Samsung debuts generative AI-focused Galaxy S24 smartphone lineup

Samsung is bringing generative AI technologies to its new Galaxy S24 line of Android-powered smartphones. The features, which include the ability to instantly translate audio between users and edit phones, among other things, are part of Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite of artificial intelligence capabilities. Samsung says it has also teamed with Google's (GOOG, GOOGL) to take advantage of its Gemini AI model for a handful of AI offerings.

The $799 Galaxy S24, $999 Galaxy S24+, and $1,299 Galaxy S24 Ultra go on sale on Jan. 31 and serve as the kickoff to what is expected to be a broader push among consumer tech companies to monetize the generative AI boom.

All three of the phones get the same AI features, ensuring that you’ll be able to use those functions regardless of whether you opt for the entry-level S24 or the top-of-the-line S24 Ultra. Generative AI capabilities include the ability to quickly summarize content from web pages; Live Translate, which allows you to instantly translate phone calls from one language to another; and Transcript Assist, which will let you record a conversation and automatically detect when different speakers are talking.

Photo editing functions include the ability to manipulate subjects in images, allowing you to, say, move a person from one side of the shot to another, and the option to zoom out of an image and use generative AI to fill in the background.

One of the breakout features of the Galaxy S24 line is Circle to Search, which allows you to circle on-screen items and then quickly search for them via Google search. So if you see a photo of a cool location while scrolling social media, you can circle it on your screen and get more information about it via Google.

Google’s Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have or are getting many of the same features as the Galaxy S24 line as well. But Google’s smartphones don’t have nearly the market share as Samsung’s, meaning the S24 line will likely serve as the first time many consumers gain access to on-device generative AI.

The Galaxy S24 is just one of a series of devices and products tech giants are launching in 2024 to take advantage of interest in generative AI. PC makers are adding generative AI to their laptops and desktops via new chips and a new keyboard key for Microsoft’s (MSFT) AI-powered Copilot. And even automakers are getting in on the action with Mercedes (MBG.DE) and Volkswagen (VWAGY) adding ChatGPT to their vehicles in the coming months. Mercedes’ offering will be a beta.

But Samsung’s Galaxy S24 line provides more than amped-up AI tricks. The S24 and S24+ come with 6.2-inch and 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x displays, respectively. Those are a hair larger than the displays found on the S23 and S23+, which measure 6.1 inches and 6.6 inches. Like the S23 Ultra, the S24 Ultra comes with a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x display.

All three phones now offer display refresh rates of between 1 and 120Hz, which means they can speed up the number of frames you see per second to 120 frames for smooth animations or drop the refresh rate down to 1 frame per second to save on battery life.

On the camera front, Samsung has outfitted the S24 and S24+ with a trio of lenses, including a 50-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 12MP ultra-wide angle lens, and a 10MP telephoto lens. The telephoto lens gives you up to 3x optical zoom. The S24 Ultra, meanwhile, gets a 200MP wide-angle camera, a 12MP ultra-wide angle camera, and a 10MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom as well as a 50MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom.

That’s actually a step down from the 10x optical zoom Samsung used in the S23 Ultra, but in reality, it will likely prove more useful, considering that at 10x zoom, trying to get your subject into the frame becomes rather difficult when even the slightest twitch of your hand throws off the framing.

All of this is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. In terms of memory, the S24 gets 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage. The S24+ and S24 Ultra both get 12GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB of storage. The S24 Ultra also gets the option for 1TB of storage.

Adding generative AI elements to the Galaxy S24 line gives Samsung a hot new technology to help market its latest smartphones. Over the last few years, the smartphone market has, in general, felt rather stale. After all, there are only so many incremental changes you can make to a phone’s camera or screen before consumers start to tire of them.

With Galaxy AI, Samsung has the chance to make generative AI the linchpin for its smartphones for the next few generations. But the company will have to deliver on its AI promises and continue to build on them moving forward if it’s going to get consumers hooked and keep them clamoring for more.

Daniel Howley is the tech editor at Yahoo Finance. He's been covering the tech industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @DanielHowley.

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