CES 2025 was an opportunity for Samsung to lay out the big picture vision it has for a future where AI acts as a catalyst that turns its existing ecosystem of devices, product and services into something more than the sum of its parts and something closer to ambient computing.
That bold vision is as an impressive as it is intangible. Sometimes, it feels like every step Samsung takes towards it only serves to make the gulf between today and tomorrow seem larger rather than smaller. Perhaps that's why the product that stood out the most at this year's CES was the new Frame Pro.
Speaking to Reviews.org Australia, Samsung Australia's VP of Consumer Electronics Jeremy Senior emphasised the importance of the Frame to the Australian market.
Rather than a play for those turned off by the fact that the original Frame forced you to choose between a nicer aesthetic and the nicest screens that Samsung makes, Senior said that the Frame Pro is more targeted at those who are already bought in.
Unsurprisingly, Senior's expectations for the sequel are pretty high.
"The first generation of frame users are looking to evolve and extend, and we think now is the right time to do that," he said.
When it comes to Australia, the new Frame Pro will be available in 65-inches, 75-inches and 85-inches. If you need a smaller screen, the standard Frame is sticking around and is available from 32-inches up to 60-inches. However, if you want to get in on any of the Vision AI features that Samsung has been talking up at CES 2025 then the Frame Pro is naturally going to be the better option though.
Of course, the potential allure of new features like live subtitles and click to search is overshadowed by the parallels between the rollout of Vision AI and the looming deadline of the company's Galaxy AI offering.
As per the small print, many of the AI-powered apps and features available on the company's latest smartphones are only guaranteed to be free to consumers until the end of 2025. It's unknown whether Vision AI will follow the same trajectory towards monetization but the potential caveats are as clear as these things come.
There's no better reminder of that these risks than the fact that those who pick up a 2025 Samsung TV are limited to ten generative wallpapers per day. According to Samsung, the reason for this limit is to prevent the servers from being overloaded by potential misuse or abuse. In other words, every image you generate is going to cost Samsung some amount of money in either the tokens or just plain electricity.
Individually, that amount isn't likely to be all that much. However, over time and at scale, these things can add up quickly. What's more, the cost of AI-powered tech seems poised to rise in the years ahead. As Samsung stuffs more and more AI features into it's products, so too does the potential for those bells and whistles to eat into the profits involved.
Senior couldn't rule out the possibility that Vision AI might go down the same path, though he did push back on the idea that Samsung might follow TCL down the rabbit hole when it comes to synthetic content.
"Vision AI is currently free of charge on the 2025 models it will be available on," he said.
Regardless of how that promise might hold up over time, it feels like we're only at the start of Samsung's ever-expanding efforts to make the biggest and most expensive screen in your home a smartest one. And if that future is coming, someone's going to have to foot the bill for it.
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