Recently, Samsung’s annual Unpacked event ended, officially unveiling the new generation of the Galaxy S series, representing its flagship smartphones powered by artificial intelligence. Within the event, Samsung announced a lineup of three versions, including Galaxy S24, +S24, and S24 Ultra, with the company’s innovations in the field of artificial intelligence, named Galaxy AI, to start a new era in mobile phones. These phones operate on the new user interface One UI 6.1, which includes dozens of features based on artificial intelligence to enhance the daily phone usage experience. Today, we have a lot to talk about, so if you missed the live broadcast of the conference, here is a summary of the highlights announced.
Launch of the new Galaxy S24 phones from Samsung
First: Artificial Intelligence features from Samsung | Galaxy AI
Samsung has equipped its new phones, the Galaxy S24, with many artificial intelligence features and tools that focus on several aspects such as translation to break the language barrier during communication with others through the phone, editing photos and producing distinctive videos and images, quick searching on the internet for almost anything, summarizing texts, and more. During the event, Samsung revealed a new partnership with Google to bring the advanced artificial intelligence model Gemini to its new phones, so all Galaxy AI features will be cloud-based, but most of them will work locally, without the need for an internet connection. According to the company, the user will be able to control the access of artificial intelligence to his data through the Advanced Intelligence settings where it can easily disable any cloud data processing when using Galaxy AI features for a more private experience.
Well, let’s start with the communication and translation features, as Samsung has unveiled the Live Translate feature for calls, which works to translate what you say in real-time into the language of the other party in the call and vice versa. This feature works for both text and voice translation with 13 different languages (excluding Arabic), where it will translate your speech and also display the call text translated on the screen within the “Phone” application from Samsung. This feature can also be used to translate direct conversations instantly on a split display screen so that people facing each other can read a translated text of what the other person said, and the great thing is that this feature will not require an internet connection, unlike Google Translate.
Additionally, Galaxy AI features also allow for text translation in text conversations to another language through a feature called Chat Assist, which is a built-in function in Samsung’s keyboard app, and works across any chat service. The keyboard can also suggest text based on what you type to personalize your message to appear casual or professional, assisting you in improving conversation phrasing or description or commenting on a post. Not only that, the Samsung keyboard will be equipped with the Instant Translation feature, which translates anything you type into another language in real-time.
Regarding AI-powered text summarization, the Galaxy AI feature set also includes a feature called Note Assist, which enhances the utility of Samsung’s note-taking app “Samsung Notes” by allowing the ability to format pages and automatically summarize ideas or anything you write into concise points, in addition to generating automatic thumbnails for pages to facilitate identifying notes across the home screen of the app. Samsung’s voice recording app has also received the Transcript Assist feature, which works to create a summary of your audio recordings using speech-to-text technology with the ability to add speaker labels and translate the extracted text into another language.
Google took advantage of the Unpacked 2024 event to announce a new artificial intelligence feature called Circle to Search and Galaxy S24 will be the first phones to support it. This feature makes it easy to search for anything you see on the screen while watching videos and browsing apps and websites. If you see text or an image that you want to know more about, simply press and hold the Home button at the bottom of the screen to bring up the Google search bar with the screen shaded, then just draw a circle around what you want to search for and the artificial intelligence will search for it and show the best results, all without leaving the app you are browsing or the video you are watching.
This is not all, of course! There are many other artificial intelligence features within the Galaxy AI package, but let’s highlight them during our discussion of the specifications and features of the new lineup of Galaxy S24 phones.
Second: Launch of S24, +S24, and Galaxy S24 Ultra phones
Samsung has announced the Galaxy S24 lineup consisting of three versions, S24, +S24, and Galaxy S24 Ultra, which testify that they are the first in the history of “Galaxy” phones to provide 7 years of security updates and Android updates! Thus, aligning with the new Pixel 8 phones from Google or even exceeding the duration of providing updates for iPhone phones. This means that Galaxy S24 users will continue to experience the newest features of upcoming Android versions until 2031!
In terms of design, both phones, Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, come with a design similar to the previous generation, while the most notable change goes to the S24 Ultra, which is characterized by a titanium frame, which Samsung says allows for superior durability in addition to providing a better grip for more comfortable handling. Supposedly, using this material not only makes the phone lightweight but also enhances durability, with the phone weighing approximately 232 grams. After years of using curved screens in Ultra versions inherited from the Note series, Samsung decided to make the Galaxy S24 Ultra with a flat screen with a slight curvature on the device’s edge to reduce the risk of accidentally activating the S Pen.
The Galaxy S24 lineup offers attractive technical specifications to meet the requirements in any scenario, whether gaming, recording and editing videos, or navigating heavy apps, regardless of the task. The S24 Ultra is equipped with a custom version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor that works to provide a significant improvement in the NPU unit for high-efficiency artificial intelligence processing. It is worth noting that the S24 and S24 Plus phones that will run on this processor will only be sold in the United States and Canada, while in other global markets, both phones will be available with the new Samsung Exynos 2400 processor, equivalent to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in terms of efficiency and performance with slight differences, coming with a 4nm manufacturing process and equipped with an Xclipse 940 graphics processor.
All Galaxy S24 phones are expected to run on Android 14 or the new user interface One UI 6.1, which will offer all the mentioned Galaxy AI features, in addition to offering the Quick Share feature that allows file/photo sharing among Samsung Galaxy phone users or even users of other Android phones from different manufacturers, alongside sharing with any Windows computer, as Samsung says that Quick Share will replace Google’s Nearby Share feature on all upcoming Android phones, not just Samsung phones.
Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus come with a battery capacity of 4000 and 4900 mAh with a maximum charging speed of 25 and 40 watts respectively, in addition to supporting wireless charging up to 15 watts, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra is characterized by a 5000 mAh battery. Samsung has also added a better cooling unit for these phones with a Vapor Chamber thermal layer almost twice the size of the previous generation, working to dissipate heat from the processor chip faster and maintain the back surface cool, with continuous performance increase to the maximum. It is also worth noting that all Galaxy S24 phones will support ray tracing capability when gaming to achieve vibrant and more realistic graphics.
The Galaxy S24 phones come with an LTPO AMOLED screen with a variable refresh rate ranging from 1 to 120Hz depending on the displayed content on the screen, in addition to a peak brightness of 2600 nits with support for Vision Booster technology for enhanced visibility when using the phone under direct sunlight. Samsung says it has teamed up with Corning to create a stronger screen protection layer called Corning Gorilla Armor used in Galaxy S24 phones, which will provide exceptional durability against scratches, as well as significantly less reflection by up to 75% in a wide range of lighting conditions, ensuring a smooth and comfortable viewing experience. In terms of measurements and resolution, the S24 phone carries a 6.2-inch screen with a +FHD resolution, while the S24 Plus features a 6.7-inch screen with a +QHD resolution, a notable upgrade from the previous generation which was similar in maximum screen resolution to the basic version. As for the Ultra version, it features a screen measuring 6.8 inches with a resolution of 1440 pixels or +QHD.
Third: Improved camera system for Galaxy S24 phones
As usual, the S23 Ultra phone comes with four rear cameras, with a new change being the replacement of the 10-megapixel telephoto lens with a 10x magnification with a 50-megapixel telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom to enable optical quality at zoom levels from 2x, 3x, 5x up to 10x thanks to the Adaptive Pixel sensor. Furthermore, the primary camera on the phone is equipped with a 200-megapixel resolution with an f/1.7 aperture alongside a secondary zoom lens with a 10-megapixel resolution that provides 3x optical zoom, and an ultra wide lens with a resolution of 12-megapixels, in addition to a 12-megapixel front camera.
