Galaxy S24 Ultra 30-Day Real Review: Did AI Actually Change My Life?
- Review, Technology
- 04 Jul, 2024
Everyone is talking about 'AI' these days. Honestly, I initially thought it was just another marketing buzzword. When they said AI was built into a smartphone, I just scoffed, thinking, "So, it just has one more app installed?" But after buying the Galaxy S24 Ultra with my own money and daily driving it for a month, I have to admit that I was completely wrong.
It's not just about chatting with a bot; the very way I use my phone has fundamentally changed. Let’s talk honestly about whether the features that deeply permeated my daily life over the past 30 days are actually worth it.
See It, Circle It, Find It: Circle to Search
If you asked me to pick the feature I used the absolute most on the Galaxy S24, I would choose 'Circle to Search' without hesitation. In the past, if I spotted a cool pair of sneakers while scrolling through Instagram, I had to identify the brand logo, open a browser, and search for it... The process was so tedious that I often just gave up.
But things are different now. You just press and hold the home button (or navigation bar) and draw a circle over those sneakers. That's it. You don't need to take a screenshot or switch to another app. Google Search slides up from the bottom of the screen and tells you the brand, the price, and even where you can buy them.
The scary part is that it becomes such a habit that I catch myself pressing the bottom of the screen even when I'm using other phones or tablets. The clothes my friends are wearing, a pretty cafe chair I saw on the street, or even a travel destination I got curious about while watching YouTube. It's the number one contributor to completely breaking down my barriers to searching.
No More Fear of Calling Foreigners: Live Translate
I recently ran into a problem with my hotel reservation while preparing for an overseas business trip. Emailing would take too long, so I had to make a phone call, which was quite stressful as someone with 'English phobia.' That's when the S24's Live Translate feature flashed through my mind.
With a pounding heart, I made the call and turned on 'Call Assist.' When I said in Korean, "I want to postpone my reservation date by one day," the phone naturally translated and delivered it in English to the other person 1-2 seconds later. When the other person replied in English, it translated it back to Korean and showed it to me both in voice and text.
Of course, it's not perfectly seamless like a professional simultaneous interpreter. There is a slight delay, and sometimes it misunderstands things completely. However, there was absolutely no problem in achieving the fundamental goal of 'communication.' Best of all, since this entire process happens on the device itself (on-device) without an internet connection, there were no worries about privacy leaks, and the speed was quite stable.
Goodbye, Meeting Minute Stress: Transcript Assist
A pain that any office worker can relate to is organizing meeting minutes after a long meeting. Since using the S24, I've been completely liberated from this pain.
After recording the meeting with the default Voice Recorder app, you just press the 'Transcribe' button. It distinguishes the speakers and extracts the conversation into text, and if you press the 'Summarize' button, the AI neatly organizes only the key points.
The most surprising thing was the accuracy of the transcription. It managed to grasp the context with a fairly high probability, even in situations where Korean pronunciation was mumbled or multiple people were speaking over each other. While I used to listen to the recording from start to finish and type it all out, now the AI drafts it for me, and I only have to make edits, which has massively boosted my work efficiency. I feel like I'm leaving work 30 minutes earlier.
A Few Shortcomings, and Anticipation for the Future
Of course, there are some disappointing aspects. The Generative Edit feature for photos sometimes fills in the background so absurdly when I erase a subject that it makes me chuckle. The writing assist feature (tone change, etc.) on the Samsung Keyboard still feels a bit awkward and 'translated' when used in Korean.
However, I see these as software optimization issues rather than hardware limitations, and they are things that can easily be improved through future updates.
What I felt after using the Galaxy S24 Ultra for a month is that smartphones have evolved beyond simply being 'fast machines that take good photos' into 'smart assistants that help me.' It's a truly Smart phone that helps you out exactly when you need it, without the hassle of deliberately finding an app, launching it, and typing in a command.
If it's time for you to upgrade your phone, and if you highly value small conveniences in your daily life, the Galaxy S24 series will be a pretty solid choice. At least for me, I don't think I can ever go back to a phone without AI.
