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It feels like every major tech company is totally convinced that AI is the future. And for all I know, they may be right. But while were waiting for someone to develop our seemingly inevitable AGI-based overlords, we have to suffer through every baby step to get todays machine learning-powered features. Unfortunately, thats a problem for gadgets like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra because when the biggest focus of a new $1,300 flagship smartphone is iterative AI updates, the device can feel a bit underwhelming. Combine that with hardware that seems like its been frozen in time for the last couple of years and you get something that leaves you wanting more. Design and display: Rounded corners, Gorilla Armor 2 and not much else For this years Ultra, Samsung wanted to give the phone a softer, more curvy appearance to reinforce the familial resemblance between it and its less expensive siblings. And by rounding off the S25 Ultras corners, Id say mission accomplished. Elsewhere, its front and back glass are now made of Corning Gorilla Armor 2, which features a new version of the companys anti-reflective coating and looks great. When combined with bezels that are 15 percent smaller than before, you get a phone with super clean lines and a slightly larger 6.9-inch display (up from 6.8 inches) without an increase in its physical size. But make no mistake, the S25U still feels a lot like the last two Ultras that came before it. Its flat edges give it a very boxy feel, and even though the Note line is dead, theres still the requisite cubby hole for the S Pen. However, for 2025 the included stylus has gotten a minor downgrade now that Samsung has removed support for Bluetooth Low Energy. This means it no longer supports Air action gestures, so you cant use it as a remote camera trigger or to do things like switch cameras or change photo modes. Samsung claims this loss of functionality shouldnt be a big deal as a tiny fraction of people actually used the feature. Plus, if you want a way to remotely snap a photo, there are other methods like holding your hand up to the camera or using a Galaxy Ring or Watch. But if youre one of the few who did enjoy Air actions, its an unfortunate step backward. Thankfully, for those who absolutely need a stylus with gesture support, you can still get that functionality from Samsungs optional S Pen Pro. Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget One small thing I do want to call out is the improved anti-reflective coating on the S25 Ultras screen. It strikes an almost perfect balance between typical glossy displays and the matte texture used on traditional desktop monitors. Colors remain vivid while still cutting out the most distracting forms of glare, and with a peak brightness of 2,600 nits, the screen dazzles in practically any environment. Performance: More speed than youll know what to do with The Galaxy S Ultra has never lacked power, but that didnt stop Samsung from adding even more speed thanks to Qualcomms Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. This thing absolutely flies and theres not much you can do to slow it down. Samsung has even tightened up the animations in One UI so that the phone feels as responsive as its benchmarks suggest, which are up as much as 30 to 40 percent depending on the task (or closer to 15 percent while gaming). The one wrinkle to this is that, when under heavy loads, the S25 Ultra does become a bit power-hungry, which can result in slightly faster-than-expected battery drain when doing heavy multitasking or running demanding apps. Software: Just what you wanted, more AI Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget The S25 Ultras main focus for this year is on improved AI. This can be seen across a number of new and improved features (and some obvious inspiration from rivals like Apple and Google) with the general goal of making all of its tools more powerful, more intuitive and in many cases, easier to use with your voice. The first major addition is Samsungs Now Brief, which adds a personalized feed filled with things like the weather, local traffic, upcoming calendar appointments, the news and more. It gets refreshed periodically throughout the day (morning, midday, afternoon, etc.) and by using what Samsung calls its Personal Data Engine, it will attempt to learn what you like instead of having you check off a list of tickboxes. Its a handy tool, though for anyone already familiar with the Android ecosystem, its not especially groundbreaking. And it does take time for the phone to understand what you do and dont care about, which adds a bit of a learning curve to the process. Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget Now Briefs also works with Samsungs Now bar to surface relevant events in other areas of the phone specifically your lock screen and notification shade. Its meant to help you keep tabs on apps youre using (like how long youve let the Voice Recorder app run) or stuff like sports scores, with the ability to toggle between different things simply by swiping left and right. Its helpful, but forgive me if this is becoming repetitive, because many of these look like duplicate versions of stuff like Googles Live Notifications. Meanwhile, if you open the Edge Panel by swiping in on the tab on the right side of the screen, youll see even more AI features. AI Select is a revamped take on Smart Select, which helps you take screenshots, turn videos into gifs and more. Drawing Assist is the tool formerly known as Sketch to Image, which lets you create art by doodling with the S Pen or using text inputs. And then theres the self-explanatory Interpreter app, plus an icon for Now Brief in case you dont likeusing the widget. All of these sort of work just like you expect them to, and in some cases like when drawing, the resulting images are a touch more detailed and realistic than before. But to me, the biggest upgrade across Samsungs second-gen AI suite is a slightly more cohesive UI that makes learning what each tool can do a bit easier. Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget Perhaps my favorite new use of AI is improved natural language commands throughout the phone. For example in the Gallery app, you can search for specific subjects just by hitting the asking Gemini (or Bixby too, if youre into that). Its a convenient way to quickly find a specific photo amongst thousands of shots though once again, theres similar functionality in Google Photos. But more importantly, you can use voice commands to do stuff like change device settings or even add events to your calendar. And you dont even need to be very specific. When I asked the phone to add the next Knicks game to my calendar, I didnt need to give it any more information than that. It all feels slightly magical, even if its not an essential part of my day. Cameras: A new ultra-wide sensor but thats about it Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget Like its predecessors, the S25 Ultra features a 200-megapixel main camera and a 50MP telephoto with a 5x zoom. The one upgrade is a new 50MP sensor for its ultra-wide lens (up from 12MP). As youd expect, expansive landscape pics look a touch sharper thanks to the increased resolution, though aside from that, there arent a ton of immediately obvious improvements to the rest of the phones general image quality. As youd expect, in bright light the S25 Ultra captures lovely images with rich details and vibrant colors. However, I did notice that Samsungs penchant for going slightly overboard on sharpening can still be an issue. The new ultra-wide sensor also provides a noticeable upgrade in image quality to the point where I prefer it over what the Pixel 9 Pro can do. But I must admit, compared to the main camera or even the 5x zoom, that lens is the one I use the least, so it doesnt have as much of an impact on my overall photography. In low light, the S25 Ultra nearly kept pace with Googles Night Sight mode on the Pixel 9 Pro, and in a few situations, it pulled ahead. However, I had a hard time spotting how much of an effect Samsungs improved noise reduction had on nighttime graininess. Regardless, even with a few hiccups, the S25 Ultra proved it can hang with other top-tier shooters from Google and others. Meanwhile, in the Camera and Gallery apps, there are some handy tweaks including the new Audio Eraser feature. It uses AI to identify a handful of different sound types (such as speech, wind noise and more) before creating a custom EQ that lets you adjust things on the fly. This is great for those times when youre shooting video and ambient sounds make it hard to hear what people are saying. You can also create and save custom photo filters to ensure all your pics on social media have a unique and consistent look. Additionally, for more advanced users, theres a virtual aperture setting that gives you a bit more control over depth of field, though it's still not nearly as good as being able to physically switch lenses like you can on a proper camera. And for even more demanding content creators, Samsung created a new Galaxy Log video format that allows you to more easily edit and color grade your footage. That said, unless youre a YouTuber or hardcore video junkie, you may not get a ton of use out of these tools, especially with the latter of the two being restricted to Samsungs Expert Raw app (which doesnt come pre-installed). Battery life and charging: Samsung is cutting corners with its Qi2 readiness Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget The size of the Galaxy S25 Ultras 5,000 mAh power pack hasnt changed in five years, but thats OK because you still get great battery life. On our local video rundown test, it lasted an incredible 29 hours and 27 minutes, which is up almost two hours compared to last years phone. That said, its important to note that the S25U loses in both capacity and longevity to the OnePlus 13, whose 6,000 mAh cell posted an even better time of 30:18. Wired charging is staying put at up to 45 watts and annoyingly it's a very similar story when using wireless pads as well. Thats because while technically the S25 Ultra supports version 2.1 of the WPCs Qi charging spec and is said to be Qi2 ready, because Samsung didnt include magnets inside the phone, it wont work with the wide variety of Qi2 accessories on sale today. At least not without some help. For that, you need to rely on a Qi2 charging case to add the proper alignment and mounting point needed to attach magnetic peripherals. Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget For a lot of Android phones users, this is really disappointing after seeing the wealth of MagSafe gadgets that iPhone users have enjoyed for several generations. As the biggest phone maker on the planet, Samsung has a lot of sway when it comes to fostering the adoption of useful protocols like Qi2 and seeing them stop short of truly supporting the spec is a bit bewildering. Wrap up The S25 Ultra is a hugely versatile phone, but this edition of Samsungs flagship is hard to gt excited about. Thats because while it's one of the few handsets with an included stylus and a long 5x telephoto zoom, its general hardware and capabilities havent changed much since the previous generation. Or even two models back for that matter. Even so, the screens on Samsung phones are unrivaled while camera quality remains among the best. And while its battery hasnt gotten bigger in years, longevity remains strong. Then you add in a new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip with blazing performance and you get a phone thats good at pretty much everything. But for $1,300, it better be able to deliver on all that and more. Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget And it's that and more where the S25 Ultras value proposition gets a bit awkward. The phones biggest advancements are more powerful software and AI. Features like AI Select, Now Brief and improved natural language commands make the phone smarter and easier to use. But consider this: If you could pay for those tools separately, how much extra would you fork over to get more sophisticated AI on your phone? For many, that number might be zero, or at the very least a way less than the price of upgrading and the hassle of setting up a new phone and then figuring out how to use it. This means a lot of what Samsung focused on in this generation feels more like a bonus rather than a must-have feature. And when you can get around 90 percent of the phones capabilities from previous models, the most dangerous thing Samsung is asking buyers to consider is why they need to upgrade at all. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s25-ultra-review-too-much-ai-not-enough-ultra-140022798.html?src=rss
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Vodafone has demonstrated the capabilities of a new satellite network by making what it calls the "world's first" satellite video call, albeit with some caveats. The company used partner AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird satellites specifically designed to transmit 4G/5G mobile broadband signals from space. That technology will give users broadband cellular capability with any 4G/5G smartphone in remote areas lacking traditional mobile coverage. In its demonstration, Vodafone Group's chief executive Margherita Della Valle explained that the BlueBird satellites can connect directly with a regular smartphone, then transmit the signal back to Vodafone's terrestrial network via a satellite link. She then took a call from an engineer in a remote mountain region of Wales, a "nought spot" with no cellular coverage. The quality was a bit low-res and had substantial lag, but was decent otherwise. AST SpaceMobile's five BlueBird satellites have onboard communications arrays that give off-the-shelf smartphones the same voice, data and video speeds as a broadband tower, up to 120 megabits per second. Once operational, the satellites will provide "non-continuous cellular broadband service across the United States and in select markets globally." That will allow cell users to communicate even in areas with limited broadband tower coverage, like rural communities or national parks. SpaceX's Starlink has already made a satellite video call using a regular mobile phone, so Vodafone hedged its claim substantially. Specifically, the company said it made the "world's first space video call from an area of no coverage using a standard mobile phone and commercial satellites built to offer a full mobile broadband experience." T-Mobile is working on a similar US network in partnership with Starlink's Direct-to-Cell service, but it will be limited to text messages at first. It's also possible right now to connect to dedicated satellite phone networks using specific iPhone and Google Pixel models that have custom modems but that's limited to low-data communications like SMS messages and emergency alerts. Vodafone's network, by contrast, would allow a full-fat broadband cellular experience when it launches in Europe, likely by the end of 2025. Meanwhile, AT&T, Verizon and AST SpaceMobile will begin testing in the US this spring, but no launch date (or pricing) for stateside service has been announced yet. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/vodafone-demonstrates-worlds-first-satellite-video-call-with-a-standard-mobile-phone-134509766.html?src=rss
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You'll finally be able to download all the episodes in an entire season on Netflix with just one tap if you're on iOS. The streaming service introduced the capability on Android years ago, but it remained a "much-requested" feature for users on iPhone and iPad until now. It's not unusual for Netflix to give Android users access to a certain capability first it took a year for Smart Downloads, which automatically deletes downloaded episodes you've already seen and then downloads the next one in a series, to be available on iOS. "We've heard that downloading episodes one-by-one has been a pain point for iOS members something we're now addressing with this rollout," a Netflix spokesperson told Variety. It's certainly great to have if you like stocking up on shows you can watch for long flights or cross-country road trips. The option to download entire seasons is available for all the shows currently on the streaming service. To download multiple episodes all at once, find the button for the new feature next to the Share option on the series' page in the Netflix app. While tapping the button will download all the episodes in a season automatically, you can still manage individual episodes under the Downloads section in the My Netflix tab. Netflix This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflix-finally-lets-ios-users-download-an-entire-season-with-one-tap-133025196.html?src=rss
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