The Galaxy S25 Extremely, introduced at present, sheds extra of its Observe roots this 12 months with rounded corners and flat edges that align it extra with the remainder of the S sequence. It comes with Qualcomm’s newest chipset, an upgraded ultrawide digital camera, and never a lot else, hardware-wise. With no worth improve over final 12 months’s mannequin — beginning at $1,299 — it’s a lightweight refresh of Samsung’s greatest cellphone, with a serious emphasis on One UI 7.0’s AI upgrades.
One thing concerning the shift from curved edges to flat sides makes the S25 Extremely look hefty in pictures, like if the Cybertruck had been a cellphone. However it’s truly barely smaller and lighter than final 12 months’s system, even with a much bigger 6.9-inch display because of slimmer bezels. It’s geared up with a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor tuned for Galaxy units — that’s true for all S25-series telephones offered in all areas, which hasn’t been the case lately. And it nonetheless comes with yet another robust spec: seven years of OS updates and safety patches.
There are some attention-grabbing issues not on the Extremely this 12 months, although. Bixby is not the default digital assistant. It’s nonetheless current and you may summon it by means of its personal app. However Google Gemini will reply whenever you long-press the wake button on the aspect of the cellphone.
The included S Pen, one other holdover from the Observe period, will get a little bit of a downgrade. It not helps Bluetooth, so the air gesture controls that earlier variations provided are gone. The S25 Extremely’s included S Pen is only a primary stylus, no magic wand methods up its sleeve. Bummer.
Digital camera {hardware} is basically unchanged from the earlier mannequin, apart from a brand new 50-megapixel ultrawide, changing a 12-megapixel module. Samsung claims that an improve to the S25’s algorithmic picture processing has improved element in zoomed photographs. On the video aspect, Samsung now provides a Galaxy Log profile together with a customized LUT.
Essentially the most attention-grabbing adjustments are software-side in One UI 7.0. My colleague Dominic Preston has a superb rundown of the brand new stuff because it additionally seems on the S25 and S25 Plus fashions. Unsurprisingly, all of it has to do with AI, and far of it we had been already conversant in because of the One UI 7.0 beta. However a few issues made me sit up and listen.
The primary is the flexibility to make use of AI throughout apps to take motion, like taking an image of a flyer and having Gemini add the dates to your calendar and ship your partner an e mail about it. Possibly this doesn’t sound like a lot, however a few of us have to recollect which day is “loopy hair day” at preschool, when conferences are, and the deadline for signing up for this season’s soccer class. Slightly assist could be good. This may first work throughout Google Workspace and Samsung native apps, with the addition of WhatsApp and Spotify.
The opposite factor I’m to see in motion is usually recommended routines. In concept, the S25 telephones will be capable of discover if there are specific settings you have a tendency to make use of on the identical time day by day or below sure circumstances — like turning Bluetooth on each time you get within the automobile and turning it off whenever you get out. When it sees a sample, it ought to be capable of recommend a routine to deal with these actions for you mechanically. You’ll be capable of customise the routine parameters to your liking, however you gained’t need to undergo the tedious work of setting it up from scratch. That could possibly be cool!
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Photograph by Chris Welch / The Verge
The factor is, these things isn’t unique to the S25 Extremely and even the S25 sequence. Samsung smartphone product supervisor Blake Gaiser instructed me Samsung will deliver its new AI options to older units the place potential. The corporate actually appears dedicated to delivering these updates to older telephones — however don’t overlook that they in all probability gained’t at all times be free.
We’ll discover out quickly sufficient whether or not that is the AI replace that can lastly ship on the promise of AI on our smartphones; the Galaxy S25 Extremely and its S25 siblings ship on February seventh.
