The Galaxy S24, which launches on Jan. 31, provides a first glimpse into Samsung’s vision for generative AI on smartphones. But the Galaxy S24 series is just one of several major new mobile products we’re expecting to see from the Korean tech giant in 2024, all of which are likely to embrace AI in one way or another.
Generative artificial intelligence, or AI that can create new content in response to prompts after being trained on data, took the tech industry by storm in 2023. Samsung is no exception; in November, it announced its own generative AI model. And in January, it launched the Galaxy S24 lineup — the first phones to come with the company’s Galaxy AI suite of features.
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Samsung makes a lot more than just phones and wearables; its product lineup spans TVs, monitors, laptops and home appliances. But Samsung holds significant influence in the mobile market as one of the two dominant players that makes up the majority of worldwide smartphone shipments. Its Galaxy S launch is usually the first major smartphone launch of the year, and it sets the tone for what to expect throughout 2024.
Like many tech companies, Samsung tends to release new smartphones and smartwatches on an annual basis. While only Samsung knows precisely which new Galaxy products will be launching and when, it’s possible to make educated guesses based on the company’s launch patterns in years past.
For example, Samsung usually starts the product year sometime in the first quarter by releasing new versions of its flagship Galaxy S phones, while its new foldable phones typically arrive in the late summer.
Now that the Galaxy S24 has arrived, these are the other new mobile products we’re expecting to see from Samsung based on the company’s typical product launch cycle, reports and leaks.
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Galaxy A55 5G
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 pictured half-open.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 was a significant step up from the Galaxy Z Flip 4, thanks largely to its bigger cover screen, gapless design and improved camera. The rumored Galaxy Z Flip 6 will likely build on the Z Flip 5 with typical upgrades like a fresh processor and perhaps more software features that take advantage of its foldable design. A report from the blog Galaxy Club indicates that the Galaxy Z Flip 6 could have a 50-megapixel main camera sensor, which would represent a notable step up from the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s 12-megapixel camera.
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The company also usually puts the same chip from its flagship Galaxy S series into the Galaxy Z Flip, so there’s a chance it will inherit the same AI tricks as the Galaxy S24 series. But Samsung could also add additional AI features that are optimized specifically for the Galaxy Z Flip’s design, as Won-Joon Choi, executive vice president and head of the research and development office for Samsung’s mobile experience business, hinted during a recent CNET interview. Of course, this is all just speculation for now; we won’t know for sure until Samsung makes an announcement.
Samsung typically announces new Galaxy Z Flip phones in the August time frame, although it announced the Z Flip 5 slightly earlier this year in July.
Galaxy Z Fold 6
Health and exercise tracking is usually a big focus for Samsung’s Galaxy Watch.
While we don’t know what’s next for Samsung’s smartwatch lineup, we can expect health tracking to remain a big theme. Samsung has been focused on sleep; it even conducted what it claims is one of the largest single health sleep studies ever by examining the sleep behaviors of Galaxy Health users worldwide. Samsung’s One UI 5 Watch software update from 2023 also puts sleep statistics front and center on the company’s smartwatches.
Samsung also showcased a new health metric during its recent Unpacked event called My Vitality Score, which will evaluate your physical and mental readiness based on factors such as sleep, activity, resting heart rate and heart rate variability. We can expect this to play a role in future Galaxy Watches.
Otherwise, the biggest changes between the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 6 had to do with software, screens and battery life, as my colleague Lexy Savvides wrote in her review. It’s possible that Samsung could take a similar approach with the Galaxy Watch 7’s hardware. Given the company’s focus on AI, it also wouldn’t be surprising to see some Galaxy AI features baked into the next Galaxy Watch.
Galaxy Buds 3
The Galaxy Ring.
Samsung has been selling smartwatches and wireless earbuds for years, but the tech giant is expanding into a new genre: smart rings. The company teased its first smart ring, known as the Galaxy Ring, during its January Unpacked event. While it didn’t say much about the ring other than confirming its existence, health tracking will be the major focus. It’s a plausible use case for such a device.
The Oura ring, for example, has two big advantages over smartwatches: It’s more discrete and compact, making it easier to wear overnight. And it offers significantly longer battery life than a smartwatch since it doesn’t have a screen. Both of those characteristics seem to align with Samsung’s reasoning behind launching a health tracking ring of its own, according to my conversation with Hon Pak, vice president and head of the digital health team for the mobile experience business at Samsung Electronics.
“Some people want a more simple form factor, and [the] ring represents that,” said Pak, adding that the ring can passively measure health metrics without requiring the level of engagement that a watch would. “And then it’s got to be stylish, it’s got to be comfortable, it’s got to have long battery life. And those are the characteristics that we’re working on.”
I also got to see a prototype of the ring and learned that it will come in three colors: silver, dark gray and gold. So far, it seems similar to the Oura ring, but we’ll have to wait to learn more.
New Galaxy foldable
Samsung showcased its display concepts at CES 2023.
Samsung has a lot of ideas about where foldable phones could go next, but none of its future concepts have graduated to becoming real products yet. At CES 2024, for example, it showcased a Galaxy Z Flip-like concept device that could bend in both directions. And before that at CES 2023, for example, Samsung showcased the Flex Hybrid, which has a tablet-size screen that can extend to provide more screen space. That’s just one of several concepts Samsung has shown over the years; it’s also created prototype mobile devices that bend in multiple areas like an accordion.
The company hasn’t said when or if any of these concepts will make it to market. But shipments of foldable phones are expected to grow, even though they account for only a small portion of the mobile market today. Worldwide shipments of foldable phones are expected to have grown 43.9% in 2023 compared with 2022, according to market research firm International Data Corporation.
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Galaxy VR headset
Samsung’s Gear VR headset from 2017.
It’s been a big year for mixed reality, with Apple launching its first headset, called the Vision Pro, Meta launching the Quest 3 and Sony debuting the PlayStation VR 2. But Samsung’s plans for mixed reality are still largely a mystery.
Samsung, Qualcomm and Google are working on a mixed-reality project, although we haven’t heard much about it since the three companies announced their partnership in February 2023. It’s possible that we’ll hear more at Samsung’s expected Galaxy S24 launch event since it may take place roughly one year after the partnership was announced.
Samsung hasn’t mentioned whether any specific mixed reality products, like a new headset, are under development.
“It’s more of a declarative announcement about how we are going to get it right in trying to build the XR ecosystem,” T.M. Roh, president of Samsung’s mobile division, said through a translator in an interview with CNET in February 2023.
Although we don’t know what the company’s plans for mixed reality are yet, Roh hinted in a separate CNET interview in July that phones will play a big role in the experience.
“So, for the short term, perhaps many features or experiences [in] mixed reality would be in connection with [the] smartphone,” he said.
We’ll know more about Samsung’s product plans as 2024 unfolds. But what seems clear, given the tech industry’s direction, is that AI will be a big part of what’s next.
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Article source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/galaxy-s24-is-here-but-were-expecting-more-from-samsung-in-2024/#ftag=CADe34d7bf