With the new Galaxy S25 Ultra in my hand, I stand in the lobby of the LinkedIn building in San Francisco, which happens to be a POPOS: a privately owned public open space. It's a gorgeous hall, with long running panels of blonde wood on the ceiling and back wall.

All this to say the Galaxy S25 ($800), Galaxy S25+ ($1,000), and Galaxy S25 Ultra ($1,300) are powerful, reliable, and well-equipped smartphones. They're excellent upgrades if you're coming from a three or four-year-old device. They're just not otherwise interesting or exciting.

Setting up the Brief is pretty easy, with the simplest method being just to add it to the phone's home screen. All you need to do is press and hold the screen, then select the Widgets icon at the bottom of the screen, and tapping on the Now Brief icon.