Samsung unveils AI smartphones with Qualcomm chips, teases thinner Galaxy phones Reuters
By Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics on Wednesday unveiled its latest Galaxy S25 smartphones, powered by Qualcomm (NASDAQ: ) chips and Google’s artificial intelligence model, hoping its upgraded artificial intelligence features can revive sales and defend from Apple (NASDAQ). 🙂 and Chinese rivals.
Samsung (KS: ) also unveiled a slimmer version of its flagship at the end of an event in California, aiming to launch the Galaxy S25 Edge in the first half of this year ahead of Apple’s expected launch of its thinner iPhone.
Samsung was faster than Apple in launching an AI-powered smartphone, but failed to regain its crown in the global smartphone market last year, squeezed by competition from its US rival in the premium market and Chinese companies in the lower segment.
“We are one step ahead of the industry in terms of offering AI features. I believe we are going in the right direction,” Park Ji-sun, executive vice president who leads Samsung’s Language AI team, told Reuters.
Samsung has kept the prices of its Galaxy S25 series unchanged at between $799 and $1,299.
The new Galaxy S25 uses Gemini offered by Alphabet (NASDAQ: ) Google as its default AI engine and features Samsung’s upgraded in-house voice assistant, Bixby, Park said.
The two tools complement each other, and Bixby plays a key role at Samsung, whose products span mobile phones to televisions and home appliances, he said.
Thomas Husson, an analyst at Forrester, said that spinning off Bixby will be a challenge for Samsung.
“I don’t think there’s a really killer app today that you know is going to convince (consumers) ‘OK, I’m going to buy this because it’s an AI smartphone,'” he said.
However, Husson added that AI features could create a halo effect around the Samsung brand.
The Galaxy S25 will offer a more personalized AI experience. For example, its “Now Brief” service – which makes recommendations to users based on personalized data stored and processed on the phone for privacy reasons – will display a suite of customized items such as calendars, news and bedroom air temperature and carbon dioxide levels , Park said.
The phone will be able to perform multiple tasks with a single command, such as finding upcoming sporting events and adding them to users’ calendars.
Samsung shares fell 1.1%, trailing the broader market’s loss of 0.4%.
Samsung used 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 a company that previously used both to have more bargaining power with suppliers.
Using a Qualcomm chip represents a step back in the chip business for the South Korean company, which counts its mobile division as one of its main customers.
Samsung did not say why it decided not to use its own chips in the new model.
A person familiar with the matter said that Samsung wants to use the Exynos chip in its foldable phones that will be launched later this year.
“Sales of the Galaxy S25 series are important at a time when Samsung’s foldable phone sales are stagnating in the face of challenges from Chinese companies,” said Lim Su-jeong, associate director at research firm Counterpoint.
Samsung’s preliminary fourth-quarter profit, reported earlier this month, significantly exceeded estimates due to chip development costs and growing competition in the smartphone market.