Samsung putting AI front and center with its latest smartphones.

The company brought me to San Jose for their latest Galaxy Unpacked event, which was focused almost completely on the new Galaxy S24 lineup and new AI features.

There was also one major surprise, more on that in a bit.

But first, let’s talk about these new phones.

As usual, there are three models in the lineup: The S24, S24+ and the top of the line S24 Ultra.

The Ultra has the best hardware features, like a new Titanium frame.

Samsung says it’s a bit gripper and better protects from dents and scratches.

The S24 Ultra does feel a bit more comfortable to hold but it’s still a very big phone.

The S-Pen is still on board, too!

There is a significant change to the zoom lens. Last year’s model, the S23 Ultra, had a 10X optical zoom lens. Now the lens is a 5X zoom, but Samsung increased the megapixels.

The company says most people use the 1x, 3x and 5x zoom ranges for their photos, so giving them the best photos at these lengths was a priority. Plus, a 10x zoom is still possible and due to the technical nature of the increased megapixels, Samsung is cropping the photo so you effectively still get an optical zoom at 10x.

It’s a bit complicated, but the bottom line is that you’re not losing anything on this device, you’re gaining better pictures at the zoom level you’re probably going to use most.

Keep in mind you can still zoom in up to 100x and even these “Space Zoom” pictures are AI-enhanced to look better than ever.

Speaking of AI, Samsung is all about these new AI features for photo editing.

You can remove, replace and resize objects using the built-in editor. It’s quite good and very similar to what we’ve seen on the Google Pixel, if not even easier to use.

Samsung will apply a little AI watermark on the photo itself and in the metadata to signify that a photo as been edited with AI.

Another new feature is called Instant Slow-Mo. This lets you turn any portion of a video into a slow-motion clip. AI will generate new frames where necessary to make it look smooth and realistic. instant slow-mo lets you modify a video you’ve already shot.

There is another AI feature that can help you write text messages, even in fun prose like Shakespearean.

Samsung phones are now getting a voice recorder feature similar to the Google Pixel. It will transcribe voice notes. The main difference is that the Pixel does the transcription in real time while the Samsung version does it after the recording is complete.

Translation AI features let you communicate with someone in a different language, either through text messages translated on the fly or through entire phone conversations that are translated in real-time audio.

But the feature I’m most excited about is called Circle to Search.

This is going to be an incredibly helpful way to search for just about anything you see on your screen.

Just press and hold the home button (or gesture bar) and circle or scribble over anything on your screen: a photo, text, video frame, object, whatever.

A Google search will reveal results based on what you highlight. This will be super useful for researching something cool you see on Instagram, shopping for something similar to what someone is wearing or a million other little things.

Google says the feature will also come to other premium flagship phones including the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro on January 31.

Another big announcement from Samsung: the S24 lineup will get 7 years of security and operating system updates. That’s great news if you like to keep your phone for a long time!

The S24 starts at $800, the S24+ starts at $900, the Ultra starts at $1300, which is $100 more than last year and even $100 more than the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Of course, upgrade deals from Samsung and carriers will help cut down on some of that.

The new phones are available for pre-order now and are in stores on January 31.

Oh yeah, about that surprise. At the end of the event, Samsung teased a new Galaxy Ring. A wearable that will likely track fitness, sleep metrics and more. The company did not reveal details on when it might launch.