Slimmer but a bit too similar

In just a few years, Samsung has amassed a considerable collection of AI tricks, features and apps. While some of them were impressive, like live translation and annotation, others (often involving generative AI) weren’t really useful — or noteworthy — enough to warrant regular use.

The latest trio of Galaxy S flagship phones means another barrage of AI. Samsung has kept the best hardware for itself S25 Ultraof course, but the company also has smaller (and cheaper) flagships, with Galaxy S25 ($800) and larger S25+ ($1000) both start at the same time.

And these AI features may be more important for the base S25 and the larger S25+. Aside from the addition of a powerful new chip, the Galaxy’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, there’s not much here to differentiate it from last year’s Galaxy S24. In fact, you really should take a look for changes.

The Galaxy S25 and S25+ are as premium and solidly built as any of their predecessors. Once again, the company has opted for aluminum frames, while the S25 Ultra gets the favorable titanium treatment. There’s also Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on both the screen and back of the devices, with a trio of cameras (the same again) standing out as the only detail on the otherwise smooth backs. All the edges of the devices are flat just like their predecessors – even the S25 Ultra’s design has caught up here. Is this more comfortable than the curvier sides? I don’t think anyone knows. We’ve seen Samsung, Apple and many others move from rounded to flattened edges. I don’t know anymore

But boy are they skinny. Does the Galaxy S25 “slim” exist? I’m not sure they should: this year’s S-series models are the thinnest we’ve seen in nearly a decade — except for Samsung’s foldable devices (… unfolded). Both the S25 and S25+ are 0.4mm thinner than their predecessors. This makes the S25 the thinnest Galaxy phone since 6.8mm Galaxy S6. Both are more pocketable because of this change, but I have a lot of affection for the base S25. It’s bigger, but reminds me of the Apple iPhone mini (RIP).

As you’d expect from Samsung, the AMOLED displays on these new phones are bright, vivid and gorgeous, with refresh rates up to 120Hz. The smaller 6.2-inch S25 has FHD+ resolution, which is good for a screen of this size. Fortunately, the larger S25+ has a higher-resolution qHD+ 6.7-inch display.

What is the biggest improvement this year? It’s a little dry, but that’s the chip. The Snapdragon 8 Elite for the Galaxy is the biggest hardware upgrade since last year. Samsung claims the S25’s processor is 37 percent faster than its predecessor, with 40 percent NPU improvements and a 30 percent more powerful GPU. These are significant jumps.

Considering the hardware has hardly changed, AI improvements and upgrades are the main focus for the Galaxy S25 series. Some features were not available at the time of my briefing or will require closer and more thorough testing. Some are intriguing, though, like a new spatio-temporal filter in the camera app. It’s a Samsung exclusive as it relies on the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and adds more power to noise analysis, as well as the ability to apparently maintain the sharpness of photo and video subjects while taming background blur and low-light noise.

Samsung says its new AI image processing with ProScaler offers 40 percent improvements to its AI images on the S25+ and S25 Ultra alone. If you’re looking for video upgrades, all of the S25 series record 10-bit color profile video by default, while the Audio Eraser offers some AI noise removal, though the benefits were hard to discern during my short time with the devices.

A new large tongue pattern is also part of the S25’s camera processing, which the company says will improve results in portrait mode and generative AI editing like object removal. Unfortunately, there is no sign of “Add me” — perhaps the best AI and photography app on a phone. However, Samsung also used its AI improvements (and the more powerful chip) to vastly improve the generative AI selfies in the S25’s Portrait Studio. Just look at what he did to my face at our briefing. It’s a pretty decent drawing – and yes, I’m wearing a handkerchief.

As mentioned elsewhere, Samsung has improved its existing AI features. A new AI selection button will appear when you tap the side panel, suggesting what you might want to do based on the context of what the S25 can “see” on the screen; Circle to Search can now figure out what to search based on sound, too, using Google’s existing Shazam-like hum search function. The cross-app intelligence that Google’s Gemini integrates means the voice assistant can jump in and out of multiple apps to add appointments, figure out routes and set reminders. From my brief testing, this seems to only include basic Samsung and Google apps, which may limit exactly how useful this is. At least I am intrigued and want to test this in real life.

Another feature that needs real-world testing is Samsung’s new Now Bar and Now Brief, which aim to collate your smartphone’s life and schedules in, hopefully, one place. It will offer morning and evening briefings, even pull sleep data and wearables for some health and wellness insights.

One feature Samsung mentioned, but didn’t elaborate on, is the S25’s Personal Data Engine, which will analyze user context, patterns and preferences to provide a personalized way to use your new Samsung device. I’m guessing this feeds into Now Brief, which looks similar to iOS’ daily briefs, offering a curated selection of your schedule, weather updates, travel plans, and even fitness and health information from all those Galaxy wearables . Whether this offers some truly personalized experiences within One UI 7 will only become clear once we’ve used these phones, but it’s hard to imagine it being a game-changer. Let’s see if the S25 can change my mind, Samsung.