Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: AI improvements and hardware innovations in detail

The Galaxy S25 Ultra, unveiled today, moves further away from the Note line's roots, following more of the design of the rest of the S series with rounded corners and flat edges. Equipped with Qualcomm's latest chipset and an improved ultra-wide-angle camera, it doesn't offer any major innovations on the hardware side. However, the price remains unchanged from last year's model, starting at €1,449 - a slight refresh of Samsung's biggest smartphone, with a particular focus on the AI ​​improvements of One UI 7.0.

The switch from rounded edges to flat sides gives the S25 Ultra a massive impression in photos, almost as if the Cybertruck were a smartphone. In reality, however, it's a bit smaller and lighter than last year's model, even with the larger 6.9-inch display, thanks to slimmer bezels. It's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor , which is optimized specifically for Galaxy devices - and that's true for all S25 models worldwide, which hasn't always been the case in the past. Plus, Samsung continues to promise a strong software feature: seven years of OS updates and security patches.

However, there are also some features that are missing from the Ultra model this year. Bixby is no longer the default virtual assistant. It's still there and can be accessed via its own app, but Google Gemini takes over the task when you hold down the wake button on the side of the device.

The included S Pen, carried over from the Note series, has been slimmed down a bit. It no longer supports Bluetooth, which eliminates the air gesture control that previous versions enabled. The S25 Ultra's S Pen is now a simple stylus without the "magic" features it once had - a shame.

The camera hardware remains largely unchanged, aside from a new 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera that replaces the 12-megapixel module. Samsung claims that the S25's image processing software upgrade has improved the level of detail in zoom shots. On the video side, there's now a Galaxy Log profile along with a custom LUT.

The most exciting changes are on the software side with One UI 7.0. Many of the new features have to do with artificial intelligence, and some were already familiar to us from the One UI 7.0 beta. However, there are a few aspects that really caught my attention.

What's interesting is that these new AI features aren't just exclusive to the S25 Ultra or the S25 series. According to Blake Gaiser, product manager at Samsung, the new AI features will also be pushed to older devices wherever possible. It seems that Samsung is really keen to bring these updates to older models as well - however, these updates probably won't always be free.

It will soon become clear whether this AI update can actually deliver on the promise of artificial intelligence in smartphones. The Galaxy S25 Ultra and its S25 siblings will be released on February 7th.

One of the interesting new features is the use of AI across apps to perform actions, such as taking a photo of a flyer, where Gemini will automatically add the dates to your calendar and send an email to your partner. Initially, this will work in Google Workspace and Samsung's own apps, with WhatsApp and Spotify to be added later.

Another feature that interests me is suggested routines. The Galaxy S25 will be able to recognize patterns when you regularly perform certain settings at the same time or under certain conditions, such as turning Bluetooth on when you get in the car and turning it off again when you get out. If the device recognizes this pattern, it could suggest a routine that automatically performs these actions. You can customize the parameters of this routine, but you don't have to set everything up from scratch. This could be a pretty handy feature!