Samsung Electronics has refreshed its most important line-up of smartphones, introducing the S25 series and announcing a price cut for South African buyers.
The new phones, unveiled in San Francisco on Wednesday evening South African time, run Android 15 and have an overhauled user interface, introduced with the new OneUI 7, which Samsung will now begin rolling out to older S-series devices as well as its Z-series foldable phones and more recent models of its lower-cost A-series devices. They will be available widely on 7 February.
Samsung South Africa announced at a launch event on Wednesday evening in Johannesburg that the new phones have recommended retail prices as follows:
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: R30 000 (256GB); R32 000 (512GB); R35 000 (1TB)
- Samsung Galaxy S25+: R23 500 (256GB)
- Samsung Galaxy S25: R20 000 (256GB)
That’s a welcome reduction in the launch prices compared to the S24 series, likely the result of an improved rand exchange rate against key currencies as dollar pricing for the S25 line-up is the same as it was for last year’s models. The S24 Ultra cost R32 500 at launch, while the S24+ was R25 500 and the S24 was R22 500.
The prices of Samsung flagship phones tend to decline in the months following their launch, so unless the rand suddenly heads sharply south, consumers should be able to get their hands on them for even less — if they’re prepared to be a little patient.
According to Samsung South Africa’s vice president for mobile Justin Hume, OneUI 7 has been built from the ground up to be an “AI OS”, referring to the artificial intelligence tools that the company is bundling into the software.
‘Human-like AI agents’
Samsung will be hoping consumers find these AI tools useful and that they spur upgrades to the latest models. So far, Apple Intelligence – Apple’s marketing term for AI – does not appear to have had a meaningful impact on iPhone sales.
The new phones feature “human-like AI agents” that understand context and can understand natural conversation, according to Samsung South Africa. For example, a user could ask the phone to “find photos of my trip to Italy last year”.
Read: 2025 has started badly for Apple
Google’s Gemini AI software is also tightly integrated into the new software.
Users will be able to take a photo of the inside of their fridge, and the software will suggest recipe ideas. The same can be done with a drinks cabinet when making cocktails.
Much of the AI processing will take place on-device instead of in the cloud, Samsung says. Personal information is encrypted and stored in Samsung’s Knox vault, a secure enclave on the phone.
The new AI tools are supported by a neural processing unit that Samsung says is 40% faster than the NPU in the S24 line-up. The new NPU is integrated into the system-on-chip, a version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC tweaked for Samsung by chip giant Qualcomm.
Pre-orders in South Africa open immediately. Those pre-ordering can elect to get a Galaxy Watch7 for R2 000 (it normally retails for R6 000). – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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