Samsung, the renowned South Korean tech giant has introduced a smartphone series globally at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked Event 2024 event in San Jose, California.

Samsung unveiled three phones, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy S24 Plus, and the Galaxy S24.

According to The Verge, Samsung’s new AI-infused features are now available, and the most essential thing to know about Samsung’s new S24 series is that they are the same whether you choose the $ 799.99 Galaxy S24, the $ 999.99 Galaxy S24 Plus, or the $1,299.99 Galaxy S24 Ultra.

In the United States, all phones have Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processors, therefore the performance of on-device AI functions should be similar.

Samsung also promises seven generations of OS upgrades and seven years of security updates for all three phones, which matches Google’s remarkable support period for its Pixel 8 lineup.

One of the Ultra’s most striking new features is its construction. This year’s model features a titanium frame, similar to Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro, which Samsung claims provides more durability.

Unlike Apple, Samsung did not employ the material to make the phone lighter; titanium is heavier than aluminium, but it is more robust, allowing you to use less of it.

In this case, Samsung has simply chosen to prioritise endurance. The S24 Ultra weighs almost the same as the S23 Ultra (8.22oz or 232 grams) making it somewhat heavier than the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

The other big change up front is the display. The S24 Ultra comes with a 6.8-inch 1440p display, just like the S23 Ultra, but it finally ditches the curved edges inherited from the Note series in favour of a flat screen.

There’s still a slight curve to the edge of the device, unlike the straight-edged S24 and S24 Plus, but now there’s much less chance of accidentally running your S Pen over the side of the display.

The flagship Galaxy S24 Ultra is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. This chipset also claims to provide significant NPU improvements for efficient AI computation. It comes with three storage options: 12GB+1TB, 12GB+512GB, and 12GB+256GB.

For gaming, the Galaxy S24 Ultra has an excellent thermal control system with a 1.9 times larger vapour chamber, which improves device surface temperature while increasing sustained performance power. Ray tracing creates realistic pictures with enhanced shadow and reflection effects.

The S24 series includes a number of new picture and video editing tools powered by generative AI, which are represented across the UI by a highly Google Bard-esque star icon. You can circle photo topics to isolate and resize them, reposition them, or completely eliminate them from the frame. You may also modify the horizon level in your shot and have AI fill in the image’s edges instead of cropping.

Aside from their AI-infused features, the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus are largely a continuation of what we saw with last year’s S23 devices, but there are still a few hardware upgrades to be found.

The screens, for example, are both bigger and brighter this year. They now measure 6.2 and 6.7 inches in size (a 0.1-inch improvement in both cases), with peak brightnesses of 2,600 nits (up from 1,750 last year). And the S24 Plus also now boasts a 1440p resolution, up from 1080p, according to Verge.

The other four cameras’ hardware remains unaltered from last year, so still be working with a 200-megapixel f/1.7 main, a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto, and a 12-megapixel ultrawide on the back, as well as a 12-megapixel selfie camera in the front.

Both the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ have 4,000mAh and 4,900mAh batteries, respectively. These devices also enable quick and wireless charging.

All Galaxy S24 devices run Android 14 and Samsung’s latest OneUI 6.1. Samsung also revealed that the Galaxy S24 series will be the first from the tech giant to receive seven years of operating system and security updates. It is the only smartphone manufacturer to do so, following Google’s Pixel 8 series.

Samsung claims that with OneUI 6.1, the new Galaxy S24 series will create new opportunities for the application of AI. The new series’ interpreter and live translation elements are among its strengths. The latest version of Live Translate allows for two-way, real-time text and voice translations during phone calls within the native app.

However, individuals positioned across from one another can read a text transcription of the other’s words thanks to the Interpreter, which allows live conversations to be translated instantaneously on a split-screen display. It functions even in Aeroplane mode, without Wi-Fi or cellular data.

Chat Assist can be useful in daily chats for messaging and other apps. With the gesture-driven Circle to Search with Google feature on the Galaxy S24 series, online search has also been revolutionised.

It is an amazing new tool that has, in some ways, allowed for the exploration of new avenues with a single motion. Users can circle and highlight anything on the Galaxy S24’s screen to view beneficial, excellent search results by long pressing the home button.

Samsung’s voice recorder is also getting Pixel-like live transcriptions with speaker labels and the ability to translate your transcriptions into another language. The Notes app is getting some handy tools, too, with the ability to automatically format and summarize pages for you.

And if any of the above is enticing enough to tempt you to trade in your S23, you can stop right there. Samsung plans to bring these AI capabilities to S23-series phones and the Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 sometime in the future, reported The Verge.

First Published: Jan 18 2024 | 9:24 AM IST