Samsung's Galaxy S24 series has the coolest features you didn't know you needed

Samsung, the South Korean tech giant, has finally unveiled its latest premium smartphone series, the Galaxy S24. The new series, which includes the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy S24+, and Galaxy S24, is designed to enhance real-life experiences with a host of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven features, which were demonstrated at the Unpacked event in San Francisco on Thursday. 

"Galaxy AI is built on our innovation heritage and deep understanding of how people use their phones. We're excited to see how our users around the world empower their everyday lives with Galaxy AI to open up new possibilities," said T.M. Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra, the flagship model of the series, is the first-ever Galaxy phone to feature a titanium frame, enhancing device durability and longevity. It boasts a 6.8-inch, flatter display and is equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform, which aims to deliver remarkable NPU improvement for incredibly efficient AI processing. The company has also made significant strides in sustainability. The Ultra model incorporates a minimum of 50 percent recycled cobalt in the battery and 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in the speakers.

Drunk on AI power

The real game-changer in the Galaxy S24 series is the AI integration. The 'Live Translate' feature offers two-way, real-time voice and text translations of phone calls within the native app. This feature simplifies tasks such as booking a hotel or dinner reservation or calling an Uber in a country where language may be a barrier. More importantly, no third-party apps are required, and on-device AI ensures conversations remain completely private.

Another key AI-enabled feature is the 'Circle to Search' with Google. With a long press on the home button, users can circle, highlight, scribble on, or tap anything on the Galaxy S24 screen to see helpful, high-quality search results about almost everything. The AI capabilities extend to other useful features like 'Interpreter' for live conversation translations, 'Chat Assist' for perfecting conversational tones, and real-time message translations in 13 languages via the Samsung Keyboard.

There's more...

For organizations, the 'Note Assist' feature offers AI-generated summaries, template creation for streamlined notes, and cover creation for easy note spotting. The 'Transcript Assist' feature uses AI and Speech-to-Text technology to transcribe, summarise, and even translate recordings.

The camera setup on the S24 Ultra is top notch. The Galaxy S24 Ultra's Quad Tele System, with a new 5x optical zoom lens, works with the 50MP sensor to enable optical-quality performance at zoom levels from 2x, 3x, 5x to 10x10 magnification. The company claims that images show crystal clear results at 100x with enhanced digital zoom. We'll have to try it to believe it.

The Galaxy S24 series also introduces 'Generative Edit', which can fill in parts of an image background with generative AI, giving users more creative control and freedom. This feature, as per some live deomnstrations, looks incredibly cool as it works in real time.

The 1-120 Hz adaptive refresh rates in all three models also improve performance efficiency. The Galaxy S24 Ultra comes in three variants — 12GB+1TB , 12+512GB and 12+256GB — with a 5,000 mAh battery and offers Android 14 and One UI 6.1 experience. The Galaxy S24 with a 4,000 mAh battery also comes in three variants — 8GB+512GB, 8+256GB and 8+ 128GB. The Galaxy S24+ with a 4,900 mAh battery offers two storage models — 12GB+512GB and 12+256GB.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, S24+ and S24: Key features