The Tribune

Galaxy Unpacked 2025 in San Jose, California, set the stage for the next wave of AI-powered experiences with Galaxy AI.

On January 22, Samsung Electronics announced the release of the Galaxy S25 series, featuring significant hardware upgrades and ushering in a new era of AI-driven innovation. These advancements empower users to unlock new realms of creativity, forge deeper connections and streamline everyday tasks like never before. 

The Galaxy S25 series transcends the concept of a smartphone to become a platform for AI integration, with Galaxy AI set to redefine everyday experiences through personalized, meaningful and human-like interactions.

“The Galaxy S25 series has set a new standard of mobile AI innovation though an AI OS we built from the ground up,” said TM Roh, President and Head of the Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics, during his keynote address. “Thanks to One UI 7 and its integrated AI agents, users can effortlessly enjoy a more personalized, intuitive and natural mobile experience than ever before.”

Samsung Newsroom explored how the Galaxy S25 series is setting new standards with intuitive solutions that reshape the way people interact with technology.

At the heart of the Galaxy S25 series is the evolution of its AI capabilities, powered by the next-generation One UI 7 operating system. This upgrade introduces advanced features designed to make tasks easy and intuitive. For example, the newly introduced Now Brief learns user routines and delivers customized information like exercise updates, translations, music and more, directly to the lock screen, eliminating the need to toggle between multiple apps.

Another game-changing feature is AI Select, introduced for the first time on the Galaxy S25 series. Accessible through the Edge Panel, AI Select functions as a personal AI assistant, capable of summarizing lengthy articles in seconds or aiding in creative tasks like generating colourful images with Drawing Assist.

With One UI 7, the Galaxy S25 series’ built-in multimodal AI recognizes natural language, images and text, enabling users to interact naturally and achieve more with minimal effort. This means its intelligent features can be triggered by simple voice commands. For instance, saying “My eyes are tired” prompts the Galaxy S25 series to activate the blue light filter, while “Find a photo of Max from last winter in a red coat, eating cake” searches the Gallery app to locate the desired image.

Circle to Search has also been enhanced to identify music playing on-screen without needing to open a separate app.

While watching YouTube videos, users can also issue voice commands like “List the place mentioned in this video and save it as a Note,” and Galaxy AI, powered by Google’s Gemini, seamlessly saves the location directly to Samsung Notes.

The Galaxy S25 series features a Personal Data Engine, developed in partnership with Oxford Semantic Technologies, which contextually understands user preferences and routines while safeguarding data. What’s more, the Galaxy S25 series adopts C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) standards, reinforcing transparency and trust and ensuring privacy remains a top priority in this AI-driven digital era.

Samsung continues to advance Galaxy AI through strategic partnerships with third-party app developers and AI solution providers, cementing its position at the forefront of secure AI innovation.

The Galaxy S25 series is powered by the Snapdragon® 8 Elite for Galaxy processor (AP), delivering a significant leap in speed and efficiency. With 40% improved NPU performance, 37% enhanced GPU performance and 30% upgraded GPU performance compared to its predecessor, this processor drives the series’ advanced AI capabilities.

Designed with gamers in mind, the Galaxy S25 series opens up new possibilities for mobile gaming. ProScaler, a display feature that utilizes AI-powered algorithmic processing, reduces noise and enhances the clarity of on-screen visuals, enabling smoother, more immersive gameplay. Along with Vulkan and game engine optimisations, the series offers a 40% boost in Ray Tracing performance, raising the bar for mobile gaming visuals.

Galaxy AI and SmartThings enhance home management through a connected smart ecosystem, driven by AI-powered automation and personalization. SmartThings and Bixby align home environments with daily routines, leveraging voice commands and wearable data to optimise convenience and deliver a personalized smart home experience.

Advanced AI features from Galaxy AI and SmartThings extend home management to include the well-being of family members and pets. For example, these tools allow users to monitor their pets remotely while away and even keep them company by turning the TV on for them. Preparations for pet healthcare services, such as connecting users to pre-veterinarian consultation services, are underway as well.

As one of the initial members of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, Samsung has partnered with the Alliance to support, develop and promote Matter, the connectivity standard for smart home and IoT devices, designed to ensure interoperability, accessibility and security across the smart home ecosystem. 

Samsung continues to prioritize sustainability with initiatives aimed at reducing environmental impact. The company aims to incorporate at least one recycled material in every module of every mobile product by 2030. 

In addition, Galaxy S25 will be the first Galaxy smartphone to include recycled cobalt sourced from the batteries of previously used Galaxy devices through the Circular Battery Supply Chain with each Galaxy S25 battery featuring a minimum of 50% recycled cobalt. These efforts reflect Samsung’s broader goal of exploring how technology can do more for people and the planet, creating a balance between innovation and environmental responsibility.

Galaxy Unpacked 2025 came to an end with a teaser video offering a sneak peek of the slimmer but nonetheless powerful Galaxy S25 Edge, heightening the crowd’s expectations of what new innovations Samsung holds in store ahead.