More AI features that will soon be locked to a paywall!
During the latest Galaxy S24 Ultra event. Actually, let’s rephrase that since this year’s Galaxy Unpacked is not about the phone but rather the AI features of it. Ahem, during the latest Galaxy AI event (much better), Samsung revealed its breakthrough AI technologies… and the Galaxy S24 series. Many of these are geared towards photo editors as well as messaging.
Just like many companies, Samsung is quite intrigued with the concept of AI and thus, is researching ways on how to implement it on many of its smart products. There are several Samsung appliances that use Galaxy AI so it’s high time that one of their flagship phones get it, as if it’s not the most obvious route to go.
This feature leverages Generative AI which was popularized by organizations like OpenAI with their ChatGPT and DALL-E chatbot and image generation systems accordingly. However, generative AI is not always 100% accurate but it allows even casual users to create hundreds of content fast. So fast that artists are protesting against it.
The event was made with heavy assistance from Google and even they promoted the new Galaxy Unpacked event. Which is no surprise to us since the Galaxy S series is basically the iPhone for Android, even if the Pixels exist now. The Galaxy S is still more widespread and available to most people around the globe than the Pixels are. However, when new versions of Android are launched, Pixels get them first of course.
LIVE TRANSLATE:
According to Samsung’s press release, Galaxy AI “introduces meaningful intelligence aimed at enhancing every part of life, especially the phone’s most fundamental role: communication.” At the very start of the event, the first feature mentioned was Live Translate which translates languages to your preferred language (by default, English) to the native messaging app. Third-party apps can also utilize this feature. Live Translate supports up to 13 languages and supports voice call and on-screen text. To make things convenient, your phone will remember your language settings and also has auto-detect, a feature that Google Translate has had for years.
INTERPRETER:
Interpreter is a feature that allows two people in proximity to communicate to each other even if they speak a different language. Kaya, pag binasa mo to at hindi mo naintindihan, you can just speak it out and hopefully Interpreter can pick it out. Wait, Filipino is not supported? Well then let us translate that previous text for you while Samsung updates new languages every quarter (Translate: If you read this and do not understand).
CHAT ASSIST:
On-screen messages can now be translated as the other person types them. In Chat Assist, the phone’s algorithms will thoroughly analyze your text and suggest ways to improve it including tone, context, and spelling before you send it. Also, it translates other languages to the one you preferred in real time when the other person sends theirs.
On a related note (pun definitely intended), Android Auto can now also summarize incoming messages and suggest replies, as well as sending you an ETA to your destination.
In addition, there is another feature to Chat Assist called Magic Compose which allows you to select various message prompts depending on the emotion or style that you chose. The feature is currently only available for Google Messages but we hope it will be available on third-party apps too. For now, you can get the ChatGPT app or even use Bing AI for it.
In terms of accuracy, we’re certain that it won’t be fluent 100% of the time as a real person who is native to that language may interpret your message differently. If you don’t know, say, how to speak Spanish and receiver picks it up, they may be able to identify if the chat was translated via AI.
NOTE ASSIST for Samsung Notes:
Messy notes? Need an image to construe your thoughts? Note Assist can help with that. This new feature realigns your messy handwriting, can create generative images, and suggest different formatting for your notes so it’s more organized. To reiterate, it’s only available for the native Samsung Notes app and nowhere else. Google Keep doesn’t get a share of this pie either.
For voice recordings, Transcript Assist can translate, summarize, and transcribe your recordings into text and also uses generative AI to do it.
CIRCLE TO SEARCH:
Perhaps the most impressive and surprisingly innovative feature of Galaxy AI—through Google Lens, is Circle To Search. Previously you need to highlight text and screenshot images first, then crop, to use image search about any item. Now, you can just encircle any item in the image and Google search will pop up for you. Sometimes, the things we want in life won’t be realized unless someone implemented it. As in, why didn’t anyone think of this feature before 2024? This does not even require a lot of generative AI to do, just scene recognition.
If you don’t know the name of an item, you can long-press the home button and encircle the image and then in Google search just type “what is this called?” And the algorithm will attempt to identify the item you’ve been looking for, with mostly accurate results.
SEVEN YEARS OF UPDATES:
Seven years of updates and Android upgrades… Samsung finally caught up to the Pixels and even the iPhones in terms of longevity. However, by the seventh year, you’re probably using the Galaxy S31 already and the internals of the S24 Ultra are most likely obsolete. Also, Samsung did not clarify how often they will send the OTA updates. Usually, it’s per quarter for upgrades and per month (but mostly late) for security patches. But it’s nice Samsung is making this change.
GALAXY S24 ULTRA:
See how less important the S24 Ultra’s specs are versus its software feature? The hardware is way below this article! The S24 Ultra features a relatively identical design as its predecessor but replaces the curved OLED with flat. Even Samsung agrees with us that flat is justice. Long live screen protectors!
The display remains relatively unchanged as well. This display is a 6.8″ QuadHD+ (3120x1440px) Dynamic AMOLED with 1-120Hz variable refresh rate that adjusts depending on the activity of the phone, so it can go as high as 120Hz for intense gaming apps, and normal 60Hz for scrolling. You can always change this in the settings.
Thankfully, the S24 Ultra does not use an Exynos chipset (for better or worse) but rather a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with a “For Galaxy” moniker. This means the chipset is customized for the phone only and features an overclocked prime core. Heat management has been a consistent issue with most Galaxy phones (especially those with an Exynos chip) so to help with that, Samsung constructed a vapour chamber that is twice the size than that of the S23 Ultra.
Among other features, the Galaxy S24 Ultra utilizes a 5000mAh battery, 45W fast charging (Wow higher than 25W, that’s an achievement for Samsung!), 15W fast wireless charging, and runs Android 14 with OneUI 6.1 fresh out of the box. We’ll be discussing OneUI 6 in a separate article (and yes, it’s pretty late at this point).
Finally, the S24 Ultra comes with 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM priced in the Philippines at PHP 84,990. 12/512 at PHP 92,990, and a whopping 12/1TB priced at PHP 106,990. Don’t worry, you don’t need a second kidney to function normally and healthily anyway. It comes in several colours, all inspired from Apple’s fresh new titanium plating. These include Titanium Grey, Black, Violet, and Yellow. See if there’s a difference between this and the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Just like the previous phone, you can pre-order the Galaxy S24 Ultra with an upgrade. So you can get the 12/512 variant of the phone at the price of the 12/256 and the 12/1TB at the price of the 12/512 respectively! Also, if you signed up before the event was up, you can get a massive PHP 5,000 discount. This will be sent to your email.
ONE MORE THING: Galaxy AI features are free to use until the end of 2025 only. Make use of it while you can!
CAMERAS, ProVisual ENGINE, and AI-BASED CONTENT AWARE
We wanted to put the cameras onto the previous section but there’s more to it than the hardware. AI is a big part of it but let’s get to the specs first.
The main highlight is the 200MP primary camera followed by the 50MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom, then the other telephoto camera with 10MP resolution, then the 12MP Ultrawide, and finally another 12MP for the selfie. Nothing too shabby here. In fact, it’s pretty similar to the S23 Ultra’s camera apart from the newer 50MP telephoto with 115mm focal length f/3.4 aperture. Of course, OIS is included with this lens.
Now, onto the AI stuff. All of its capabilities are summarized into one big feature called ProVision Engine. After taking a shot for example, the engine will recognize the scene and suggest ways to improve it. However, unlike the ones Google Photos suggest, ProVision allows you to move certain objects and use AI-generated content aware to fill the missing space.
In videos, Instant Slowmo can create additional frames so that your videos can be slowed down more smoothly.
SuperHDR gets an update. Now it will show a preview in the viewfinder before taking the shot and even show you the SuperHDR effect in the native gallery.
And finally, nightography, Samsung’s fancy name for night mode, is also much better thanks to better Optical Image Stabilization and an upgraded Block ISP that can easily handle noise. This ISP Block is featured both at the rear and front cameras.
Source: Samsung, Samsung Philippines, C|Net
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