Samsung has just announced its Galaxy S24 series in San Jose, California. We went behind the scenes and had the opportunity to play with these shiny new devices for some time. Samsung is going all-in on AI and calling it Galaxy AI, with AI integrated into several aspects of the phones.
Samsung is hosting this edition of Unpacked at the heart of Silicon Valley in California, at SAP Center in San Jose. Samsung is making a bold statement about its AI capabilities, where other tech giants such as Apple and Google are headquartered. OpenAI, which has been at the forefront of AI news, is also located in the Bay Area.
TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics, stated that this launch is a eureka moment for mobile phones, and the company aims to democratize access to AI as mobile phones become the primary platform for accessing AI tools. Samsung has partnered with Google for several features on the new S24 lineup. Google’s Hiroshi Lockheimer was on stage and shared that Samsung is utilizing Google’s Gemini Nano on-device AI model on the Galaxy S24 series. It is very interesting to see Samsung integrating AI into several aspects of the Galaxy S24 series.
Live Translate
Live Translate offers two-way, real-time voice and text translations of phone calls within the native app, supporting over 13 languages out of the box. I had a call with someone who spoke in Spanish, and I spoke only in English. The person on the other end of the call can even be using a landline.
Intrepreter
With Interpreter, you can have a real-time conversation with someone and get instant translations in a split-screen view. It even works completely offline, and I observed it working even when the phone was in Airplane mode.
Chat and Note Assist
For messaging and social media, Chat Assist can help get your conversation started, and AI built into the Samsung Keyboard can also translate messages in real-time in 13 languages. With Note Assist in Samsung Notes, you can get AI-generated summaries and formatted content with a single click.
Circle to Search with Google
This feature, as the name suggests, lets you circle any portion of the screen on the Galaxy S24 to see search results from Google. It is triggered with a long press on the home button.
Expressive texts with AI on Google Messages
Magic Compose powered Gemini Nano, helps you craft unique messages in different styles — like excited, formal or even lyrical. Photomoji lets you create a new emoji from your own photos using generative AI.
Android Auto
Android Auto will automatically summarize long texts or busy group chats while you’re driving, so you can keep in touch while staying focused on the road. Android Auto will also suggest relevant replies and actions that you can take without touching your phone.
Android Auto will soon reflect the design elements, like your wallpaper and icons, of the Samsung Galaxy phone, offering a seamless transition and consistent experience from the phone to car.
Photography
The Samsung Galaxy S24 series packs the new ProVisual Engine, enabling AI-powered tools for content creation. Paired with the latest camera hardware—Quad Tele System, users can capture photos from a distance at various zoom levels up to 100X with improved clarity.
Photo Editing gets a big boost with Generative AI-based Edits. To prevent misinformation, Samsung is adding a watermark and metadata to AI-generated images. Super HDR, Night photography and Video stabilization are available through in-app cameras on Instagram and Snapchat on the S24 series. Instagram supports HDR photos on Instagram on the S24 series for the first time.
Samsung hopes to democratize access to AI tools through its Galaxy devices. The company does have the first-mover advantage by being one of the first manufacturers to bring a native AI experience to the S24 lineup.