Samsung Galaxy S25: Hands-On First Impressions

AI Upgrades and Useful Features Make This the Android to Beat

Hello from San Jose!

“Do you know the way to San Jose?” I do. Southwest from Burbank to SJC - a flight I’ve taken many times.

But I digress; today’s newsletter is all about Samsung. And before you iPhone folks tune out, it might be worth a read.

I will go over what Samsung announced and give you my first impressions of their new phones.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Series

Samsung held its latest Unpacked event in the same place as last year - the SAP Center in San Jose. This is in the heart of Silicon Valley - where AI is the buzzword, and that’s pretty much what this year’s upgrades focused on.

For starters, Samsung says about 20% of its users are using Circle to Search every day. Right now, I think this feature is the BIGGEST differentiator between the iPhone and Android.

On Android, you can look up anything on your screen in seconds with a long press of the bottom of the screen. It’s probably the most helpful, magical, and time-saving feature in years.

I find myself copying and pasting A LOT on the iPhone to perform similar tasks. What takes a tap on Android takes many on iPhone and perhaps switching between various apps to accomplish the same task.

Now, Google is improving Circle to Search to instantly recognize URLs, phone numbers and email addresses on screen. Again, there are fewer taps to do stuff.

Samsung is releasing three versions of the S25: The S25, the S25+ and the S25 Ultra.

If you want the best of the best, you gotta go Ultra. If you don’t care about the camera as much, go with one of the smaller size phones. I will focus mainly on the Ultra since most of the innovation is there.

The screen is a bit bigger - 6.9 inches vs 6.8 inches last year - but they did this without making the phone bigger.

This year’s Ultra is noticeably lighter and easier to hold. It has more squared-off edges, making the phone less unwieldy than in years past.

As for hardware upgrades, Samsung increased the wide angle lens to 50 megapixels, up from 12. The other lenses remain unchanged: 200 megapixels on the main shooter and 50 megapixels in the telephoto lens.

Macro shots also have 4 times the detail in them, and it’s apparent in some of the test shots I took. Night video is also improved thanks to AI and that also shows. I captured a low-light video at a Samsung party and the video looks incredibly detailed and bright.

There’s also an “audio eraser” feature for video clips to remove unwanted noise. Google introduced this on the Pixel a few years back. Apple also has some audio-refocusing tools in its Photos app.

If you’re a professional content creator, you’ll like how they added support for LOG video. If you don’t know what that is, don’t even worry about it. Even I don’t use that.

I’ve been capturing some photos and videos on my review unit and they are consistently great. I’ve made a separate post for you to check them out.

Now, about the software. Samsung released an entirely new version of its operating system called One UI 7.0. They said it took them seven years to develop. No idea what that even means - Apple comes out with a new and improved OS every year.

This new software is all about AI. For starters, they have FINALLY swapped out Bixby for Google Gemini when you long press the side button. This is an incredibly useful AI assistant that integrates deeply with the phone. Bixby isn’t gone, but Samsung did something quite smart. When you make a voice command, it’s analyzed by the onboard AI to understand how to handle it best.

Gemini handles the “external” stuff, and Bixby handles the “internal” stuff.

So, for instance, if you ask Gemini to “restart my phone,” it hands off that functionality to Bixby behind the scenes, and you see the power options for your phone.

If you ask for the current weather, Google handles that with a quick lookup on the web.

But here’s where it gets even more interesting. You can ask combination questions - like “When do the Chiefs play next and add that to my calendar.” Gemini looks up the info, and Bixby adds it to your calendar. This might be an oversimplification, but the bottom line is that Samsung seems to have figured out this AI thing in a really useful way.

Other AI-powered features include a “Now Brief.” This little widget greets you in the morning and night and has info pertinent to your day - calendar events, weather and more.

The Now Bar is Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Live Activities on the lock screen. This small area at the bottom of the lock screen displays updates from apps in real-time. If you’re navigating, it will show directions, listening to music it shows the controls, following a sports game it shows the live score and more.

So, what do I think?

This is the year to upgrade. If you’ve been on the fence about a new Samsung phone or switching from something else, this is the year to do it. Samsung hasn’t made the most exciting or groundbreaking phone, but they have made a solid daily driver.

It will capture great photos and videos, let you use AI in useful ways that save you time and effort daily, and in a package that’s lighter, more durable, and easier to hold than ever.

Downsides? They “downgraded” the S-Pen by removing the Bluetooth. This means you can’t use it as a remote control for the camera and your phone won’t warn you when you leave it behind.

Also, this thing is a fingerprint magnet. Whatever material they used on the back would be helpful for CSI training as it captures so many prints. Thankfully, most of you will be using a case on this device.

Another bummer? For some reason, Samsung decided to skip any sort of magnetic support built into these phones. But they are Qi2 ready, which means they will fast charge wirelessly, AND you can get a case with magnets in it, which will add the" “MagSafe style” functionality to the phone. Again, it's not a big deal if you’re using a case.

The other big downside is not having access to the Apple ecosystem - from iMessage to the Apple Watch to unlimited accessories, plus the occasional family member inquiring why you would ever choose to have an Android. (Have them call my radio show for an explanation :)

Some other bits and pieces - these phones are getting seven years of software and security updates, which is incredible. They also have 12GB of RAM standard across all of the models, which should improve multitasking, especially on the S25 and S25+. And they have faster and more stable WiFi 7, which makes them ready for the future when more routers support that standard.

Onboard storage starts at 256 GBs for all models minus the S25, which starts at 128.

The Galaxy S25 starts at $800, the S25+ starts at $1000 and the Ultra is $1300. Keep in mind, no one pays Samsung retail prices. There is always some sort of trade-in or discount offer.

Oh, did I mention there is an official Crocs case for these phones?

Thin to win…

Samsung also teased a super thin phone version called the Galaxy S25 Edge. They didn’t provide many details or let us go hands-on with the device. But we did get to pack around a little setup they had, showing off the upcoming phone.

They had two reference devices next to it, so it’s thinner than the S23 and the S24 (and presumably a bit slimmer than the S25). No price or release date, but I expect this phone to be all about looks and thinness and not have Samsung’s best battery life, screen or cameras.

That’s going to do it for this newsletter.

Have a fantastic week!

Rich