How AI is Killing Smartphones

I want to address an important issue on how a single-dimensional, almost insane focus on AI by some of these companies is restricting true innovation on the hardware side of the smartphone market. Do we really need AI on smartphones?
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#android #iphone

[@CheoWalker]

The AI on the phone is not a selling point for me.

[@Fuzoia]

Sometimes we need to speak out loud what we need. And AI maybe is not what we want or we need

[@rulowth4815]

Not for a lot of people, we want better battery and cameras, thats much of it

[@ttg889]

Can’t agree more.

[@smallfrogge]

@@rulowth4815 I don't even want better cameras. Just give me the longest battery life possible and, yes, an audio jack.

[@Gnomleif]

Agree. I use my phone for texting, calling my mom and doomscrolling News when work is slow. I don't need AI for any of that.

[@chriskim5535]

Who the hell asked for AI on phones? We want better performance, better cooling, longer battery, and expandable storage.

[@elmarcentral]

And a 3.5mm headphone jack.

[@ZeroGravitas187]

It isn't about consumers...shareholders eat this stuff up. For who knows what reason.

[@JoJo-oc8zf]

​@@ZeroGravitas187 Oh 100% this AI gimmick is all to appease shareholders and trying to boost sales because in this capitalist world companies value constant growth of new products over a consistent base over generations of products

[@willgart1]

better performance by AI chips, offloading work from the CPU. lower power usage coming from AI chips usage instead of CPU and so longer battery for the storage, there are new compression technics using AI chips too, able to reduce storage space usage ... (and again consuming less power than using the CPU for the same task) so we don't need AI except to help achieving all the main needs ;-)

[@irrel3vant4545]

you are right to smell a rat - they stuff the AI down our throat - all big corporations got the memo and are pushing this thing down their corporate hierarchies - its the best thing since sliced bread - its been released by deep state as a last ditch half ass effort to keep american stock market bubble bubbling bit longer cuz bitcoin didnt work

[@XansStuff]

What I want is expandable storage, a headphone jack, and a replaceable battery...... Basically, upgrade to 10 years ago.

[@davidleon4459]

I won't defent this companies but... to make the smartphone more resistant and waterproff. You need to remove potencial leaks like the detachable back, SD card slot or the headphone jack. I miss them too but i prefer my phone to not die with a splash or if i dropped it on water. The days of putting in on rice are over

[@Deathdemon65]

Samsung made the S5 ip68 with removable battery it had the seal on the cover

[@LyK0sa]

​@@davidleon4459nah, come on mate, that's no excuse. My zenfone 10 has the same IP68 rating as the S24 despite having a headphone jack. My old S10e was IP68, with a headphone jack AND micro SD slot. The galaxy S5 had all of that, plus a user replaceable battery, and it still managed an IP67 rating. It's not that they *can't* do, they just can't be bothered.

[@TwiggehTV]

@@davidleon4459 Honestly, i've never lost a phone due to water damage. Ever. I have, however, lost phones due to degraded batteries. I'll gladly take the replacable battery if it comes at the cost of water immunity. GLADLY

[@FunBotan]

Can't we just have different models for people who want waterproofing and for those who want modularity? Companies are producing a gazillion of models every year that are exactly the same in every way that matters, why not give us some actual choice?

[@johnnydoe3603]

The Pictures are Not Good because they are Literally Training their AI through us, for Free. 😂

[@testname2635]

😂😂point

[@xiaolongli8279]

AI不能阻止人貧窮😂

[@pietrolongo9139]

Words well spoken!!

[@testname2635]

Things I want in a smartphone: 1. User replacable battery. 2. Expandable storage. 3. Headphone jack. 4. Decent processor. 5. NO GLASS BACK.

[@mqaisataloss.5951]

So you want a fairphone?

[@yensteel]

@@mqaisataloss.5951 Closest so far. The battery is considered little small though. Some of the justifications from Fairphone fanboys were that larger batteries increase more waste per battery.. > >. It's nice Fairphone refuses to compromise on anything to be ethical but.. well, it would be nice to have mid-range specs at least.

[@emperorfaiz]

@@yensteel Another issue is Fairphone is such a small company compared to Samsung or Xiaomi. So, they have a small userbase, so they won't get a huge profit margin to justify a more powerful and more expensive variants to exist.

[@Navyx34]

This is so funny because we used to have all of those in every phone but greedy companies took it away one by one

[@hey01e5]

@@mqaisataloss.5951 They don't have 3)

[@ZeroGravitas187]

A while back I attended a webinar on AI, in my specific industry, hosted by Google. Two Google engineers spent 2 entire flipping hours basically saying "PLEASE DEAR GOD REMEMBER WE HAVE BARD!"; while framing precisely zero real practical use cases to make anyone in out industry want to open our wallets. It was pathetic, and I felt for those engineers being put in that position to sell a clear lemon.

[@yensteel]

@@ZeroGravitas187 Attended a cyber security summit last year. AI was announced for every new XDR system. They were all chat systems. "How many access attempts were blocked today?" "Hello user, the system has blocked 256 access attempts." Those kinds of summaries were the new feature. :/

[@mightnare3237]

Is "to sell a clear lemon" a saying?

[@poside]

This AI craze on smartphones just feels like the whole 3D TVs hype few years back. I don't think anyone is actually interested in these features and manufacturers will silently go back to normal smartphone features after a while.

[@simonb.8868]

yeah I thought the same thing, it's just marketing bullsh...

[@racerex340]

Except we're talking orders of magnitude larger craze. Global spend/investment on AI has already reportedly cracked $200B per year and you have AI morons seeking $17 Trillion in investment to build "AI chips". I agree, no one is interested, but this hype train spun so far out of control so quickly, companies that didn't have an AI solution / roadmap, even one that was total horsecrap like AI toothbrush or adding AI to the product claiming it was designed with the help of AI essentially had investors show up with pitchforks and lanterns. I hate it... Few people are actually interested, and the place where AI will actually continue evolving will be in its ability for corporations to leverage it to replace workers and massively reduce employee headcount with the goal of increasing profit margins, that has executives and investors drooling, and while this other hype will eventually crash, the enormous investments made into developing and improving AI at such a record pace will ultimately just fast-track the rate at which companies can use it to replace expensive salaried employees with the pesky

[@simonb.8868]

@@racerex340 humans will never trust any form of AI because it's a hatred naturally built in our mind towards robots androids and stuff, basically we fear to be replaced by AIs or robots in the near future

[@imbretzy]

Lol pretty sure by next year this time with the updates coming everyone will be like “how did I live without these functions” and in 2 years time this comment will be a foot in mouth statement 😂 If you actually follow AI news and some of the groundbreaking features coming out you wouldn’t be saying this. Its insane

[@yensteel]

3D home cinema was interesting to be honest. Avatar 1 came out around that time and it was amazing to see in 3Dmax. But it's just too inconvenient and complicated for companies and consumers to use at home.

[@user-bp8yg3ko1r]

Everything that is much more important than AI: - User removable battery - Expandable storage - Headphone jack - Repair/Upgrade-ability - Long software support - Sustainability (and not greenwashing) We desperately need more creators like you, thank you so much for not hyping everything up and sharing your profound thoughts.

[@darksidegryphon5393]

I hate greenwashing with a fiery passion.

[@TravellerHD]

I don't use "dumb" digital assistants as it is, much less AI. I use my smartphone in a very traditional way so I don't need a load of extra stuff. I just want something dependable and most manufacturers don't seem to know what that is anymore.

[@mokisan]

Probably the best video on your channel. You are on point with everything you said, they removed headphone jack as a courage and now its more ewaste with batteries then came the chargers, being unrepairable, not having upgradable storage and pushing you towards cloud storage.

[@jakeharms1386]

This is why I love the Xperia-they’re basically ignoring “AI”

[@joelconolly5574]

They're basically ignoring all trends that manufacturers are claiming is the "future". Sony keeping it traditional to some extent and using AI where necessary.

[@mravocadoman2904]

Agreed. It's what's keeping me back from buying any other phone

[@Petch85]

Two things. 1. Diminishing Returns: The smartphone "problem" have been solved for years now. They cannot make the phones 20% better from model to model anymore. Honestly there are nothing interesting about mid and high end phones anymore. I just need good battery life, average screen (1080p HDR 60Hz), average speed, and average camera. I don't need the newest top model for that (anymore). 2. AI: I am so tired of AI this and AI that. AI have lost all meaning sense they call everything AI. Most of the time you can just remove AI from the description and the meaning of the sentence stays the same.

[@Skrenja]

I am in the same boat. I used to buy flagships but now I am running a $180 Motorola G Play. I miss having an OLED and the camera is very mid but I am extremely happy with it otherwise. There's _zero_ reason to waste $2k on a phone in this economy.

[@tadghcr2175]

I wonder if your diminishing returns point is part of why some of what is/n't upgraded on this Z series is so weird. (Obviously, only so much can change; we agree on that.) Like why upgrade only 1 camera on the Flip 6? Maybe it's so they can upgrade the other next year, or just the cover screen, and hold off on whatever else as a fallback in case there's too little improvement to be made.

[@tofu_golem]

This feels like NFT in computer games all over again: the executives are super excited about it, while the average consumer doesn't give a darn about any of it.f I do not use AI features. I suppose if I traveled internationally, I might use AI translation, even though that is often bad.

[@selectthedead]

Most features nowadays are only for a ever decreasing amount of Users as they dig further into niech applications

[@ruekurei88]

You don't even need AI for translation. IOS has built in translation tools and there's Google translate. Both have type written translation, voice to text translation, Voice to voice translation and image translation as well as through your camera on the fly translation(for just translating flyers or signs or whatever).

[@austin.paquette]

I am so damn tired of all the AI talk at this point. My interest in phones & tech in general has completely waned this year because it feels like nobody is talking about anything other than it. I don't care about talking to a robot. I don't care about generating shitty images. I don't care about putting my words into a robot to "improve" them. I don't care about digital assistants anymore. Google seems to have put all the work they would've put into Android 15 into Gemini instead. 15 this year looks like it will be more just 14.1. I'm so tired of all these companies trying to steal data from gullible people with buzzwords and features you don't need. I truly hope everyone collectively realizes how stupid it is and we move on from it next year, like we did with NFTs, crypto, and metaverses.

[@yensteel]

AI fatigue is everywhere. The common people and media are just NOT tech savvy nor creative for the media to go beyond that single two letter word. It's disappointing when hype allows distortion. NFT was devised as a way to verify real-world objects with Blockchain. E.g. diamonds, art, possessions, not to make randomly generated art. Imagine having the 3d scan of a diamond, and it's impossible to fake it. It's unique. And then you can prove that this is the exact diamond as promised or sold. If you re-scan it, you can say "yup, it's exactly THE unique diamond with whatever history".

[@PatrikKron]

I would be slightly interested if it was done only on device and not cloud. I don’t want even more of my data to be sent, especially not used for training AI models from where it can never be removed. I also think that even if it was useful the relying on a cloud service increases the risk of it becoming yet another subscription that I don’t want to pay for.

[@austin.paquette]

@@yensteel If that was an attempt to sell NFTs to me I'm sorry but it failed miserably. Still don't see how it's any different than a regular ledger document, which humans have been using since the dawn of organized society. NFTs are just glorified receipts to make something digital scarce, which is not a world I want to live in

[@ruekurei88]

@@austin.paquette I would imagine the NFT makes the physical purchase more 'universal' and accessible to any buyer. I always thought it could be an interesting way of selling art(unique, one of a kind art, or ones sold in series) with the tagged NFT, ensuring some kind of authenticity when sold, or even given away. A ledger is a physical thing or database, not accessible to everyone, and may not always exist for the artwork, or got destroyed or whatever, but this is just my opinion as a painter/artist.

[@unknowncomic4107]

They will focus on whatever shiny is currently on their radar. Easier to do that than to redesign an entire product line. Then they use it as the reasoning behind price increases. Remember 3d monitors and television? If they think they can monetize it to drive profit, they will.

[@BIGW0RM]

No-go for A.I. I gave Gemini Assistant (or whatever it's called) a shot, and almost immediately reverted back to the standard Google Assistant when it couldn't so much as setup a task/reminder. A.I. shouldn't be the forefront or selling point for any kind of product. Phone manufacturers have pivoted way too much into A.I. too quickly, and a rarely (if at all) used feature like photo retouching isn't going to move units. We've had that for years, at this point.

[@butcherleo999]

I'll add : even google assistant is too much. Already collecting to much ( like voice etc...) But even going back to a simple "long home button press, type your request, enter BOOM" Isn't even available 😢

[@Bran_Dragon]

Whenever I get the chance I turn the AI features off. I prefer to be hands on in what I do with my phone or computer.

[@cinderwolf32]

This is how I choose photo/video editing software as well.

[@yensteel]

@@Bran_Dragon One Photoshop professional did a comparison video between his edits and a magic eraser. His technique was far superior. AI is a hit or miss.

[@ravitejaknts]

@@yensteel Not everyone is professional and not everyone have time. Why magic editor is great is because even I can do the edits. Rather than shutting, improve yourself by taking advantage of AI.

[@charliesretrocomputing]

I've removed ALL traces of AI from Windows. Nobody asked for it.

[@briandewolfe]

Plus it saves a ton of battery and you get your notifications right away!

[@tianen10]

Things I want in a smartphone: 1. no eye-hurting pwm modulated screen 2. non-pentile subpixel screen layout 2. full day battery life even after OS update 3. working old apps even after release of new OS 4. headphone jack 5. choice of high quality bluetooth codecs (LDAC, AAC, AptX HD, ...) 6. variable continuous optical zoom lens, no need for multiple lens with different focal length

[@michygeorg]

Main things I want in a phone are expandable storage, stereo speakers, headphone jack, replaceable battery. Also, 3+ Android updates.

[@AcuraAddicted]

"AI" has become mostly a marketing label that sells product these days. Thankfully, we're already over the hump of the hype and it started to die down as more and more companies start to realize that the actual capabilities of machine learning is so far from what it's advertised as, it's not even close!

[@PabAng]

It doesn't even sell products, most people I've talked to don't even care, what it sells is investors on that they "are on the latest and greatest" by just basically adding a link to ChatGPT...

[@MagiofAsura]

Smartphones have been a commodity for nearly a decade. Each year being mainly iterative.

[@yensteel]

@@MagiofAsura The days of the early iphone and Android were great. Apple added copy and paste in iOS 3.0, 2009. 2 years after the iPhone launched. Big features like multitasking, icon folders, background playback of audio were new in iOS 4.0. Every year, there was something to really look forward to.

[@AinzOoalG0wn]

one other thing i will say, most of us probably would rather they focus the price we spent on say a S24 Ultra, go toward a bigger capacity/longer lasting battery rather than the AI stuff. The phone was ridiculously expensive but the battery we get was..... 😢

[@SebastianBugiu]

Say Hey siri: do a coin flip. You will get a restart prompt. Great AI :)

[@timex987987_jj3_studios]

I disabled the assistant on my phone. The voice recognition rarely gets speech and tone correct, and I can do many of the things it can do, much, much faster without errors. AI definitely has its uses, but definitely not in regard to interpreting human intentions. There are so many nuances in that field that AI can't possibly hope to get it all correct. Also, if you mess up speaking a prompt, you'll have to speak the prompt again, from the very beginning. I'd rather manually perform the action, rather than craft a prompt to tell something else how to perform the action.

[@austin.paquette]

I swiped away the "Replace assistant with Gemini?" popup prompt so damn quick. I as well don't even bother with G assistant anymore. It's only still on because its useful in those rare times while bike riding, and saying "Hey Google, next song" because my hands aren't free to swipe on my earbud. That's literally it. It's proven itself to be useless in all other areas. I used to be all gung-ho on the smart home train and it was so shit. I'd rather just get up and flip a switch.

[@yensteel]

@@timex987987_jj3_studios Have they ever gotten better at recognizing Scottish accents?

[@z4520ft]

@@austin.paquette same here. Gemini is really useless when it comes to identifying song's name, instead of searching the song, it ask me to use Shazam. Google Assistant is better in this regard. Background; I regularly listening to morning radio while commuting so sometimes got songs that catches my attention.

[@FoolShortOG]

Ai is all about data collection. Read between the lines. This is why every tech company is pushing for it. Advertisers and governments want that data.

[@WilliamHollinger2019]

Data is worth more than crude oil 12GB is possiblity worth $10,000 on a person. Also we leave cookies on their websites that cookies will be used to feed AI and track us down with adverts or snitch on us. There is a theroy that FedEx, UPS, Amazon, DHL, and government ran post offices have cameras spying on everything and report back to the federal servers if the person is a law behaved or a outlaw. Surveillance everywhere. Apple air tag is federal favorite toy.

[@thisemptyworm4677]

Maybe the smartphone jailbreak community will mitigate all AI data collection

[@cpufrost]

@@thisemptyworm4677 Hard to do with locked bootloaders.

[@yensteel]

@@thisemptyworm4677 As he said. Custom roms are no longer a thing due to locked bootloaders. There were at least 2 companies that offered security focused custom roms for specific phones. Imagine having a phone that has zero telemetry. It's worth paying a premium for, if there's a solution out there.

[@markusTegelane]

​​@@cpufrostand the moment you unlock the bootloader or even just turn on "OEM Unlocking" under the developer options, certain apps will just refuse to work, because they assume you rooted your device and refuse to work or have limited functionality even though you never rooted the device

[@marshall49]

Nice points. Love to see new ideas and conversations being brought up by creators.

[@andrewlee9508]

Agree. Time to hold onto the old phones for a while. Smart phone companies need to help the hole in the wallets to wake them up. AI offers nothing new that can't be accomplished with a little elbow grease, and at the cost of data privacy, you just get uncompelling "convenience".

[@kalef1234]

On point discussion. Kudos for beinging this up! I'm on a Pixel 6 Pro and I don't think I'll be switching for hopefully three or four years as long as I don't break this one.

[@Caesar2001]

this is why I buy cheap phones with a mid range processor every 5 years or so when the battery starts to fail

[@JicoUmali]

Hi what keyboard and slanted monitor did you use here? Thank you!

[@Gogy1987]

I want AI to fold my clothes, not paint my paintings.

[@xr_artist]

Just pulled the trigger on the Fold 6. I hit their demographic for this phone perfectly because: 1. I'm an iphone user (12 pro) and need to upgrade (I only upgrade every 4 years) 2. I'm not excited about iphone 16 or Apple Intelligence 3. I mainly use Windows and that's not going to change (not tied into ecosystem) For these reasons, whether or not it's a marginal spec difference from last year is irrelevant to me. I have smaller hands and yearn for a narrow form factor that I can manage with one hand YET love my ipad mini's size. Being able to have a device that fits both those niches for me is awesome. As for AI ruining phones, I'd argue this is the natural evolution of hardware and software. Before the RTX series came out, everyone was calling Nvidia's push for frame gen and upscaling 'cheating' and then we get a game like Alan Wake or CP2077 and team green outperforms team red because for years now they've had growing cuda cores which make these leaps possible. To the same extent that Fold 6 and A18 Bionic have increased Neural processing units, the hardwares incremental changes are adjusting to the needs of machine learning. Can you imagine with the year AI had if Apple DID not add Apple Intelligence features or if S24 Ultra did not expand their position? Like if the next flagship is like, "nah, we're cool...we're bringing back dumb phones!' As far as innovation goes, these folding platforms are at the top of the list. For those who were early adopters of these platforms, I can get why their would be hunger for more....but realistically these companies invest in large machines to make these phones. It's unrealistic to think they'd abandon these annually because people can't seem to stop wasting money. Nah, they make refinements, get things done right and typically make the big changes every 4 or 5 years. I think people should just hold on to their computer devices until they stop working then buy the next thing which will undoubtedly be better.

[@pete3198]

This is precisely why I pre-orded the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra. I went from an Xperia Pro-I to a Galaxy S23 Ultra and just recently to a Flip 5. My heart really wanted the Razr 40 ultra with that beautiful design and front display - but I was put off by the camera performance, the reportedly less study hinge design, the lack of always on display. So when I heard that the new Razr and Flip were both releasing soon, they had my full attention. First I see the leaked specs on the Razr - upgraded front screen upgraded processor and upgraded cameras all around (including a 2x optical). Then I saw the leaked specs on the Flip 6 - basically the same phone, except one camera was upgraded to 50MP. At this point I was about 80% decided that I was going to buy the Razr, but I just needed to see for sure that the leaked specs were legit. So the Razr 50 Ultra releases and I see some early reviews. Not only are all cameras upgraded, but the same shots show they were actually REALLY impressive. The 2x optical was legit too, and the slightly bigger front screen made it even cooler then before. But then I heard the extra key points - upgraded battery, super fast charging, upgraded hinge, alwasy on display. This was it - Motorola had taken absoutely every single c oncern I had over the 40 Ultra and addressed every one of them on this knew phone. Legititmate feature upgrades that collectively would have a major impact on user experience. While Samsung wit the Flip 6...pretty much gave us the exact same phone with one higher res camera and some AI crap. The minute thje Razr was released for pre-order my money was down. Moral of the story - if you want our money then earn it. Don't give us useless gimmicks nobody cares about. Lisiten to customer feedback, acknowledge it, and make changs - the people will rewar you with their money.

[@Seskoi]

I searched for the phone you mention and the first result from Motorola was titled "The ultimate flip smartphone with AI" :P

[@pete3198]

@@Seskoi And your point is?

[@tadghcr2175]

Where have you been seeing Razr 50 Ultra photos? The photos from the reviews I've seen all look terrible. I'm curious how good it could be.

[@pete3198]

@@tadghcr2175 check GSM arenas samples.

[@-nomi.-]

On-device translation is a genuinely useful feature since the situations you'll need it the most you're likely in a foreign country with limited internet. Not really worth a hard pivot to AI though.

[@neerkum5428]

I knew I was subbed to you for a good reason, thanks for this video btw, so many tech influencers have been not saying anything about this AI non sense

[@SmallScarl]

Great vid Ibra! Truth is hard to find thru the marketing fog.

[@RenzoClaros]

I love the take on this video!

[@axdicaire]

Truly 100% with you on this one. Ai so far is mostly just an evolution of a lot of features that already existed and a great excuse to steal more of the users data. My phone needs a refresh (for multiple reason) but I'm truly bored or worried with the options that are on available.

[@Tkozuh]

I turn off all AI that i can together with as much telemetry as i can and deny as many permissions as I can.

[@ihavenoaffinity]

"me too" extends beyond just the software. All flagship phones from major brands look the same and have the same hardware feature sets now. No 3.5mm audio jack, no expandable storage, roughly the same size profile and cameras/screens, the same front camera pinholes (while phones like the RedMagics will actually hide them), in-screen fingerprint readers (when some of us preferred the reader to be on the back)... I think the last time I was genuinely surprised by hardware on a regular flagship was the Zenfone 6's flippy cameras back in 2019. And you can't expect long-term software/Android system support from companies such as Asus or Lenovo so you end up just buying a Pixel or Galaxy anyway since you know at least Google and Samsung will update their phones. All these companies are selling identical-looking bluetooth earbuds now too. There's nothing to differentiate any of these major flagships besides brand loyalty.

[@evansafrifa6396]

spot on kudos!

[@byronvisiado09]

Thanks for this. Good take

[@TheTalentedMrMe]

I feel like you read my mind! This is exactly what I thought, especially after watching both this Samsung event and the last Apple event. I’m from the old school where I remember growing up thinking a cell phone attached to a suitcase was cool and then I remember standing in line for my first iPhone and the amazing event and vibe that was, or my first curved Samsung Edge and thinking “ok here comes some creativity.” Now it’s rinse and repeat over and over and over again. You’ve got iPhone users freaking out because they have always on display which android has had forever but then again android big boys like Samsung are taking the Apple approach of giving the bare minimum to keep you in that ecosystem. Now the over exposure of AI has taken over, and for what? To make cute pictures or have fancier emoji’s and use even less of my brain when emailing and texting?! But I digress. Anywho, my favorite video by far in regards to the Samsung Live Event today, so thank you.

[@Sassquatch0]

S23 here - I don't use a single "AI" feature. Everything I do on my phone was possible 2-3 years ago. Also, I think the mobile market should pivot to a 1.5-2 year refresh cycle, instead of yearly. This would give time for hardware innovation, instead of focusing entirely on rushed & half-baked software. Give the tech time to mature, and let developers get all they can from a system/OS before they have to jump to the next one. (Look the the Pixel 2-5 camera for an example: Google wrung everything they could from that camera before they finally moved to a new one.)

[@OFFSECHQ]

I share with you the major points except I think that the hardware part somehow hit a maturity where any improvement won’t make a significant difference except acceleration. Somehow they could tackle the hidden bones like the under screen camera etc

[@mr.yonosenada]

I appreciate your honest approach and voicing what a lot of us are thinking about this subject. Thanks.

[@ameersyazly]

spot on points

[@philontech7245]

To be fair to and the thing I think people forget about wwdc is that it is a software conference we don’t know what the iPhone 16 looks like yet. You might be right but I would argue smartphones have only had minor updates for several years now long before the ai run we are now on.

[@benjaminlynch9958]

Agreed. Whether your on the AI hype train or hate it, a software conference aimed at developers is the perfect event to talk about AI features, and historically Apple doesn’t talk a lot about hardware at that particular event. That usually comes later. For the iPhone specifically, it’s every September.

[@donaldbraugh2314]

You're onto it. Good points❤

[@allengomez026]

As someone who switched from a cheap Poco phone to the S24+. I still don't recommend anyone do what I did. Aside from the better chipset to play games and a better camera, I dont feel like it's worth it to spend a thousand dollars for a smartphone. I've been using this phone for almost 2 months now and still haven't found anything to do with my S24+'s AI features. I only decided to switch to Samsung this year because of the promise of 7 years for software updates, and that's something we have to see if they will fulfill it.

[@chrisdavid3676]

This video is very informative...

[@Splainte]

Smartphone world is so boring these days. The CMF Phone 1 is the highlight of this year so far and it says a lot I think.

[@techraptor4947]

People are getting hyped for Apple Inteligence, while I just want a better keyboard for the Iphone 😅

[@branyeh525]

what would be the best choice phone then?

[@sirjonsmithiii992]

Had the fold 4. Traded it because of the crease and black bars. Shame to see how little it has changed.

[@yensteel]

@@sirjonsmithiii992 Even the battery remained the same size. That's a big wtf moment. Superior battery life is what is attracting customers to other folding brands.

[@N0N0111]

It is refreshing to see that a tech channel on KZbin is NOT constantly reading a script.

[@MaddJakd]

My main issue with it was just that, a lot of these "features" we already have with Google's features. At least on the pixel, it can be viewed as "a natural next step" even if rebranded.

[@lofipain2982]

great video, thank you for talking about this. no ai feature will make me pick one phone over another, the galaxy unpacked was largely uninteresting for me and just made the lacking hardware innovations that much more apparent

[@stengon2603]

Investors, that simple, they are not pleasing customers, they are pleasing investors, and investors care more about buzzwords than a good product

[@Bmontepeque11]

I literally never use my assistants on my phone or literally any other feature that my phone might have, I just use social media apps, messaging apps and my camera (Which I am not using as much because I prefer the unprocessed look from my 2009 Point and Shoot Camera) I totally agree with you, back in 2018 or 2019 I was genuinely excited about new phones and technology in general, now they feel so worthless, I don't even feel the desire to watch smartphone reviews, I feel like I'll just go to my phone carrier, see what is available there and pick one of them, it doesn't matter which one I choose. I find interesting that as technology progresses everything is becoming more life-less. I am really switching everything in my life to be as analog as I can, Analog watches, point and shoot cameras, not spending as much time on social media etc.

[@I5-20VT]

Well said Eber! The smartphone market feels very stagnant at the moment. I'm still using an old Galaxy S20 and I will probably use it until it fails. I see no point of upgrading besides somewhat limited storage capacity.

[@kickincans]

Congratulations Eber! It's refreshing to hear a tech youtuber who isn't just regurgitating the press release but actually discussing and reflecting on a product launch and voicing a qualified opinion. A lot of the Samsung "AI" features are already available via Google services, a recurring theme with Samsung. Most of the AI features are not required on a daily basis, such as AI translation apps. A lot of these AI features have questionable outputs (either in quality or accuracy - hallucinating) and concerns around their use of your data. Personally I would appreciate a manufacturer who offers more control to opt into AI features - if you don't want them, have a clear system menu to disable them and speed up your phone in the process. This is something which I hope Apple consider as they move towards embracing AI. Another factor against AI - reports highlighting the increased use of power at data centres specifically caused by increased AI use also raises environmental concerns around a product which is trying to be thrust onto consumers who don't necessarily want or need it.

[@Tabbytoffee]

If "circle to search" is a cloud based system, it could be added to the galaxy s3, all you need is to take a screenshot, send it to google/ samsung's servers, and display the results, something that any smartphone is capable of. I hate when smartphone manufacturers restrict software features to the newest hardware just to make you upgrade your phone. Which is damaging the environment much more than a charger in the box ever did!

[@athulkrishna9114]

The biggest example of it is pixel, with its pocket heater feature for people who live in places above 30 celcius.Not only its performance extremely weak compare to its rivals, the only thing it generationally improved is ai computation

[@ventilate4267]

But there's nothing left to add on the hardware side?? Except for the innovations that were already taken away (headphone jacks IR blasters etc)

[@blablablablabla9859]

Yet space for a good hike in price and let's not even bother abt repairable prices

[@TheCocomunges]

Better flip/fold devices to the point where there’s no need for a ‘base’ phone. Make it so robust and durable that it’s the standard, not a gimmick

[@yensteel]

@@ventilate4267 For the laptop space, there isn't much to improve on. The biggest innovation could be sun-light readability, 5g built in, notchless behind-screen camera, or a new ergonomic ANSI keyboard standard. For mobile, AR showed promise. Microsoft hololens and Google glasses were examples of it.

[@radepicsmasheraj]

I think that's the point. Instead of innovating and coming up with new hardware features (and potentially just bringing back useful ones), companies are taking the "easy road" by simply offering performance improvements and AI.

[@akshaytolwani8381]

There aren't a whole lot of cpu innovations that would give you enough of a perfromance boost to show at a event. Mobile gpus are bandwith bound. The NPU craze is recent so you have big enough improvements to show at a event and make someone upgrade.

[@LarryAsberryJr]

I love this editorial video. It's honest and directly to the point. Like many of the comments here, companies need to give us what we want, not what they think we want.

[@jejunamja]

He makes some good points thanks for the video

[@WilliamHollinger2019]

This is why I like my analog camera plus flim too.

[@tedzards509]

Refreshingly great take, I completely agree with everything you said.

[@jnee]

Couldn't agree more - I'm hoping that this is just a phase and the hype will die down when it becomes apparent that most ppl play with these features once and then ignore them. There are some genuinely helpful integrations of AI but the majority of what is being advertised at the moment is a bunch of magic tricks that impress less and less over time.

[@Infernox-tg6ky]

Big companies are thinking we want so bad AI but the hype left in late 2022. Just make reliable phones over time !

[@yngvildrthevoracious]

I work in a saas company that has a hardware device on top. For a bit they thought "do we brand our thing as AI? We have a big algorithm that's our core feature after all. We could slap an AI sticker and gulp all that money". In the end they decided they wouldn't because they don't want to burst with the bubble... I'm very proud to work for this company.

[@Elektrode]

AI has mostly been a lackluster addition to phones but the OS level features coming to MacBooks is intriguing. That seems like something that could help us email of make basic search features that little bit better. Otherwise, having a random wallpaper creation app or drawing tool is a disappointing result from a year of work from any huge company.

[@mundaayn]

The only thing I use from Galaxy AI are circle to search and the generative edits rarely. The wallpapers are somewhat decent, too.

[@akshayuppala9295]

I use the AI circle to search feature to capture text from my screen. There was a similar feature before, but this one is a little faster.

[@atorbtech]

Best video released this week from the KZbin tech channels niche . Wish other channels like MKBHD also admitted the same .

[@kartikkaushik9811]

Break video and mention about Right yo Repair. It would compel me to buy a phone far more than some AI features if I knew the screen and camera modulus were easy and economical to replace

[@Laowu_MY]

Laptop also

[@nelulautaru]

ok hold on hold on, you guys are using some incredible equipment for sound in comparison to other videos on youtube, ready, now I can listen :)

[@tauseeftazz9563]

Super relevant, thanks for making this video. Im tired of AI hype, hardware manufacturers are just hiding behind AI as an excuse for not innovating on the hardware front, not polishing their software to run without glitches. They removed headphone jacks and called it innovation (Apple), removed charger for environment (bogus) and now bringing AI and not making anything useful. No longer excited about new tech

[@ThomasO2]

I don’t really use AI on my phone too much but, as a developer who has implemented AI in many different apps this year, I think you definitely sell it short. Text and image generation outside of a novel way to use them for something valuable. For instance, I have a bot watching a sports broadcast and commenting on niche aspects of the sport (like athlete stride length, cadence, and facial expression over time) to enhance an invested viewer’s experience by providing insight they may not have noticed. I’m just a developer, so I can’t say which athlete’s stride and cadence are indicative of their performance. But an AI that has been trained to notice these things and the resulting performance correlation can notice things even pros miss. It’s all about how I can provide value. It’s fun.

[@kaitlyn_stark]

The only reason I'm buying a Flip 6 is because my phone is a few years old and it would be a good upgrade from THAT perspective. It's not that big of an improvement over the last generation, and I hate how companies are mainly marketing these phones based on the fancy AI stuff as if an update won't bring it to all the older phones anyway.

[@user-vi4hp7hq6e]

we totally agree with you.

[@Skylancer727]

I do actually use the AI features in on the S23 Ultra, but I will say they are really hit or miss; I won't really miss them when they go paid. The remaster feature is really great for low res images, but it really doesn't work on real people giving them a beauty filter. It does oddly seem to know what small features like eye brows are and makes them look like hair zoomed in even when it previously was just a smudge. The remaster feature really works best with anime and cartoon images though. Had a couple times take an image from less than 480p look flawless 2K. It's rare but it has happened. I also have used the erase feature plenty of times. Being able to remove parts of the image I don't like is really impressive and in many cases it will even work on complex backgrounds filling it in really well. That was until they changed it recently. It used to be very free form so I needed to use a stylus but with it I could change things exactly how I wanted. More recently they made it auto detect what it thinks you circled so now in many cases it leaves a shadow from the object you erased or a discolored area. It also now won't detect small areas you want to fix like when the eraser missed a small spot like I used to be able to fix. The remaster feature also has some major flaws in that I really can't tell it what I want it to do. All I ever want is for it to upres an image, but it will automatically decide to do that, change the contrast, the white balance, the sharpness, and remove haze effects while also combining each randomly or doing only one. Really sucks when I want an upressed image and it just changes the colors.

[@uasinoby]

I have Galaxy AI on my device. The only feature I use semi-often is circle-to-search

[@reitastatic3386]

Raw hardware upgrade has always and will continue to be my only source of interest in upgrading. Most software gimmiks are usually pushed out to previous generation devices in a matter of weeks or a few months. Buying new phones nowadays only gives you an earlier opportunity to play with software. I was unimpressed this whole launch.

[@Senrab46]

Never a truer word said about AI and Phones. When the S/Note2 was launched with stylus that so benefitted me for writing msgs! Then the upturn in phones bringing speedy access to apps , route planning with maps. Plus cameras improving to a degree I stopped using digital photo / video cameras! Now I only see exorbitant pricing and no real gains in performance! Almost like the performance has plateaued to the eye. I do have a Motorola Razr 40+ and in 8months its had a screen replacement due to screen protector lifting at 4mths and the latest screen is now showing creases at the fold in the protector! They should focus on quality not AI as we have had algorithms for decades! Great channel guys 👍

[@marlanm.he-him1622]

I would've loved a "flip like" clamshell phone, but with a rollable screen option to maintain internal screen tightness. Honestly, even the ROI on flagship phones is not the same anymore. Greedflation might have it's part of blame for it, but I feel like it's a parallel to auto transmissions: you love the tactile feedback of manuals, but the moment but you want to be "green", you not only lose the creature comforts of an automatic transmission (PRNDL lever, anyone?) but you realize that your manual transmission now is another anti-theft device. It feels like even trading in your old device is opting in the "planned obsolescence" business model of products of today and tomorrow.

[@VIVlt]

Totaly agree. Al when companies old features rebranding like AI. All those things nothing new. Google lense existed for years, Google photos could find clutter and anything you ask for and etc

[@alexandrtarasenko7960]

Completely agree with you

[@domm6812]

Agreed. I feel like the AI marketing spam is utterly tedious at this point. Most of it isn't even that useful, or is just a rebranding of things you could do well enough before with standard software.

[@marvinseidel98]

I completely agree, there is no good reason to upgrade, I have the gemini assistant on my Pixel 6, why would I upgrade

[@namitjain2890]

Completely off topic, but what watch are you wearing?

[@kielhawkins9529]

The problem is that there are only minor incremental changes to hardware the last handful of years. Is it a surprise they were looking for a new thing to latch onto to sell phones?

[@AshnSilvercorp]

after seeing how far a rasberry pi can go, nothing is keeping a phone from replacing netbooks when docked to a portable screen. But it's clear the market is taken over by groups that do not want to provide what customers want. I need something that can make calls, play my music, and do basic searches. The removal of the headphone jack has put another barrier between me and doing a basic of playing music. The excuses for removing it "by popular demand" don't hold up.

[@lil.shaman6384]

I agree with everything except the fold and flip, the newest are huge improvements coming from the last 4. Hold a 3rd and 6th next to eachother.

[@nanaoftheyaw]

I'm pretty sure "circle to search" is a google feature that was revealed and debuted in partnership with samsung... Not the other way around

[@ImperadorSid]

I have a phone from 4 years ago, and I still don't feel compelled to by buy a new, because these days, new product and its launch events are so boring.

[@LeHoax]

I love a lot about my Galaxy 24 Ultra but I only played around with the AI stuff once. The Camera app often ruins photos thanks to it's aggressive AI processing and the AI voice calling seems like a protoype. On the other hand, some of the things that nobody mentions make a huge difference in using the phone. The fingerprint sensor is blazingly fast and works with wet hands for example.

[@petergrm8420]

AI is a major turnoff for me because every hour spent on developing AI was an hour that could have been spent improving the features I use every day or fixing bugs. And it just tells me that the company's priorities are directly opposite to my own. Kind of like replacing buttons with capacitive plates/touchscreens in cars for key functions like AC and volume. Loss of utility for me just so they can lower costs.