Samsung Galaxy S24 series smartphones first impressions: real-time generative AI written and spoken translation, and a 50MP periscope zoom lens
- The S24 phones all look similar to 2023’s models, and apart from a new periscope lens and chip, there are not many changes to the hardware
- The software is a different story: AI-assisted features include real-time spoken and written translation, enhanced photo cropping and slo-mo video conversion
Samsung’s new flagship slab phone series has just been unveiled in California, and like other consumer tech in 2024, it’s going all in on generative AI – artificial intelligence that can produce original text and pixels.
Google’s Pixel 8 phones got the ball rolling last autumn, and these new Galaxy S24 phones are the second line to offer generative AI entirely on device without the need of the internet.
While the AI features seem quite useful from my brief testing, the three S24 phones offer only minor, almost inconsequential, hardware upgrades over 2023’s S23 series.
Only makers of Chinese phones for the highly competitive domestic market are still pursuing new hardware every year. For the most part, phone brands that sell worldwide – Apple, Google and Samsung – have settled on iterative hardware improvements year-on-year.
Design and hardware
The Galaxy S24 series comprises three phones: the S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra. All three have almost the exact same design as 2023’s flagship Samsung phones.
