Hardly anybody bought Samsung's last smartphones for AI. It hopes this year's models change that

Just 20 percent of punters who bought Samsung's 2025 flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, cited AI as the main reason for their purchase. With this year's S26 models, the Korean giant hopes to improve that number. The company also told The Register that customers' main "pain point" isn't AI performance – it's battery …

[Ambivalous Crowboard]

"AI"... What?

Yeah, AI. I know what it is. But even The Reg couldn't give us a compelling reason to buy a S25.

I own one, I don't really know what the AI features are. Who's fault is that?

[Neil Barnes]

Re: "AI"... What?

I own a phone - not a Samsung and hopefully without AI - but I have absolutely no idea of what half the functionality on it does. It's all very well to talk about 'obvious' and 'discoverability', but would it be really too difficult to include some sort of manual by default?

(I'm not a heavy phone user; a charge can last half a week.)

[Anonymous Coward]

No thanks

This is why I stay away from Samsung phone. Bixby was bad enough. I just want phone. Maybe I'll add a few apps of my choosing.

I want a model of phone that has no AI, no Assistants, nothing telling me what to do and think.

Let me choose what is on the device I have just purchased. Thanks

[gv]

Re: No thanks

"... if you consult your calendar and the phone sees you have a meeting in the near future, it might suggest you summon an Uber."

I'm not quite sure why I need 'AI' for that.

[PCScreenOnly]

Re: No thanks

Even more so if you have a shared calendar and who you share the calendar with still has not quite got to grips with putting the meeting in at the right time.

Forget how many meetings I get a stupid o'clock (2am) with a title like "Night with the girls - 19:30 at AB1"

[martinusher]

Re: No thanks

My 'stupid AI' time story concerns Alexa+. She was installed on one of my Echoes (fortunately the only one capable of running her). One morning she showed a notification and I asked her what it was. She then started babbling away about a wind advisory that was to occur overnight, to be canceled at 7am. It was now well past 7 so I mentioned she was a "Bit late, its nine o'clock". She promptly picked up on this and corrected me, telling me it was actually 8:50, again rather verbosely in her pseudo-Valley Girl voice telling me the precise time, time zone and Heaven only knows what else. I just told her to stop (and promptly switched the "New, Improve" software off). She had the final word with an error report of a time anomaly in the log.

AI is actually rather stupid. I don't mind it being set specific tasks but I don't want it intervening 'helpfully' in my day because it lacks even a token amount of common sense.

[A. Coatsworth]

Re: No thanks

It. It was installed, it showed a notification

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: No thanks

"I just told her to stop" – I don't imagine this was a literal transcript. ;)

It's insidious — Alexa is unarguably an "it", yet because it drives a voice synthesizer that mimics a woman's, the "it" unconsciously becomes a "she."

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Re: No thanks

Good luck with that, Uber thankfully have no licence to operate in my area...

[Captain Hogwash]

Re: Uber thankfully have no licence to operate in my area...

Nor in mine but the young people I know will summon them anyway and they'll quite happily come from 30 miles away to service the request.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: No thanks

not everyone has a wife

[jonfr400]

No A.I for me, forever

Never going to use the a.i and that applies forever. I disable all that stuff if I can and ignore it if I can't disable it.

[PCScreenOnly]

Customer feedback

Yeah, we ignore it

Hardly anyone wants AI

They do want

Better battery life

Better camera

maybe microSD slot

Easy ways to disable / remove bloat

[aardvarkus]

That's 19.9998% higher than I would have expected.

[Tron]

Stick with the pre-AI phone you have.

No nagware, no pointless resource use, and you save money that you can spend on chocolate instead.

Just wait until the bubble bursts and AI fades before your next phone purchase.

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

Re: Stick with the pre-AI phone you have.

Chocolate.................

[Anonymous Coward]

Users can divert a call to have it answered by AI

Fuck off. I don't want the robo dialer to realise it's found an answering number.

Just gimme a phone with zero bloat and excellent battery life.

I wasn't interested in 3D TV, videodiscs, Betamax VCRs, behavioural advertising or ads that tell me what other people bought, either.

[Anonymous Coward]

VHS wasn't the bast format, it just got the movie deals...

[Michael Strorm]

Analysis of failure of Betamax from people who were there at the time

Here's a very interesting and analysis on "The Rise and Fall of Betamax" and why it lost to VHS. If you want a *very* in-depth take, it's well worth reading. (*)

Unlike your typical cliche-recycling article written decades later by some random person repeating an accumulation of catchy-sounding urban myths that became established as "fact" over the decades (e.g. "Betamax failed because VHS had more porn!") this was written for the enthusiast-oriented "Videofax" newsletter, back in 1988 in response to the news that Sony had effectively conceded defeat in the format wars by announcing they'd start selling VHS machines.

In other words, from people who were there at the time *and* at the time *and* long before the subject had become a staple of cheap, lazy nostalgia fodder.

I'm not saying it's the be-all-and-end-all on the subject, but I'd certainly trust it over most other "authorities".

And it doesn't mention porn.

(*) tl;dr Spoiler; Beta's failure wasn't solely down to a single mistake- though the short runtime on early versions hurt came close to that and hurt it badly- but a combination of "we know best" arrogance, corporate pride and multiple misjudgedments that led to Beta playing catchup and still making unnecessary mistakes while doing so.

[ecofeco]

Overpriced, bad interface loaded with bloatware?

IT'S A MYSTERY!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Overpriced, bad interface loaded with bloatware?

I see they got Toyah to do their market research.

[NewModelArmy]

What Is The IQ Of The 20% ?

As per the title, what is the IQ of the 20%.

Also, what will be the IQ of the 20% that use the AI slop after about a year ?

[DS999]

So if the privacy display

Disables the "wide" pixels and uses only the narrow pixels, I guess in that mode you are sacrificing resolution, PPI and brightness?

I suppose not an issue you'll be too bent out of shape over if you are worried about someone next to you on a train reading corporate emails of a sensitive nature, but what if they are directly behind you looking over your shoulder? Can't they still see it then?

Seems like the easiest solution is not to look at stuff you don't want others to see when you're in a place where you can't control who sees your screen. Surf Tik Tok or the news or watch a movie on Netflix, and look at the corporate secrets or your porn collection when you get home.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So if the privacy display

And does that "privacy" work in both orientations? That must be a crazy complicated display if so.

[Captain Hogwash]

Re: So if the privacy display

As long as data continues to be extracted from the phone via the network this is just pure theatre anyway.

[KarMann]

Re: So if the privacy display

Reading between the lines, I think the 'narrow' and 'wide' pixels refers to the beam emitted by them, rather than the actual linear or area size of the pixels, and wouldn't affect the resolution or PPI (but very possibly the brightness, but I suppose that's sort of the point). I may be wrong about that, though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So if the privacy display

If the pixels are pushing out light over different angles, then won't you end up with a pseudo lenticular display?

[Mishak]

AI powers "Privacy Alerts" that inform users if apps attempt to access sensitive data

Really? This needs AI?

if dataIsSensitive()

requestUserConsent();

I must be an AI...

BTW - anyone know how to get spaces (indenting) to appear in HTML code blocks in comments?

[Patrick R]

Re: AI powers "Privacy Alerts" that inform users if apps attempt to access sensitive data

It bears the question "How much sensitive data must you feed AI before it recognizes it as such?".

[Bebu sa Ware]

A hallucinating AI powered answering machine ?

Top of my wish·list of things to make the world a better place. /s

[Fonant]

The inclusion of so much "AI" is actually the main thing stopping me from wanting a new phone. The "AI" bubble can't pop soon enough!

[Naich]

If I phone someone and I get handed over to an AI, I'm never going to talk to them again.

[abend0c4]

That's probably the point. I gather young people have stopped answering the phone at all.

[Mishak]

iPhone has a similar feature

Any calls from a number not in my contacts get screened and I get to see a transcript of what they want.

So far, all the calls apart from one* have been from scammers. Most recent was yesterday - the transcript was:

That your wallet is currently in a dormant status. An immediate action is required to resolve this issue. To have one of our agents contact you within the next few hours, please press one now. Your prompt response is important to ensure compliance and resolve this matter. Thank you.

Though I guess that "caller" didn't even notice it was talking to an AI.

* I forgot to add someone from work to my contacts. They did leave a message to say who it was.

--

Edited as my cat pressed "Submit" before I had finished!

[goblinski]

- Curved screen

- Not-curved edges.

The above basically boils down to the S23 Ultra.

Yes, I know, the three and a half online reviewers that seem to dictate all reviews and what users want find the curved display stupid. I don't. It looks good, and the edge tabs work for me.

Add to the dream:

- Thumb fingerprint sensor (on the side).

- Physical dual sim

- Dedicated micro sd slot

- Battery large enough.

The above was all covered by the Sony Xperia 5 Ultra. No curved screen, but good looking. Too bad it was extremely unreliable.

- Add wireless charging of any sort.

That's it. That's all I need.

My Note 20 Ultra was the last Note with an SD card.

AND the last one that can emulate a credit card's magnetic strip.

The look alone on the faces of the snarky cashiers in stores were phone payments are not accepted yet is worth it.

- "We don't accept ApplePay here"

- "It's not an Apple"

- "We don't accept any phone payments here. Won't work".

- "Ok".

BEEEP

- "?!?"

- "!!!"

[The Organ Grinder's Monkey]

Now I'm intrigued. I'm posting this from a Note 20ultra*, & I'm curious about your assertion that it can "emulate a card's magnetic strip." Surely to interact with the magstripe reader you'd need to pass the 'phone through the card reader slot? I Know that mobiles are getting thinner but...

(*As it's now out of security & I use it with banking apps & customer details I'm going to have to replace it, most likely with an S25 ultra if prices drop when S26 launches. I use the stylus thingy extensively & have been on "Notes" since the Note 1, so I'm habituated to them, warts & all, & they had been getting better latterly, reduced bloat etc, but I'll be buying the new one with gritted teeth in the knowledge that I'm going to be fighting AI bollocks at every turn. The ai-pocalypse can't come soon enough.)

PS, yes the young people no longer answer their mobiles. I'm a student landlord (god only knows what I did in a previous life. I hope it was fun & that I did a lot of it) & I have to message them to tell them that I'm going to call them. So much for instant communications...

[samsungfreud]

Missing my openmoko

Battery life wasn't that great but it was a fun phone to tweak!

Anyone here using fairphone? What is that like?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Missing my openmoko

I've got a fairphone 4, I've had 4 very happy years with it so far, but can't comment on the 5 or 6, I won't be upgrading to one of those until next year at the earliest. For the record, I have broken and replaced a USB C port and a screen on my 4 - Very easy fixes requiring only one screwdriver for both.