Samsung’s coming Galaxy S24 could get seven years of updates according to information leaked a day before its unveiling.
Online publication androidheadlines.com has published leaked images of the S24 and S24 Ultra, along with details about the phone’s AI camera features. Features include a massive 200MP wide-angle lens on the S24 Ultra model.
The information includes a commitment by Samsung to copy Google’s update strategy of seven years of support for its Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro handsets.
“Presumably, this means not just security updates, but updates with new features and updates for the OS version of Android,” says androidheadlines.com. “This is a big deal. Because with Samsung onboard, other smaller or less popular OEMs may adopt the same strategy for updates going forward.”
One not-so-great leak is that Samsung may be looking to charge you for the use of some AI features. The publication says some AI features will require that you login into your Samsung account. However, these features should remain free until 2025.
Smart phones have been using artificial intelligence to post-process images for some years. Apple used AI to identify image-types in photos, and improve their appearance and texture. This could be the sky, grass, trees, people or animals.
AI capabilities are growing. Google’s Pixel 8 series, for example, lets users manipulate objects from a photo. The leaked report suggests Samsung will be giving the Galaxy S 24 series the same capabilities.
The downside is that you’ll never trust an image taken by a smart phone to be truly representative of reality if images can so easily be altered on the fly.
Camera images leaked to androidheadlines.com suggest the Galaxy S24 will have three lenses: a 10 megapixel lens with 3x optical zoom, a 50 megapixel wide-angle lens with 2x optical quality zoom, and a 12 megapixel ultrawide lens. The S24 Ultra 10 megapixel lens has 5x optical zoom, and a fourth, 200MP wide-angle lens with 2x optical zoom. The selfie camera is 12MP.
Samsung’s Unpacked event takes place on January 17, 2024.
