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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.)

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.

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.

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.

mate the camera on my phone is advertised as "innovative ai camera" on the back and the photos are still bad

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.

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

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".

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

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..... 😢

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

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

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.

"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.

Back in the day software enhanced night mode used to be the hype train that pixel started and it spread to every other device under the sun, every manufacturer started focusing more on it than other features , same is the case with ai, the hype train is gonna last for 2 or 3 years max, and eventually slow down.

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.

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.

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.

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

From a productivity standpoint there are some pretty useful stuff there. Hardware hasn't changed in a while.

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.

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.

Reasons to make you preches a new phone: 1-Chip sets 2-durability 3-Screen & Audio 4-Camera sets 5-Battery & Charging 6-Design and features 7-price & Access ability AI: What about me? :Ahh yes and 8- 3.5 Audio jack AI: Hello? What about mee?? 9- And an IP rating with security updates.

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

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

"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!

Phone hardware reached a plateau, it’s been like this for a couple of years.

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

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)

Nothing phones are not innovative, their flagship simply added LED light for notifications, to me that just seem like a party trick/gimmick that will get old after 10 min. And then the CMF phone allows removablr back for modular addition, but they don't allow removable battery while they're at it, and the accessories are limited, and of course it's for their low end devices, so even if you're into the device, you're not getting the latest specs on it

What I look for is a phone with a large battery, over 512GB on storage, great cameras and the least amount of bloatware. I know, but that's virtually impossible to have that without resorting to either an iPhone or the latest Samsung. Really annoying, honestly.

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.

AI on phones is such a bs gimmick that no one uses

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.

I love the take on this video!

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.

Phones are so boring nowadays. They plateaued

AI is making people dumber.

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.

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

Really great topic. So true.Great stuff.

Every app has it's own AI. X has Grok, Brave browser has Leo. On and on. It is raining AI.

My main concern with AI on my next phone is how to turn it off and keep it off.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Thanks for this. Good take

Seems like AI has become a bandaid to cover up the hardware shortcomings on smartphones.

Long battery life, high quality medium-big screen, good cameras, reliability, pleasing interface. I don't know who asked for AI?? They say that feedback is important. With that feedback, they instead started implementing something nowhere near the realm of what we've been asking.

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.

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

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

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

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

spot on kudos!

The amount of waste produced in our world is staggering.

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

Google AI is processed locally on phone with specific AI core

what would be the best choice phone then?

did you pronounce it stiff ling ? Stifling. Stye-full-ing

You're onto it. Good points❤

id be in for hardware changes related to: - adding back expandable storage, headphone jack, IR blaster, etc. - innovating on using pogo-pins for unique accessories like Motorola, LG and Essential did in the past. The 360 camera accessory for the Essential PH-1 was fantastic! - improving on desktop modes for better usability as optional main computing needs. I would pay substantially more for the privilege.

8:19 What does he say here? "I'm trying to be as _____ as I can about this matter..." I played it back 15 times at very high volume but still can't decipher what that word was.

100% agreed.

I don’t believe nothing phone innovated anything, just adding lights that decrease battery life for a gimmick. I think that all of these companies are losing the main focus on devices like better software, more accessible feature for most devices and battery life. I would love to have a slim Samsung ultra with a battery that can last 2 to 3 days without worrying about charge. My favorite phone to this day was the oneplus 7 pro with the pop up camera and it lasted regardless of the physical moving parts.

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.

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

Laptop also

Things, the companies should do 1. Changeable battery 2. Headphone jack 3. keyboard from Blackberry 4. Battery that last more than 3 days of continuous using 5. Phones lines specialised just for camera, like we had with Samsung s4 zoom. 6. Same with gaming phone specialised gaming phone like N-Gage We just need something like back in the day the we have been excited to see it, and some form factor when we will know that we have something different than others, because all the phones looks the same...

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.

Completely off topic, but what watch are you wearing?

This video is very informative...

I think the move to services is an unfortunate, yet understandable move. With phones lasting longer, and companies giving longer warranties, they need to compensate for the extra phones they haven't sold.

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 :)

Hardware Canuck Awesome Video and agree I'm over it.Just hope everyone else does.Some things can be fixed but then some times they cannot.Geat Video.💯✌️

Honestly, I'm so tired of all this not actually AI "AI" that these companies are trying to stuff into anything and everything. It's pushing me away from wanting to use anything that involves it. Even if that means I stop using a smartphone, smartwatch, or any other "smart" thing.

He makes some good points thanks for the video

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