daughter the other day. She didn't realize she was using Samsung's (shit) calendar and was mad when stuff wouldn't show up on her phone and the rest of the family would say "it's been there for a week!"
expensive software update (Score:5, Informative)
And it was already barely changed from the S22 before that.
I'm not paying for an expensive software update that I didn't ask for. This trying to churn out some big "new model" each year feels like it's hit the wall.
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Most people don't buy a new device every year. At this point, some of the AI stuff came to the S23(not all), but many people still have older devices, so there has to be a "why buy Samsung over Apple or another brand?", and that comes down to the extra software differences.
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Phones hit a wall a while ago. The have caught up in the technology cycle to the PC, the only reason to upgrade them is if your OS no longer provides security updates or your hardware breaks. It's been well over half a decade since a must have hardware feature was introduced, and a full decade since a killer software feature came out.
Downgrade of the stylus pen. (Score:1)
Still saving up for a house. (Score:3)
If I were going to drop a grand on a phone, Nexx seems promising.
https://liberux.net/ [liberux.net]
I don't even see the need for AI..bunch of hype (Score:2)