OPINION: This has undoubtedly been Samsung’s week as the company unveiled its latest line of flagship S Series phones for 2025 – though not without valid criticism, as you’ll learn in this week’s Winners and Losers.
Elsewhere, the TikTok ban came and left just as quickly, Fujifilm unveiled its most versatile Instax camera yet and Apple confirmed that CarPlay 2 is still in the works despite missing its 2024 target.
Three suffered a major outage, leaving customers unable to call even emergency services, while Netflix announced another hefty price hike in the States.
Keep reading to learn who we crowned and winner and loser this week and why.
Winner: UK drivers
Not only did Brits dodge the Netflix price hike (for now) and get a Snapdragon-powered version of the S25 this week, but it has also been confirmed that the new GOV.UK Wallet app will soon allow us to keep a digital version of our driver’s licenses on our phones.
This means no more carrying around a wallet just to house a physical ID for those of us who have already gone virtually cashless and cardless thanks to smartphone wallets like the Apple Wallet and Google Wallet that carry everything from your credit card to concert tickets, and the ever important Tesco Clubcard.
According to a recent government blog post, Brits will be given the option to use a digital version of their licence to show their right to drive and prove their age when buying age-restricted items online and in-person.
The digital driver’s license and Veteran Card will be the first documents to be available in the GOV.UK Wallet starting later this year, with more government-issued documents – including DBS checks and proof of benefits – to follow by the end of 2027.
The government has also announced a GOV.UK App due to launch this summer. This will include access to government information, the ability to complete essential tasks, a place to make payments, reminders and even an AI-powered chatbot.
Loser: Samsung
When it comes to Samsung’s new line-up, the top-end Galaxy S25 Ultra offers a number of perks over its predecessor. That includes a larger, more durable display, an upgraded ultra-wide camera and of course, the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.
However, there is one major downgrade that was easy to overlook on the launch night – especially because it has nothing to do with the actual phone. Rather, it is connected to the S Pen that comes in the box with the Ultra.
Fans of the Ultra series have noticed that the S Pen has lost a major piece of its functionality with this update: its Bluetooth connectivity. There are some upsides to this. The stylus weighs less now and there’s no need to concern yourself with charging a battery. However, there are also some pretty obvious downsides.
Namely, S25 Ultra users can not utilise Air Actions when using the new S Pen with the phone. This means there’s no gesture support to open apps, control music, browse your photos or use the stylus as a remote shutter for the camera.
Samsung reportedly cut the feature because customers rarely used Air Action gestures and it made sense to remove Bluetooth connectivity to cut costs (via The Verge). This would perhaps be forgivable if the savings were passed onto the customer, but that doesn’t appear to be the case with the S25 Ultra carrying the same RRP as its predecessor.
