Samsung Galaxy Unpacked Live Blog: S24 Series, Galaxy AI and More

Samsung closed today's Unpacked event with a bit of a surprise: a new Galaxy Ring wearable that appears set to take on Oura. Announced alongside a focus on the company's latest Samsung Health initiatives, the wearable is mysterious at the moment -- Samsung didn't share much about it beyond the name (no pricing, availability or even details on what it tracks). 

Samsung also incorporated more sustainably sourced materials into the Galaxy S24 series, including recycled steel, recycled cobalt and rare earth elements. The battery also includes a minimum of 50% recycled cobalt, and the magnets in the speaker are made from 100% recycled rare earth elements. 

While the S24 phones look pretty similar to last year's S23 phones, there've been a few design changes -- mostly to the S24 Ultra, which gets a tougher titanium frame and a more durable Corning Gorilla Armor display. But all three phones have brighter 2,600-nit maximums (up from 1,750 nits in the S23) and improved four-layer cooling systems with thermal materials cooling down the phones.

Samsung is really trying to make the Galaxy S24 the phone of choice for social media by integrating more closely with Instagram and Snapchat. For instance, the Galaxy S24 will be the first phone to have HDR enabled for Instagram photos, according to Samsung. 

The Galaxy S24 series hasn't made too many changes to the actual cameras, aside from the S24 Ultra swapping in a 50-megapixel 5x optical camera instead of the old 10-megapixel 10x optical camera, which should result in sharper zoom photos. (The S24 and S24 Plus cameras are effectively unchanged). All phones should take better photos thanks to better AI (the nongenerative kind), including faster processing, improved HDR and better low-light images. It also helps with faster uploads to Snapchat and Instagram.

Samsung is partnering with Google to fuel the underlying technology for some of Samsung's AI features, through Google's Gemini AI models. But one of the more obvious ways the two companies are working together is a new feature called Circle to Search. Just circle anything you see on your phone, and the S24 will launch a Google search for that item. I tried this ahead of the event by circling a pair of shoes and a stack of waffles in photos on the S24, and sure enough, Google conjured up search results showing the option to buy those shoes, as well as a list of restaurants nearby that serve waffles.

The Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus are getting a slight battery boost. With the Galaxy S24, Samsung is bumping up the battery to 4,000 mAh (an increase of 100 mAh from last year's phone), while the S24 Plus will have a 4,900 mAh power supply (up 200 mAh from the S23 Plus). Samsung says this increase, combined with the update to Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, should lead to 5% better battery efficiency. 

CNET's David Lumb has gotten hands-on with Samsung's latest devices, which also pack in brighter screens and all those aforementioned AI tweaks. 

Productivity is one of the key areas Samsung is focusing on when it comes to new AI features. Transcript Assist can recap lectures and meetings for you through Samsung's voice recorder app. Another feature, called Note Assist, tidies up notes in Samsung's Notes app (as the name implies). I also got a closer look at this ahead of Samsung's event. The Notes app can organize notes into bullet points in different formats and templates. I could see this being useful for someone like me who uses their phone to jot down everything from grocery lists to work-related meeting notes. 

Samsung has promised seven years of Android and security updates for its Galaxy S24 phones, meaning owners will be secure and get new software features into 2031. That's beyond the four years of OS and five years of security in last year's Galaxy S23 phones, meets Google's pledge of seven years of updates for its Pixel 8 phones, and may exceed Apple's unofficial six-to-seven years of expected iOS support.

Samsung is pitching this pledge as a sustainability feature, but it's a boon for any casual phone owner who just wants to hold on to their handset longer. 

Language translation is one of the biggest AI features Samsung is promoting with the Galaxy S24. The new phones can translate calls in real time in the native call app. The feature supports 13 languages at launch, and translations happen on the device, meaning conversations aren't sent to the cloud.

I had the chance to try this ahead of Samsung Unpacked, and it worked smoothly. I called a Korean restaurant from Samsung's demo area, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra translated both ends of the conversation as soon as we'd finished our sentences. I'm looking forward to seeing how well this works in everyday scenarios. 

The Galaxy S24 is official, and CNET's Lisa Eadiccico got a first look at the Galaxy S24 Ultra and a sneak peek at some of the new Galaxy AI features. Here's the list of some of the notable new AI offerings coming with the phones (and coming to the Galaxy S23 line via a future update):

• Chat Assist for changing the tone, translating, or spell-checking your text message before sending it.
• Live Translate for translating calls, in 13 languages, during a conversation.
• Circle to Search, which lets you launch a Google search for any object in a photo just by circling it.
• Note Assist for summarizing, translating and formatting files in Samsung's Notes app and generating digital covers for notes.
• Generative Edit, which like Google's Magic Editor lets you manipulate and move objects in photos.
• Transcript Assist in Samsung's recording app, for providing transcriptions and summarizing conversations.

Samsung's Galaxy S24 is officially official. CNET's Lisa Eadiccico got hands-on with Samsung's latest devices: the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and S24 Ultra. All are equipped with new "AI features," including the ability to translate phone calls in real time. Samsung says these AI software updates will be coming to the S23 line at some point in the future, though when they'll appear we don't yet know. 

Nearly a year ago, at Mobile World Congress 2023, Samsung revealed that it was working on a satellite-to-smartphone connectivity solution that will be integrated through its Exynos modems. The company didn't reveal much about its approach and hasn't shared anything about it since, but the launch of its new flagship phones might be the perfect time to officially unveil its solution. Currently, only Apple's Emergency SOS enables recent iPhone owners to connect to satellites when beyond normal mobile network range. 

Each US carrier's solution is still in its respective testing phase, and Qualcomm's partnership with Iridium for Snapdragon Satellite fizzled late last year, leaving the board wide open for Samsung.

With Apple's Vision Pro VR headset slated to launch in just a couple of weeks, will Wednesday bring the next big update by way of Samsung's response? Last year the company announced it was working on a headset alongside Google and Qualcomm, but in the months since, all parties have been fairly quiet in terms of sharing any major additional details. If there is any news, now would seem like a pretty good time to reveal it. If it does share more details, here's hoping the headset is more exciting and does more than the Gear VR.

Last year, Samsung promised four years of OS support and an additional fifth year of security support for its S23 line, which at the time was competitive with what Android rivals were offering. It meant that the S23 Ultra, launched in 2023, would be safe to use until 2028. 

But as companies have rightly come under increasing pressure to up their green game, some firms have responded by lengthening the support period on their devices. Google, in particular, pushed the boat out with its Pixel 8 and 8 Pro by offering at least seven years of support, while Fairphone takes that even further, offering at least eight years of support on its most recent Fairphone 5. 

Longer support periods mean phones are safer to use for longer, so you won't need to replace your phone as often. Keeping phones going for longer -- and keeping them out of landfill -- is a great way for companies like Samsung to help reduce the overall environmental footprint of its products.

Google's push for longer software support will hopefully encourage Samsung and others to rise to the challenge and try and out-do their rivals for strongest eco credentials. Sure, it'd be nice for them to do it because it's the right thing to do, but as long as it happens, I don't much care about the motivation.

Samsung is likely going to talk a lot about AI features across its new S-series, and I fully expect AI to play a big role in photography, from object detection to scene optimization. 

But Samsung's camera systems on its Ultra models haven't changed in any practical sense for several generations now, with the same 3x, 10x and 100x zoom levels still being offered since 2020's S20 Ultra. As a professional photographer, I was disappointed with last year's S23 Ultra, as it didn't offer anything especially meaningful in its camera setup over its predecessor. 

Meanwhile, Apple upped its game with bigger zooms on its top iPhone, along with ProRes Log video recording, which overall makes the iPhone 15 Pro my favorite phone for image and video capture. Samsung's flagships have always packed superb cameras, so I hope to see some new camera hardware that genuinely gets me excited to get out taking photos. 

On Monday, just days ahead of Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, the International Data Corporation shared that, for the first time ever, Apple shipped more phones than Samsung in the previous year. IDC's preliminary data indicates that in 2023 Apple shipped 234.6 million phones compared to Samsung, which shipped 226.6 million. The last time Samsung was not the leader in phone shipments was 2010. This kind of role reversal between Apple and Samsung adds more importance to Wednesday's Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, where we will likely see the launch of the Galaxy S24 series.

The main attraction of the Galaxy S24 lineup is expected to be AI. Samsung hasn't shared much yet on what to expect on the AI front other than billing the event as "a new era of mobile." Previously Samsung detailed a forthcoming feature called AI Live Translate coming to its "latest Galaxy AI phone." As the name suggests, audio and text translations will appear in real time as you speak. Crucially, this feature will be restricted to on-device AI, meaning conversations and translations won't leave the phone. 

The Galaxy S23 started at $800, the S23 Plus was $1,000 and the S23 Ultra began at $1,200. Could those prices change for the Galaxy S24? Rumors suggest that Samsung may be changing its strategy, at least in Europe. According to GalaxyClub.nl (as spotted by PhoneArena), both the S24 and S24 Plus should start in some parts of Europe at lower prices compared to last year's phones. 

According to the outlet the S24 will potentially be starting at 899 euros (down from 949 euros for the S23) while the S24 Plus will begin at 1,149 euros (down from 1,199 euros). The S24 Ultra, meanwhile, is said to feature a starting price of 1,449 euros, which would be slightly higher than the S23 Ultra's 1,399 euros. 

When converted to the US dollar, all of these prices are noticeably higher than what Samsung charged for its phones in America -- because EU prices include sales tax at 20%. It's possible this price adjustment could be for Europe only and it's hard to reach any conclusion for other markets.

Samsung typically uses the latest premium Qualcomm Snapdragon chip in its newest S-series phones, and if the S24 series packs the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 unveiled back in October, it could use the silicon's generative AI capabilities to add dynamic new features that previous phones couldn't handle. Qualcomm showcased several features like expanding an image beyond its original boundaries, suggesting more professional or casual messaging tones based on recipient and generating images using Midjourney, all on the device rather than the cloud. But phone-makers have to decide which features make it into their new handsets, so we'll wait to see if Samsung includes these or other gen AI-based features.

The Galaxy S24 series was barely beaten by the OnePlus 12 as the first big phone launch of 2024. Typically the Galaxy S series sets the tone for what's coming in smartphones that we'll see in later months, but now we can look to OnePlus for hints. Will the S24 have similar specs -- starting at 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM, or up to 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM? (Last year's Galaxy S23 started at 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.) Will its display reach 4,500 nits of peak brightness? (The Galaxy S23's screen maxed out at 1,750 nits.) Will it reach 80 watts of wired charging? (The Galaxy S23 had 25 watts maximum wired charging.) We'll see soon enough.

Don't expect major design changes to make their way to the Galaxy S24 series. Samsung's upcoming flagship smartphone is expected to keep mostly the same design for the base S24 and S24 Plus phones, complete with floating camera lenses, according to known leaker Tech Reve. However, the S24 Ultra could receive more noticeable changes including fewer visible camera lenses from the rear, according to Tech Reve, as well as a flat screen, as we mentioned earlier.

Curved screens used to be the "big thing" for new phones. Now, it appears that we've once again returned to the idea that flat glass makes more sense. Leaks posted on X seem to suggest that Samsung is going to be utilizing a flat display for its flagship Ultra this year, a departure from prior versions of its most high-end S-series devices which had curved screens.