Gurman: Samsung is leading the charge in smartphone AI, will likely beat Apple to a skinny phone

Just this past week, Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S25 lineup, packed with futuristic AI capabilities that make the iPhone look like a relic of the past. These devices can accomplish a mind-blowing amount with just your voice and AI. Imagine giving your phone a series of commands and watching it execute them flawlessly. AI is woven into every nook and cranny of the S25, even powering unexpected features like instant video transcription and GIF creation.

As noted by Bloomberg's own Apple insider and analyst, Mark Gurman, much of the credit for this AI revolution goes to Google's Gemini platform — which fuels most of the S25's AI magic. However, Samsung deserves praise for partnering with Google instead of following Apple's slower, in-house approach. This strategic move ensures Samsung remains at the forefront of the AI revolution, a technological shift as significant as the rise of the internet. After experiencing Gemini on the Google Pixel and the Galaxy S25 Ultra, it's clear to me that Apple Intelligence is lagging several years behind.

However, Gurman also notes that while the Galaxy S25 series' AI is impressive, its hardware is less so. The Ultra model boasts slimmer bezels and rounder corners, similar to the iPhone 16 Pro line, but overall, the design remains largely unchanged — something that has been noted by almost every smartphone reviewer and tech publication so far. It isn't surprising to assert that this year, apart from slightly changing rounding the corners and flattening the edges on the Ultra, Samsung didn't do much to push the needle when it came to the S25 series' hardware.