With Samsung currently in full promotion mode for its upcoming Galaxy S25 range, there’s one critical question that remains unanswered: what happens to Galaxy AI after 2025?
Since the launch of Galaxy AI, a set of features that includes on-device translations and image generation, Samsung has always included a disclaimer in the footnotes. Last year, the official word was “Galaxy AI features will be provided free of charge until the end of 2025”.
Today, that disclaimer remains more or less the same. What has changed, however, is its prominence. Seen at the top of JB Hi-Fi’s pre-order page is a large advert for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It mentions Galaxy AI, immediately followed by the text “Free until the end of 2025”. It’s arguably one of the most front-and-centre disclaimers promoted by a retailer so far.
A screenshot of the advertisement on JB Hi-Fi.
What isn’t clear is what exactly will and won’t be free after 2025. In a statement to GadgetGuy, a Samsung spokesperson clarified what’s currently on the roadmap; it seems that paywalling some features isn’t yet on the agenda.
“All Galaxy AI features will be free at launch through the end of 2025,” said the spokesperson. “We currently have no plans to adopt paid or subscription-based models, and will carefully monitor market trends and user feedback to ensure we deliver the most premium experience possible.”
Which Galaxy AI features could cost money?
Based on the statement’s inclusion of “currently”, there’s wiggle room if Samsung decides to charge users after 2025. Going back to JB Hi-Fi’s retail listing, the accompanying footnote provides some extra clarity.
“…[after 2025] you may be charged service fees to use Galaxy AI features provided by a third party.”
This seemingly indicates that Samsung’s in-house AI features will remain free to use with compatible devices. Particularly tools that rely on local processing, like transcriptions, language translations, and some of the new One UI 7 features are likely to avoid paywalls.
AI features that rely on cloud servers, which are costly to run, seem the most likely candidates for paid access beyond 2025. Samsung advertises Circle to Search as one of its most popular Galaxy AI features, despite coming from Google. Recent history indicates that companies have struggled to upsell based on AI functionality, however.
Google initially included Gemini Live, its conversational AI assistant, as part of a $32.99 monthly AI Premium subscription. Gemini Live is now free and available to use on other phones, including iPhone. Microsoft 365 prices also recently increased, along with the addition of Copilot AI features that previously required a paid add-on. These moves hint that customers aren’t paying more for AI features on top of existing subscriptions.
If that’s any indication, Samsung has a year to figure out how much some Galaxy AI features should cost, if anything at all.
Lots of hacking, slashing, and demonic pulverisation featured throughout the January 2025 Xbox Developer Direct, as several of the company’s studios showed their games in great detail.
Between the likes of Texas and Montpellier, each studio showed in-depth gameplay and behind-the-scenes development and confirmed release dates. We now know that some major titles, including Doom: The Dark Ages and Ninja Gaiden 4, are only months away.
Here’s every game shown at the January 2025 Xbox Developer Direct presentation and their accompanying release dates.
Ninja Gaiden 4 brings back an action classic
Today’s surprise announcement was Ninja Gaiden 4, the return of a decade-dormant action game. Born out of a collaboration between Japanese powerhouses Team Ninja and Platinum Games, Ninja Gaiden 4 looks like a welcome return to the series’ speedy combat and deadly finishers.
Advertised as launching “Fall 2025”, Australians can expect Ninja Gaiden 4 to release during our spring months this year. It’s coming to Xbox Series X and S, PC, and PlayStation 5, in addition to the Xbox Game Pass subscription platform.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black gets surprise launch
Surprise! Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, an Unreal Engine 5 remaster of the 2008 game, is out today. It’s on Xbox Series X and S (including Game Pass), PlayStation 5, and PC.
So, if you want to whet your hack-and-slash appetite ahead of the new game, this looks like one heck of an entree.
South of Midnight brings gothic mythology soon
Set in the American South, South of Midnight is a spooky Gothic third-person adventure game filled with all sorts of weird and wonderful mythical creatures. It’s fascinating to look at in motion, basing its art direction on stop-motion animation, meaning the characters move in an interesting puppet-like way.
South of Midnight launches on 8 April 2025, for Xbox Series X and S, and PC. Plus, it’ll be a day-one game for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a French twist on JRPGs
What do you get when you combine a Japanese RPG (or JRPG) with French developers? I don’t have an answer to this because I’m genuinely asking. Is it a JFRPG? Whatever the answer, that’s what Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is.
A turn-based RPG with plenty of cinematic flourishes, it looks like what would happen if you gave the Persona series to a French studio. I’m entirely here for it.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launches on 24 April 2025 for Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Xbox Game Pass subscribers also get to play it on launch day.
Doom: The Dark Ages lets you ride a damn dragon
A prequel to 2016’s Doom, id Software’s latest hellbound shooter cranks the action up to 11. Designed to evoke the nostalgia of the original first-person shooter, Doom: The Dark Ages appears to adopt a real stand-and-deliver style. Armed with a chainsaw-adorned shield, you have an increased focus on parries and strafing between hellish fiends to rip and tear them asunder.
Running and gunning isn’t your only approach this time around; The Dark Ages sees you take the helm of a 30-storey-tall mecha and a Gatling gun-toting cybernetic dragon. Extremely cool. As the game’s developers told GamesHub, the blend of sci-fi and medieval fantasy is something they’ve wanted to make “from the beginning”.
You won’t have to wait long to ride the robo-dragon either; Doom: The Dark Ages launches on 15 May 2025 for Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5, and PC. It’ll also be available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers at launch.
In a few ways, Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels like a full-circle moment. For players as well as the developers who worked on the games. Shadows represents a middle ground between the sprawling scope of recent entries and the tighter stealth focus from the series’ earlier games. It could also be one of the most accommodating games in franchise history in terms of flexible play styles.
In addition to multiple other Ubisoft games, Luc Plante, Level Design Director on Assassin’s Creed Shadows, also worked on the London-set Syndicate, notably the first game in the series to star dual protagonists. What’s changed between now and then is the greater focus on RPG systems as introduced in the series soft-reboot, Origins.
“What the RPG element allows us to bring is a more open world environment, it’s a big sandbox,” Plante said. “What I really like about this is giving us the opportunity to go gameplay-wise, but also narratively, here’s the world, it’s up to the player to discover, but also to give them more tools each time so that they can create their own agency.”
One of the common criticisms of recent Assassin’s Creed games, like Valhalla, was that they became too big. Chasing countless icons on an in-game map became a capital-C commitment, making it tough to stick around and finish the story.
With Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the development team wanted to ensure all players, regardless of time commitments, could get something out of every play session. Many quests can be tackled in different orders, while still providing a meaningful sense of progression, even if it’s not a major story beat.
“By having shorter quests, we can give rewards, we have a sense of completion more often,” Plante said. “It’s to play with the guilty factor that the player doesn’t want to stop doing something and do something else.”
“So, by giving those rewards, those completions, it’s kind of us telling you, ‘It’s okay if you want to put that on pause and do something else. We’re there once you’re ready to move on'”.
Why the delays?
After two separate launch delays, the main question is why? What needed more work before Shadows hit shelves?
One can speculate about Ubisoft’s financial position and wanting to avoid a heavily packed February release window as a potential reason. There are too many variables to point to one thing as the sole factor.
What the delays did provide, however, was an added window of opportunity to refine the game. According to Plante, the extra development time helped the team further polish two distinct gameplay elements: the parkour system, and character AI.
Image: Ubisoft.
Even for a series defined by its verticality, Shadows‘ Japanese setting presented a challenge for the developers. Not only did they have to contend with the different-shaped rooftops used in Japanese architecture, but they also needed to make using a grappling hook between structures feel smooth.
“[Parkour has] been one of the pillars since day one, since the first game,” Plante said. “What was difficult this time around is the architecture, it’s the first time we’re going outside what’s more European type of architecture.”
“We put a lot of emphasis to make it as smooth as possible as an experience because you don’t want to battle yourself against the controller.”
As for the AI, Assassin’s Creed Shadows introduces a dynamic weather system that’s not just for show. Most of my preview session was spent marvelling at the game’s meteorological prowess. For the countless non-playable characters populating each area, it wasn’t enough for them to act as mere set dressing. When heavy showers roll through, the characters cover their heads and scurry for the nearest shelter.
As normal and mundane as that potentially sounds, programming these behaviours at such a granular level is no small undertaking. As Plante described it, “everything was there, but it’s always the tiny little details that need to be perfected as much as possible.”
Image: Ubisoft.
Designing an Assassin’s Creed level
As someone whose game development career has predominantly focused on level design, Plante has a very clear vision of what makes for a good level. Particularly within the context of a stealth-based series like Assassin’s Creed, he believes it’s important you don’t “feel cheated by the game” when running into trouble.
“From my perspective, [a good level is where] I have all my tools at my disposal, and I can play with the level, and I can feel smart by using it,” Plante said. “If I can run smoothly inside the layout, and you can play the same layout with a different approach and still make your way without being detected or cheated by the systems, I think that’s what makes for a good level.”
From my preview session, it’s evident that Assassin’s Creed Shadows does indeed provide you with plenty of tools to work with. We’ll find out how well it sustains its runtime when the game launches on 20 March 2025.
Chris Button attended a preview event in Sydney as a guest of Ubisoft Australia.
With Samsung confirming its annual premium phone refresh at the latest Galaxy Unpacked in San Jose, there’s a bit to wrap your head around. New hardware, flashy features, and quirky brand accessory collabs made for a fascinating launch event. So, let’s get you up to speed on the main Galaxy S25 announcements.
For the TDLR version, 14 February 2025 is when you can expect to start playing with Samsung’s newest phones. As you’d expect, faster performance, camera improvements, and some design tweaks are the main hardware talking points. However, it’s Samsung’s continued push towards OS-integrated AI features that deserves the most attention.
It’s not all spec sheets and number-crunching, fortunately. Samsung had some fun along the way with some surprises in store. Here are the biggest stories from the Samsung Galaxy S25 launch event.
No longer the more angular pick of the bunch, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra received a minor facelift. Its corners are now rounded, much like every other flagship phone on the market. Samsung managed to slim it down too, sanding away 15 grams to help make the phone easier to hold.
Bolstering its photography credentials, the S25 Ultra now has a 50MP Ultra Wide camera, adding to its heavy-duty array of lenses. This means it should be able to take even clearer macro shots to complement the phone’s 5x optical zoom capabilities.
Under the hood is the custom-made Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset, advertised as noticeably boosting processing speeds versus the S24 range.
One UI 7 update ships day one with even more AI features
Image: Supplied.
For the first time, Samsung is launching a major software upgrade at the same time as its premium phones. Based on Android 15, One UI 7 includes various AI-enabled features aimed at reducing friction between apps.
One of the major features is AI Select, a context-aware tool that analyses your screen’s content and suggests relevant actions. For example, it can detect different languages, translate them, and save images, all without opening a separate app.
Following the popularity of Google’s Circle to Search last year, the direction of One UI 7 seems to tap into a similar sense of utility.
It’s a bit pricey and bulky but overflowing with charm. Like the shoes the case is based on, you can attach all sorts of charms to your phone’s Crocs, letting you add a personal flourish.
If I get my hands on one of these, I’ll immediately cover it in as many cat charms and bright colours as possible.
Best Samsung Galaxy S25 pre-order deals and plans
Image: Chris Button.
For as long as early tech adopters roam the Earth, there will always be a suite of launch deals to tempt them. Most of the Galaxy S25 pre-order deals and plans provide discounts when signing up for a telco contract, while the standard free storage upgrade promotion makes a return.
Particularly if you’re keen to swap out your existing phone, there are some decent trade-in deals up for grabs. You’ve got until 13 February 2025 to consider grabbing a launch-day deal, including various offers exclusive to Samsung’s website.
Brand collaborations come and go, often deployed as a marketing gimmick to get you to spend more money. Sometimes, a fun promo catches your eye, destined to be permanently seared into your long-term memory. For me, that’s the Crocs phone case launching with the Samsung Galaxy S25 range.
Ever the magpie in human form, I love shiny, brightly coloured things. Anything that subverts the grey concrete jungle vibes of the world and lets me show a bit of flair instantly gets a nod of approval.
Once considered an unsightly fashion faux pas, Crocs are well and truly back in vogue. Now, your phone can be boldly fashionable too. Timed alongside Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 handsets, the Crocs phone case is all I’ve thought about since first laying eyes upon them.
Image: Supplied.
A mini shoe for your phone, the promotional case is pretty much like its full-sized counterpart. Except instead of putting your foot in it, your phone fits snugly inside. Like the actual shoe, the Crocs phone case is a bit on the bulky side but feels sturdy and grippy. You can even use the strap to comfortably hold the phone, like how a PopSocket works.
But the most important part of any pair of Crocs is customisation. At a preview session, I played with several charms that snap into the case’s holes. Among the generic accessories of cute animals and feel-good mantras was a smorgasbord of branded goodies. I particularly liked the Pusheen cat tucking into a bowl of ramen, and the range of Disney franchises represented.
Crocs phone case price
All of this leaves me to the price. Anytime established brands get together, the result ain’t cheap. For the Samsung Galaxy S25 Crocs phone case, you’re looking at $119. That’s more expensive than buying an actual pair of Crocs for your feet. I don’t know if that includes any charms, or how much additional charms cost yet.
Sure, it’s pricey but it’s still an undeniably endearing collab. My one remaining question is this: will the joyful Crocs silliness come to other phones too?
Tapo made its connected living ambitions clear at CES 2025, with an expanded line-up including an AI upgraded app, 4K outdoor cameras, a hand recognition door lock, Wi-Fi 7 routers, and a robot vacuum and mop with an innovative approach to dirty water.
Tapo AI on wireless cameras
Tapo’s new home security cameras now include plain-language processing and Tapo AI features, an aim not just to further improve home security but also to make accessing it more convenient.
When something happens at the front door, you could pull up the notification and rewatch the footage on your phone, but that’s not always convenient. Now as an alternative, Tapo’s app uses Tapo AI to analyse and present a description of that footage.
At CES, GadgetGuy saw the camera describe people around the Tapo booth, but home users can expect notifications like “delivery person has placed a large parcel on the porch” or “two adults have rung the doorbell and are standing at the door”.
The app also uses Tapo AI to allow users to find specific prerecorded footage. The example at the booth allowed our reporter to search for footage of a family pet, but other examples could include asking what time a teenager returned home, who left the yellow parcel, or when lights are turned off.
Tapo’s new range of outdoor security cameras has upgraded 4K sensors and solar charging. Image: Tapo.
All this also applies to Tapo’s range of outdoor home security cameras which have been upgraded to 4K sensors, so you can pinch to zoom in on something the Tapo AI might have highlighted for you. There are also models available with solar power so you don’t need to wire the cameras in or recharge them.
And for users who need 24/7 coverage from up to eight cameras, Tapo’s NVR system allows just that: continuous coverage instead of splitting everything into little clips.
Talk to your smart home
Smart home devices like smart lights now have more secure networking and voice control. Image: Tapo.
This plain language control of security cameras also extends to Tapo’s range of smart lights. Users are no longer limited to turning lights on and off with voice control, but will be able to make requests like “make the light more intensely green” or “change the colour to orange”.
Tapo RV7 Pro Ultra robovac recycles water
Robot vacuums were a big part of CES this year, but Tapo’s offering stood out thanks to its ability to recycle and filter dirty mop water.
The Tapo RV7 Pro Ultra robot vacuum cleans and reuses mop water as well as dehumidifying the room. Image: Tapo.
Instead of needing to dump out dirty water after every second or third cleaning cycle, the Tapo RV7 Pro Ultra re-uses the water as much as possible. It also dehumidifies as it cleans, adding moisture from the air back into its mop reservoir.
Add to this a massive colour touchscreen on the top of the base station that shows the map created by the RV7 Pro Ultra’s various sensors, and you won’t even need to reach for your smartphone to get to the vac’s advanced features. Though of course, it is still controllable via Tapo’s app.
Tapo PalmKey smart door lock scans your palms
Fingerprint smart locks have been in the market for a while, but Tapo has now introduced the PalmKey smart door lock that scans your palm and identifies registered users by their unique pattern of veins. The lock also supports PIN access.
Image: Tapo.
And while these smart locks are usually positioned for front door access, Tapo is also suggesting the PalmKey smart door lock is suitable for inside the house too, such as your study or other secure areas.
An ecosystem of new devices enabled by Wi-Fi 7
Naturally, Tapo was also keen to show off a new range of Wi-Fi 7 capable network devices, under its parent company’s (TP-Link) Deco and Archer brands. These ran the gamut from dedicated gaming and hardcore routers capable of a stonking 24.4 gigabits per second of bandwidth, which should give Australian users plenty of network overhead for our 1-2GBps max fibre internet connections.
The Archer GE800 Wi-Fi 7 router is dedicated to gaming. Image: TP-Link.
Standing out among these new routers, however, is the 5G BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 mobile router. Like an old-school “portable hotspot” with 2025 tech, it gives you full 5G speeds when mobile but can connect up to 64 devices and plug in via 2.5Gbps Ethernet when at home in the office. The customisable touchscreen display is also a tasty treat for networking geeks.
Expect to see the full range of Tapo devices launch in Australia throughout 2025, with more details, including pricing, to be available on TP-Link’s website.
With a hefty camera array bearing the coveted Hasselblad name, the flagship Oppo Find X8 Pro is out to win serious photographers away from Android’s heavy hitters.
Oppo has become a prolific smartphone maker in the last few years, similar to Samsung in both the breadth of its range (with the Oppo A, Find X, Find N and Reno series) and its aspirations to stake its claim at the premium end of the Android market.
Of course, holding your own amongst the Android flagships demands a stunning camera. To that end, Oppo has pulled out the big guns by collaborating with Hasselblad, one of the most respected names in the business.
Oppo unashamedly borrows ideas from Apple and the Oppo Find X8 Pro is no exception, in terms of both software and hardware. It’s hard not to draw comparisons with the Apple iPhone 16 Pro at times, although it’s really taking the fight to the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Google Pixel 9 Pro XL.
With a 6.78-inch display, the Find X8 Pro looks tall, yet the 19.8:9 aspect ratio ensures it’s not too wide and cumbersome. It has slightly curved edges, which don’t look quite as elegant as some slender handsets.
To help the phone stay balanced in your hand, the power button is more than halfway up the right-hand side, with the volume buttons above.
As with most tall screens, this means the onscreen fingerprint reader is a little low to access comfortably with your thumb. It’s more practical to use a digital on your other hand to unlock, but it’s a shame Oppo couldn’t build the fingerprint reader into the power button.
It’s not as stylish as some, but the Oppo Find X8 Pro has got it where it counts. Image: Adam Turner.
Below the power button on the right, Oppo’s new touch-sensitive Quick Button launches the camera with a double-tap, and then acts as the shutter button. Sliding your finger across the button accesses the zoom, although it’s not very precise.
The Quick Button is a welcome addition, even if it is a fairly blatant homage to the iPhone’s Camera Control button but it lacks some of its functionality such as accessing advanced settings.
On the left of the handset, Oppo hasn’t followed Apple in replacing the mute button with a customisable Action button. Instead, it’s stuck with the three-position Alert Slider introduced with the Oppo Find N3 Flip. It slides up and down – to let you choose between Ring, Vibrate and Silent – but lacks the iPhone Action button’s customisation options.
Flip the handset over and you encounter the Find X8 Pro’s key selling point in the hefty quad-lense rear camera array, sporting a prominent ‘H’ for Hasselblad.
Four 50 MP sensors are on offer, starting with a primary lens backed by a Sony LYT-600 sensor – with the benefit of a triple prism periscope lens and optical image stabilisation. Alongside are 0.6x ultra-wide, 3x zoom and 6x zoom. Around the front lies a 32 MP selfie camera. Each lens, front and back, supports shooting 4K 60 fps video.
Power up the handset and you’re faced with a bright, vivid and super-sharp 264×2780 pixel AMOLED flexible display, with up to 120 Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling.
The screen supports a maximum brightness of 1600 nits and a local peak brightness of 4500 nits to make the most of High Dynamic Range content. This includes Dolby Vision when watching Netflix, which is lacking on many HDR-capable handsets, along with the ability to shoot your own 4K Dolby Vision video.
At the bottom of the handset, you’ve got a USB-C port, alongside a nano-SIM port and eSIM support, but no old-school headphone jack. It’s a sub-6 5G handset, with Oppo’s AI-powered LinkBoost offering smart network selection to reduce dropouts.
Oppo Find X8 Pro specs and price
Display size
6.78 inch
19.8:9 aspect ratio
Display resolution
1264 x 2780 pixels
450 ppi
Display technology
AMOLED Flexible
Maximum brightness 1600 nits
Refresh rate 1 to 120 Hz
The Oppo Find X8 Pro runs Android 15, customised as usual with Oppo’s own ColorOS UI, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple’s iOS.
Oppo says the handset will receive five years of Android OS updates and six years of security patches. That’s great compared to many Android handsets, yet Samsung and Google are a little more generous, offering seven years with their flagships.
Not surprisingly, ColorOS 15’s new features are very AI-centric, focus on multimedia editing/enhancing and generative AI tools like summarising, drafting and rewriting text. Plus you’ve got Google’s Gemini as the default smart assistant with the benefit of Circle to Search.
The handset’s multimedia credentials are boosted by Oppo’s partnership with Hasselblad, also shared with the Oppo Find N3. The Find X8 Series introduces Oppo’s all-new Hasselblad Master Camera System for accessing a wealth of manual settings, plus it supports Hasselblad colour tones and optical 135 mm portraits.
The Oppo Find X8 Pro’s hefty rear camera array is blessed with four 50 MP sensors. Image: Adam Turner.
Under the bonnet, the Find X8 Pro sports the octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 9400, MediaTek’s beefy flagship powerplant taking the fight to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon. You’ve also got the AI-optimised Immortalis G925 MC12 GPU, which is no slouch either.
Oppo has gone all in on performance, throwing in a generous 16 GB of RAM accompanied by 512 GB of storage.
To support all this grunt, as well as that bright, sharp display, the Find X8 Pro packs a very generous 5910 mAh battery. It can easily go 36 hours before recharging, perhaps stretching out to 48 hours if you nurse it.
When you do need to top up, the handset can take advantage of 80-watt SUPERVOOC wired charging, using the supplied bulky AC charger to charge from flat in around 40 minutes. You’ve also got the benefit of fast 50W AIRVOOC wireless charging using Oppo’s special charger.
Quality
The GeekBench 6 benchmarks paint a very impressive picture, scoring 2,833 on the CPU single-core test and 8570 on multi-core, along with a GPU OpenCL score of 20,711.
Such results declare it an Android heavy hitter which won’t disappoint if you tend to push your phone to the limit, especially with 16 GB of RAM at hand.
When it comes to photography, the Find X8 Pro puts most Android smartphones to shame and can stand toe-to-toe with Apple’s big guns. Portraits offer beautifully natural skin tones and impressive detail without resorting to the beautification settings that hinder many Android cameras. Likewise with selfies, although it’s a shame the selfie camera lacks optical image stabilisation and autofocus.
Head outside and green trees below blue skies look lush and detailed, without appearing overblown or over-processed. Switching between lenses offers very little degradation in image quality, with excellent zoom results. The AI telescope zoom kicks in after 10x and does a surprisingly good job, with the benefit of picture-in-picture wide view to make it easier to locate your target.
After dark, the handset produces plenty of detail and impressive colours in low-light conditions.
Who is the Oppo Find X8 Pro for?
If you’re looking beyond the usual suspects for an Android flagship then the Oppo Find X8 Pro is hard to beat, especially if you’re focused on photography.
Even if you’re just chasing an all-rounder, the Find X8 Pro’s generous screen backed by plenty of grunt and a long battery life won’t disappoint. It’s expensive at $1,799, but that still brings it in a little cheaper than its flagship rivals. If you’re not already on Team Samsung or Team Google, then Oppo’s Find X8 Pro might win you over.
Oppo Find X8 Pro
With a stunning camera and loads of grunt, the Oppo Find X8 Pro is an Android powerhouse.
Features
9
Value for money
9
Performance
9
Ease of use
9
Design
8
Positives
Excellent cameras
Great battery life
Plenty of grunt
Negatives
Android OS and security updates not as generous as flagship rivals
