When Samsung presented its new Galaxy S24 series, all eyes were directed towards its great novelty: Galaxy AI. It is the first case of generative artificial intelligence incorporated transversally into a smartphone. EL PAÍS has tested the Galaxy S24 Ultra for a few days with the idea of taking advantage of those new intelligent functions.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is the most sophisticated phone – and also the most expensive, costing between 1,459 and 1,819 euros – in the series launched by Samsung. It is a device of considerable dimensions (it is 16.2 centimeters high, 7.9 centimeters wide and 8.6 millimeters thick), which houses its now traditional stylus, called S Pen, on one side. In total, it weighs 232 grams. All in line with previous versions of the terminal. Its 6.8-inch screen with QHD+ technology is used to the fullest, with hardly any margins. The first sensation is the fluidity of operation, common in this type of high-end mobile phones.
However, more than ever, the most striking thing about this smartphone is inside. Until now, personal assistants, such as Siri or Google Assistant, mainly allowed you to make queries and call other applications. Galaxy AI goes further and integrates into different apps, modifying the content that appears in them.
One of the most notable functions, developed in conjunction with Google, is Circle to search. By holding down the center button in the bottom menu, the screen freezes and the user can circle an object or person. It doesn't matter if you are looking at a photo, a video or reading an article on the Internet. The AI recognizes the object through an image search in the Google search engine.
The tool recognizes animals, plants and even fungi. And also places, even if they are not well known. Of course, someone must have previously photographed them and uploaded them to the Internet. In a video that shows the passage of a train and where adjacent market stalls are guessed, the AI guesses that it is the Mae Klong Market, in Thailand. It is also able to find the make and model of a hair straightener or sneakers after photographing them. Although if you look for a little-known person, it may fail. In this case, the AI looks at other patterns to search for. Instead of finding the face, of which it doesn't have many references, it shows people with similar clothes or hair.
AI to read, summarize and take notes
Galaxy AI also works in the browser. If you come across an article written in a language you don't know, the AI translates it directly on the website. Although the most notable thing is its ability to summarize the text. It offers two versions, one more detailed and the other more schematic. The summary, which usually contains the main thing, is sometimes made up of literal phrases from the text. Its utility? Saving time can be especially valuable if someone wants to read the privacy policy of a social network or any Internet service. Although it must be taken into account that artificial intelligence can leave out nuances, so it is advisable to review the most delicate points.
In the Samsung Notes app, AI helps convert handwritten notes, taken with the S Pen, into digital text. It was something that the terminal already did before, but now it also extracts summaries of any file in that application. As with an article in the browser, the user only has to look for the button with little stars that calls up the artificial intelligence. It is located at the bottom and is used to translate, summarize or even give the information a schematic format. Thus, the tool shows in a presentable way what were initially the scattered notes of a meeting.
Another of the striking new features of the Galaxy S24 Ultra's AI is the simultaneous translation of phone calls. Once activated, the phone translates into text and with a synthetic voice what the interlocutor says in another language. At EL PAÍS we have tested this function for a Spanish-English conversation and for another, Spanish-Hindi. It is effective with short sentences and when the conversation is clear and without hesitation, while confusion increases the more complex and choppy the speech is. Obviously, the translation from Hindi was more complicated, although it could serve for a basic understanding.
AI is also integrated into other applications. In WhatsApp and email it allows you to translate the messages that are received and sent. The recorder offers the possibility of transcribing the audios. It captures the conversation quite well and effectively differentiates when each person is speaking. Once again, hesitations cloud the transcription, whose punctuation will always deserve a review, as will the grammar of some sentences.
This is the first version of Galaxy AI, so with time (and training) it is expected that the results will get better and better. In this sense, it should be noted that Samsung ensures that its AI will not be trained with user data.
Smart photo retouching
Until now, artificial intelligence acted on the execution of photography, that is, in the camera application. This could improve the image in different ways, by illuminating a low-light area, increasing sharpness, adjusting colors or reducing noise in photos. All of this was done automatically. But with the Galaxy S24, AI fully enters everything related to the graphics section.
Photo editing using artificial intelligence, until now exploited mainly by specialized paid apps, comes to the fore with the new Samsung mobile, which is already equipped with these functions as standard. Once the photo is taken, swiping up with your finger will reveal basic suggestions, such as adding a portrait effect or improving contrast. These options can be used after you have shot with the S24 Ultra's rear camera, which is made up of four sensors and has a 200-megapixel main lens.
But where the new features of Galaxy AI are most noticeable is when the user decides to modify an image that they already have in their photo gallery. It is possible to delete an object, make it larger or change it to another one. Artificial intelligence will fill the gap through calculated pixel generation. A building can also be straightened to match the vertical line of the margins, as the AI will fill in the background without difficulty. Samsung automatically adds a watermark to images modified with its AI, although it can be removed with a fairly simple editing process.
At the heart of the hardware that supports all these features is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and 12 gigabytes of RAM. The storage varies between the versions of 256 gigabytes, 512 gigabytes and 1 tera, while the battery, which can easily last a day of intense use, is 5,000 milliamp-hours.
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