Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is latest Android flagship powered by AI

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the South Korean company’s new flagship smartphone, which, in addition to taking on Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max and Google’s Pixel 8 Pro, unleashes the power of generative artificial intelligence (AI). “It’s a new era of AI phones,” Samsung said at the first edition of Galaxy Unpacked 2024 in Los Angeles, US. The new Galaxy S24 Ultra brings native support for generative AI, which will help you do several things, such as summarising webpages, looking up any object or thing in a photo anytime, translating calls from one language to another in real-time, and editing photos and videos without putting a lot of effort. While Samsung’s new Galaxy AI is at the helm of most of these features, it has leveraged its close partnership with Google to offer exclusive features such as ‘Circle to Search’.

According to Samsung, the new Galaxy S24 Ultra maximises “creativity, performance, and life enhancement.” The new AI features coming to the Galaxy S24 series are not exactly new but they bring AI on devices to the mainstream. These features are aimed at making your overall smartphone experience less cumbersome and more productive, especially if you are a creator or a professional.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra price

The Galaxy S24 Ultra starts at $1,299. The pre-orders start on January 17, while the sales begin on January 31 in the US. The India prices will come out later. The new S24 Ultra comes in Titanium Gray, Titanium Black, Titanium Violet and Titanium Yellow colours.

Galaxy AI for productivity

You can long-press the home button or swipe up to trigger AI for a photo, allowing you to search for anything that you circle using ‘Circle to Search’. That means if you are unsure about a dish you see in one of your friends’ photos, just circle it using the S Pen or just your finger to quickly Google it. Going to a country that does not speak your language? The Galaxy S24 Ultra has a native real-time translation for calls, so if you are trying to call your hotel’s reception in Korea, you can easily talk in English as your phone will translate the languages. This feature is called ‘Live Translate’. The new ‘Interpreter’ feature will show the translation of a live conversation in a split-screen.

Another feature, ‘Chat Assist’, will work not only on native apps such as Samsung Messages but also on third-party platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram, where you can not only compose a message with different tones and word combinations but also translate messages from one language to the other. Gen AI is also coming to Samsung’s Voice Recorder and Notes, where you can ask for transcription and translate it to any supported language, organise notes, align and space in a screenshot of a handwritten text, and generate covers for the Samsung Notes app.

Galaxy AI for photography

Gen AI is also coming to the camera app, where editing photos and videos becomes a lot easier — and almost automatic. With the new ProVisual Engine, Samsung is bringing AI to let you do things such as apply enhanced digital zoom even on photos taken at 100x and take photos at Super Resolution. The Galaxy S24 Ultra brings a Quad Tele System with a new 5x optical zoom lens, along with support for Nightography. The new Galaxy AI editing tools in the Samsung Gallery app enable simple edits such as erase, re-compose, and remaster for a photo. Edit Suggestion suggests suitable edits for a photo, while Generative Edit will let you fill in parts of an image background with AI-generated edit. Another feature called Instant Slow-mo will generate additional frames based on the movements of a video to slow it down more smoothly.

Galaxy S24 Ultra specifications

All of the new generative AI features use top-of-the-line hardware. Powering the Galaxy S24 Ultra is Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, however, designed specifically for the Galaxy. It is called Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy. This makes the S24 Ultra a top contender for the OnePlus 12, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and the rumoured Xiaomi 14 Ultra. There is 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. Samsung says the new Galaxy S24 Ultra uses a 1.9 times larger vapour chamber for better heat dissipation. It features a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display, but this time it is flatter. The screen supports an adaptive refresh rate of 1-120Hz, along with a resolution of Quad-HD+. It is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Armour. There is a larger 5000mAh battery inside with support for 45W fast charging and Fast Wireless Charging 2.0. There is also reverse wireless charging using the new Wireless PowerShare technology.

For cameras, the Galaxy S24 Ultra features upgraded sensors. There is a 200MP wide camera, a 12MP ultrawide camera, a 10MP telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom, and a 10MP telephoto camera with 5X optical zoom. For selfies, the phone comes with a 12MP camera right inside the punch-hole on the display. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra runs Android 14-based One UI 6.1, but the company is taking a huge leap in terms of making its new device sustainable by offering seven years of software upgrades. This phone is also IP68-rated for dust- and water-resistance.