The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. The device looks very similar to Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra. The main difference this time is what’s inside: Samsung is going big on artificial intelligence.
Samsung
Samsung announced the new flagship of its Galaxy S24 smartphone series on Wednesday earlier than expected, touting new AI features as the company looks to start 2024 with a bang.
As is standard with Samsung’s flagship line now, the S24 series comes in three versions: the S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra. The S24 Ultra starts at $1,300, the S24+ will cost $1,000, and the S24 will sell for $800.
The South Korean electronics giant showed off the new gadgets at its Kings Cross offices in London earlier this week ahead of the announcement. In a briefing with reporters, Samsung talked about the phone’s AI capabilities and showed how it is able to edit photos and search for objects using AI.
For Samsung’s flagship S24 Ultra, which is the largest of the company’s three devices and has more precise specifications and features, Samsung uses a version of by Qualcomm the latest Snapdragon Series 8 Gen 3 optimized for Galaxy. The company uses a combination of Qualcomm’s system-on-chip (SoC) and its own Exynos chipset for the S24 and S24+ models.
“The Galaxy S24 series devices, along with Google’s Pixel series, mark the dawn of the consumer use of artificial intelligence in smartphones,” Ben Wood, principal analyst at CCS Insight, told CNBC. “This is a trend that will be replicated by all smartphone manufacturers, including Apple, as they increasingly add an increasing number of AI-powered features to their new devices.”
“This launch sees Samsung betting on AI-powered features to rekindle consumer interest in smartphones at a time when incremental hardware updates have seen slow sales. Google was the pioneer with its Pixel devices and there is no doubt that this will be a recurring theme in the future, not just for smartphones but for all consumer electronics.”
AI is the name of the game
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the main event for most tech gadget lovers — and, for the most part, it doesn’t differ much from the Galaxy S23 Ultra in terms of looks.
This is because Samsung doesn’t change much with the hardware. It’s still the same size as its predecessor – the screen is 6.8 inches, measured diagonally, although the phone is flatter this time around. The S23 Ultra had more curvature.
The big upgrade to the exterior hardware with this model is that it has a titanium coating, so it’s much more durable than the S23 Ultra.
The main difference this time is what’s inside: Samsung is going big on artificial intelligence. A key focus for Samsung, like other smartphone makers, is now AI “on demand” — or the ability to run AI workloads directly on a device rather than through the cloud.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has a bright display that can reach 2,600 nits at peak brightness — making it the brightest Samsung phone to date, according to the company.
Samsung
Samsung said its new Galaxy S24 Ultra will come with a host of new AI features, many of which are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile chipset, which is tailored for AI devices.
It marks something that many smartphone manufacturers have been focusing on recently. Consumers don’t get excited about new smartphone upgrades like they used to. So phone makers had to come up with ideas to grab people’s attention again and increase the excitement in the market.
One feature that Samsung is loading into the Galaxy S24 series is the ability to circle locations or objects that a user points their camera at or a photo they’ve taken and then search for results related to those things.
So, for example, if you see a landmark or a shoe you want to buy, you can circle that item and then the AI will show you the appropriate results on Google.
Another feature Samsung is touting is the ability to use AI to edit photos. So users can edit reflections from photos they’ve taken, for example if you took a photo of yourself in front of a window. Or you can move a person from one side of the room to the other by dragging them from left to right.
Samsung has also introduced live transcription capabilities with its latest smartphones.
When calling someone who speaks French, for example, a user can pull up a transcription provided in real time. You can also record a conversation between two people and transcribe it, while the AI assigns a tag to each person speaking, similar to transcription products like Otter AI.
Paolo Pescatore, PP Foresight, told CNBC that Samsung “needs to focus its efforts on maintaining its core loyal premium base.”
“Debatable [Samsung] has done more than enough with new features powered by its own AI platform,” said Pescatoer. “This could potentially be the start of a new era for smartphones that represents a major super cycle for Samsung.”
“With this in mind, Samsung should entice users with a range of competitive offers to suit everyone; this includes older Samsung owners who will inevitably be looking for a much-needed upgrade.”
AI watermark
Another thing Samsung had to think about is what AI features mean for things like privacy and copyright infringement.
Over the past year we’ve seen countless examples of people using AI to create images and other creative media and pass them off as their own work — even when, in some cases, it’s derivative of or even identical to artists’ work.
So when a Galaxy S24 user uses AI to modify a photo, Samsung will keep a log of the changes made with the AI and store it in the metadata. It will also have an icon in the lower left corner to indicate that the image has been processed using artificial intelligence, like a watermark.
At Samsung’s update in King’s Cross, some analysts and journalists were able to crop this icon using Samsung’s in-app crop feature — although the icon is still preserved in the metadata.
“AI-powered image and video manipulation raises some ethical questions, particularly given the recent media attention surrounding deep fake content,” Wood told CNBC. “Adding a watermark and updated metadata for modified content is a positive step from Samsung and I’m sure more will follow.”
“The success of Samsung’s AI-based features will depend heavily on Samsung’s ability to increase consumer awareness and engagement through marketing for the Galaxy S24 portfolio,” he added. “Success will require clear communication of benefits and continued expansion of use cases.”