So what are these AI features? We’ll we start with the obvious – Samsung now has an AI photo editor just like Google’s magic editor. That’s right folks, Samsung’s phones can help you lie to your partner too (yay?).  But on top of that, the Chat Assist feature helps you to help you apologise to them the right way over text . seriously though Chat Assist has everything from formal tones to chill or flirty, all meant to take your text and spruce it up so it’s even better. One of the coolest features however, is the live call transcription, here if someone calls you in another language, the phone can automatically translate that into English and vice versa. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen something like this but it’s the first time we’ve seen it happen offline completely on device and as seamlessly as Samsung has implemented here. You can literally download language packs to better translate different languages offline. Perfect for hen you travel. And the same applies pretty much for all these AI features. The run on Google’s Gemini Nano large language AI model , the same one running on the Pixel 8 Pro, but like the Pixel you can connect to the web to use the Gemini Pro to better process tasks when need  be. There are also more AI camera tricks available like the instant video slow-mo, where any video can be turned into a slow-motion one, or the better photo editing tools like removing a shadow in front of your face on a portrait.

The biggest AI feature however, is circle to search , a feature that again, Google’s Pixel 8 will also have, but does admittedly look better on the S24 Ultra’s S-Pen. It’s essentially exactly what it says. See a picture, hold the home button, tap on it and Google tells you what the object is, if you can buy it, where etc. It’s essentially an evolution of Google Lens , but much easier and more convenient. And honestly that’s exactly what most of these AI features are. Tricks and tools we’ve probably seen before but easier to use and more consumer friendly. And honestly that’s maybe the boost all these AI kinds of tools need; a flagship phone that a lot of people ill buy and has them right up front. Google’s Pixel series is great but let’s face it, it’s not exactly the most popular series around, which is why Google seems to pretty much be willing to help a competitor copy all their best tricks, or outright share them. I do feel part of this is a bit too much though, as Google renaming Nearby Share to Samsung’s Quick Share since the to are merging is..a little odd. But clearly these companies know something we don’t, so we’ll just wait and see how that goes.

Samsung’s iPhone moment, and whether you should buy these phones.

Now throughout this article you’ll notice I made a few allusions to Apple and the iPhone and that’s because to because when it comes down to it, Samsung kind of seems to be having an Apple-like phase right now. Anyone remember the iPhone 12 launch? Where Apple made a few design tweaks to the phone , made the camera on the Pro only slightly better then focused on how the phones had 5G and that was the big feature? Well this is Samsung having that exact moment, they’ve nailed the hardware of these phones for a while now that they’re actually investing in software and quality of life features. After all these phones will have up to 7 years of software updates( you’ll get them now on Android 14 and they’ll get up to Android 21!). Samsung is getting over some petty competition with Google and working with them in a way that hopefully makes all Android phones better, and these will be the first Android phones to get great, native support for the Instagram and Snapchat camera for years, aka the reason you’ve gotten worse photos if you use the Instagram camera to record your photos and video, yet the phone’s camera app produces better. It’s all small steps that make using these phones better, and will inevitably lead to much better  devices in future as well. Now does that mean these are the Galaxy phones to buy? Maybe not. After Samsung has confirmed at least half of the AI features will be coming to the S23 series, maybe even the 22 series as well. And while you don’t get 7 years of updates with those phones, you still get a very healthy 5 years. So you could save yourself a little cash instead. Either way, whether you get them or not, the S24 phones are a step forward, maybe not the one most of us expected. But perhaps the one Samsung and Android need. And that’s not a bad thing at all.

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