Introduction:
These days, the smartphone market is all about market share because technology has reached a plateau in a lot of ways. And how did Samsung get here? Well, part of it is by launching their bleeding-edge Galaxy S24 Ultra and offering a generous trade-in program to get this into as many people’s hands as possible. Then they take a lot of those features and over a few generations, distill them down into lower-priced series. I mean, look at their sales from 2023. The A-series continues to be their top selling phones worldwide. The S23 Ultra hasn’t even made that list.
So when we look at its successor, the S24 Ultra in this case, it seems like the aspirational phone that many people would use as a reference point when it comes to making their purchasing decision.
You see, I’ve been using this phone for the past four months and I wanted to share my experience with you guys, basically skipping all the hype and just diving into the real deal. So, from cheap $200 phones to Pixels and iPhones, the Ultra is the most advanced one that I’ve used so far. So let’s see what’s great about it and uh also you know what could use some fixing in future models.
A big glass slab:
Now from the outside there isn’t a whole lot to talk about this phone when compared to the s23 ultra the design remains largely unchanged although. They’ve made some minor adjustments to the materials like opting for titanium to create a lighter frame uh they also offer a variety of colors some of which are exclusive to their online store and they’ve dished the curved screen for a flat layout. And you also get slightly smaller bezels but at the end of the day this thing is still a big glass lab with sharp corners and honestly it’s not the most comfortable thing to hold in one hand, I prefer phones with rounded Corners like the nothing phone 2 which is similar in size to the ultra and costs half as much and feels way better in the hand it’s a case where form takes over function.
And I hope Samsung takes note of that now initially I thought that operating it with one hand would be a nightmare considering its size but I’ve got to give it to Samsung for including one-handed mode so essentially this can be triggered by swiping down right by the app drawer and this basically shrinks the um screen’s active area making it more accessible this feature alone has been a huge Lifesaver for me.
S24 ultra display:
Now let’s talk about this display I’m not going to bore you with the list of specs here but from a high Lev perspective it follows the same recipe as the last few Generations uh with a few minor tweaks. So first off they’ve cranked up the brightness to a remarkable 2600 nits which is quite impressive considering the limitations of ol technology to put it in perspective laptops with ol panels often struggle to reach 500 nits making this display a GameChanger especially when using this thing Outdoors or even while traveling.
On top of that uh corin’s gorilla glass armor significantly reduces reflectance by 75 % resulting in an even more immersive visual experience this is actually one of the first things that caught my attention when I started to use this phone. And let me tell you the difference is quite noticeable especially when compared to uh the iPhone 15 Pro and the pixel 8 Pro.
Now while some may dismiss it as gimmicky at first glance once you actually get to experience this going back is a bit of a struggle now if you’re planning to add a screen protector. On top this feature is completely useless and I kind of did pay the price for that as you can see uh did end up scratching up the screen not happy about that you see these Hardware improvements are nice to have but it’s not a necessity for everyone I want to Circle back to the aspirational concept. As I mentioned earlier in a few years I guarantee you that these extra perks that you see with these Flagship models would eventually trickle down to the a series phones I mean look at where we are right. Now we went from 60 H Herz on the Galaxy A51 to 120 HZ with high brightness levels and better durability on the current 855 something to think about. Now I must admit the larger 6.8 in screen makes watching movies and shows much more enjoyable and the fluidity with 120 HZ is excellent however I did notice that the touchcreen sensitivity on this phone seems slightly lower compared to some of the other phones that I’ve tested uh light Taps often fail to register and scrolling just felt out of sync with my thumb at times despite this thing boasting a 240 HZ touch sampling rate there are certain aspects that just felt off. Interestingly I’m not the only experiencing this others who have upgraded from the S21 Ultra have also noticed similar issues um so I thought that was worth mentioning also Samsung sets the display resolution to full HD Plus by default for power efficiency gains so if you want to fully utilize the capabilities of this $1,300 smartphone.
Just make sure you switch it to Quad HD Plus in the settings stab it won’t affect battery life that much um the ultrasonic fingerprint reader on this phone works beautifully it’s actually gotten faster with the recent updates unlike Optical readers this thing subtle and it doesn’t blind you at night um it works all the time when I try to unlock it which I love uh call Quality is great no issues. With the reception the physical buttons also feel nice and tactile and I do like their position uh for easier operation.
S24 ultra performance:
Now on the performance front I didn’t encounter any hiccups with this phone it’s actually quite a refreshing change compared to the pixel 8 and the 8 Pro that I reviewed recently um editing my Raw photos on the ultra was pretty smooth. Although processing the 200 megapixel photos still takes about 5 seconds but do keep in mind that that isn’t an impact the camera experience there’s no shutter lag when capturing fast-paced subjects uh the HDR processing works in the background and it’s seamless unlike the pixel 8 series which is just known to be slow in that regard it’s actually really ironic when you think about it cuz Samsung seems to have nailed the optimizations with hardware and software better than Google.
I mean sometimes there are occasional delays with YouTube Studio taking a while to load uh the comment section uh Instagram messaging sometimes just takes an eternity to load uh the grid layout also doesn’t expand fully to the navigation menu. Now these things don’t happen frequently but it is worth noting that third party apps on Android have always lacked that final polish compared to iOS. But overall it’s been a pretty smooth sailing for me on paper the Snapdragon 8 gen 3 does bring some noticeable performance gains over Gen 2 on the s23 ultra but in the real world you really can’t tell the difference guys maybe on the gaming front but if you’re holding on to a flagship phone that’s 2 or 3 years old you’re really not missing much.
GPS issue:
Now this next bit’s actually been talked about that much but there is an ongoing issue with the s24 ability to reliably lock onto and maintain connection with the uh Russian glus constellation. For starters gloess is a global navigation satellite system utilized for both military and civilian users to obtain realtime position and velocity information we use this every day on applications like Google Maps for instance this issue was actually brought up by one of our team members who just enjoys hiking and encountered difficulties with his Galaxy s24 his phone basically strugg struggles to accurately register.
The exact location um other users on Reddit have also indicated movement even when they’re stationary I did run gnss logger on my s24 ultra to compare to my pixel 8 and the nothing phone 2 and yes the phone does struggle to stay locked onto glus so if you have an Android phone I actually encourage you to run that test but Samsung um if you’re watching this just please fix that thank you.
S24 ultra S-pen:
All right S Pen it’s actually been a staple feature since the Galaxy Note series and I’m actually glad to see it on the ultra phones
But personally I’ve never found this particularly useful but that doesn’t mean that won’t be beneficial for you some utilize it for media playback controls when it’s docked for charging like using air actions to adjust the volume levels or play pause it also serves as a shutter button for large group photos. But most importantly its ability to take notes with the screen off quickly signing documents um you know quickly jotting down measurements from your contractor if you’re renovating your space or even keeping track of scores during games with your friends and family it adds value and I get it but I don’t see it as a necessity. I should also point out that often times I’ve noticed the S Pen just pops out by accident now luckily it’s just a release button uh but the rest of it is actually held by a magnet but you know it is something to be mindful.
S24 ultra battery life:
The battery life has been pretty solid Samsung has stuck with the same 5,000 mamp battery for the past four generations so you can count on this device lasting for more than a day. In fact I managed to stretch it to almost 3 days on a single charge with moded usage and this includes like watching TV shows scrolling through Instagram browsing the web using maps and messaging of course everyone’s usage may vary but for me even on light work days. Where I’m mostly glued to my computer this phone doesn’t give me as nearly as much as inside as my 15 Pro I’ve traveled with it to Japan shot a ton of photos and videos and I was thoroughly pleased with its efficiency. But let me remind you phones that cost a fraction of the ultra can still deliver comparable results they might not be the fastest or have top-notch camera performance but if endurance is what you’re after there are more affordable options available I mean sure you may miss out on fast charging or wireless charging or reverse wireless charging for that matter but that’s a small price to pay for in the grand scheme of things. But that being said the ultra 45 W charging is pretty neat though I mean I was able to Juice It Up from 0 to 60% in 30 minutes uh but I had to get a separate adapter for that I just find it silly that they don’t include it in the Box uh especially for the price you pay speaking of bay. We do have some bills to cover so let’s hear from today’s video sponsor question why is it so cold in here well I got new coolers installed turns out they’re a little too good they’re meant for computers you know that right I got them in every room hey the price is just too good I guess the large VM fans help with cooling yeah plus the pivoting connection hoses are wonderful I do love the Styles and different sizes too the new Arctic freezer 3 aios please use on CPUs only they are specifically optimized for LG GA 1700 and a54 check them out below all right have fun with your freezer.
S24 ultra camera review:
For me was its remarkable image stabilization this isn’t limited to just one lens it’s actually consistent across the entire camera the footage almost gives the impression of being shot on a tripod yet it was handheld details are sharp the dynamic range is balanced and the zoom capabilities are extraordinary. I mean being able to zoom into a soccer game from the top of a Tokyo Tower is just simply mind-blowing and it’s a testament to the advancements in camera technology if you’re someone who loves documenting life in video the s24 ultra is the ultimate tool it’s actually comparable to what the iPhone 15 Pro can achieve though I did wish if Samsung could include the option to shoot in log basically it’s a flatter profile preferred by cinematographers for Creative post-production work after all this is an Ultra phone but that being said there is pro video mode baked into the app for granular control for ISO shorter speed wide balance and focus points this is something that the iPhone lacks.
What about photos if I were to describe it in one sentence what you see is not what you get when you’re shooting with the s24 ultra let me explain explain here’s a screen recording of me capturing this beautiful sunset in Tokyo I frame it hit the shutter button go to the gallery to view the results takes about 5 Seconds to process. The HDR processing just destroyed the natural contrast boosted the shadows and just made it look atrocious keep in mind this is out of the box settings here’s another example I’m shooting this cute capaa but this time in 200 megapixel mode I HD the shutter wait for some time to process and oh my it just dialed up the contrast desaturated the greens and just took away the natural look of the image this is what it looks like in real life as opposed to this I tried to investigate this issue. And to my surprise I’m not the only one with a lemon a lot of people have address similar concerns as well I tried to dig into the settings and I tried to minimize the amount of optimization. But I’ve had no luck so far guys and this is with the latest update installed at the time of making this video so at the end of the day photos coming out of the s24 Ultra offered a mixed bag of results while some images exhibit aggressive postprocessing others are vibrant and sharp with really good dynamic range there are some cases where noise gets introduced even with plenty of lighting and in some cases the photos just lack contrast.
However the one common element throughout all of these photos that you’re seeing here is the phone’s ability to capture incredible detail the upgrade to the 50 megap Periscope lens is refreshing I love shooting with this compression if you you know me by now this is my favorite focal length there’s of course the useless 100x Zoom feature which I barely touched you could get some Moon shots that are fake than to AI but don’t fall for that marketing BS shooting with the main 200 megapixel sensor provides impressive depth of field. Although Samsung defaults to biding it down to 12 megapixels for storage efficiency in low light conditions the main and Tel photo sensors perform pretty well but the ultra wide-angle camera struggles with dynamic range in certain scenarios portrait modeun functions well overall. Although I will mention that it is slightly Overexposed in some cases the selfie camera delivers pretty good performance but I should point out that the pixel 8 series does offer a slightly wider depth of field switching to PR mode enables raw shooting resulting in significantly reduced post-processing. As you can see there’s less sharpening around the text and the texture on the wood looks natural and that unlocks greater creative control order edits each raw file averages around 30 megabytes and with that much information in hand I went to town with my edits in Lightroom and I must say the results are quite satisfying the DG files in my opinion are far superior compared to the stock ones that you get straight out of the camera which is again pretty disappointing. For those who are seeking for a simple point and shoot experience now this camera app could use some polishing Samsung just tries to include every possible feature even once like a dedicated mode for food photography which might leave users questioning its necessity.
I also had a hard time distinguishing between expert raw and promo mode when trying to capture Raw photos to explore the uh camera’s capabilities um I just feel like simplifying the layout could eliminate these hicups like a simple toggle in the main viewfinder to enable or disable raw mode would be greatly appreciated again this is the pro photographer in me that’s speaking out as opposed to a consumer so you could probably disregard that.
Software Experience:
All right so let’s talk about software experience it’s the last piece of the puzzle so with this phone you’re in for a unique journey through Samsung’s one UI. So as expected you’ll find a blue of pre-installed apps a handful of Microsoft 1es and a bunch of other random additions that you might never use cleaning this clutter took me some time especially when I was transferring content from my pixel 8.
But once you pass the setup stage there are some standout features in one UI that I’ve grown to appreciate for starters the Quick Settings tray is neatly condensed with all my frequently used controls Google um please take not this file management system is topnotch it’s one of the things that I admire about Android plus there’s the ability to customize wallpapers using generative AI speaking of AI there are some cool new additions baked into one UI 6.1 . By the way this applies to all the previous Samsung phones running this particular version so first up we have Circle to search which can be triggered by long pressing the home button all you have to do is circle highlight or tap anything on the screen which will then bring up helpful search results it’s pretty fast and accurate photo assist comes in handy for editing photos. On the go it’s very simp similar to Google’s Magic Eraser you can reposition or remove subjects in the photo it takes about 5 to 10 seconds to generate the final result keep in mind that you do need data for this instant slow motion uses AI to artificially generate additional frames from a regular 24 30 or 60 frames per second video it works pretty well when you’re shooting with the main sensor. But once you go 5x or zoomed in you can start to see the artifacts especially around the deer’s head in this case. Now there are other notable features including live Translate interpreter note assist chat assist all powered by AI to enhance various aspects of your phone’s usage the translation stuff is pretty cool but using everything else felt a bit intrusive. I mean I don’t want to send hashtags to people over text messages I mean look I don’t know where you stand with the advancements with AI it’s scary it’s probably going to replace our jobs sooner than later but for now 80% of the AI stuff baked into this phone are features that I guarantee most people won’t even use.
Btw did I also mention that all the AI features are actually featured by or they’re disabled out of the box and you need to create a Samsung account to use them so there’s that now Bixby is still here it’s still present understand no yeah but you can use Google Assistant if you’re invested into that ecosystem I feel like these things shouldn’t exist next to each other and I can’t help. But wonder what the potential chaos would be when Google Gemini Nano rolls out into these phones later next year are we going to have a showdown of three AI models fighting for control only only only time will tell Samsung Dex is pretty impressive and I was surprised by the amount of work that can be done by simply connecting this phone. To a monitor multitasking is a breeze with split screen mode and I even managed to complete most of the script using dexs however it’s not without its floss there are some software bugs particularly with YouTube player uh which could use some polishing also it would have been convenient if Chrome could automatically switch between desktop mode and mobile mode when using decks rather than you know require manual adjustment every single time when you plug it and unplug the device I just feel like this could also be a really good addition to your living room setup you know with a simple connection to a TV and a Bluetooth keyboard you’re pretty much set it’s not going to replace your computer.
Final Review:
The s24 ultra it’s big it’s got all the fancy Hardware that you’d anticipate in the flagship the AI features are pretty cool it’s an impressive feat of engineering no doubt.
But we’ve been caught in the cycle for the past few years smartphones hardly have anything left to prove these days guys every year whether if it’s a Galaxy Device or an iPhone or a pixel it’s just another iterative update