Samsung Galaxy S25 series unveiled: These could be the smartest phones in 2025

Samsung has teamed up with Google to transform your phone into a ‘human-like’ AI powered agent to help you with everyday tasks. And it has even joined forces with Crocs for some bling. VIDEO, FIRST LOOK

Samsung has teamed up with Google for what will arguably be the smartest, fastest and most useful AI-powered phones of 2025.

Based on what we’ve seen, the Samsung Galaxy S25 series, will set the bar for what a smartphone should do, offering your own ‘human-like’ AI personal concierge to help with emails, your calendar, finding and sharing cool stuff online, and editing photos and videos.

Its new One UI. 7 operating system, built from the ground up to integrate Google Gemini wizardry, will allow you to do everyday things without having to continually switch from app to app.

In an exclusive interview with this publication, Eric Chou, Head of Mobile eXperience, Samsung Electronics Australia, says users can expect to spend less time ‘staring at their screens and more time on focusing on what’s important’.

“Our vision is we want to evolve android as the leading AI platform.’’ he told a briefing, adding that was done through collaboration with the best in their fields.

As well as new AI, he says there have been significant hardware and processor upgrades providing more power ‘under the hood’ for everything from video editing to gaming.

“They’re a lot of the things that will get our Samsung fans excited.’’

Samsung Galaxy S25: “It will essentially turn your Galaxy devices into a human-like agent.”

He gave examples of seamless actions across apps which includes being able to watch a video on YouTube and have it transcribed into Samsung Notes.

“It is going to be a very different way of using the device.’’

“It will essentially turn your Galaxy devices into a human-like agent,’’ Chou said.

Samsung says AI agents will enable Galaxy S25 to interpret text, speech, images and videos for interactions.

Encryption will ensure protection of users data, personal preferences and interactions with none of the data passed onto third parties or for advertising.

HOW POPULAR IS AI ALREADY?

Chou says the AI introduced in last year’s Galaxy phones had already swung non Android users to Samsung, after experiencing what they could do at stores.

Of the 200 million new generation devices globally, one in five are using AI, while in Australia, 80 per cent of users are using AI continually on a monthly basis.

For something like Translate, which is expanding from the original 13 languages, some are using it more than 10 times a day.

“Now because it is so intuitive, people are naturally going to start using it, without even knowing they’re using AI,’’ Chou says of the 2025 AI upgrades.

The Now Brief can be customised to provide the front display you want, and it can change automatically through the day.

While refusing to comment directly on Apple Intelligence, he acknowledged that there could be a danger with some companies overpromising and not delivering on AI.

“Everything that we have demonstrated today, is already available, so we will not tease the promises of AI and not delivering it.’’

He says Samsung was committed to the democratisation of AI by making it available to as many users as possible, including rolling some of the best features back to users of the S24 series.

WHAT CAN AI DO FOR ME?

Samsung says upgrades to Google’s Circle to Search promise to make searching your phone screen more helpful, fast and contextual.

For example, Circle to Search will quickly recognise phone numbers, email and URLs on your screen, letting you call, email or visit a website with a single tap.

Even your phone’s display will change throughout the day, based on the information you are most likely to need – like weather, traffic, and your news preferences in the morning, to whatever you need in the afternoon, based on your preferences.

Samsung Galaxy S25 series promises to make it frictionless to switch between apps for quick follow-up actions.

The Now Brief could include your overnight sleep summary, calendar for the day, and suggestions for routes based on traffic.

The Now Bar – a locked display – could show apps that you typically use at various times of day including latest sports scores, music, videos and news.

Galaxy S25 also promises to make it frictionless to switch between apps for quick follow-up actions, like sharing a GIF or saving event details.

Rather than scrolling through endless settings, you will be able to simply ask to adjust the size of display fonts.

Pressing the holding the side button to activate Gemini will allow you to work across compatible Samsung, Google and other third-party apps like Spotify.

Samsung’s range of wearables including the Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Ring, which is now in larger sizes.

For example, you could find your favourite sports team’s season schedule and add it to the Samsung Calendar – with a single command, Samsung says.

New functionality will also allow you to not only record and transcribe phone calls but keep a summary for future reference.

Writing Assist allows you to summarise context or automatically format notes without needing to switch between applications.

In Drawing Assist, you can bring ideas to life through sketches with the S Pen, text or image prompts.

FASTER CUSTOM-MADE PROCESSOR

Powering the major AI upgrades in the Galaxy S25 series is the Snapdragon® 8 Elite for Galaxy processor which offers a performance boost of 40% in the AI neural processing unit, 37% in CPU and 30% in GPU (graphics).

Samsung says the new power allows more AI experiences to be processed on device, while it says its operating system ensures users’ data privacy and security.

WHAT’S NEW IN THE CAMERAS?

Samsung Galaxy S25 series: includes a new 50MP Ultrawide camera sensor, offering four times the resolution of the previous 12MP, as well as ‘next level’ macrophotography.

As widely tipped, the Galaxy S25 series includes a new 50MP Ultrawide camera sensor, upgraded from the previous 12MP.

It promises to offer ‘next level’ macrophotography for close-ups of everything from flowers to insects.

Now 10-bit HDR recording is applied by default, offering four times richer colour expression.

Samsung Galaxy S25 series now includes better audio editing options to remove wind or reduce crowd noise.

Samsung says lowlight videos will also be even clearer with the Galaxy S25 analysing movement to reduce noise more effectively.

A new Audio Eraser has been added to remove unwanted noise, like the sound of wind, in videos.

Similar to what the latest iPhones can do, it will isolate sounds including voices, music, wind, crowd and noise, and with a sliding scale you can adjust up or down what you want to feature.

In Drawing Assist, you can bring ideas to life through sketches with the S Pen, text or image prompts.

Motion photo will allow you to choose the best face in your photos from multiple choices or slide through as you can in Live Photo on an iPhone.

Portrait Studio has also been enhanced, allowing users to create personalised avatars with more true-to-life facial expressions. Filters introduces new analog-style filters, delivering film-

like aesthetics for photos and videos.

The Galaxy S25 also introduces depth-of-field control with ‘virtual aperture’ to provide a more DSLR experience as part of its Expert RAW mode shooting.

For video professionals, Galaxy S25 now offers Galaxy Log, for more precise colour grading.

WANT SOME PHONE BLING?

Samsung S25 series has partnered with Crocs for some phone case bling.

Samsung has partnered with casual footwear giant Crocs to produce Crocs-cases complete with their own jibbitz.

So put them into sports mode, as these phones could offer the sleekest, fastest AI ride in 2025.

Samsung Galaxy S25 series starts at $1399 for the S25 through to more than $2100 for the flagship S25 Ultra.

WHAT WILL GALAXY S25 COST IN AUSTRALIA?

The Galaxy S25 series will be available for pre-order from today, January 23, and will be in stores from February 14, starting at $1399 for the S25 to from $1699 for the S25+ or from $2149 for the flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra. Samsung and major telcos like Telstra and Optus are offering big deals for pre-orders.

Originally published as Samsung Galaxy S25 series unveiled: These could be the smartest phones in 2025