Samsung stands firm

MOBILE RACE: ENHANCED GALAXY AI PLATFORM, GOOGLE'S GEMINI EMBEDDED

- Arthur Goldstuck

What is it? Samsung has long played the role of front-runner in the smartphone world, often leading rather than following. With the Galaxy S25 Ultra, it maintains its claim as the frontrunner in AI-driven mobile experiences. But does it falter in hardware innovation?

At first glance, one could be forgiven for asking, "What's actually new?" The device maintains the same broad design principles as its predecessor, with marginal changes in weight and dimensions: 15g lighter, 0.4mm thinner.

The camera array remains nearly identical, save for an upgraded ultra-wide sensor.

The core hardware refinements are evolutionary rather than revolutionary, which is what one would normally say of new iPhone releases from Apple.

Yet, the handset is fundamentally different because of what lies beneath.

The real story of the Galaxy S25 Ultra is told by its deep integration of AI. With the new version of the Samsung skin over Android, One UI 7, Samsung has both enhanced its Galaxy AI platform and embedded Google's Gemini AI into its core functionality.

The danger here is always that it comes across as Samsung merely leaning on Google for AI innovation - and that was in fact my initial assessment of the AI on the S25 Ultra.

Once I began testing it, however, AI activity emerged as a seamless, cross-app experience.

In action, the S25 Ultra framework combined a series of tasks that previously required manual effort into a single fluid interaction.