Samsung’s top-of-the-line Galaxy S25 Ultra now has an even bigger screen and looks a lot more like the standard Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus — signaling a departure from the company’s previous design approach. All three of Samsung’s new phones will also have AI more tightly woven into the operating system for tasks such as serving up recommended actions or apps, allowing users to search for photos using natural language and stringing together multiple actions with a single voice command.
Samsung’s approach with the Galaxy S25 series is another sign that smartphone makers are increasingly leaning on AI to make their phones stand out. Several of the new features Samsung announced on Wednesday are competitive with Apple Intelligence, the suite of AI features available on the iPhone, iPad and Mac — further underscoring how tech giants are vying to offer the best AI experience. Samsung began its big push into new smartphone-based AI features last year with the launch of Galaxy AI.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis also announced that Samsung’s new phones will be among the first to incorporate technology from Google’s Project Astra AI assistant into the Gemini app — meaning the Gemini app on those phones will be able to analyze live video and content on screen to answer questions about the world around you. The move indicates both Samsung and Google are hoping to position Android as being the ideal mobile platform for AI assistants, with Samsung’s phones playing a big role in that ambition.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra starts at $1,300 like last year’s Galaxy S24 Ultra. As the largest and most expensive phone in Samsung’s Galaxy S lineup, it includes a bigger 6.9-inch screen, a high resolution 200-megapixel main camera and new 50-megapixel ultrawide camera, along with the familiar S Pen stylus. It’s these features that differentiate it from the cheaper $1,000 Galaxy S25 Plus and $800 Galaxy S25, which Samsung also announced during Wednesday’s Unpacked event.