- 4 days ago
Mark sits down with Samsung's director of smartphone product management, Blake Gaiser, to talk about the controversial Galaxy S25 Edge and whether it's truly a flagship smartphone. In this video, we find out what makes the S25 Edge so thin, but also ask about trade-offs around battery life and the lack of a telephoto lens. And we also touch on the ongoing AI battle between Samsung and Apple, what's next for foldable phones and whether we'll even be using smartphones 10 years from now.
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00:00Hey guys, today I'm here with Blake Geiser from Samsung to talk about what's new and what's next
00:04for Samsung's phones. From the Galaxy S25 Edge to Galaxy AI, we're diving into how Samsung is
00:10making big moves when it comes to mobile, and what it means for you. Without further ado, Blake,
00:15I know that we've caught you at a very interesting time in Samsung's smartphone lifecycle. We're
00:19fresh off the launch of the Galaxy S25 Edge, which is on sale now, and we're coming up on the next
00:24wave of foldable phones, which I know we can't talk about just yet. But let's start with the
00:28Galaxy S25 Edge. It's 5.8 millimeters thin. It's just 163 grams. It's a remarkable design,
00:35but there's some naysayers out there. So when you think about the target audience for the Edge,
00:39who is it? There is actually a pretty good segment out there who's talking about,
00:43you know, being on like right in between an ultra owner or a plus owner. They like the big screen.
00:50They're not an S Pen user. They want a flagship camera, you know, but they don't want the weight
00:56and heft, you know, that you get with the ultra. So there is quite a bit of people out there who
01:02just want a light, tech forward, fashionable device that has all the performance that you would expect
01:09from a high-end flagship phone. And, you know, this is really where that kind of delivers for
01:14our customers. So do you consider the Edge to, because I know it's a very subjective definition,
01:19do you consider it to be a flagship? You know, we do consider it to be a flagship. That's why we're
01:24talking about it. That's why we're launching it kind of off cycle is it is a new innovation piece
01:29that we're bringing forth where we're taking out so much weight, so much thickness of this device,
01:34while not compromising on the things that are really important to our customers, such as
01:39durability, the performance of, you know, the chip set, having that flagship camera lens,
01:45the 200 megapixel camera. And so we do believe that this is that kind of Goldilocks for so many of
01:51our customers that is going to give them everything they want and, you know, not give them the things
01:56that they're not looking for. I actually use the iPhone 16 Pro Max as my everyday phone.
02:01And it's really interesting, like just getting up and like typing with the device and just like
02:04holding it for like an extended period of time and then going back to like a regular flagship phone.
02:10There's a big difference just in terms of the sheer weight and the heft of the device,
02:15not only in terms of when like you're carrying it, but also when you're using it. Do you,
02:19like, are you seeing that? Like when customers are like getting their hands on it for the first
02:23time? You know, what's so amazing about this device is that, you know, normally in my position,
02:29I'm going to, you know, pitch these phones, whether they be to, you know, our carriers or,
02:35you know, customers in media. And I just kind of gave up on PowerPoint. I gave up on saying,
02:43here's the tech specs, here's why it's so cool. And I just said, okay, you know,
02:48here's five things I want you to know about the phone. But before any of that, just hold it.
02:53Right. And that is kind of where it kind of settled out where it was like that experience of like,
02:59not only is it so thin, you know, it has the full plus screen to it. Yeah. But it's so light too.
03:07It almost doesn't feel real. And so it's like, once people get it in their hand, you know,
03:12that hand field is not just about thickness. It's not just about weight. It's about weight
03:15distribution. It's about, you know, how you can reach across the screen, all of those things.
03:21So much better with this device that it just didn't make sense to try to sell people on tech
03:28specs. And so when I hear those naysayers, I'm like, okay, get your hands on the device. And then,
03:33you know, let's see what your opinion is. Right.
03:36So one question that if we're talking about the thinness of the edge is how did you do it?
03:40Because obviously there's some things that you needed to take out, like maybe like the size of
03:43the battery, but in terms of the actual design of the internal components, like how did you make
03:48it so thin? Well, you know, yes, we really designed this from the ground up to be thin.
03:54The goal was to be thin without compromise. We really didn't want to take things away from a
04:02device to make it thin. We could have done that years ago. And so it was really kind of working
04:06towards that moment where we could engineer it in a way to be thin and have the performance that
04:13our customers would expect. So yes, it has a 3,900 milliamp hour battery, which is about 100
04:19milliamps smaller than our base unit. Right. You know, so it's really thin, but it does have the
04:24Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is a three nanometer processor that was custom built for Samsung. So
04:30it gives you the entire, you know, a full day battery life, you know, with that device. But everything
04:35about this device was focusing on that slimness to it. So making sure structurally it was going to be
04:42extremely durable. We're utilizing titanium frame. We're utilizing Corning's most recent ceramic two
04:50glass on it. We're even putting in a vapor chamber cooling system that's larger than the plus model.
04:56So that way we're able to utilize every single component as efficiently and effectively as possible
05:02and making sure that how we put it together gave you a really good balance in the hand.
05:08So it wasn't top heavy or bottom heavy, but yeah, every single detail was meticulously planned out
05:14to make this device. I think one of the concerns that people have with like when, even when they
05:18start seeing like just the leaks of this device, they're like, well, it's just going to snap in
05:22half when I put it in my pocket. How do you make sure that it feels super light, but not too light,
05:28like a toy, when you pick it up, you're talking about the distribution of weight a little bit,
05:31but also to make sure that it's going to stand the test of time, right? Because there's some
05:35worries when you get to something so thin. I think we remember Ben Gate with some iPads perhaps.
05:40But yeah, like how do you avoid that?
05:43It comes down with having that in mind when you're starting the engineering of, you know,
05:48not only are you making sure the weight is distributed evenly, you're making sure that at no point in time,
05:54there's a cross section that's going to, you know, allow for it to bend more than, you know,
06:00it absolutely should. So I haven't been able to break it yet, which is a great thing.
06:06So do you need a case? And if so, does it defeat the purpose of having something so slim?
06:11So cases are a very personal thing for our customers. A lot of the time, initially people
06:18think it's for protection. A lot of the time, it's just for individuality and customization.
06:23I don't use a case on it. I am more than confident that it's, you know, it's a beautiful phone. If
06:30I really wanted to do something and it's probably more to that customization, I might put like a skin
06:35on it or something like that rather than a case, but you know, to each their own, I guess.
06:41Okay. So there are some trade-offs when it comes to the S25 Edge. And one of the ones that people
06:45are talking about is not having that telephoto zoom. You do get like a 2x equivalent with the 200
06:50megapixel main camera, but you don't have the 3x telephoto. You don't have the 30x, you know,
06:55space zoom. So are people going to miss that? And what do you think about that particular trade-off?
07:00You know, we are just so far ahead in our camera tech that people don't really understand the
07:06quality of their photos that they're getting. Not only is it things like optical zooms, but it's also
07:13the agentic AI that we have built in, you know, from the chipset up utilizing cognitive aware engines
07:19so that your camera understands what you're taking photos of and is able to utilize AI to give you
07:25that, that perfect shot. But when we're looking at the usage of our cameras with our customers,
07:31we know a couple of things. We know that the most popular zooms that our customers use are the 0.6x
07:39to get those really wide macro views, the 1x, 2x and 3x. Okay. By far more usability on,
07:47on those three settings than anything else. Interesting. Is it nice to have, you know,
07:52the 100x space zoom at times? Absolutely. Sure. Is it something that you're going to use every day
07:57or even every month? And when you're doing side-by-side comparisons, I think customers are
08:01really going to see that you're getting fantastic quality that meets or beats our competition.
08:06So let's talk about battery life. So we mentioned that it has a 3,900 milliamp hour battery in the
08:11Edge. And based on our own testing, we have our web surfing test and the Edge got a little like
08:1712 and a half hours or so, which is maybe a couple hours less than the regular S25. And then the S25
08:22plus was, I think, three and a half hours or so better. So there, there is a difference in terms of
08:27endurance. So I guess the question is like, what is that dividing line in terms of what is enough
08:33battery life for someone who's going for a device like this? You know, I think enough battery life
08:38for most customers is just an all day usage. You don't want to find yourself at lunch with an empty
08:43battery. And what we've seen with this device is that it has worked, you know, as well or better
08:49than the S24 base model and very close to the S25 base model. Okay. Not only that, you get super fast
08:57charging with it, you know, with 25 Watts. So 30 minutes in you're north of 50% of a battery,
09:02as long as you can live with it, you know, from sunup to sundown without having any issues. We think
09:08that's, you know, a great experience. And personally, I haven't had, you know, much of an issue with the
09:14battery life whatsoever. Not, not even noticeable something that I'm even concerned about using it
09:19as my day-to-day driver. Okay. In terms of battery technologies, obviously this is using lithium
09:24ION. Some people have been talking about silicon carbide, which I guess is a relatively new
09:28technology. Some smartphone makers are starting to experiment with it because I think it gives you
09:33more capacity in the same, or more, yeah, more capacity in the same amount of space. Is that
09:37something that you explored for this phone? Or what do you just think about that technology in general?
09:42You know, Samsung's always looking at every new emerging technology that's out there. It's
09:47something that we're definitely not keeping our eye off of, but with, you know, that new chipset,
09:52with agentic AI helping with performance and efficiencies of these batteries, we really felt
09:58that, you know, going with our traditional lithium ion battery was the right move for this device.
10:02Okay. Well, you brought up AI and obviously galaxy AI has been around for well over a year at this
10:07point. There's lots of features that people can take advantage of. I believe you get everything
10:12that you get on the regular S25 series when it comes to the S25 edge. What features are people
10:18gravitating towards and using most often based on your own internal data?
10:22Yeah. You know, when we look at galaxy AI, we kind of break it down into four sections. We break
10:29it down to creativity, communication, productivity, and health. Okay. And which one of those is being
10:35used more really depends on the customer. So what we see as an example, our translation services where
10:43you can talk into your phone and real time translate it on a phone call. Those customers
10:49that use that, they use it a lot. Whereas, you know, our younger demographics do more post-processing
10:57of their photos and videos to post, you know, online than anyone else. So they're going to use
11:02generative edit. They're going to utilize our audio eraser to really kind of take out the sounds
11:08that they're not looking for. And so it really kind of depends on who it is that you're talking
11:13to. Right. To your point, S25 edge has everything that the S25 family has. And probably the most
11:21exciting one that people are utilizing the most is that audio eraser where you can just take noise
11:26and pull it out of the video. So whether it be construction noise or nature noise or general
11:35audience noise, music, whatever it might be, you can custom EQ that to give you the video that you
11:43want. And it's something that you can play with real time that we've seen a lot of people extremely
11:48happy with that one. Is there potentially a tipping point where people are so excited about what they're
11:53seeing on Samsung phones and what you can do with Gemini, for example, like just as an example,
11:58the other night I was cooking some steaks. I like fired up Gemini. It told me how thick the steaks
12:03were. And based on that, how long I should cook on each side. You cannot do that on an iPhone.
12:09And Siri is delayed, as everyone knows. Is there potentially like a little bit like grass is greener
12:15growing among like the Apple community out there? And someone might be like, my phone can't do that.
12:21I want this. Or do you feel like people are just going to be stuck in their ways? Or what do you think?
12:25You know, AI is such a exciting time right now and having it on the mobile platform, it's still in its infancy.
12:35So with S25, we really launched what we call seamless action across apps. And really what that is, is the fact that
12:43the S25 was really built from the framework, the Android framework up with AI in mind. And so one of the things that we look at,
12:52you know, from a product standpoint, is how can we get clicks, take clicks away from our customer?
12:58You know, what we see is, you know, after three or four clicks that you have to do, you kind of get
13:03overwhelmed or bored or it's not worth it for you. Right. So utilizing AI and multimodality to be able
13:10to do multiple things with just one voice prompt has been, you know, a real game changer. And we're
13:17just scratching the surface. So, you know, imagine you want to find a restaurant. You're not exactly
13:22sure what kind of restaurant. You want to invite some friends. You want to be reminded and then get
13:27directions there. That's like 20 clicks for you to go out, search Google, find the restaurant,
13:34go into your text messages, text your friends, put it on your calendar, then go into Google Maps. And,
13:39you know, so you can simply ask, you know, find the most, you know, find a local barbecue joint that's
13:49pet friendly, send it to my friend and, you know, put a calendar reminder, you know, for 7pm. And it
13:55will do all of those things at one point for you. Right. It will even compose the text message for you.
14:02You can look it over and then just press click. That's two clicks, one click to start the voice
14:07message and one click to send it to your friend. And as cool as that is, how do you expose customers
14:14to those possibilities without being too in their face? Like, Hey, did you know your phone could do
14:18this? That is the hard part, you know, especially with things that don't exist or haven't existed for
14:27quite some time is how much and how strong we, we send that message to our customers. And what we're
14:34really seeing is that the in-store experience is the way to go. You know, if you want to learn about AI,
14:40or if you want to learn about foldables, going into a store, getting your hands on it, playing with it
14:45is really important. And so we'll build out those experiences on those devices. So people can really
14:52learn about them and try them out real time. Right. And with things like the S25 edge, you know,
14:58we've worked with our partners, all of our carriers to utilize different securities so they can really
15:04experience the weight and feel of that device. And then on the device, they can learn about,
15:09you know, the latest Galaxy AI and all the benefits that they're going to have from that.
15:13Cool. Speaking of wow moments, I think foldables fall under that category where it's one of those
15:17things where you have to hold it in your hand and experience to sort of get, you know, potentially the
15:21value proposition, whether it's a book style, flip, et cetera. We know that the next generation of you guys
15:26have said that it's, that it's on the way with the, whether they're called the fold seven and flip
15:31seven, we'll have to see. And we are already getting a taste of one UI eight. You're teasing
15:35some of the features that are going to be available, not just on the S25 series, but also the upcoming
15:39foldables. What in your mind, what is the state of foldables right now? And like, how far can you
15:45push this category? You know, we have six generations out right now, six years of learning how to make these
15:53very complicated, hard devices work beautifully. Um, we're very proud of the state of our foldables,
16:02but we also recognize that awareness of foldables isn't near what it is for a traditional smartphone,
16:09right? A lot of people, you know, even to our surprise, don't even know that they exist yet.
16:13I feel like a lot of your, you know, tech savvy, uh, listeners are going to say, how does nobody know
16:21about these devices, but you know, it's, it's very, very true. And one UI eight and foldables
16:28were, I think that we're really excited about foldables is that with that different form factor
16:35of those devices, it allows us to do more with AI because it is a device that can do literally a lot
16:43more than a traditional smartphone can do. Well, I'm trying to think of examples. Like one is live
16:48translation, right? Where you have like the, what's on the outer screen and you can see what's going
16:52on on the other side. Are there any other examples like where AI is different or better on foldables
16:58versus like, let's say the regular S series? Well, absolutely. I mean, just having the ability to have
17:04multi screens on like your big fold where you're able to summarize notes while recording and
17:11transcribing, you know, while doing other actions on your device, you know, three, four different
17:16screens at one point in time on that unfolded phone, you know, allowing you to do, you know,
17:22a lot more to it, having that face-to-face conversation where you can just put your phone
17:26in a tent and, you know, speak one language, have it translate directly and they can see it. So you
17:33can have a face-to-face conversation with somebody with that language barrier being removed between us.
17:38And, and it really kind of makes it a much more personable experience. And we're going to be
17:43bringing even more to the device. Cool. In terms of just form factors,
17:46I know that Samsung display has teased a triple foldable before, which I think is very interesting
17:51when I got to play around with it in person. What do you think of that particular form factor?
17:55Can you say whether or not you're exploring it and maybe what advantages it might have over
18:00the regular fold? You know, I would love to tell you all that I know of these kinds of things,
18:06but what I can say is that we're looking at every single possibility of what a phone's going to
18:13look like, you know, a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, and what are the,
18:19you know, features and benefits of those different form factors. What we do know is that phones are
18:24going to evolve. They have, you know, over the last 15 years, when Samsung pushed the envelope with a
18:30six inch, you know, plus display, and nobody's going to like that. It's way too big of a phone. And
18:35now you can't find one under that, but it's something that we're going to, you know,
18:39look at all of those different opportunities. We are uniquely positioned with our displays,
18:45with our engineering, with all the different things that Samsung does
18:49to really push the envelope on new form factors. And I would expect without knowing much of the
18:55future that, you know, Samsung would be first to innovate within those spaces.
19:00Okay. So one last question when it comes to the future, we were talking about five years from now,
19:0410 years from now. So let's say it's 2035. Are we still carrying around smartphones or do we maybe
19:10transition to smart glasses? And like, what do you feel like is next for the category? Is it going to,
19:16is the smartphone going to stick around?
19:18The smartphone will stick around in one form or another. I wish I had that, you know, crystal ball,
19:25to be able to look into it. I'm really excited. I think with AI getting better with chipsets,
19:34you know, kind of getting better, different battery technologies out there,
19:38it's going to fundamentally evolve the smartphone as we understand it today. I think foldables really kind
19:44of starts the role of that in not only understanding different form factors,
19:51but how people can utilize them. So gosh, 2035, I don't even know how old I'll be at that point in
19:59time. Hopefully retired. But I'm really excited just knowing that we're going to be able to do so much
20:10more with our devices. Go back to that, you know, seamless action across apps is just being able
20:15to talk into your phone and get the information and do the actions that you want to do just with
20:20your voice, right? That alone, as that evolves and can touch every single app on your device. So,
20:27you know, I, I think we're going to have a more personalized experience with our devices
20:32and how that's going to come through on a form factor. Your guess is as good as mine.
20:37Yeah. That makes sense though, that AI over time, both like into it, what you're looking
20:42for as opposed to have to being prompted. Exactly. And you see that we, we kicked that
20:47off with S25 with the now brief and the now bar. Right. So as you use your device more, it's
20:53understanding, you know, it, it takes some of that information, stores it in your own personal data
20:58core, completely locked down, encrypted, you know, can't get to it, but it's understanding the things
21:04that are meaningful to you and the actions that you're taking. And then it's saying things
21:09like suggesting routines. Hey, Mark, you're doing this all the time. Maybe we should just turn that
21:15into a routine for you. So you don't have to do those 13 clicks every single day over and over again,
21:20or your favorite team is coming on. Hey, they're about to play in 15 minutes. So it's already starting
21:27to learn about what it is that's important to you and then provide you the information
21:33before you go and look for it. And that's only going to get better and more accurate and more
21:38efficient over time. Well, on behalf of me and everyone else watching this video today,
21:41thanks Blake for your time today. If you learned something new or just love seeing how the tech
21:45world ticks, make sure to hit that like button and subscribe. And let me know in the comments
21:49who we should interview here on the channel next. For Tom's Guide, this is Mark Spoonhour.
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