Samsung showcased the specs of the upcoming S24 series now dubbed the Galaxy AI on Wednesday, January 17, 2024. It will be the first Samsung smartphone to come with inbuilt AI features. Although the Galaxy S24 Ultra is capable of new mind-blowing tricks, what caught my admiration the most was its gaming capability.
Galaxy S24 Ultra will launch a new era of smartphone-AI integration. One of the biggest questions that fans of mobile games have been asking over the last few years is whether the time will ever come when smartphone gaming will be at par or even better than gaming on other handheld devices.
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When that time comes, people can travel lighter because they don’t have to carry their phones and a separate handheld gaming device. Until now, arguably the best way to enjoy triple-A games on smartphones has been through cloud gaming. While that has been a great innovation, it has its challenges.
Firstly, you need a high-speed Internet connection of up to 50 Mbps to enjoy HD gaming—and it is almost impossible to get that much speed in some regions of the world. Sadly, we know how hard it is to achieve that speed on mobile networks. With slower networks comes the problem of higher input latency which can significantly mar your gaming experience.
The only way around the hiccups remains to create a smartphone that can download and install the games and run them natively as you would do on consoles. Leading smartphone makers have been pushing the boundaries on what smartphones can do.
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Last year, Ubisoft announced that it has collaborated with Apple to bring Assassin’s Creed: Mirage natively to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The game’s performance was insane and felt a lot like playing on a console. It was made possible due to Apple’s A17 Pro chip which can run games at high frame rates without rapidly draining the battery. Galaxy S24 Ultra is promising something better.
Galaxy S24 Ultra will rely heavily on AI
From taking and editing photos to taking notes and making calls, Galaxy S24 Ultra will rely on AI to get things done. For example, it can translate live calls or clean up an image using the built-in AI feature. In terms of gaming, Galaxy S24 Ultra supports ray tracing.
“Victory can be yours with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy,” the company wrote on the product page. “Faster processing gives you the power you need for all the gameplay you want. Then, manifest graphic effects in real-time with ray tracing for hyper-realistic shadows and reflections.”
Besides the shiny software features, Galaxy S24 Ultra also comes with hardware and design upgrades, all well-thought-out to enhance gaming experience. For example, Samsung has “nearly doubled the size of Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Vapor Chamber to improve heat dissipation”.
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In addition to limiting the performance, smartphones that heat up during gaming can become uncomfortable to hold which ultimately limits how long you can spend in each gaming session. Talking about how long your gaming session can last, Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with a bigger 5,000mAh battery that can give users up to 30 hours of video playback—I reckon it will be significantly lower than that if you use it for gaming.
Galaxy S24 Ultra also comes with a CPU that is 20% faster, a GPU that is 30% more powerful, and an NPU that offers 41% improved operation with AI. All these features can significantly enhance the smartphone gaming experience.
One way that Apple has been able to stand out is through collaboration with developers to adapt AAA games for iOS. Unless the same level of collaboration happens for Android, all the features included in Galaxy S24 Ultra to enhance gaming will only be a futile adventure.
