January 18 marked the first of the major tech announcements for the 2024. Samsung has introduced its new flagship phone line-up - the Galaxy s24. There are three models in the range: 6.2-inch Samsung Galaxy S24, 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S24+ and 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
New phones launch all the time, each promising to be better than ever. Unfortunately, new launches can often be underwhelming, with only minor changes to software or battery life.
But Samsung's new devices appear to be punching above their weight, with new features that promise to deliver a much improved user experience. In particular, enhanced features that are more aligned with the way we actually use our phones - less as a call device and more as pocket-sized digital assistant.
These are the four key features to look out for across the Samsung Galaxy S24 range.
Photo Assist and enhanced camera
The camera hardware is impressive. The S24 and S24+ come with a 50MP Pro-Grade camera, configured in the same way as its predecessors. The Ultra has a 200MP camera that's been designed to capture an unprecedented level of detail for a smart phone. Just look at the reference images on Samsung's website. Controversially, Samsung has removed the 10x zoom camera from the Ultra, instead opting to offer 10x via the the 5x lens.
In addition to the cameras, we now have Photo Assist powered by Galaxy AI. It's a new enhanced editing tool that can help you make more complex edits that you might ordinarily need a tool like Photoshop to do. Galaxy AI analyses your captured images and can then provide next-level suggested edits, including object removal, shadow erasing, and epic remastering for a perfectly polished shot.
This promises to be a real timesaver, eliminating the need to import your photos to a desktop in order to access the more technical aspect of photo editing.
Live Translate
Galaxy AI also brings us Live Translate. It's exactly what it sounds like - a feature that enables real-time foreign language translation. Unlike previous translation tools that required face-to-face interactions, Live Translate allows you to understand foreign languages during phone calls, all in your preferred language.
It's a handy feature for travellers, business or pleasure. You can turn on Live Translate for phone calls to assist with anything from hotel bookings to meetings.
Circle to Search
Circle to Search is an enhanced search feature that allows you to draw a circle around an image or part of an image and then search via Google for what's inside of your circle.
For example, if you're scrolling Pinterest and find an image of a living room that you love, you could circle things in the image like the coffee table. Circle to Search would then allow you to search for similar coffee table via Google. It makes product gatekeeping a thing of the past.
Note Assist
If you find yourself overwhelmed by notes from a meeting or a lengthy to-do list, Galaxy AI comes to the rescue. Note Assist allows you to highlight text in your notes app and hit 'summarise'. Galaxy AI will then format your text an easy-to-review summary.
It's a handy feature for everyone from students who want to auto summarise study notes or professionals wanting clear dot-points for a board report.
Samsung has also made changes to performance, screens and battery life for the Galaxy S24 line-up. But, in our humble opinions, it's new AI-enhanced features are the most exciting.
The Samsung Galaxy s24 starts at $1399, the s24+ starts at $1699 and the Ultra starts at $2199. Prices are in Australian Dollars. You can pre-order now at Samsung or major telcos.
