Samsung teases at new slim ‘Galaxy S25 Edge’ smartphone at biggest product launch of the year
Samsung has unveiled its newest flagship smartphones, introducing a ‘human-like’ AI-powered agent to create more personalised experiences. Is it worth the upgrade?
Samsung has unveiled its newest flagship Galaxy S25 smartphones, introducing a new ‘Edge’ slim phone and a “human-like” artificial intelligence-powered agent it says is the “strongest indication of a better collaboration” with Google to create more personalised experiences.
Samsung showcased at its annual Galaxy Unpacked event in San Jose, California — a stone’s throw from Apple’s Cupertino headquarters — how Google’s Gemini AI model can be summoned at the click of a button on the side of the phone.
New slim phone
The new phones will be available in Australia on February 14. But, Samsung has teased at a new slim phone, Galaxy S25 Edge, following reports Apple will launch a new thin iPhone later this year.
“Just when you think you’ve seen it all … a culmination of our most innovative technology, packed into a form that is sleek, powerful and unlike anything you’ve seen before, introducing Galaxy S25 Edge,” Samsung said.
The S25 Edge was introduced briefly at the end of an hour-long presentation. Samsung released no further details, including the launch date and wider availability.
Human-like AI agent
Its new Galaxy AI features and integration with Google Gemini allows users to perform a range of tasks, such as taking a photo of the contents of their fridge and asking for recipe suggestions, translating text or asking how to speak in another language to a foreign waiter, among other features.
Hardware has also been updated. Samsung has quadrupled the resolution of the ultra wide camera to 50MP on its Ultra model, allowing “sharp” macro photos to be taken. The Ultra is lighter and its edges have been curved for better comfort with the screens toughened. The base and plus models are largely unchanged.
The new features aim to entice new buyers as smartphones become harder to sell, with Samsung and rival Apple experiencing “largely flat” sales last year, according to Counterpoint Research. China’s Xiaomi was 2024’s fastest growing brand, ranked No.3 globally with 14 per cent share.
AI evolution
Samsung was the first company to launch a phone positioned as an AI device with the launch of its S24 range last January and continued to lead the global market last year with a 19 per cent share, ahead of Apple’s 18 per cent.
But, overall, Samsung’s market share grew 1 per cent, while Apple’s fell 2 per cent, according to Counterpoint Research.
Samsung Australia’s head of mobile experience Eric Chou said the S25’s AI features have evolved from being functional to more “contextually aware” to better anticipate user’s needs.
“The Galaxy S25 series and evolution of Galaxy AI will create effortless and intuitive experiences, via human-like AI agents which learn and analyse user patterns and context, to provide seamless and personalised actions or insights,” Mr Chou said.
“We’re thrilled to launch the new Galaxy S25 series with a new look — inside and out. The S25 series has next-level Galaxy AI capabilities, powered by One UI.7, making it our most intelligent smartphone yet. Our research reveals demand for mobile AI is quickly rising; and the S25 series aims to exceed that consumer expectation.”
Samsung Australia head of product, smartphones Nathan Rigger said more than two million Australians were using Galaxy AI features each month across mobiles, tablets and watches and the company had “big expectations for the smartphone market”.
“We expect to see a really big uptake in flagship devices. AI is a key driver of that,” Mr Rigger said.
“We saw last year with the introduction of AI and increased month-on-month of active usage, and we’re now starting to see that come through in terms of purchasing drivers for Australian consumers.”
‘More personalised experience’
Mr Rigger said the new features aimed to offer a more personalised experience, operating largely in the background.
This includes Now Brief — a function which provides users with “contextually relevant” briefings throughout the day.
“When you wake up in the morning, it’ll give you a report of your sleep score from the night before, leveraging the data from Galaxy Ring or your watch, for example,” Mr Rigger said.
“It’ll give you a view of the weather. It will tell you what your schedule is for the day. It’ll analyse that schedule and tell you if there’s traffic on the way to your first appointment and which is the best route to take. It’ll give you updates of the scores from any sport overnight or relevant news as well, based on your own preferences.
“Then throughout the day, that will change based on what you are doing as well.”
Mr Rigger said this feature will be extended in another new feature called “Now Bar”, which provides information on a locked screen based on what apps you are using.
For example, Mr Rigger said Now Bar could show live sports scores, step by step navigation as well as the ability to control music playlists and other apps.
“It will also recommend suggested applications throughout the day based on what applications it sees you use at that particular time of the day. If it knows that during the day that Jared is constantly using his email or calculator or something else, it will automatically prompt at that particular time of the day where it sees you use them in that bar as well.”
Enhanced Google collaboration
Samsung has employed a “task force” to work “inside Google” to integrate Gemini into its One UI system. “This is the strongest indication of a better collaboration and better partnership than we’ve ever had before,” Mr Rigger said.
“It is definitely something that continues to grow bigger and bigger. So on these devices you’re getting the very best of Samsung and getting the very best of Google on one device. I think that’s quite powerful.”
Other AI features include an audio eraser, which allows a user to isolate different sounds in a video recording to enhance speech or music and eliminate background noise.
“Within five seconds (it can) analyse your video. It will give you a breakdown of various components of noise,” Mr Rigger said.
“For example, is someone speaking? Is there music in the background? Is there wind? Is there nature, like birds? Is there a crowd noise? What else is there? And it allows you to be able to toggle up or down every single or each element of the noise based on your preference
“So effectively you’re able at a concert … (to) scale up the singer, for example, scale down the crowd of people around you, really be able to edit that video in a really intuitive way, but quickly as well.”
Higher resolution
The cameras have been upgraded, with the Ultra featuring a 50MP ultra wide lens, up from the S24 Ultra’s 12MP.
“That means you can get crisper, more detailed photos, wide camera, wide angled photography,” Mr Rigger said.
“But also, importantly, that unlocks the new world of macro photography as well. You’re able to get as close up as two centimetres or slightly less.”
The base and plus models feature a 12MP ultra wide lens, 200MP wide camera and two 50MP and 10MP telephoto lenses.
Performance boost
The S25 phones feature a Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform for Galaxy chipset, which Samsung says delivers a 40 per cent performance boost to its neural processing unit and a 37 per cent improvement in its central processing unit compared with the S24.
The S25 phones also feature AI image processing via ProScaler, which Samsung says boosts display quality by 40 per cent. The phones are also equipped with a Vulkan Engine and improved ray tracing capabilities to enhance gaming.
“We know gaming is becoming one of the big trends in terms of mobile usage. We did a survey last year, which showed that up to 70 per cent of Australians said that they use their mobile phone for gaming,” Mr Rigger said.
“We took an approach to optimise our devices specifically for gaming-based features”
The vapour cooling chamber is 40 per cent bigger in the flagship S25 Ultra compared with the previous generation to keep the phone cooler while processing heaving graphics loads.
Tougher screens in a lighter package
The phones feature Corning Gorilla Armor 2. Samsung introduced Gorilla Armor to its S24 Ultra last year, which Mr Rigger said resulted in screen repair requests falling by 60 per cent. He said the latest armour on the S25 would offer a 29 per cent improvement compared with the S24 Ultra.
The S25 Ultra is also thinner, measuring 77.6mm thick compared with 79mm on the S24 Ultra and is 14 grams lighter.
Pricing
The Galaxy S25 is priced from $1399 for 256GB. The S25+ will retail from $1699 while the Ultra starts at $2149.
The author travelled to San Jose as a guest of Samsung
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