AI is the future of smartphones. That’s the takeaway from the recent smartphone launches from Apple, Google and Samsung. And it’s reflected in the phones themselves: Remove their AI features, and the phones from these big tech firms have stayed mostly the same — except for cosmetic tweaks, as well as minor processor and camera upgrades — for several years now.
Take the latest Samsung Galaxy S25+ that I have been testing for a few days. While the new, deeper integration with Google’s Gemini AI assistant is definitely helpful, there’s nothing noteworthy about the actual hardware. A comparison with last year’s S24 showed that — except for the chipset — the two models are practically the same. Same camera hardware, same battery capacity, same (slow) charging speed.
What’s more galling for those looking to buy the flagship Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra for its richer features is that the included S Pen o…
