Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. today debuted the Galaxy S25 smartphone series, its new flagship line of Android handsets.

The product family comprises three devices: the top-end S25 Ultra, the mid-range S25 Plus and the entry-level S25. All three use Google LLC’s Gemini as the default artificial intelligence assistant, replacing Samsung’s internally developed Bixby chatbot. The version of Gemini installed on the devices is the first to include a feature collection called Project Astra that the search giant first previewed last May.

Hardware upgrades

Samsung’s new top-end S25 Ultra handset features a 6.9-inch display with a refresh rate of 120 frames per second. The screen is made from Gorilla Armor 2, a glass ceramic material manufactured by Corning Inc. Samsung says it’s better at mitigating glare than the S24 Ultra’s panel, less prone to scratches and can withstand falls from up to 7.2 feet.

The device’s frame is made from titanium to further boost its durability. The camera array, meanwhile, has been upgraded with the addition of a 50-megapixel ultrawide lens. It replaces the 12-megapixel module that shipped with the previous-generation S24 Ultra.

Samsung’s two other new smartphones, the S25 Plus and S25, feature 6.7-inch and 6.2-inch displays, respectively. They share certain features with the flagship S25 Ultra, most notably the processor. All three handsets feature Qualcomm Inc.’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile processor.

The S25 series uses a customized version of the chip made using a three-nanometer manufacturing process. According to Samsung, the customized Snapdragon 8 Elite’s onboard central processing unit is 27% faster than Qualcomm’s previous-generation silicon. The onboard graphics card has received a 30% speed boost.

Samsung introduced the three devices today alongside a fourth, upcoming smartphone called S25 Edge. The company has not yet detailed the device’s hardware specifications. According to Bloomberg, the S25 is significantly thinner than the other handsets in the series and is set to ship during the first half of the year. 

Google-powered AI features

The S25 series ships with a new set of software features headlined by Gemini, Google’s AI assistant. It has replaced Samsung’s Bixby chatbot as the default option, but the latter service will remain available to users.

According to the company, the S25 series is the first handset family to feature Project Astra. It’s an upgrade to Gemini that Google first previewed at its Google I/O developer conference last May. Project Astra enables the assistant to process multimodal data such as images, as well as interact with other apps on the user’s handset.

The technology is complemented by a collection of software integrations built into the S25. Those integrations enable Gemini to retrieve data from several of Google’s apps. Users can, for example, ask the chatbot to generate driving directions between two points based on information in Google Maps.

Gemini now also provides integrations for several Samsung apps including Samsung Calendar, Notes, Reminder and Clock. Meanwhile, another new feature called Now Brief can likewise aggregate information such as weather alerts from the user’s apps. It displays data in a new dedicated interface section.

The entry-level S25 starts at $799, while the S25 Plus and S25 Ultra will be available from $999 and $1,299, respectively. 

Photo: Samsung