With Galaxy S25, Samsung wants AI features to go mainstream, priced from Dh3,199

Dubai: Samsung has powered up its flagship Galaxy S25 with a whole set of new everyday AI features – and with prices ranging from Dh3,199 for the entry-level 128GB model to Dh6,599 for the one TB Ultra handset. (The screen sizes are in 6.2-, 6.7- and 6.9 inch options.)

Samsung’s intention, according to a senior official, is to have those AI features serve as a ‘daily companion’ for the smartphone user.

The South Korean tech giant has not gone for any piecemeal additions of its AI features – unlike what its biggest competitor Apple did with last year’s iPhone 16 launch. The S25, which launched at an event in the US, will become available for orders from today (January 23) and with deliveries to start early February.

“With the Galaxy S25, the AI features will no longer be a one-on-one experience – that is using one app at a time,” said Fadi Abu Shamat of MX Division, Samsung Gulf Electronics. “Instead, there will be cross app AI integration, which means users get to have benefits of an AI smart device as a daily companion.”

Here’s an example of how things could work: If the S25 owner hears a song on Spotify, he/she could use the AI feature to help recognize the song and then remind the user to buy that particular track at a later date. All with fairly seamless set of steps. 

“With the ‘Now Bar’, it’s AI at its very best,” said Shamat. “What Now Bar does is understand your current day’s activity and the user’s appointments and tasks for tomorrow. These will be presented first thing in the morning as part of a summary of the day ahead.

“It can tell you that there is a doctor’s appointment at 4pm, for instance, and that you have back-to-back meetings at X hour and Y hour, respectively. And even tell you not to forget to reply to the email that you received yesterday.”

Samsung doesn’t end with that…

The new models, the manufacturer says, has the ‘world’s first AI-integrated OS (operating system)’. This is by way of Samsung’s very own ‘One UI 7’ AI platform built into the Android OS.  (The One UI 7 beta version was introduced in November last, and integrated into the S24 range.)

According to T. M. Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics, “Galaxy S25 series opens the door to an AI-integrated OS that fundamentally shifts how we use technology and how we live our lives.”

The latest Samsung smartphone flagship series features the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. This is, according to the manufacturer, the ‘most powerful processor ever on Galaxy S series’, Samsung and Qualcomm Technologies worked together to customize the processor.

The Galaxy S25 comes with a new 50MP ultra-wide camera sensor, which is an upgrade from the previous 12MP. A 10-bit HDR recording is now applied by default, ‘offering four times richer color expression compared to 8-bit’.