- Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy SoC.
- The headline feature this year is the Galaxy AI which brings a host of on-device AI experiences.
- The Galaxy S24 Ultra is Samsung’s first smartphone to have a titanium frame.
At the Galaxy Unpacked event at San Jose in California, Samsung unveiled its all-new Galaxy S24 smartphone line-up. As usual, there are three smartphones – Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24 Ultra. On the hardware side, while the upgrades are iterative, the big story this time around is the Galaxy AI carrying a lot of on-device AI features powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy SoC.
According to our recent report, we expect over 1 billion Generative AI (GenAI) smartphones to be shipped cumulatively between 2024 and 2027. Qualcomm is likely to capture over 80% of the GenAI smartphone market over the next two years, with the Galaxy S24 series showcasing early capabilities of some experiences.
Design-wise, not a lot has changed compared to the Galaxy S23 series, except for the Ultra model, which is Samsung’s first smartphone to come with a titanium frame, similar to what we have seen on the iPhone 15 Pro models. Titanium is significantly lighter and thinner than aluminum, yet stronger to enhance durability. Samsung has also done away with the curved screen design, and the S24 Ultra now features a flat screen with thin bezels.
WATCH: Galaxy AI: First Look at the Intelligent Features of Samsung Galaxy S24 Series
Galaxy AI brings host of on-device AI experiences
Assistants have been around for over half a decade now, but the use cases and capabilities have evolved over the years. Below are some AI Assistant features of the Galaxy S24 series:
Baked right into the native phone app, Live translate can be used to have real-time, two-way voice and text translations to book a cab, hotel or restaurant, and much more. There is also an interpreter mode, where live translations can be done and viewed on a split-screen. As all this happens on-device, the conversations are completely private and secure, and never leave your device. Besides, it can also work without Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity.
Intelligent assistant: The Galaxy AI also extends its capabilities to the assistant in the message and instant messaging apps to improve conversational tones to make them more polite and grammatically correct. The Chat Assistant can also generate catchy social media captions. With AI built into the Samsung Keyboard, you can even translate messages in real time. It has support for 13 languages.
When your smartphone is connected to your car using Android Auto, the AI Assistant can summarize the incoming message and also suggest relevant actions, such as sending your ETA, and even replies so you can focus on driving without having to look at the phone or screen.
Notes and Transcript Assist: Samsung Notes with AI Assistant can help generate summaries, create templates with pre-made formats, and much more. It can also create different covers with a brief preview making them easy to spot.
For voice recordings, the AI can detect multiple speakers and use voice-to-text to transcribe and summarize the recordings. It can even help translate the transcription into different languages.
Circle to Search: Online search has transformed our lives, whether it is looking for information, a place, or much more. Samsung is offering Galaxy users a new tool called Circle to Search, an intuitive, gesture-driven search powered by Google. Users can long-press the home button and tap/highlight/circle anything on the screen to see some high-quality, helpful results. So, whether it is a beautiful background in your friend’s social media photo or across a website that you are surfing, it is now easier to search via Google.
Galaxy AI extends to camera with photo and video editing tools
At the Snapdragon Summit 2023, we saw a lot of use cases, like generative fill for photo expansion, AI zoom any place, and much more. Many of those on-device features are now a part of the Galaxy S24 lineup powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.
Edit suggestions: A lot of us use our smartphone as a primary camera to click photos and record videos. And there may have been times when you see a reflection or glare, especially when clicking photos near a window. The Gallery app on Samsung phones offers suggested edits that let you erase reflections and shadows, and even erase unwanted objects and people from the photo. The feature has already been present since the Galaxy S22 series, but now it is much faster with on-device AI and can offer better results with improved algorithms.
Generative Edit: How many times have you clicked a photo and wished you could relocate people and objects in the frame? Well, the Generative Edit option lets you do exactly that. You can tweak photos by repositioning the subject, fill in parts of the image background, and remove unwanted objects too, giving you more freedom and creative control in the editing process, all on the device. Whenever these changes are made, a watermark with metadata is put in the image so that it is known that it is an edited image.
Instant Slow-mo: Lastly, the Galaxy AI also lets you add slow motion to action-packed videos. It does this by adding frames based on the movements in the video. For instance, your kids playing, or dogs and cats running around can be converted into slow motion.
Samsung Galaxy S24 series: Specifications and features
As mentioned above, the Galaxy S24 series is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy SoC. The new chipset has a 20% more powerful CPU, 26% more powerful GPU, and a 42% faster NPU, compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy SoC in the Galaxy S23 series. With support for Ray Tracing, the new Galaxy smartphones also come with 1.9x larger vapor chamber for cooling to offer a smooth gameplay experience.
All three S24 models come with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with Vision Booster tech offering a peak brightness of up to 2,600nits to deliver great outdoor visibility. They all have an adaptive 120Hz screen refresh rate, which adjusts between 1Hz and 120Hz based on the on-screen content. The S24 Ultra comes with a 6.8-inch screen, whereas the S24+ comes with a 6.7-inch screen, both having QHD+ resolution. The vanilla Galaxy S24, on the other hand, comes with a 6.2-inch FHD+ screen.
The Galaxy S24 has 8GB of RAM and 128GB/256GB/512GB storage options. The Galaxy S24+ has 12GB of RAM with 256GB/512GB storage options. The Galaxy S24 Ultra, on the other hand, has 12GB of RAM with 256GB/512GB/1TB storage options. The Galaxy S24 and S24+ come with a 4,000mAh and 4,900mAhbattery, respectively, whereas the Galaxy S24 Ultra has a slightly larger 5,000mAh unit. With wireless charging support on all smartphones, the S24 supports 25W wired charging, whereas the S24+ and Ultra offer 45W fast wired charging speeds.
In the photography department, the Galaxy S24 and S24+ come with the same camera hardware. You get a 12MP ultra-wide camera with 120-degree FoV, a 50MP wide camera with OIS, F/1.8 aperture and 85-degree FoV, and a 10MP telephoto camera with f/2.4 aperture and 3x optical zoom capabilities. Up front, all three smartphones come with a 12MP selfie camera.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra, on the other hand, comes with the same 12MP ultra-wide camera with 120-degree FoV, but the other camera’s specs change. It has a 200MP main wide camera with OIS, f/1.7 aperture and 85-degree FoV. Then there are two telephoto cameras – a 50MP one with 5x optical zoom and a 10MP onewith 3x optical zoom. There is also 10x hybrid zoom and 100x space zoom capabilities.
On the connectivity side, all smartphones support 5G, Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth v 5.3. And while the S24 Ultra has Wi-Fi 7, the S24 and S24+ come with Wi-Fi 6E connectivity. All devices are also IP68-rated for water and dust resistance and they ship with Android 14 OS and One UI 6.1 skin on top. Samsung has raised the bar once again with its commitment where the S24 series will get seven years of software upgrades and security updates.
Pricing and availability
The Galaxy S24 starts at $799 whereas the Galaxy S24 Plus will be available starting from $999. The Galaxy S24 Ultra, on the other hand, will be available starting from $1,299. Pre-orders start on January 18 and the smartphones will go on sale starting January 31.
