Comment on the Samsung Galaxy S25: AI or nothing at all

The Galaxy S25 is available at – and not only does it look almost exactly like the S24, it also has almost the same hardware. The display, battery, cameras, memory, hardly anything has changed. With the new generation, Samsung is fully committed to AI – with an uncertain outcome.

With the Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra, the focus is clearly on the software. Samsung has wired its Galaxy AI with Google Gemini. The so-called AI agents can execute and process complex requests across multiple apps. Samsung also wants to improve the general communication with the AI. For example, if you enter tired eyes in the search field in the settings, the smartphone interprets this in such a way that the eye-saving mode appears as a result. The main aim here is for Samsung to shift the operation of individual apps and precisely typed commands to natural language and away from individual, separate applications. The aim is to make everyday life more convenient.

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All well and good, but the question remains: Is that enough? After all, we can assume that these new software features will also be passed on to the previous generation or two via updates. This may take a while, and perhaps not everything will run quite as fast as on the S25, but in my opinion, none of this is a strong selling point. And much of it doesn't even seem to be Samsung-exclusive, as Google mentions in a blog entry about the new features that they will be made available “for the Galaxy S25 series, among others”. This further reduces the appeal of the Galaxy smartphones.

What's more, customers will first have to accept this new way of using Samsung's devices. There are still many people, and by no means just those of an older age, who place a piece of paper on the back of their smartphone and scribble on it with a pen when they take “notes on their cell phone”. The AI agents must deliver real benefits and must not allow themselves any missteps. Because if you try out these functions, and they don't work as well as promised, you will very quickly ignore them again and simply tap one app icon after another with your finger and do everything the same way as before.

Mini-steps in the hardware

If you look at the pure hardware, the innovations are very limited. A few grams lighter, slightly thinner, more megapixels for the ultra-wide angle of the Ultra, which has also gained 0.1 inches in screen diagonal – That's it. Such a small upgrade used to be considered an intermediate generation, but the step from the S23 to the S24 was also rather small. Not much is happening in this respect at the moment.

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Samsung Galaxy S25 Hands-on (16 Bilder)

Samsung Galaxy S25 1

This is not to say that the hardware is bad, on the contrary. Samsung's displays are a feast for the eyes, nobody needs more memory, and the cameras will continue to take great pictures. Well, they could have taken a step forward with the battery and used silicon-carbon anodes, as the first Chinese manufacturers are doing. However, Samsung has literally been a burnt child in this area since the disaster with the Galaxy Note 7, so we should be lenient if caution is the mother of the china box. Due to the hardware alone, only a few people are likely to switch from the S24 or S23 to the new generation, despite the naturally more powerful processor.

The thin Galaxy S25 Edge is also unlikely to turn the tide. Yes, it looks tempting, but let's be honest: is a particularly thin and correspondingly sensitive smartphone really what customers want? For me, despite its fascinating looks, the Edge has not been developed for the market, and there is no potential for the masses. Then the AI agents will probably have to do the job – It's not just Samsung that has its fingers crossed for them.

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