In an unprecedented move, Samsung, makers of perhaps some of the most widely used hardware around the world, is taking a step back from all the hullabaloo you normally associate with smartphones these days— specs. That is not to say that the company’s upcoming Galaxy S24 series will be shortchanged on hardware. It will still bag the fastest Qualcomm chip on the block for those seeking nothing but the latest and greatest from a flagship Galaxy smartphone. But Samsung will make a lot less noise about these specs this time around.
Samsung believes the next big smartphone battle will be fought on the grounds of Generative AI. And “Galaxy AI” will be its next big champion. It is no coincidence that the Galaxy S24 series is “powered by Galaxy AI” and not some X-core chip that is built around a y-nanometre process paired with double digit RAM and whatnot.
Galaxy AI is coming
Announced last year, Galaxy AI is a suit of smart AI features (like ChatGPT) built around Samsung’s Gauss LLM or large language model (like GPT-4). One of these features called AI Live Translate will allow Galaxy S24 users to get audio and text translations during phone calls in real time through Samsung’s native phone app. A Google Pixel Magic Eraser like feature called Generative Edit is also seemingly in the works for these phones along with upgraded zoom capabilities and perhaps, some smart AI magic for the S-Pen, too. We’ll see about that.
While we are on the subject of speculation, another rumour doing the rounds is that some of the Galaxy S24 series Gen AI features might be available for free only “until at least 2025” beyond which Samsung might charge a fee to use them. So that bit is interesting and also could signal a trend we’re yet to see in the smartphone space at least (both OpenAI and Microsoft offer subscription-based pro versions of ChatGPT and Copilot).
But an even bigger deal, that’s part of grapevine, is Samsung’s sustainability push with these devices. That includes more environmental-friendly build materials for the S24 series, of course, but Samsung is also expected to make a major announcement regarding extending software support on these devices for up to seven years.
Samsung’s promo ads leading into today’s Unpacked event are filled with quirks hinting how software— more precisely AI— is the next big thing for mobile. It’s safe to presume, the company will be banking heavily on it to differentiate its products in the days to come. Considering it’s AI, it will be interesting to see Samsung’s take on “responsible AI” and the privacy safeguards it has implemented in and around Galaxy AI and whether it can (also) beat or match Apple on this front anytime soon.
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