There was plenty of commotion surrounding the release of the Samsung Galaxy S25. My disappointment with the phone centered primarily on its lack of hardware innovation, but another problem lingers. We don’t know the actual cost of ownership.
No Thanks, Keep Reading
Whether Galaxy AI remains free for six months or until the end of 2025, Samsung will eventually charge for the service. I’m not comfortable not having clear guidance on what features will be missing from my $1,300 Galaxy S25 Ultra in a few months, and I’m not alone. Samsung has a Galaxy AI problem, and it’s about to become our problem.
Galaxy AI isn’t ready for primetime
No one should pay for this
Galaxy AI was not ready to headline a smartphone launch. Samsung tried highlighting Galaxy AI as a reason you’d upgrade to a Galaxy S25, but the value isn’t there. Samsung’s Now Brief feature is half-baked and needs a significant overhaul before it’s a valuable part of my day. Cross-app action works a portion of the time but requires multiple edits and double-checks on my part, making it faster if I had just opened two apps myself.
Samsung is double-dipping, asking us to pay high prices for iterative hardware upgrades by touting AI enhancements and making us pay for them later.
Samsung, to its credit, fixed the Now Bar on my Galaxy S25 Ultra, which now displays game scores correctly. However, nothing about the experience feels generative. The suggested routines are rudimentary and useless, and I’ve never felt that Galaxy AI helped me in any meaningful way. If Samsung wants me to buy an expensive smartphone for Galaxy AI instead of more impressive hardware, it has work to do, especially if it expects me to pay a monthly fee for the honor.
We don’t know the cost or the features
Samsung left us in the dark
If Samsung wants to avoid a user revolt, it must communicate which features will be paywalled once Galaxy AI is no longer free. I doubt core systems will be affected, and I’d be shocked if the computational photography on my S25 Ultra suddenly stopped working. However, I don’t know if the advanced editing features will be available. It’s unclear whether the enhanced video features where we can isolate individual audio tracks through the help of AI are included with the phone or with Galaxy AI.
Related
Samsung’s Galaxy AI rollout strategy is taking shape, and it’s bad news for Galaxy S24 owners
Some features will remain exclusive to the Galaxy S25 series
We also don’t know what Samsung plans to charge. If it’s a model similar to Google’s Gemini, users can expect to pay $20 a month, which is $20 more than AI is worth on most devices today. It’s a mess, and Samsung’s silence is getting louder. I hate that people are buying expensive smartphones without knowing what feature sets will still be free in 2026. I don’t think we have an answer because Samsung does not even know what is planned. The company is reportedly still deciding which features will be put behind a paywall, leaving us to speculate.
It can’t be a selling point if you take it away
Samsung needs to cut its losses
Galaxy AI shouldn’t become a profit center. Samsung is double-dipping, asking us to pay high prices for iterative hardware upgrades by touting AI enhancements and making us pay for them later. This is disingenuous and an excellent way for customers to lose faith in your brand and not care about Galaxy AI, regardless of how impressive it becomes. Either Galaxy AI is why I buy your smartphone, and it becomes baked into the user experience of One UI, or it’s a separate package offered later on with new features not already available on my Galaxy S25 Ultra. Samsung can’t have it both ways.
If Samsung charges for Galaxy AI, better functioning and cheaper (or free) alternatives will crop up all over Android. Developers will seize the opportunity to compete with their AI apps, and Galaxy AI will face increased scrutiny. To be fair to Samsung, it’s not alone with its AI woes. Apple and Google have not mentioned what portions of Apple Intelligence and Google Gemini will be behind a paywall, and no company wants to be first in putting out a price. I can only hope that the first company to break and mention its plans will face such a backlash that others will lose their appetite.
If you’re going to charge me, show me
Part of me wishes Galaxy AI were worth paying for because it would mean it was good for something. I wanted to believe Samsung when it tried to sell me on the future with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. I thought Now Brief would help optimize my day with messages on the Now Bar, almost like a personal assistant. Instead, it tells me the weather and serves up a random news story.
I still believe AI can be useful on smartphones, but it’s in the background, deeply integrated into the user experience. I want AI to polish my photos or adjust for lighting and shadows before I hit the shutter. I want routine suggestions to help me navigate my work day more efficiently. I’m getting none of that right now, and if Samsung is going to convince me to part with hard-earned money, Galaxy AI needs to change — quickly.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
/
10
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra leaves the Note-like design behind for the very first time. With flat edges, curved corners, and a massive 6.9-inch display, this is a modern flagship through and through — and yes, that S Pen is still here too.
