Oh, good. It means that someone like me, who is not interested in AI features, will be able to buy good kit on the 2nd hand market.

I think you've misunderstood the article. Or perhaps I have.

My reading is that the second hand market for phones with AI features has tanked. So you would be able to get a second hand phone with AI features cheap. I imagine although it's not mentioned in the article (unfortunately), that phones without AI are holding their value.

So for someone not interested in AI, your stuck with an expensive phone without or a cheap phone with...

As a personal observation, might also have something to do with the fact that Samsung have neglected some features on the core S models, in particular the cameras. If you're buying the various ProPlusXLUltra variants then this applies less, but an S25 (and even the expected S26) don't have much better cameras than the S22 from four years ago. I do have a proper camera, but I still put high value on a smartphone that's as capable photographically as reasonably possible. Samsung seem to think that their best interests are in cramming their phones with crapps that duplicate the usual Android/Google ones, rather than improving the hardware.

My first android smartphone was a HTC way back around 2010... my previous smartphone to that was a Sony P990i that I made last 4yrs... It came with default apps for things like twitter, facebook and others... that could not be uninstalled... and then it came with the HTC variants of those exact same apps... that couldn't be uninstalled... none of them could be disabled either.

On a phone with very little storage and memory... it was a shitty move that made sure I never bought a HTC again.

If there's an AI feature and it can be disabled... I disable it... local based AI on the device such as adjusting pics to remove pylons or people for example are fine.

For me the main driver of a new phone is the camera and that it has a microsd slot

Most camera's have not improved over the years. I only got the phone i have now is down to the S9 Edge and the green screen issue and not being able to trust it on a holiday

Hopefully via ADB you can disable the crap AI

Used to do that to Bixby and so on

I suspect that the proper conclusion is that the market does not think "AI" makes a phone premium. I've had Samsung phones for the last 15-odd years and they've all been good. I even had a couple of the premiums – S5 and S10e. At the time, the S5 was pretty much stand-out, especially with the case that allowed wireless charging. But since the S10 Samsung has been making the phones bigger but only marginally better whilst keeping prices high. A couple of years ago I bought an A35, which is premium in everything except that it doesn't have Knox (don't need it) and wireless charging, but less than half the retail price of the S series. It has lots of storage, excellent battery life, great camera and 5 years of updates, which is new for Samsung. It has the usual AI shit, which I've never felt I needed.

Pity no Samsung has a memory slot.

useful for music

.... of the bubble bursting?!?

The first rider of the AIpocalypse - Secondhand Smartphones with AI Features...

pint for you good Sir or Lady Knight.

Also, please tell me your views on the other 3 riders?

There have been about a dozen 'first signs' in the last 6 months... the backlash is growing... but it's still strongest amongst those that understand how worthless it is in pretty much all 'generative' forms... Until we reach a critical mass where general consumers tell them to fuck off and refuse to use it... the bubble won't burst.

But burst it will... they are reliant on being able to collect your data, sell you a subscription and serve you ads... and the numbers being invested cannot be recovered in the typical 'shareholder attention span' who demands 'line goes up and to the right' every 3 months.

"A recent CCS Insight survey found 47 percent of buyers would actually pay more for a phone with AI features"

Did 53% said they'd pay more for a phone without them?

Not really, I suppose but it does say half your target market is not seeing value in them. That should be a warning sign.

Is there anything that 'AI' touches that actually makes money !!!???

[Apart from Journalists for the Media Orgs ... got to keep those clicks going ... Consultancy firms that publish yet another 'AI' survey or FOMO report on future directions ... Memory & HDD producers selling whole year production runs ... Sales people pitching 'AI' trials into ALL orgs, if possible ... etc etc]

Hang on a minute [Facepalm] !!!???

I was Right & Wrong at the same time ... there is lots of money to be made from 'AI' ... as long as you are NOT the actual 'AI' Tech Bros !!!

Everyone else selling all the kit, infrastructure and new build DC's for yet MORE 'AI' (plus the odd stockmarket 'bounce' ... 'put options' for all !!!) are making 'loads of Money'

:)

Bang on the money.

More cash was allegedly made from shovel sales in the gold rush, than there was from the gold, or lack thereof!

" 42 percent of people in the UK are willing to trust AI. Contrarily, the vast majority of people are concerned about the negative outcomes of AI, and 80 percent believe regulation is required. "

I imagine you could replace AI with Reform UK or anything equally dubious and arrive at the same conclusion.

After Brexit it is a mystery to me why anyone would bother polling the great British unwashed. Hardly likely to get a consistent or even rational result.

I'd have thought "Boaty McBoatface" would have been the ultimate answer to the question "should we ask the public?".

Local council where my friend lives asked for names for new dustbin collection lorries... You got the usual... I was disappointed my old gamer tag wasn't amongst them. 'DustyBinLaden'

Are losing their shirts ?

Oh dear. Too bad. How sad. Never mind.

Sometimes you want a decent enough smartphone that it has a good camera, a load of memory (of both kinds), and a processor that doesn't suck...

...and all this AI rubbish comes along for the ride.

I only use one AI feature on the phone. I hold the AI button and then say: "Set the timer for 10 minutes".

Imagine this probably cost many hundred billions to achieve.

Siri could do that before AI was a thing.

And I'm not at all convinced that the new AI-enhanced Siri made things any better in that department.

Witnessing my friend trying to harness Siri on a daily basis, I am not so sure. I can mumble the timer instruction and it will still understand. Siri might want to play Bailando instead.

no thanks

Be more specific.

I have no problem with an AI to help me get a better photo, or to post process my photos to edit out stuff I was too distracted to notice at the time.

But I have turned off all the Gemini stuff on my phone. Don't trust it, not interested.

Turned off or is it hiding in the hedges with binoculars on?

A conversation about what phone I could get with as little to no "AI" shite as possible.

Amusingly, when I said I didn't trust "AI", it replied "Me neither". (Alerting me to the fact that our of laziness I had not disabled "enthusiastic mode").