Samsung & Google – Bixby, The Plumber

Samsung and Google are beginning to see the light.

• Samsung produced one of the dullest hardware updates with the s25, but the real action was on the inside with new silicon and Google AI that relegates Bixby to a taker and executor of orders.
• Samsung has released its now annual update to its flagship lineup with the s25 range with the Ultra being the highest-end edition.
• For anyone who does not have intimate knowledge of their s24, the s25 is exactly the same as the s24 with such tiny upgrades that no one is going to notice.
• However, it is on the inside where the difference can be felt where three areas are worth highlighting.
  • First, System on Chip (SoC): where the s25 is now sporting a custom version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite which is the first smartphone chip to use the custom Oryon CPU core.
  • This delivers a stepwise change in both performance and power efficiency which many reviewers have noticed without attributing it to the new silicon.
  • The user experience feels much faster and more fluid while the battery life improves further on what was offered in the s24.
  • The on-device AI functions (see below) also work faster and given the upgrades that are being offered in terms of functionality, it looks very likely that the computational load has had to increase to deliver that.
  • The Snapdragon 8 Elite also sports an upgraded NPU which looks to be delivering a good portion of what Qualcomm promised at launch.
  • Second, AI: which remains almost entirely Google with Bixby lurking in the background to offer orchestration with the Samsung family of apps.
  • Front and centre of the offering is the Gemini assistant which runs on the device to ensure a decent user experience but will also refer to the cloud when needed.
  • The s25 is all Google and only summons the lowly Bixby when it needs the grunt work of accessing the Samsung apps.
  • This is part of the messy plumbing that is needed when an AI assistant is supposed to be able to execute tasks on the user’s behalf like booking events and travel and adding stuff to calendars.
  • For regular Google apps and services, it will be Gemini that does the orchestration and seeing as hardly anyone uses the Samsung apps, this is just another sign of just how irrelevant Samsung’s AI is.
  • However, Samsung is doing precisely the right thing in getting closer with Google as this gives it the opportunity to offer some of the best AI on its devices before its competitors bring it to market.
  • Third, One UI 7, which is a new coat of paint to the user experience along with a few tweaks, bells and whistles.
  • While this will not be unique to the s25, it will be on the device first and it will work best there given the silicon upgrade.
  • This will help the s25 look new and different at the point of sale.
• This launch is a further sign of Google and Samsung working more closely together where Samsung pays less attention to the software and where Google offers its best software to Samsung rather than reserving it for Pixel devices which almost no one buys.
• The ideal situation for both companies is one where Google saves its shareholders billions of dollars by stopping consumer hardware entirely and one where Samsung stops spending money on software that no one uses and improves its device margins.
• This is still a long way away but, very slowly, Google and Samsung are seeing the light.
• As a Samsung shareholder, this is icing on the cake as the investment case remains predicated on a semiconductor division turnaround.