Samsung Galaxy S25 refreshes Google-powered AI in challenge to Apple

Samsung Electronics has unveiled the latest iteration of its flagship Galaxy S series, foregoing significant hardware upgrades to focus on a refreshed Google-backed artificial intelligence platform in an apparent challenge to Apple amid the battle for AI leadership.

The world's biggest mobile phone manufacturer introduced another trio of smartphones – the Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra – at its first Unpacked event for 2025 in San Jose, California, on Wednesday, promising the "most natural" interaction on a mobile device.

Save for slightly rounder edges, Suwon-based Samsung maintained the hardware in what may be its most minimally-upgraded line-up. Their most significant new component is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, specifically configured for its Galaxy smartphones, in the process ditching Samsung's own Exynos chipset that has in the past drawn criticism from users.

Samsung did maintain memory options and pricing, despite rumours of an increase in the latter, while introducing a new 512GB model for the base Galaxy S25.

But the company is banking on an improved Galaxy AI platform powered by Google's Gemini. Also, all Galaxy S25 devices come with six months of Gemini Advanced and 2TB of cloud storage free of charge. Gemini Advanced costs Dh76.99 per month as part of the Google One bundle.

"We're once again setting the standard for mobile AI innovation once again ... Samsung is excited to build the next frontier for AI with Google," T.M. Roh, president of Samsung's mobile division, said in his keynote.

Samsung said Galaxy AI services received upgrades across the board, improving features such as text writing, image generation and Google's Circle to Search that provides information on any selected portion of the screen. In addition, a new video editing tool has been introduced, which allows users to reduce or remove unwanted noise.

"It's a huge step in how we want to make AI more useful. It's more personalised … meaning that it understands what you need," Omar Saheb, chief marketing officer of Samsung Middle East and North Africa, told The National.

While the use of AI isn't new, smartphone manufacturers are locked in a new battlefront with the emergence of generative AI, developing software and collaborating with other AI leaders to offer productivity-friendly services at users' fingertips.

Samsung continues to compete with Apple, with both having developed their own digital assistants, Bixby and Siri, respectively. Samsung devices also use Google Assistant.

Samsung and California-based Google have long been partners, and the improvement of Gemini's integration on the Galaxy S25 devices can be viewed as a direct challenge to Apple's collaboration with OpenAI, which introduced ChatGPT and brought generative AI to the fore. Samsung and Google are also working on an extended reality headset code-named Project Moohan.

Samsung briefly presented the XR device at Unpacked, but said more details will be provided "later this year".

The company also teased the slimmer Galaxy S25 Edge, although it was not launched alongside the rest of the S25 line-up and no date was given for its release. That, however, may have set the tone for another battle with Apple, which is reportedly working on what has been called the "iPhone 17 Air".

Generative AI is also appearing to be a magnet for smartphone buyers: nearly 60 per cent of respondents across seven countries said they are "open" to purchasing a device powered by the technology within a year, according to a survey from Counterpoint Research.

While Samsung has been consistently on top in past years, Apple has caught up, causing Samsung's overall market share to end behind its rival in 2024 for a second straight year, data from Canalys has shown.

Cupertino-based Apple amassed a 23 per cent market share in the last three months of 2024, anchored by the strength of its iPhone 16 line-up in the key holiday quarter, the Singapore-based research firm said.

Global smartphone shipments last year hit about 1.22 billion units, a 7 per cent annual increase, it added.

"If Samsung is to reclaim its crown, it also needs to focus more on hardware upgrades – especially innovations around computing power, camera sensors and battery – as they are critical to perform on-device AI features to match customer expectations of what AI can deliver", Nicole Peng, a senior vice president at Canalys, told The National.

"I still expect Samsung, as the hardware leader of the market, to focus on these improvements. However, the S25 might not be able to deliver all of above areas in one go, especially where they have less control over the SoC [system-on-chip] road map – which is still going to be their Achilles heel," Ms Peng added, referring to the outsourced Snapdragon processor. For comparison, Apple develops its own chips, allowing it to customise its performance to its requirements.

The Galaxy S25 series are already available to order, with its general release on February 7. UAE prices start at Dh3,199.