Samsung Extends One UI 8.5 to $200 Galaxy A and M Phones

Q: Is Samsung creating an AI class divide by withholding premium features from its most affordable smartphones?

Yes — Samsung is drawing a clear AI tier line, though it is not purely arbitrary. The One UI 8.5 rollout shows Samsung is giving budget phones meaningful upgrades: a refreshed interface, better Quick Panel controls, new camera filters, Direct Voicemail, Quick Share file transfers with iPhones, and in some cases a Perplexity-powered Bixby. It is also extending long software support to affordable models, with some A-series phones promised six years of Android updates and seven years of security patches. That weakens the argument that low-cost users are being ignored altogether. But Samsung is still reserving its most valuable AI tools for premium devices. Features such as Audio Eraser, Creative Studio, Call Screening and Photo Assist remain limited to newer flagship phones like the Galaxy S24, S25 and S26 lines. Budget M-series and entry-level A-series devices are explicitly excluded, and even some mid-range phones get only a reduced AI package rather than the full Galaxy AI experience. Samsung’s main defense is hardware. Advanced generative AI and real-time editing tools need faster chips, more RAM and stronger on-device processing, which cheaper phones often lack. That is a credible technical reason, not just a marketing choice. Still, the effect is the same for consumers: the more you pay, the more AI you get. So Samsung is creating an AI class divide in practice, even if part of that divide is driven by genuine hardware limits rather than simple feature withholding.

3 articles · Updated · Forbes · Jun 7

Samsung has started pushing One UI 8.5 to several entry-level Galaxy models, including the A06 5G, M17, M16, M06, F06, A16 and M35, with releases this week in India and Korea.
The expansion brings one of Samsung’s broadest single-day budget rollouts yet, extending software first launched with the Galaxy S26 in March and later added to the S25 lineup in May.
Features on these sub-$200 phones include a refreshed interface, a more customizable Quick Panel, new camera filters, Direct Voicemail and, on some devices, a Perplexity-powered Bixby upgrade.
Samsung is also adding Quick Share transfers with Apple devices, but premium Galaxy AI tools such as Audio Eraser, Creative Studio, Call Screening and updated Photo Assist remain limited to higher-end hardware.