Is Samsung's New S25 the Best AI Phone Ever?
What terms are you on with AI? Perhaps you’ve asked ChatGPT to compose an email on a day when your neurons are firing slower than noughties dial-up. Or maybe you’ve asked Claude how much protein there is in a bowl of overnight oats (6g on its own; 30g if you add a scoop of protein powder). However you’re using AI right now, things just got a lot more interesting.
That’s the promise of Samsung, who launched the latest iteration of their flagship S series – the S25 – at the Galaxy Unpacked event in San Jose, California, on Wednesday with the ambition that the three new phones – the S25, the S25+ and the S25 Ultra – will ‘set the standard’ for what an AI phone looks like.
Samsung Galaxy S25 AI Smartphone
Samsung Galaxy S25+ AI Smartphone
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra AI Smartphone
Personal Assistant In Your Pocket
‘We’ve reached a point now where AI has evolved to become a companion – it's knowing intuitively what you need, and when,’ said Annika Bizon, Director of Mobile Experience for Samsung UK & Ireland. ‘It’s lightening your load so you can focus on the things that matter, at your own pace; in many ways, it’s becoming a pocket personal assistant for people, helping you manage your to do lists.’
Functionality like Google’s ‘Circle to search’ (it does what it says on the tin: just draw a ring around the thing you want to search for to Google it) and the ability to perform multiple actions on different apps with a single voice command to Gemini are behind the promise that the S25 series is ‘the most natural and context-aware mobile experiences ever created’.
Back to that overnight oats ask and as well as telling you the protein content, Gemini AI – brought to life with a click of the S25’s side button – would be able to give you a high-protein breakfast recipe that you can make using the contents of your own fridge, simply by taking a picture of what’s in there; then sending the recipe to a friend or finding the nearest café serving its own iteration of the recipe.
Next-Level Health Insights
But it’s the brand’s innovations in the personalised health space that have caught the blue-light filtered eyes of the wellness world. The respective launches of the Galaxy Ring – Samsung’s first smart ring – in July last year, and the Galaxy Watch back in 2018, marked the tech giant out as a key player in the space.
Dedicated users of Samsung wearables have already become accustomed to checking in with their sleep animal (you’re assigned one of eight animals based on your sleep style, from Unconcerned Lion to Nervous Penguin) and an energy score (a daily total out of 100 calculated by analysing your sleep, activity levels and heart rate).
Tailored 'Tips' and Motivational Metrics
At the Unpacked event, the brand announced a series of additions to the Samsung Health insights designed to make the data even more useful. Tips will soon include prompts to support your mental health and resilience, while weekly digests will feature information designed to help you achieve optimal physical and mental energy.
That Samsung Health will also be integrated with the brand’s smart home ecosystem will mean you can make in-real-time adjustments to the environment you’re sleeping in, too – from raising or lowering the room temperature, to improving the air quality and turning down the lighting according to the live data on your finger or your wrist.
And that data is about to be getting smarter. Further proof that those in the business of optimising their health are doing so with their longevity in mind can be found in the new-for-2025 metrics.
Users will be able to monitor their vascular load – thought of as the ‘burden’ that the heart must overcome in order to efficiently pump blood through the body – along with their intake of the nutrient beta-carotene – a carotenoid and antioxidant that protects the body from disease-causing free-radicals – via the Antioxidant Index.
But it’s the addition of what the brand are calling ‘personal health coaching’ – turning the collected by your ring or watch into actionable advice that helps you work towards your own health goals – that’s perhaps the biggest indicator of where wearables are going next.
Samsung S25 Release Date
Whether or not the S25 series lives up to that promise remains to be seen; among the arguments made by critics of wearables is that data is only ever as useful as the interpretation and support that accompanies it. While the S25 series isn’t available to purchase until 7 February, Women’s Health is currently reviewing a sample, with a full review landing soon. Watch this space.
If you just can't wait, you can pre-order the S25 on Amazon here.
You Might Also Like
