Galaxy AI will mean “radically different” phones, Samsung says

The Samsung Galaxy S24 range is the first generation of Samsung phones equipped with the Galaxy AI software, but right now the GenAI tools exist within the established form factor.

However, that may not be the case in the future, according to Samsung, with the company saying the advent of artificial intelligence could result in “radically different” phones to what Samsung currently offers.

Speaking to Autralian Financial Review, Samsung mobile experience president TM Roh said it is moving towards a new generation of AI phones and pouring the “lion’s share” R&D resources into that. That’s going to mean new form factors, perhaps embracing larger displays with added portability.

“When you think about ordinary users of traditional smartphones, our current hardware can satisfy those scenarios quite sufficiently. So maybe hardware performance and hardware features have peaked,” Mr Roh said.

“But at the same time, this new era of mobile AI calls for new hardware requirements, new performance, new form factors, opening up for new possibilities, so that mobile AI can be better leveraged with new requirements in hardware.”

Samsung is already claiming to be “an AI phone business” rather than a smartphone business, with the Roh saying Samsung is going to “focus all efforts around AI implementation.”

Some start ups have, with limited success, have already attempted to craft an AI-based phone with a much different form factor, such as the Rabbit r1 and Humane AI Pin that emerged at CES with a lot of hype but very little acclaim.

“In terms of new form factors, maybe we can have even more optimised combinations of portability and large screens,” Roh added.

“Going forward, mobile AI will be increasingly multi-modal, so new types of inputs should be embraced, such as new sensors. Many different ideas can be explored and can emerge going forward.”