The massive Android canines from Samsung —the Galaxy S24 sequence — are out to problem the smartphone supremacy crown in 2024. There are minor design enhancements, a sooner chip, a barely tweaked digital camera, a giant bounce in thermal administration capability, and a great deal of AI hype round them.
A few of these AI options come courtesy of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy silicon, whereas others are constructed in-house or with some assist from Google. However behind the scenes, Samsung has once more employed a controversial two-chip gross sales system.
Within the U.S., all three Galaxy S24 fashions will draw energy from Qualcomm’s flagship chip. In different markets, Samsung will solely arm the Galaxy S24 Extremely with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, whereas the extra reasonably priced Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus trims will get the in-house Exynos 2400 processor.
A shameful lack of religion
Inexpensive is a relative time period right here. The Galaxy S24 Plus begins at $1,000 within the U.S., whereas the entry-point model may have you spending no less than $800. The Galaxy S24 Extremely has been spared the Exynos remedy, apparently as a result of it’s much more costly this yr at $1,300.
That’s a $100 premium over the iPhone 15 Professional Max, making it the most costly non-foldable cellphone on the market. Or, as some Wall Road analysts would say, innovation comes at a price. However that’s not the worst half. Apparently, Samsung itself appears to have little religion in its personal Exynos silicon.
Nowhere within the official press materials does Samsung promote the virtues of its Exynos 2400 as a lot as Qualcomm’s silicon. The embargoed data despatched to the U.S. media doesn’t point out Exynos in any respect. Who’s Samsung making an attempt to cover the Exynos from? The media, or the patrons who don’t get to see an Exynos processor marketed feverishly for a thousand-dollar cellphone?
Now, the Exynos fiasco isn’t precisely a secret. I’ve been following the poor trajectory of Samsung’s cell processors for the reason that Exynos 990 (contained in the Galaxy S20 sequence), which was completely trounced by the Snapdragon 865 again then. A yr later, the Snapdragon 888 proved Samsung’s Exynos 2100 wanted to cowl a whole lot of floor, particularly within the graphics division.
In 2022, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 as soon as once more raced forward of the Exynos 2200 by a wholesome margin. However a cellphone isn’t merely how briskly its processor can go. It’s a sum of many components. Alas, the Exynos shortcomings spilled over into many different departments, as effectively.
The consultants at DxOMark and unbiased testing have additionally highlighted that Qualcomm-powered Galaxy flagships provide a greater digital camera expertise than these with an Exynos chip inside. That’s fairly ironic, given the truth that Samsung takes a whole lot of pleasure within the digital camera chops of its Galaxy S portfolio.
Aspect-by-side comparisons have additionally laid naked the information that Galaxy flagships with a Qualcomm processor inside can handle sustained peak efficiency for an extended length, eat much less energy beneath load, and fare higher at idle energy consumption. App launch pace checks additionally present that the Qualcomm-powered variants are snappier. XDA product boards, Reddit, X, and Samsung’s personal Neighborhood chats are suffering from Exynos-Galaxy complaints.
At this juncture, we don’t know if the Exynos 2400 will reverse the fortunes, however for the type of cash Samsung is asking for even the most affordable Galaxy S24 variant, I might a lot moderately put money into Qualcomm-backed Android flagships such because the upcoming OnePlus 12. And never solely for the added sprint of firepower. The reason being AI, and it extends effectively into the way forward for the whole smartphone business.
2024 is a special ballgame
Google’s Pixel 8 Professional has made it abundantly clear that AI isn’t the identical type of vaporware as NFTs, crypto, and Web3. Generative AI methods primarily based on giant language fashions are right here to remain and alter telephones in a significant means. Qualcomm and MediaTek are doing their greatest to cram generative AI smarts inside telephones throughout premium and midrange segments.
Even Samsung went all-in with the Galaxy AI theme for its newest telephones. Nothing has come out of their flashy demos and daring guarantees to date. Samsung can change that. The Galaxy S24 guarantees neat methods like real-time voice and textual content translations for voice calls, an offline language interpreter, and a chat help that refines your messages (akin to instruments just like the Paragraph AI keyboard).
A message summarization system for Android Auto à la, the wonderful Shortwave e mail app, and a few ChatGPT-esque summarization options for note-taking and audio recording.
However then, the true “wow” class of generative AI methods are tied to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and to date, we don’t know if the Exynos 2400 will pull them off as effectively. Amongst them is Generative Edit, which helps you to transfer round topics in an image and regulate the canvas measurement by including extra parts to it utilizing generative AI.
Name it pixel-level sensible auto-fill, if you’ll. It nearly works like magic, as seen within the Adobe video above. It received’t be as spectacular on smartphones, however the imaginative and prescient might be a precursor of nice issues to return. Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 allows text-to-image technology utilizing Steady Diffusion in lower than a second.
The chip additionally opens the doorways for voice-enabled picture and video enhancing. There’s even a system to take away objects in pictures, identical to Google’s Magic Eraser function for Pixel telephones.
Samsung’s double whammy
These options would possibly sound gimmicky to some, however there’s much more to on-device generative AI than simply including some snazzy impact to pictures. It will decouple a whole lot of processes from the cloud, making duties so much sooner in addition to safer. The Gemini Nano mannequin doing its job on the Pixel 8 Professional is only one instance, with the Galaxy S24 powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 following in these footsteps.
On this case, Qualcomm took it upon itself to bake these AI options on its silicon. Sadly, we don’t know if Samsung went the additional mile with these on-device generative AI capabilities for the Exynos 2400, whereas additionally narrowing the efficiency and expertise gulf with Qualcomm-driven flagships.
We’ve got reached out to Samsung for readability on the state of affairs, however to date, it appears a whole bunch and 1000’s of Galaxy S24 buyers are in for a worse Exynos shock this yr than they had been in 2022 or the years prior.
It’s simply ironic that Samsung’s guess on AI is what’s going to chunk the followers. Thoughts you, these are followers who pay much more for a Samsung flagship of their dwelling market than what a median U.S.-based purchaser has to half methods with, so there’s that stinging actuality, too.
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