Samsung may eventually charge for its Galaxy AI features, and the company only promises they'll be free through 2025.
Samsung aren't saying that they will charge for Galaxy AI feature but the fine print says the following:
"Galaxy AI features will be provided for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices. Different terms may apply for AI features provided by third parties."
Samsung lost me as a customer when they removed the audio jack and SD card slot - I'm typing this on a S10+ that I've loved for years, but my next phone is going to be made by someone else, so they can shove the whole AI crap and yet another damn subscription so deep that it tickles their tonsils from the other side.
I think Sony is the only flagship phone left that still has minijack. IDK about SD
SD is not much of an issue IMO, with newer phones being available with 512 MB now, even in mid range.
You can get wired USB headphones, if it's because you want the wire to not lose them and to not need to charge headphones too. But I haven't tried it, it may suck.
Most of the phones I'm looking at max out at 256 Gb storage, minus whatever the OS uses. My next phone will almost certainly be a Sony because of the SD card slot. I do a lot of RAW photography, and travel in enough places without data service and/or sketchy cell access that large local storage is not negotiable.
Just to offer an alternative viewpoint, because I have come across these issues and ended up buying a Sony phone because I had such a bad time without the 3.5mm headphone socket.
Some people want more internal storage than even 512gb - I have a 400gb microSD in my phone because with the OS and apps getting bigger, even a large internal storage can fill up fast. Also, it's nice to have media collections, photos, and other files with you, rather than relying on data and cloud storage, and the cost is now very low for a large microSD. It's also easier to transfer large amounts of data between devices that way.
As for headphones, dongles are a pain and USB headphones have to have a (usually not great) DAC in them to work, plus many people already have great headphones they want to keep using. All of that said, the biggest issue with USB headphones IMO is that there is only one USB port - the wear and tear of using it for everything is significant. Also, USB-C plugs are much more breakable and harder to replace than a 3.5mm jack. Additionally, you cannot charge and listen at the same time without a dongle and many of those are bad (none of the ones I have tried have worked for more than a few weeks before connectivity issues started).
Still rocking my note 10 plus which had a SD card slot, and my LG V60 which still has both. The V60 has some of the best audio recording for video which I suspect is due to the DAC built in with the mic array.
Unfortunately even if you could distribute them here last I checked they don't have the US band support and going through FCC certification process takes time and money
Okay. I use AI for hobbies, like art and getting D&D campaign ideas, so I was waiiting to see what the S24 could bring. Being able to do it locally on my phone would be amazing instead of zipping it off to DALLE or whatever.
I will almost assuredly not be paying for something that should be able to run on the locally on the hardware.
I could be misinformed but that was the whole selling point of Snapdragon 8 gen 3 was its on board NPU, no?
Google. I have 15GB you gave me for free of which 7 or so are used by various stuff.
I don't even have the space to off-load to it.
And I have an on-site backup so F you.
From my understanding they didn't just get inspiration from Google, it's actually using their system and their help to build (both running on Google Gemini).