by Thinus Ferreira
On Wednesday night Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra smartphone range at another Unpacked event in California with the Galaxy device that now incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) features.
Cheil SA that reps Samsung in South Africa didn't bother with any PR or communication about the San Jose or Fourways event held in South Africa and didn't send over any press release afterwards.
Last year Apple overtook Samsung Electronics for the first time according to data provider International Data Corp in smartphone shipments.
In South Africa the S24 Ultra will sell at R32 500. The cost of the Samsung S24+ is R25 500 while the S24 retails for R22 500.
Shipping of pre-orders in South Africa will start on 9 February on the same day as sales start in stores and the devices come in titanium grey, titanium black, titanium yellow and titanium violet.
Samsung is now adding the first type of rudimentary artificial intelligence functionality in its Galaxy S24 phones like the simultaneous translation of languages where people are speaking on a call in different languages.
The device can do it in 13 different languages but users must first download language packs and excludes any of South Africa's official languages.
The phone's AI can also be used to summarise and translate voice recordings. AI can also be utilised to change the tone of a message from formal to informal and vice versa.
Image-wise the device can do generative editing of photos to add in non-existent backgrounds and turn video into slow-motion. It also has a "circle-to-search function where any part of an image can be circled to do a Google image search.
