A new era of AI smartphones has arrived. This is all you need to know about the S24 series unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked 2024 event.
ADVERTISEMENTSamsung unveiled its new line of Galaxy S24 smartphones that have advanced artificial intelligence (AI) in them, representing a new era for smartphones.
Samsung showed off its latest tech at its Samsung Unpacked 2024 event held in San Jose, California, Apple’s backyard.
The glitzy affair, which featured flashing graphics and songs such as ‘Welcome to the Future,’ spent a considerable amount of time speaking about its AI capabilities, Galaxy AI.
The S24 series includes the flagship Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Galaxy S24, and Galaxy S24+, with prices starting at $800 (€740) for the S24 and $1,000 (€920) for the S24+.
The S24 Ultra costs a whopping $1,300 (€1,190) for the 256 GB model.
What are the new features?
While smartphones have AI capabilities in them already, the technology unveiled by Samsung is groundbreaking.
It allows you to use real-time voice and text translator, even when the phone is in flight mode, which will be revolutionary for travellers.
Samsung called it "[your] own personal interpreter," which can be used to call landline phones and any other smartphone.
It has 13 languages on offer including English, Spanish, and French.
The S24 series can also suggest what tone to write messages, emails, or social media posts in, such as chill, formal, excited, or even Shakespearian.
Collaboration with Google
Samsung announced it would be collaborating with Google to use AI to "change people’s lives" in the S24 series and would be using Google’s Large Learning Model (LLM) Gemini.
Another feature allows you to circle, highlight, tap, or scribble on any part of an image to get more information on it.
You can even ask why the object is important and the AI will reply with in-depth answers.
As for security, data on your phone is backed up on its Knock Matrix cloud, using end-to-end encryption so that only the user has access to their data.
How about the camera?
The Galaxy S24 Ultra has a Quad camera system that has a 5x optical zoom lens that also has a 50 MP sensor, which gives crystal clear images, even when zoomed in on an image.
Of course, with the power of AI, you can enhance the images and also turn pictures into stickers that you can share.
Sustainability
Under the pressure of growing demand for phones to last longer, Samsung announced that its Galaxy devices would allow seven generations of OS updates and seven years of security updates.
The phones also have components made with recycled cobalt and rare earth elements for the first time.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Ultra model uses a minimum of 50 per cent of recycled cobalt in the battery and 100 per cent recycled rare earth elements in the speakers.
The S24s also uses titanium, to make them last longer. The handsets also come in packaging boxes made from 100 per cent recycled paper material.
The competition with Apple
Apple has yet to release its latest iPhone this year but it will certainly have to compete with Samsung in the AI smartphone race.
"The new Ultra along with some strong on-device AI-powered features has certainly thrown the gauntlet to rivals and raises the benchmark for the next generation of smartphones," said Paolo Pescatore, tech analyst at PP Foresight.
"For now, Samsung is in pole position and hopes to benefit from early mover advantage as it has tried to do with foldable devices," he told Euronews Next.
ADVERTISEMENT"The race is firmly on to sway users that their AI platform will understand habits, behaviour and offer a better seamless experience than rivals. As always simplicity and security will be paramount in gaining users' trust and credibility in this new AI-driven world".
