The Samsung Galaxy S25 series is coming in hot and with it comes additions and refinements to Galaxy AI along with other improvements in hardware and performance. Launched at San Jose, California, the series consists of the usual suspects: Galaxy S25 Ultra, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25. 

The Galaxy AI refinements come in multiple forms. They’re baked into beloved features like Circle to Search and other content creation tools. Meanwhile, they’re also introducing Now Brief and Now Bar which promises to be a Smart Assistant that’s actually smart. 

Circle to Search upgraded 

Circle to Search used to just let you choose a part of your screen to conduct a search on. Now, Circle to Search lets you do more than that. Apart from what we know it to be, the function has included two additional icons you can tap. 

One is a note icon that lets your Galaxy S25 smartphone listen to the music in your surroundings and look-up that music for you. If you’re familiar with the app, Shazam, it functions exactly like that. This is a Google Search function that’s been around for a while. Instead of actual music, you can even hum the tune yourself and it’ll try its best to identify the song for you. 

Next to the note icon is the translate icon. This makes translating so much more efficient. Whether it’s online content that you need to translate or something you can point your camera to while traveling, firing up Circle to Search and then hitting on translate will instantly translate what’s on screen for you. 

It’s worth noting that this is a Google Cloud feature and that this particular version of Circle to Search has been available to a select number of smartphones prior to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Series.

AI Select 

This is another expansion of Circle to Search. After selecting the object/s on your screen that you want to look up, AI Select will attempt to “anticipate your needs” and offer actions you may take after making the selection. 

The actions appear in the Edge Panel where you can drag the image to do a search or import it to any of the supported apps. At launch, this includes the usual Samsung Apps along with the usual social media apps. 

HONOR has a similar implementation called Magic Portal. It stands to reason that something of the same ilk could come to other brands as well as this is, again, likely powered by Google Cloud. 

Now Brief & Now Bar 

You’ve likely seen your fair share of sci-fi flicks. You know how in many of them, the main character has some form of Cyber Assistant they talk to summarizing their day, giving them suggestions, and in some instances exchanging in playful banter?

We’re probably a ways away from the playful banter type. But in terms of offering useful information as well as being conversational, that’s what Now Brief promises and it’ll be displayed through the Now Bar. 

The Now Brief will work across the apps installed on your phone. It will learn your schedules, tendencies, priorities, and what not. You can then ask it to do things on your behalf. 

In the demo that Samsung showed us, the person received an alert about a meeting the following day. This appeared in the Now Bar that’s a pill-shaped notification-like visual cue on the bottom of the lockscreen. 

Without even opening the Galaxy S25, the person asked the phone to move the schedule to another time and it did so. The idea isn’t new and the jury is still out on the actual execution and implementation But it’s a promising tool – one that lets you be more present in your immediate environment. 

Working across apps

It’s not just your schedule, too. It can do many things for you like provide or look for restaurant recommendations. Just tell it where to look and what you’re craving. 

If you’d rather stay home and cook than eat out, you can take a quick snap of your fridge and it’ll suggest recipes given the ingredients you already have. If you’ve been following Smart Home tech over the years, some Smart Fridges have this function too. Now, your fridge doesn’t have to be that smart, you can just leave it to your Galaxy S25 smartphone. 

Samsung said this will work with Google Apps, Galaxy native apps, and select third-party apps. 

Now Bar

The Now Bar, available on your lockscreen, will display all of these and more. And you can take actions on supported apps based on what’s being shown. 

These can be your schedules, sports scores, navigation, and what not. At first glance it looks like the Dynamic Island moved to the bottom. But that’s an oversimplification. And there’s plenty of AI baked into it to make our lives easier. 

Samsung Security

Samsung foresees the security questions users may have given the amount of information that the smartphone learns about you to help aid you better. 

The company promises both Cloud and On-device security to make sure all your data is protected.

Camera & Content Creation things

Camera and content creation capabilities are always a consideration when deciding which smartphones to buy. The Samsung Galaxy S25 series promises the same level of quality that you’ve seen in their most recent Galaxy S Series lines. 

The line has garnered the de facto “concert buddy” reputation over the past couple of years. Look for the Galaxy S25 series to deliver more of the same but with some key additions. 

New 50MP Ultra Wide camera

New on the Galaxy S25 series is the 50MP Ultra Wide camera. It promises increased resolution and brightness range, better performance under different lighting conditions, and four times better detail than the Galaxy S24 Series. 

It’s also the same camera that Samsung utilizes for macro shots. Those are for when you want to get really up close to tinier subjects.

Nightography video 

Gotta hand it to Samsung for sticking with “nightography.” Now, it extends to video performance. With their “Next Gen ProVisual Engine”, the Samsung Galaxy S25 series is able to capture better video in night and low light scenarios. 

With it, they are promising less noise and more details. It performs double-analysis noise removal to make sure your low light videos come out as crisp as possible. This analysis happens in real-time. 

There’s also what they call the Custom STF (Spatio-Temporal Filter) that distinguishes between moving and stationary objects and applies noise reduction as needed. 

It even supports 10-bit HDR for a wider dynamic range for your videos.

Audio Eraser

Perhaps one of the most impressive additions to the Galaxy S25 series’ content creation suite, Audio Eraser lets you take any of your videos and adjust the audio levels to your liking. 

The tool doesn’t just reduce noise. It gives you a pretty granular control of the sound present in your video. 

You can adjust the volume levels of Speaker, Music, Wind, Nature, and Crowd. This could prove to be one of their most useful and powerful tools for content creation. 

Galaxy Log/ Virtual Aperture 

Onto more shooting tools, the Galaxy S25 series has Galaxy Log and Virtual Aperture. 

Galaxy Log will spot overexposed areas of your shot during preview. While recording, it promises to deliver Dynamic range for vibrant, true to life videos. 

And while editing, you can apply color correction with exclusive LUTs (Look Up Tables) for control precision. 

Visual Aperture, meanwhile, is an AI-powered tool that mimics the function of adjusting your aperture to adjust the look of your shot as you tinker with the aperture values presented. This helps in achieving what many call a “cinematic look” which is achieving some depth of field on your shot. 

Generative Edit & Portrait Studio

Generative edit and Portrait Studio are both features introduced in the Galaxy S24 series. For the Galaxy S25 series, they have been refined. 

Generative edit is now more accurate whether that’s applying magic erase or extending your image. 

Meanwhile, Portrait Studio will now provide more realistic portraits. They are promising accurate and natural tones along with true-to-life-facial expressions. 

Hardware changes

This isn’t something you’ll notice immediately unless you’re really comparing them side-by-side. But the Galaxy S25 series is now 15% slimmer and has a thinner bezel compared to its predecessor. 

The edges have also been rounded, supposedly for an improved grip. And these changes all contribute to a lighter device. 

Protecting the device is Corning Gorilla Armor 2 which promises drop protection, scratch resistance, and an anti-reflective surface. Samsung says its 20% more resistant to fractures and 60% less screen damage repair vs the previous series. 

It also has an improved titanium build for enhanced durability. 

Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy

Nobody’s gonna cry about performance across the series as the entire Galaxy S25 line is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC that’s especially tuned for Galaxy. 

Its NPU (Neural Processing Engine) is 40% better which, it should be, as this is the backbone of all the AI features. 

The CPU is 37% better while the GPU will perform 30% higher. 

All of that is promising a true flagship performance, no matter which Galaxy S25 smartphone you choose. It should be able to more than handle multi-tasking, gaming, and more. 

Colorways 

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Series come in various color options: 

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: 

Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Whitesilver, Titanium Gray, Titanium Black. With online exclusives being the following: Titanium Blackgold, Titanium Jetblack, Titanium Jadegreen. 

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S25+ and Galaxy S25 share the following color options: 

Navy, Icyblue, Mint, and Silver Shadow. Online exclusives are: Blueblack, Coralred, and Pinkgold. 

Galaxy S25 Series specs: