I know, the entire Galaxy S24 series since launch has been non-stop with the AI promoting, promising cool features on the translation and photo front and it can be exhausting to see just those things. As much as these features are groundbreaking in the smartphone front, a lot still needs to be said about its practicality as a daily driver as well as an all-rounder device.
Every Reviewer Has Already Said :
- The Galaxy S24 Ultra has a battery that lasts long
- It plays games well even under a sustained load
- Camera system is only slightly different with a huge boost to AI post-processing
But What Also Needs To Be Said
We Can Say The Same For The Galaxy S23 Ultra, which was even more groundbreaking during the move from the Galaxy S22 Series, and the above points will come to the Galaxy S24 Series by means of a future software update. Does this mean it’s better to save money by going the previous generation or to stick to the general narrative of “Always Go For The New Tech”?
It’s much easier to convince non-Samsung owners to join up because the introduction to the Galaxy ecosystem is clean, sleek and easy, but for direct previous generation owners it may be a hard sell.
This means to justify the purchase of the Galaxy S24 Ultra from a S23 Ultra owner’s point of view, it can only be laid out this way :
- You have to be part of the existing ecosystem, meaning you have at least a Galaxy Watch or a Tablet (i.e Tab S series)
- You are already molded into One UI with lots of time invested into their apps and features
- You have an attractive offer for your S23 Ultra and only need to top-up up little for a new Galaxy S24 Ultra
Can Retained Features + AI Sell You This Phone?
Part of ZenTheGeek’s direction this year is to be more involved with community outreach, on an educational and a societal level. We aim to :
- Educate Students on a Collegiate and University Level on being content creator, its industry at large and best practices towards the community, including client management and personal branding (In place, named Open Platform)
- Provide a free platform for non-profits to share their story, process on our website and provide them with video and hosting resources to create media to spread awareness for their cause.
The Challenge? Using Only My Galaxy S24 Ultra To Create The A To Z FOr This Project
Ideation
I’ve been a proud Samsung Notes user since it came out. Why? It’s because the app and the system understands the urgency of creativity. I doodle, I write and I summarise everything from immediate ideas, inspiration or even new developments from heated meetings that require speed and mometary clarity.
I could do all that as soon as I whip out the S Pen, which will trigger screen-off memo to let me immediately jot down or draw out anything I need to digest or explain for later. Hitting that save button puts your creation right into Samsung Notes for later processing.
This time around, I had dedicated time for ideation for my project so I just do what is do :
- Create a working text file on Samsung Notes
- Head out and seek inspiration through my own process
- Write down everything as soon as it hits me
- Reorganize / Reword later
I’m sure it isn’t a weird or uncommon process for people to do things this way, but it works for me, and with the Galaxy S24 Ultra, I was able to continue doing everything I do since my first S Pen device till now, but with lots of improvements to reduce the amount of time I spend cleaning up and organizing.
I had came up with a few names on-the-fly throughout my day and just typed it into a typical notetaker’s mess. As soon as I was satified with the number of names I came up with that best fit the purpose of the project, I could have it summarised into a more readable format for later viewing and processing. Neat.
The Final Product
Here’s What Galaxy AI Can Do To Your Notes
After coming up with a few names and finalizing the concept, it’s time to meet NGO’s for ideas.
While not exactly a power-up, Galaxy AI is able to summarise and condense your ideas into easier, digestable formats for better reading and retention, and even good enough to email out or share to your team immediately. Auto Summary will summarise notes into either a Meeting Notes format or a general note with Headers and Bullet Points. While I could do it on my own immediately as soon as I write them in real time, it does save minutes, freeing some headroom in your mind since you will have been molded by now to expect that AI help organize the rest for you. As usual, you are able to also translate these notes into different support languages as well as instantly create a new note file for it in Samsung Notes as a seperate file for later use.
I recently volunteered (again) with Need To Feed The Need (NFN), a self-sustaining local NGO that organizes and feeds the homeless on a weekly basis. After the feeding session I had a chat with one of the organizers about some ideas to help increase their visibility and stir the community to donate or volunteer for distribution. I had taken notes on the progress of the meeting and here’s how it looked :
From here, I had 3 pages of handwritten notes, and in order for me to quickly export this to text, which Samsung Notes is able to do.
And Here’s The Result:
The format was instantly more readable and easier to simply digest. Although AI wasn’t perfect, I’d say there’s at least a 97% accuracy rate when it came to spelling and recognition (Poor Galaxy AI, had to read and understand my handwriting). This helps me keep track of what I have gone through in that meeting as well so I don’t have to repeat any more agendas because I couldn’t remember if I had covered something or not.
Great, Now It’s Time To Brief The Team
In order to brief the team of my recent actions, I couldn’t simply just forward these meeting notes as it won’t make sense to them since they weren’t present with me. I had decided to read aloud my work and progress and have it recorded and transcribed to text. ZenTheGeek operators run on extreme autonomy because of quickly expedited approvals, proposals and minimal meetings. All my operators are expected to be always in the know of my work and vice versa, and it is through briefs and notes that we send each other. It’s 2024, not everything needs to be a meeting, much so an email.
I found text to always be a faster medium to get information, and definitely faster than sending voice notes and holding 2 hour meetings. Instead, I transcribe my recordings, summarise them, and distribute them into our Whatsapp Group where they’ll acknowledge that they’ve read and gone through it by giving a thumbs up reaction to my chat.
Bonus Point – Using DeX For The Heavy Lifting!
Personally I do this only when I have multiple projects on hand and I’m too lazy to work on both my phone and my computer. I also use a Galaxy Tab S9+ for drawing and note-taking as well, but when you really need to get on top of things, you just find your way to work. I connect my Galaxy S24 Ultra to a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, followed by a direct connection to my monitor via USB Type-C so that there’s no worry of latency, with the additional benefit of my phone getting charged while I’m at it. A call come in? don’t worry, I can answer it via either my tablet or still on my phone since I’m connected to Bluetooth earphones as well.
Why Go Through Such Trouble? A Computer Can Do It All!
Well, it’s because I have 2 laptops and tablet, and if I’m in a situation where I truly need to work with the data on my phone, I don’t want to copy files to my PC, yet alone rely on a cloud, when I can work on my phone directly on a big screen, supported by my tablet, in which all my files are connected an in sync with my Samsung Account as well as my notes. I always want to see my to-do list, so both devices have the Samsung Notes widget on the screen immediately for me to see as soon as they’re unlocked. Stay on top of your tasks, get annoyed of seeing that long list so that you’ll automatically kick yourself out of procrastination mode!
Project’s Almost At Take Off, Watch Out!
Till this point, this is much as I can reveal about this upcoming project, I really just wanted to point out just how much the Galaxy S24 Ultra and One UI 6.1 can do for you, up to what feasible scope of your workflow it can reach. You will be investing a sizable amount for this phone, so it’s best to know what are its limits and how capable it can be.
Don’t worry, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is just as capable, and like I said, if you’re out to save money, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is a better deal since the One UI 6.1 update will roll out for it soon and you’ll more or less get the same experience while saving some money.
Well, honestly it takes time to get used to this ecosytem, and when you do, it just works, and with One UI’s AI-heavy updates, you’re going to save time from all the tidying up, messy formatting and only just focus on what you’re about to do next! It’s easy to setup, you only need to remember these points :
- Galaxy AI relies on network, and will assist you on almost all fronts, from photos to translation, now note-taking and even the way you choose to tone your texts
- You’ll need a Samsung Account, be sure to sign-in wherever they tell you do so, as this will give you access to those AI features as well as syncing your Samsung Notes across all your Samsung Devices
- As much as these AI features were definitely ready at launch, it will always be an update in progress, so things like text recognition, translation accuracies and response times will improve as time passes through updates!
