Samsung unveils AI smartphones with Qualcomm chips, teases slim Galaxy phones Reuters
By Hyunjo Jin
SEOUL/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics today unveiled its new Galaxy S25 smartphone powered by Qualcomm (NASDAQ: ) and powered by Google artificial intelligence. 🙂 And Chinese rivals.
Samsung (KS: ) also previewed a slimmer version of its flagship models at the end of an event in California, aiming to launch the Galaxy S25 edge ahead of Apple’s expected release of its slimmer iPhone.
Samsung was faster than Apple in launching an AI-powered smartphone but failed to reclaim the crown in the global smartphone market last year.
“We are one step ahead of the industry in providing AI features. I believe we are moving in the right direction,” CEO Park Ji-sun, who heads Samsung’s language AI group, told Reuters.
Samsung has kept the price of the Galaxy S25 series unchanged at between $799 and $1299.
The new Galaxy S25 uses Gemini, provided by Alphabet (NASDAQ: ) Google, as the default AI engine, and features Samsung’s improved home voice assistant Bixby, Park said.
The two devices complement each other and Bixby plays a key role in Samsung, whose products range from mobile phones to televisions and home appliances, he said.
Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said identifying Bixby would be a challenge for Samsung.
“I don’t think there’s a killer app today that you know will actually convince them[consumers]’Okay, I’m buying this because it’s an AI smartphone,'” he said.
Husson added, however, that AI features could create a halo effect around the Samsung brand.
The Galaxy S25 offers a more personalized AI experience. For example, the “Now Brief” service – which provides recommendations to users based on personal data stored on the phone and processed for privacy reasons – shows a collection of customized items such as calendar, news and bedroom air temperature and carbon dioxide. Stairs, there is a park.
The phone can perform multiple tasks with a single command, such as finding upcoming sporting events and then adding them to users’ calendars.
Samsung shares fell 1.1%, lagging the broader market’s 0.4% loss.
Samsung is using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform for the entire Galaxy S25 lineup, ditching its own Exynos mobile chip, a major shift in strategy for the company that previously used both to gain bargaining power with vendors.
Using the Qualcomm chip is a setback for the South Korean company’s chip business, which counts its mobile units as one of its main customers.
Samsung did not say why it decided to use its own chips in the new model.
A person familiar with the matter said Samsung is looking to use the Exynos chip for its foldable phones, which will launch later this year.
“The sales of the Galaxy S25 series are important at a time when Samsung’s foldable phone sales are facing challenges from Chinese companies,” said Lim Soo-jeong, associate director of research firm Counterpoint.
Samsung’s first quarterly profit, released earlier this month, missed estimates by a wide margin as chip development costs and increased competition in the smartphone market.