Samsung Galaxy S25 to Feature Enhanced On-Device AI Processing

Samsung Galaxy S25 could get this huge AI upgrade

Samsung has bet big on AI throughout 2024, and it should be no surprise to hear that there may be some serious upgrades coming in the near future. A new leak claims that one such upgrade could see the Samsung Galaxy S25 lessen its reliance on the cloud, and do more AI processing locally on your device. This nugget of information comes from AssembleDebug on X, during a dive into Samsung app code. Judging from the snippet they posted, it looks like the S25 series may start processing more things locally -- starting with generative AI photo editing. You can see that below, where it says "FEATURE_GEN_EDIT_ON_DEVICE" There are a bunch of benefits to doing this kind of processing locally, rather than in a cloud server. The most obvious is privacy, which could be very important if you're editing private photos. Since the photos don't need to be transmitted to a cloud server for processing, it means the files can't be intercepted by bad actors en route or secretly saved on a Samsung server. In theory the processing should be faster too, since everything stays on your phone. While transmitting files too and from cloud servers doesn't take long, it's not instantaneous -- so you end up waiting longer for everything to finish. That's assuming there isn't a backlog that the server needs to clear, which will only increase your wait time. On-device processing means you don't need an active internet connection to utilize AI features. So it doesn't matter if you've run out of data, or stuck on a plane with no Wi-Fi, you're not cut off from AI. That said, doing everything on-device does mean that it's more taxing on your phone, and excessive editing may cause your battery life to drain slightly faster than it would with cloud processing. But the trade-off is probably worth it. The code AssembleDebug posted also seems to corroborate rumors that the Galaxy S25 will exclusively run on the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. The leaker claims that there's no sign of hardware from Exynos or MediaTek when on-device AI is referred to. Instead we only see the "sm8750", which is a model number for Snapdragon's newest flagship SoC. That corroborates previous rumors that all Galaxy S25 phones will run on Snapdragon chips. It's unclear if any other Galaxy AI features may transition to on-device processing. But if this leak turns out to be accurate, it doesn't discount the possibility that more AI features could go down that route. It's worth noting that both Apple Intelligence and Google Gemini offer various on-device features, including generative AI. However only Apple offers generative AI-based image editing on-device. At the very least, it's a good start. But we'll have to wait and see what Samsung has to say when it reveals the Galaxy S25 in the new year.

Samsung Galaxy S25 AI will rely less on the cloud - Phandroid

Modern day devices like our smartphones come with AI features. These AI features run on both our devices locally, as well as in the cloud for more complex requests. However, the good news is that if you prefer on-board processing, the Samsung Galaxy S25 is expected to feature support for more on-device AI capabilities. This is according to a post on X by AssembleDebug. They claim that the Galaxy S25 will come with more on-board AI features. This means that users don't have to rely as much on cloud processing as they did before. There are several benefits to on-device processing. For starters, it will be much faster. This is because requests don't need to be sent to a remote server, wait for that server to process it before sending it back. Secondly, it is more private. Data sent to the cloud has a chance to be intercepted. Alternatively, someone at Samsung's data centers could see your request. We're not sure if these changes will be exclusive to the Galaxy S25, or if Samsung could also make it available to older devices that support its Galaxy AI suite of tools. It is possible that the use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite could make the phone more powerful to support more on-device processing, but we'll have to wait and see. The Samsung Galaxy S25 series is expected to be announced in 2025. The latest rumors are claiming that Samsung will host an event on the 22nd of January.

Galaxy S25 on-device AI capability expands, reducing reliance on the cloud

Trying the Snapdragon 8 Elite got me excited for next year's Galaxy S25 Summary The Galaxy S25 series will process generative AI photo editing locally, reducing cloud dependence. The change is possible due to the Snapdragon 8 Elite's significant performance and efficiency gains. On-device AI processing boosts speed and privacy, helps streamline tools, and increases the potential for novel app functionality. ✕ Remove Ads Offloading AI processing to powerful cloud data centers enables impressive functionality and could encourage good smartphone battery life. It also introduces lag, and necessitates an active internet connection when using features like Samsung Notes' Summarize or Samsung Gallery's generative editing. As discovered by diligent digital detective AssembleDebug on X/Twitter, the Galaxy S25 family will start changing that by processing generative AI photo editing locally on your device (Source). This should further help untether everyday activities from the cloud by utilizing the Snapdragon 8 Elite's vast capabilities. The future of on-device AI processing Arm's senior VP explains AI's true impact, and it's not what you think Our interview with Arm exec Chris Bergey Posts Bringing advanced AI to the palm of your hand The start of what's (hopefully) a shift to on-device processing ✕ Remove Ads While reviewing code underlying Samsung's versatile collection of apps, prolific leaker and feature explorer AssembleDebug spotted a set of comments outlining certain features available to different chipsets. Among them was a reference to the SM8750, Qualcomm's famous Snapdragon 8 Elite system-on-a-chip. The code comments name three tools ostensibly linked to the upcoming S25 series: FEATURE_WALLPAPER FEATURE_INOUT_PAINTING FEATURE_GEN_EDIT_ON_DEVICE The last of the feature provisions AssembleDebug found sports an obvious enough name to infer what's coming. Barring an overwhelmingly misleading naming scheme, "FEATURE_GEN_EDIT_ON_DEVICE" should allow for generative AI photo editing on the Galaxy S25 series without needing to send images to the cloud. That's a win for speed, convenience, and privacy. ✕ Remove Ads The code also mentions inpainting and outpainting, which refer to blending edits into an image, and expanding an image outside its original bounds, respectively. In theory, those would fall under the umbrella of generative AI editing, although the minimal evidence so far doesn't explicitly make clear where cloud processing becomes a requirement. Increasing flexibility via on-device processing, and generally shoring up and improving Galaxy AI performance, could go a long way toward making it a viable reason to upgrade to a new Samsung flagship. Related Galaxy AI's half-baked tools offer too little to sell me on new Samsung phones And new Galaxy phones have little else Posts Encouraging adoption of on-device AI processing An important step in the right direction ✕ Remove Ads Currently, Galaxy AI generative photo lets you almost magically isolate objects within images and move, resize, or erase them, but cloud processing takes on most of the heavy lifting. While theoretically good for your battery life, it also forces your phone to upload all relevant data to the cloud, and locks you out of resource-intensive features if you don't have internet access. Google's Gemini Live toolkit, for example, loses almost all functionality when you're offline. Galaxy AI takes a more localized approach in some cases, with translation tools in Samsung's Phone, Keyboard, and Notes apps, as well as Instant Slow-Mo frame interpolation, already running exclusively on the device. Close It's unclear if Samsung's Sketch to Image feature will make the cut for on-device processing. ✕ Remove Ads The slow but meaningful migration to on-device processing comes partly at the mercy of hardware. The powerful, flexible Snapdragon 8 Elite breaks new ground for mobile devices' ability to run demanding software. In terms of AI, the chipset lets handheld devices leverage data-heavy models at speed and without demanding excessive battery power. The convenience and privacy of offline processing should help streamline AI tools and their adoption. Only time will tell what additional, novel functionality Galaxy AI will empower smartphones with, but genAI photo editing likely won't be the last. Related Trying the Snapdragon 8 Elite got me excited for next year's Galaxy S25 The iQOO 13's got it all under the hood Posts ✕ Remove Ads