Samsung loves to talk AI, but it’s the basics of the Galaxy S25 that still interest me the most

Watch for an hour Unboxed Galaxy S25 event You’d be forgiven for thinking that Samsung isn’t launching any new hardware and is instead just announcing new software. As with other recent tech events, Artificial Intelligence was the rage that dominated the show.

There are new Galaxy AI features like “Cross-App Actions” which should allow the phone’s digital assistant to use multiple apps to respond to your requests. The new Conversational Search should make it easier to adjust settings by typing in natural language. In Settings, saying “My eyes hurt” can prompt the phone to guide you to brightness and blue light adjustments instead of having to dig through individual menus.

At first glance, the new Galaxy S25 line looks very similar to last year’s S24, which looks like 2023’s S23.

But for me, one of the most interesting parts of this phone is something much simpler: battery life. As people continue to hold on to their phones longer and show limited interest in AI in general, Samsung’s claim that the S25 series has the “longest battery life yet” holds special merit.

For the S25 Ultra, the company claims 31 hours of battery life, which is an hour longer than the S24 Ultra, though we still have to see how it fares in the real world.

Modern CNET poll It found that American buyers still don’t really care about AI on their phones. But they care a lot about better battery life. Camera features are also important, and Samsung has at least boosted the ultra-wide sensor to 50MP on the S25 Ultra. (The camera resolution of the S25 and S25 Plus remains the same as last year’s models.)

Samsung already has very impressive cameras and powerful software — outside of AI — on its older phones. And while I would have liked to see a more ambitious design shift (which is what Samsung appears to be doing with… Teased the thinnest Galaxy S25 Edge), you can’t really say that the company needed to do something radical with its already popular flagship models.

The ultra-thin bezels you gain to move the screen from 6.8 inches on the S24 version to 6.9 inches on this year’s phone are a small but nice touch. As is the overall thinner and lighter appearance that all three models appear to sport. These aren’t big drivers per se, but they can add up to a better experience if you’re upgrading from a two-year-old device.

AI features may be useful in the future. With Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, 12GB of RAM now standard across the line, and Samsung promising seven years of software updates, these phones are probably well-equipped to handle at least some of this future functionality.

Right now and for the foreseeable future, the feature that matters most to me is battery life. While it may not be as flashy or exciting as an hour-long keynote, at the end of the day it’s what makes me consider the S25 when upgrading.

Now if only Samsung could finally put it down Magnet in the phone itself for Qi2 wireless charging Instead of making users rely on purchasing a wallet…