We've all seen the movies where people in those movies use phones and tablets that are completely transparent. Samsung is bringing us one step closer to that reality because at CES 2024, the company has taken the wraps off their latest display innovation - completely transparent micro LED displays.

To be fair, this isn't Samsung's first rodeo when it comes to transparent displays. The company has come up with some transparent display concepts in the past, but this seems to be a step up in terms of brightness. It also sports a completely frameless design which is honestly quite insane when you think about it.

Samsung has used micro OLEDs for this display which in turn results in images looking nice and sharp. Samsung also claims that the use of micro LEDs means that they are less impacted by ambient light. This means that they have more real-world applications, like maybe using it as a smartphone display, a shop lot's window, outdoor advertising, and so on.

We're not sure when Samsung plans to commercialize these displays, so maybe don't hold your breath just yet, but it's still pretty exciting at the idea that we could one day be closer to seeing truly transparent smartphone displays.

In the early days when 4K video recording first debuted on smartphones, the frame rates it offered were kind of low. This was to be expected since the camera tech in our phones back then weren't quite as capable, but these days it's a different story.

In fact, if you're thinking about getting a phone that has amazing video recording capabilities, then the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra could be a phone to consider. This is because a leak from Ice Universe has suggested that the Galaxy S24 Ultra could offer 4K video recording at 120 fps.

For those wondering why this matters, basically frames per second is the amount of frames your camera is capable of capturing per second. Lower frame rates means that less data is being captured and can result in video footage that is choppy. Having a high frame rate captures more data which results in smoother footage, or at the very least offers videographers and editors more freedom and flexibility when it comes to post-processing.

At the moment, not many smartphones offer 4K @ 120 fps, so if the rumors are true, the Galaxy S24 Ultra will be one of the few smartphones that comes with this capability, making it perfect for content creators who might not want to carry around a separate camera.

According to the rumors, the Samsung Galaxy S24 is expected to be announced on the 17th of January, 2024. Samsung has yet to officially confirm those dates, but a post on X by reputable leakster Evan Blass might have confirmed it.

In what appears to be an official countdown to the event, it mentions that the launch date for the upcoming Galaxy S24 series will be taking place at 3AM KST on the 18th of January, 2024. Converting that to US time, that's basically 1PM EST on the 17th of January, 2024, confirming what the previous rumors are claiming.

Like we said, the 17th of January date had been mentioned in earlier rumors so it shouldn't really be that surprising, but it's good to have additional confirmation, especially when it comes from a pretty reliable source. Also, unlike the Galaxy S23's launch which was held in South Korea, next year's event is expected to see Samsung return to the US.

The Galaxy S24 is expected to come in three variants - the base Galaxy S24, the Galaxy S24+, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The phones have also been rumored to be sold in Exynos and Qualcomm variants depending on the region save for the Ultra model, where it will only be available with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset globally, which is good news for those who are planning on getting it.

While Samsung's hardware forte lies mostly with its Galaxy-series smartphones, the South Korean tech giant also sells some rather-impressive laptops with its Galaxy Book range. Just recently, Samsung announced the launch of the Galaxy Book4 Ultra, its new flagship laptop model.

Opening the laptop greets you with a 16-inch touch-enabled screen, which features a Dynamic AMOLED display with a 2,880 x 1,800 pixel resolution, a 16:10 aspect ratio, 400 nits of brightness, as well as a 48-120Hz variable refresh rate.

This is encased in a very sleek-looking metal chassis, which features a pair of USB-C ports, a USB 3.2 A port, HDMI 2.1 connectivity, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and even a fingerprint scanner for biometrics.

In terms of internal specs, there's a base model of the Book4 Ultra which packs a setup consisting of a 14th Generation Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD, although buyers can opt for a more powerful model.

The more premium variant comes with Intel's 14th Generation Core Ultra 9 processor, with up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and up to 2TB of internal storage. Unsurprisingly, Samsung has equipped the Book4 Ultra to be able to keep up with demanding games and productivity tasks - the laptop comes with either an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 laptop GPU with 6GB GDDR6 VRAM or an Nvidia GeForce RTX 470 laptop GPU with 8GB GDDR6 VRAM.

Like a lot of smartphones these days, the Book4 Ultra also features generative AI capabilities, made possible with an onboard NPU that allows for faster AI processing - this all takes place on the device itself, which is all the more impressive.

Inside is a 76WHr battery with support for 140W USB PD charging, and comes bundled with a 140W USB Type-C charger. It's scheduled to launch initially in South Korea in January 2024, with a starting price of around $2,600 (when converted).

The Samsung Galaxy S24 will be the company's next flagship phone and is expected to launch in 2024. From what we can tell based on the leaks and rumors, it looks like it will be a marginal upgrade in the hardware department with some minor design changes. The biggest change is most likely in the form of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and the implementation of AI.

Will this be enough to convince customers to hop on board the Galaxy S24 bandwagon? Samsung seems to think so. According to a report from Korean publication The Elec, apparently Samsung is aiming to ship as many as 35.2 million units of the Galaxy S24 by the end of 2024.

This consists of 13.5 million units of the base Galaxy S24 model, 5.8 million units of the Plus model, and 15.9 million units of the Ultra model. For context, the Galaxy S23 series reportedly shipped over 25 million units, so these numbers, if accurate, represent quite a huge increase.

Whether or not Samsung will be able to achieve their goal remains to be seen. The company's flagship of smartphones is one of the more popular devices and is highly anticipated every year, but seeing as how the design of the phone is remaining more or less the same and there not being any particularly significant upgrades, it's hard to see how the Galaxy S24 will be a much bigger hit over its predecessor, but we'll have to wait and see.