Samsung Electronics today unveiled the next iteration of a foldable Galaxy smartphone that is optimized for a wider range of artificial intelligence (AI) use cases.
Launched at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025 event, the Galaxy Z Flip7 smartphone is based on multiple 3-nanometer CPUs, graphics processing unit (GPU) and neural processing units (NPUs) packaged in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset that provides access to 12 GB of memory.
The Flip7 folds down to 13.7 millimeters; unfold it, and you get a 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X main display, while the new edge-to-edge FlexWindow on the cover grows to 4.1 inches.
The Galaxy Z Flip7 is also the first smartphone to run the Android 16 operating system and Google announced that a six-month license to Gemini Pro models will be included with the Galaxy Z Flip7 smartphone.
Jay Kim, executive vice president and head of the customer experience office for the Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung, told conference attendees that Galaxy Z Flip7 is the latest in a series of mobile computing devices that, thanks to AI, are evolving into digital assistants that automate tasks using the Gemini AI models developed by Google. For example, the camera can now be used to take a picture of an event such as a concert that will now automatically add the event to Google Calendar. “The smartphone must be a companion,” says Kim.
In general, Samsung is making a case for smartphones that have larger screens and a revamped user interface for running mobile applications that have been infused with AI capabilities. The company as part of that effort is making Gemini Live AI models directly available via its FlexWindow UI to enable hands-free access to applications, including the Google search engine and Samsung Wallet.
It’s not clear how much processing of AI will take place on mobile computing devices, but it’s apparent that given the inherent latency associated with remotely accessing AI models, application user experiences will require access to AI models running on some type of local device, whether it is a smartphone, tablet or AI PC.
The issue now is, of course, waiting to see how soon third-party mobile applications will take advantage of these AI capabilities. While Samsung demonstrated some advanced use cases for AI, they alone may not be enough to justify the cost of upgrading a smartphone.
In the meantime, Apple continues to make significant investments in AI, dubbed Apple Intelligence, that while still in its infancy shows how AI will soon become pervasively employed. In effect, the two leading providers of smartphones and tablets are now locked in an AI arms race.
Eventually, the line between where AI models running locally and those running remotely in a cloud service will start to blur. However, no matter how powerful an AI model running in the cloud may be, the laws of physics will continue to favor any AI capability that can be provided in a way that requires the least amount of latency possible.
