With no groundbreaking design changes or standout upgrades, the Galaxy S25 series phones fell short of expectations at Samsung Unpacked 2025. Sure, the slimmer design and faster chips are nice, but they don’t make up for a lack of innovation. As a long-time Samsung user, I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed—but I’ll admit, the new Google Gemini integrations and Galaxy AI features definitely caught my attention.

Related: Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025: Four hottest leaks and predictions to watch

Could the Galaxy S25 series be less of a disappointment and more of a canvas for future upgrades? With new Google Gemini updates and Samsung’s own Galaxy AI, these phones might still have a lot to offer. If you’re thinking of picking one up, let’s explore what you can expect from both AI systems and how to make the most of them.

Deep Gemini integrations on the Galaxy S25 series

Galaxy users know the pain of the Bixby virtual assistant. It’s good at navigating between devices, but not much else. Thanks to new upgrades with Google, its Gemini Live will replace Bixby as the default voice assistant on the S25 phones. What does this mean for you? Let me break it down:

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Samsung + Gemini = A match made in heaven</figcaption></figure>

An improved Gemini Live

A long press of the S25 series’ side button is all it takes to bring up Google’s Gemini Live voice assistant. Its conversational search can help with a range of tasks in just one interaction. For instance, you could ask it to find a nearby Italian restaurant and send it to your significant other. Or, tell it to bring up your kids’ school schedule and add it to your calendar.

As a busy mom, these Gemini integrations solve my complaint about most phones—there’s too much switching between apps. Sure, I can add my kids’ soccer games to my calendar manually, but that takes time and is error-prone. This cross-app compatibility would keep me more organized with way less effort.

Works across Samsung’s apps

Even better, Gemini isn’t just for Google apps—on the Galaxy S25 phones, it also works with Samsung’s apps, like Samsung Notes, Calendar, Reminder, and Clock. So, if you prefer using Samsung’s calendar, Gemini can update it.

In many ways, the new integrations are like having Gemini as a professional guide on my Galaxy smartphone. Since Bixby never really took off, I’m thrilled that Galaxy phones will now have a proper virtual assistant on board.

A Free 6-month Subscription for Gemini Advanced

To get the full advantage of the AI-powered assistant, however, you have to subscribe to Gemini Advanced, for $20 per month. It’s a pricy, but if you preorder the Galaxy S25, you can get a free 6-month subscription.

With Gemini Advanced you can design personalized AI experts for better Gemini integration in Google apps like Drive and Photos. You’ll also get 2TB of storage in your Google account, priority support access, and 10% cash back on your purchases in the Google store.

While I’m always one to steer clear of unnecessary subscriptions, this one comes with really useful benefits!

Project Astra

The Samsung Galaxy S25 will also be the first phone series to feature Google’s Project Astra. The technology allows the phone to analyze its environment via the camera. This way, it can give answers to visual questions, something that chatbots are unable to do.

A use example from the Unpacked event demonstrated a user showing a photo of themselves wearing pants and asking if a different size would fit better. So it’s like having personalized advice at your side, all the time. This is something I could totally get behind!

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Project Astra graphic at Samsung Unpacked 2025</figcaption></figure>

Galaxy AI in the S25 series phones

So what role do Samsung’s Galaxy AI features play in the new phones? While Gemini Live has put Bixby to rest, Samsung propriety AI has plenty of new features. Here are the ones to note:

Enhanced video editing tools

I often rewatch videos of my kids as babies just to get a flash of their adorable, toothless smiles. So one of my favorite new Galaxy AI features, called AI select, could help me isolate precious moments from a video so that I can view them again and again more easily.

How does it work? While watching the video, just open the quick panel, select the AI Select icon, and save your favorite part as a Gif.

Help in the kitchen

By the week’s end, my family and I have mostly decimated the contents of our fridge, but some odds and ends still remain. I usually default to another grocery run, but with the Galaxy AI on the S25 series, I might not have to anymore.

I can use the phone’s camera to take of photo of what’s in my fridge and Galaxy AI will scan the items, suggest recipes, and guide me through the cooking process. I don’t need to explain why this is an amazing feature for families, but I think students and young professionals would also find it useful.

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Galaxy AI kitchen assistance