Galaxy S24 Series

[The_Chief]

Looks like the next big thing is coming fast!

The S24 series will be revealed in a Samsung Unpacked event Wednesday, January 17th at 10 AM Pacific (1 PM Eastern). The phones should be available for purchase the next day!

I agree that the S23 Ultra is probably the best, most powerful & versatile phone on the market right now... but it has its limitations. The screen brightness tops out at 1750 nits and is very hard for me to see in daylight.

If rumors are true, the S24 Ultra display will go up to 2600 nits! Better yet, there's nowhere you can go where you can't get emergency help:

In October, a guy on a dirt bike collided head-on with our SUV, on a remote mountain road, while my Darling Bride was driving it. She had no cell signal and couldn't call for help.

The S24 Ultra will offer emergency satellite connectivity - if there's no signal, the phone will offer text messages by satellite to get help (voice calls will be added when additional bandwidth supports them).

For those two reasons alone, I'll be ordering two S24 Ultras as soon as I can, to replace our S23 Ultras. What about you? Will you watch the Unpacked event and do you look forward to the new phone?

 

[ocnbrze]

gonna wait a bit longer and see what the next foldable will look like. i can't go back to a tiny screen ever again.....LOL

 

[nickdalzell]

I like that my Flip 4 can be tiny and then be large depending on the use case. But I don't see upgrades as important anymore. One time, circa 2009 and such an upgrade meant immense improvement, more features, better UI with each software update, but that hasn't been the case since 2015. Today, it's more cameras, a larger and more unwieldy device, and nothing to differentiate one brand from another. Software is pretty flat and stagnant as well. It's just not as important to upgrade anymore.

I bought my Flip 4 hoping I'd have it for life. It's the only 'unique' model left after carriers killed my Thunderbolt, and I spent a ton to get the highest storage, 5G, and memory capacity (RAM). I spent hours configuring the UI to at least resemble my Thunderbolt (quite convincingly). I don't really see any need to change unless a more unique model comes out, and the only other reason is if they ever do to 5G what they did to 3G, but I probably have 20 years to find out if that happens, and hopefully by then smartphones won't be a thing anymore. Or I won't need one period. I am trying to future-proof myself. So far my Flip 4 has detoxed me, I don't spend nearly as much time on it, so it's become a glorified Moto RAZR and exists just to call, text and be an MP3 player.

Maybe I'm just old but I tend to keep things until they break irreparably. I would have gladly stuck with my HTC if carriers didn't unethically force me to upgrade against my will. It would have been nice if ONE carrier made up their own mind and kept 3G going, instead of being a sheep and copying everyone else. Replacing a perfectly good working device with another that's maybe only slightly better is wasteful to the planet, encourages e-waste, upgrade culture, and disposability. I will never understand why people buy replacements for things that still work. But here I am still using CRT TVs, Windows Vista/7, and 8-tracks.

 

[ocnbrze]

yeah well my fold 4 and its oem screen protector keeps coming off in the middle where it folds. sure samsung will fix it for me for $20 a pop. but i am curious If they fixed this issue. plus i want a s-pen holder built in. i am hoping this will be the case for the next fold phone.

as for the s24, i really want to see just how good this screen is supposedly going to be.

 

[AugieTN]

Satellite connectivity for an emergency is a great idea

 

[Hadron]

Satellite connectivity for an emergency is a great idea

Would I get in trouble for noting that it's a feature which Apple have had for 2 generations now?

 

[ocnbrze]

Would I get in trouble for noting that it's a feature which Apple have had for 2 generations now?

 

[AugieTN]

Who's paying for satellite connectivity? Apple or the carrier? Found this:

Do you have to pay for satellite on iPhone?


Roadside Assistance via satellite is available in the U.S., in partnership with AAA, and is included for free for two years, starting at the time of activation of a new iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, or iPhone 14 Pro Max.Nov 15, 2023

Apple extends Emergency SOS via satellite for an additional free year

 

[nickdalzell]

I wasn't aware that smartphones could be sat phones?! Last time I even saw a satellite phone it looked like something out of the early 1980s, and you had to be outdoors to use it. Cost a ton to use as well. Or are you referring to GPS? My Thunderbolt had GPS (and Google Maps, and yes, until carriers killed it, that still worked). Unless I am mistaken, e911 has been a federal requirement in the U.S. since like 1997 or something. I found that out the hard way when Verizon refused to activate a StarTAC I had picked up secondhand.

 

[The_Chief]

Any cell phone sold in the United States is required to connect to 911 regardless of carrier or plan. So even in a $3 yard sale flip phone will call 911... even without a SIM card. The way this works is when you dial 911 and there is literally no cell connectivity, the phone will activate a text-only link via satellite. Then you can send text messages back & forth to emergency dispatch. Now, I don't know if that's funded publicly through EMA or some other agency... as long as it works when we need it, that's what matters most.

 

[nickdalzell]

That won't work unless the phone is VoLTE compliant today. Proof? I can't even dial 911 on my Galaxy S2--it just sits there indefinitely and gives up. With or without a SIM.

The reason Satellite phones are so bulky and look like they're from the '80s is because the hardware to have satellite voice connectivity is rather large and power-hungry; in essence, it's a glorified AMPS phone that only works outdoors, at about a $100 a minute.

 

[The_Chief]

That's a curious assertion because VoLTE is a mobile data function, not cellular voice communications. Many shelters for battered spouses & children gladly accept older phones so a vulnerable person can have an emergency device stashed away for calling 911. We quite often donate our old phones to the local shelter here... and I keep an old yard sale Nokia flip phone in my vehicle's emergency kit just in case.

 

[nickdalzell]

In the U.S.A. the VoLTE is mandatory. Even if your phone is LTE compliant (like my HTC Thunderbolt which was 4G/LTE) they won't let you activate or even dial 911 without it. It just fails. It won't even show any signal anymore even with a SIM. The voice networks that older phones used for calls including emergency 911 don't exist in the U.S.A. anymore.

I rememeber people used to give old AMPS phones for free to be able to dial 911 as well back in like 1998, but those wouldn't work either. Sad that even victims of abuse and homeless have to 'adapt or be left behind'.

 

[The_Chief]

Would I get in trouble for noting that it's a feature which Apple have had for 2 generations now?

Only if I get in trouble for noting how many generations of Android phones had wireless charging before Apple finally adopted it

 

[nickdalzell]

Android always got there first, but Apple fans always say the same thing in defense once Apple finally catches up 'but Apple made it BETTER!'

That is the same defense for everything that Android users had for years being derided as 'gimmicks'. Widgets were a great example. Android had that in 2008.

 

[The_Chief]

We're now three weeks away from the Samsung Unpacked event and launch! With the rumored upgrades, I'm optimistic that the benefits over the S23 Ultra will be worth the switch.

The only reservation I have about the S24 Ultra is that whole Galaxy AI thing. I don't like AI; I don't trust it; I really don't need it; and hopefully I can disable it. As a writer and author, it sickens me that so many people use AI to compose articles, ebooks, and other works... and then take credit for it. Worse, I'm concerned that my own creative work will be assimilated and regurgitated into someone else's AI-generated content without my consent. Anything with my name on it was crafted by ME: not some freaking algorithm.

On a good note, @nickdalzell has valid concern about 911 calls and VoLTE. At least network operators are aware of the limitation and are working on a solution.
How we’re addressing VoLTE emergency call issues

 

[The_Chief]

Well, apparently Samsung couldn't iron out the kinks in the satellite SOS messages, so that's out. However @Rob the Early Bird news on the S24 series says it will be available February 28th... but everything I'm seeing puts availability on January 18th! I don't know where that news came from, but someone on the Daily Early Bird Club needs to consider revising that...

 

[nickdalzell]

I messed around with AI just to see what kind of fun stuff I could make, Not that I'd take credit or anything, but I did find one hilarious abuse of it, creating furries....

That and it could make some neat looking deer pictures.

I think the fun ended the instant someone posted a Bing AI-created photo of mickey mouse and 9/11 terrorism

Bing Dall-E 3 image creation was great for a few days, but now Microsoft has predictably lobotomized it

Fearing controversy, Microsoft ramps up filtering on Bing's image creator tool.

www.windowscentral.com

 

[AugieTN]

Last I saw was Samsung Live Stream is hosting an unpacking at 10am PST on January 17th, 2024 and they have opened up preorders which gets you a $50 discount

 

[The_Chief]

Well, they've opened up reservations... so when preorders go live (probably during or right after the Unpacked event), those with reservations will have head of the line privileges on preorders and their device will be shipped out first. In the past I've actually received new phones a day or two before release day.

 

[The_Chief]

I'm officially stoked over the incredible upgrades of the Galaxy S24 Ultra over its predecessor. I just can't preorder it! Everyone on the planet must be hitting the Samsung website because I can't even log in!

I guess I'll have to settle for the Sumsing Turbo 3000 Xi Multitask...

 

[mikedt]

I was waiting for something like that, now Mickey Mouse is public domain.

 

[The_Chief]

The Darling Bride and I got our S24 Ultras pre-ordered with an expected delivery date of January 31st. I ordered kickstand cases with a January 26th delivery date. Everything is right in the world (so far)... we'll see how well Smart Switch moves things and our backups restore to the new phones.

 

[IHateMyTreo]

Ordered an unlocked Ultra direct from Samsung, with a $650 credit for my S22. Just got the shipping notice saying it should be here 1/26. Already have the new kickstand case and tempered glass screen protector. The Chief, his lovely bride and I all await arrival! Looking forward to that insanely bright screen and better battery performance.

 

[The_Chief]

I was shocked when I got the shipping notification! I was expecting this next Wednesday the 31st, which is release day. To get this phone 5 days ahead of time, Friday the 26th, Samsung is obviously anxious to get this phone into users' hands in a hurry so the excitement over the new features will spread far & wide. Fine by me!