The launch of the Samsung Galaxy S24 series last week marked another milestone in Samsung’s history: for the first time in a long time, it’s no longer just about iterative upgrades. This new launch was all about making smartphones actually smart, with Galaxy AI taking the spotlight in just about every part of the phone.
From the game-changing Galaxy S10 to the innovative Galaxy S24 series, Samsung has come a long way in terms of its flagship S series. The most important advancements were made in camera hardware: where the Galaxy S10 had 5 NPUs, the Galaxy S24 now has 65.
But that’s not all; Samsung has also gone from having only 4 AI models in the Galaxy S10 to having 112 models in the Galaxy S24 series, truly living up to the smartphone name.
But how does Galaxy AI tie into Samsung’s pride and joy—the camera? We had the opportunity to interview Joshua Cho, Vice President and Head of Visual Software R&D Group at MX Business, Samsung Electronics. After a brief history of how far Samsung has come along with its S Series, we were treated to a brief presentation about the Galaxy S24 series’ cameras, made even more powerful with Galaxy AI and the ProVisual Engine.
With a comprehensive suite of AI-powered tools, the Galaxy S24 series revolutionizes mobile photography and enhances creative freedom from setting up a shot to post-production and sharing.
Notably, the Galaxy S24 Ultra's Quad Tele System features a new 5x optical zoom lens that works with the 50MP main camera to deliver optical-quality performance across all zoom levels. In the Galaxy S24 series, that’s 2x, 3x, 5x, and the impressive 10x magnification. The Galaxy S24 can also get up to 100x closer with the enhanced digital zoom.
The increased NPU capability also means that Nightography is better than ever on the Galaxy S24 series, especially with the more sophisticated AI technology for low-light images. With its larger pixel size, the phone is also able to capture 1.6 times more light than its predecessor.
For zoomed-in night shots, the Galaxy S24 series is able to capture unbinned photos at 2x zoom, in contrast to the binned pixel photographs on the Galaxy S23.
Besides that, the Galaxy S24 has also been trained using DSLR data, allowing it to separate components in a photograph better than ever before with InPaint technology. It’s able to isolate different layers in the photo to more efficiently separate background from the foreground, allowing users to capture their subjects clearly even with objects in the foreground.
There are plenty of other AI features on the Samsung Galaxy S24 series that help make it the smartest camera smartphone yet. Generative Fill, which uses Google Cloud to generate and fill in blanks in your photos when you crop or remove objects; Super HDR, which has been integrated with Instagram, allows you to shoot HDR photos straight from the app. Lastly, ExpertRAW now shoots at 24MP by default with 16-bit images that are clearer than ever before. It even has 10 types of ND filters built in digitally which can be applied automatically.
After the extensive briefing on the Galaxy S24’s cameras, we were able to pose Dr. Cho a few questions.
Q: If Qualcomm can do Generative Fill at the hardware level with the Pixel 7, why does Samsung need to rely on Google Cloud?
A: Development [on Generative Fill] is ongoing. Meanwhile, [generating fills from Google Cloud] is the best solution at this time. Samsung Research Academy (SRA) is working on it right now.
Q: Why did the zoom lens on the Galaxy S24 downgrade to 5x, where it was 10x on the Galaxy S23?
A: According to market study, 90% plus users only use focal lengths between 2x to 5x.
Q: Why is there no AI for video enhancements apart from slow motion?
A: For Galaxy S24, we have Video SR, or Video Super Resolution. This is where we can [upscale] the quality of the video. These types of enhancements on video will also continue.
Q: For devices that don’t support HDR, will they be able to view Samsung’s HDR content in SDR without affecting the colour and contrast?
A: [This feature has to be] combined with display technology, which is why it is only available on the [Galaxy] S24. If your device is not HDR-enabled, you’ll still be able to view the content in SDR.
Q: How does the digital ND work, exactly?
With the digital ND filter, it needs long exposure, in which case there would also be a lot of light saturation. What we have done is [have] different levels of exposure and have multi-frames. [By combining these two], this is how we get the digital ND filter effect.
Q: Intelligent Scene Optimization was turned on by default on the previous generation, but off by default on the Galaxy S24. Why?
A: We want to give users better control of their creativity process.
[This article was written in collaboration with Samsung Malaysia]