If you were hoping for a groundbreaking leap with the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, you might want to sit down. Samsung’s latest offerings are here, and they’re… well, let’s just say they’re not exactly reinventing the wheel.
Remember the Galaxy S24 series? Of course, you do. It was all about the AI hype. Fast forward to the S25 and S25 Plus, and it’s more of the same, just with a heavy-handed AI dollop spread across them. Samsung’s mantra this year seems to be, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if you still find that it’s broken, here’s AI.” So, what’s new? Not much, really. The displays are the same, the cameras are the same, and the design is, you guessed it, the same.
However, there was the obligatory upgrade to Qualcomm’s custom-tuned Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, and every S25 phone now comes with 12GB of RAM as standard. But let’s be honest, if you’re upgrading from the S24 Plus, the only thing you’ll notice is the new chipset if try and push it against some resource intensive games.
Oh, and they’re “Qi2 Ready” now, which means they’ll charge faster if you buy Samsung’s official Qi2 Ready magnet cases. Exciting, right?
The phones themselves don’t have built-in magnets required for full Qi2 certification. Instead, you’ll need to use a special case with a magnetic profile to achieve the Qi2 wireless charging experience that includes wireless charging at up to 15 watts.
So get ready to either spend on an expensive first party case or wait for the flood of customizable Amazon knock offs in about 3 months.
Samsung’s AI features are back and better than ever. Or so they say. The new Galaxy phones are packed with AI-branded features, many of which have been around since last year. Google’s Circle to Search, generative photo editing tools, and Audio Eraser are all here, just a bit faster and more efficient. The new AI assistant, Gemini, replaces Bixby and can now control your phone with natural language requests.
Oh, Bixby, we hardly knew ye! Samsung has finally decided to give Bixby the boot and roll out the red carpet for Google Gemini. It’s like they finally realized that Bixby was the quirky sidekick no one asked for, and decided to bring in the real deal.
Imagine the boardroom meeting: “Alright, folks, it’s time to face the music. Bixby just isn’t cutting it. Let’s bring in Gemini and call it a day.” And just like that, Bixby was sent off to the great AI retirement home in the sky, where it can reminisce about the good old days of misunderstood commands and awkward interactions.
So, here’s to Google Gemini, the new AI assistant in town for Samsung. May it bring us fewer frustrations and more seamless conversations. Cheers to progress!
But let’s be real, most of these features are hard to test at a launch event with a phone that isn’t yours.
The good news? Samsung hasn’t increased its prices. The S25 starts at $799.99, and the Plus model at $999.99. Preorders are open now, with a full launch on February 7th. Samsung is also promising seven generations of Android updates and seven years of security support. So, if you’re a fan of incremental upgrades and AI features, the S25 and S25 Plus might be for you.
