Galaxy S24 Ultra: Two-minute review :
Still, my list would include the Galaxy S24 Ultra, If I made a list of everything I wanted in a perfect phone. Samsung is easily working from my same list, and the S24 Ultra will please die- hard suckers and tech suckers likewise. In numerous ways, including some I did not anticipate, the Galaxy S24 Ultra proves it’s worth the hefty price tag.I want the stylish battery life. The Galaxy S24 Ultra outperforms the stylish iPhones and every former Galaxy phone. It lasts longer than a day with heavyuse.I want the stylish camera. The Galaxy S24 Ultra takes better prints than its precursor, no matter what the spec distance says. It’s still the most protean camera phone I have ever used. My artist musketeers prefer the iPhone 15 Pro, but I take better shots of everything with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. What differently do I need? I play games, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra is one of the stylish gaming phones ever. It outperforms the stylish Android gaming phones, and can indeed beat the speedy iPhone 15 Pro Max. I use my phone for work, and the S24 Ultra has professional features that indeed the Pro iPhone can not match. Samsung DeX software turns the phone into a true laptop, complete with Windows and an operation wharf. Samsung is grim, and yet, further than ever, it’s clear what is still missing simplicity. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is the stylish phone you can buy in numerous ways. It’s also the capstone of Samsung’s worst habits. The software is a mess. It’s a quagmire of settings, hidden features, and useless options. It’s a mess of junk that was out of date five times agone
, and needs to be streamlined or abandoned. For whatever new point Samsung adds to excite buyers, it takes two way back, hiding those features under further settings menus and layers of options.However, you will not be disappointed, unless you want to dig three layers deeper into the Settings app, If you were waiting to find new AI features on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. I hope useful AI advances are coming, but right now we are stuck with a lot of evidence- of- generalities, and that is only decelerating down this otherwise lightning-fast phone. Despite this, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is still one of the stylish AI phones out there. The nethermost line for the Galaxy S24 Ultra is still sky high. This phone is the stylish one you can buy, and all the software frustrations and useless AI features do not stop me from appreciating the long battery life, unerring camera, and endlessly useful S Pen for the weekend. It’s the phone I use rather than my laptop or tablet, because it’s more important and accessible when I need to get effects done. I wish the Galaxy S24 Ultra was easier to use, and perhaps AI can break Samsung’s usability problems in the future. I suppose Samsung needs a reckoning before that happens. iPhone 15 Pro with iOS 17 is not just easier, it’s further fun and friendly, with cool features like Name Drop and Check- In that iPhone druggies would be proud to partake with iPhone musketeers. The tackle is great, and it keeps getting better. The software issues have gotten so bad that I may have to start looking away in the future.
Galaxy S24 Ultra: Price and Price:
More expensive than last year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra
Seven years of OS updates can improve the value.
Trade in deals and launch offers is not as good as last year.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is more expensive at launch than last year’s Ultra, and the difference is going to hurt even more. The Galaxy S23 Ultra was already packed with features, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra doesn’t have anything as big and new. It is slightly improved in many ways.
The real value may come down the road, thanks to Samsung’s seven-year promise to deliver major Android and security updates. This length of long-term support was unheard of just last year, but now we have seven years of support for the best Android phones, with Apple trailing behind by offering just five years of support.
Samsung may promise breathlessly, but until we hit seven years, we won’t know if it actually delivers. Apple has literally delivered on this long-term promise dozens of times already across a wide range of iPhones. Google and Samsung – not once.
There is already reason to doubt. Buried in Samsung’s latest terms of service is a notice that the current slate of AI features may only be free for a limited time. Frankly, we have no idea what this means and it is too early to speculate. But it’s strange, in a way that Samsung seems to be building legal doors beyond expectations. Apple doesn’t. Only time will tell if Samsung persists.
I bought a Galaxy S23 Ultra last year, trading it in for a Galaxy S21 Ultra, and I’m sad to say that the trade-in deals and discounts at launch aren’t as attractive as they were a year ago. was
If you’re trading up from last year’s model, expect to pay hundreds more than your trade-in price. I’d still say it’s worth the jump, just once. Older phones will run out of more and more advanced AI features with each update. That means values could drop the first time Samsung delivers bad news and guillotines features on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, or even drops something new.
In the months since I originally published this review, we’ve seen quite a few deals on the Galaxy S24 Ultra on Amazon, effectively dropping the price by around $150/£200 or so. It’s still one of the most expensive phones you can buy, and we don’t see Samsung dropping the price much, even when the next generation of Galaxy Z foldable phones arrives later this year. I will appear.
Is this phone worth that much? If you’re asking this question, you’re reading the wrong review. You want the Galaxy S24 Plus, which might be worth it. This is Ultra. This is the ultimate phone; One that does what no other phone can do. You can’t put a normal price tag on an Ultra. It doesn’t fit.
Galaxy S24 Ultra Review: Specs and Benchmarks:
In our unborn Labs standard tests of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, commodity surprising happened. It beat the best- performing iPhone the iPhone 15 Pro. In nearly every standard test we ran, the Galaxy S24 Ultra scored advanced. In the multi-core test, plates rendering test, battery rundown test, and numerous others, the Galaxy S24 Ultra beat the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Last time’s Galaxy S23 Ultra was not suitable to eclipse Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max, and it’s been a long time since an Android device scored a resounding palm incross-platform standard testing. That said, I do not use standard scores in my final review scores, and I only mention the scores out of objective curiosity, not because marks should be part of a buying decision. confines 162.3 x79.0 x 8.6mm Weight 232 grams Screen 6.8- inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 2,600- nit peak brilliance Resolution QHD Refresh rate 1Hz- 120Hz variable CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy RAM 12 GB Storage 256 GB/ 512 GB/ 1 TB zilches; Anticipated Upgrades Android 14/ One UI 6; 7 times of upgrade reverse cameras 200MP f/1.7 wide, 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide, 50MP f/3.4 periscope( 5x), 10MP f/2.4 blowup( 3x) Front Camera 12MP f/2.2 Battery 5,000 mAh Charging 45W wired, 15W wireless Colors Titanium Violet, Titanium Grey,
Galaxy S24 Ultra review: Design
A big first slab of a smartphone
Titanium hasn’t made it any lighter.
Polished and classy, but unchanged
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is indistinguishable from the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which doesn’t mean there aren’t any differences, but rather that the changes are unnecessary. The speaker grills are different, the microphones have moved a bit, but for the most part the new phone looks like the old phone. That’s too bad, because Samsung’s Ultraphone looks a certain refinement, but it’s not very interesting at first glance.
A closer inspection is beneficial. The back glass consists of layers upon layers of metallic paint, giving the phone an eerie depth, especially in the ghostly, natural gray titanium finish.
Samsung pays great attention to detail when it comes to colors, materials and finishes. Each color has a subtle tinted frame that complements the new Gorilla Glass armor. Titanium Black is all black, while other color options shift to warm frame tones.
Apple fans like to tout the symmetry of their phones as a key design point. Frankly, Samsung is smarter than Sidiol. I prefer to have the power and volume buttons on the same side. This means I’m not filling up my photo gallery with accidental screenshots every time I grab my phone.
Like Apple, Samsung has opted for titanium on the frame this year, but it doesn’t make as much of a difference as it does on my iPhone 15 Pro Max. The Pro Max managed to shed a lot of weight this year compared to last year, about half an ounce. Galaxy Ultra? It is at most one gram lighter.
If you’ve never played with an Ultra, you really need to pick one up and pop the pen. Do you know S Pen Clicks? There is no reason for that. It could just pop out, spring-loaded, but instead the S-Pen has a clicky top that’s extremely satisfying. Oh, there’s also a motion-sensing stylus with an S Pen Bluetooth camera remote button, buy Samsung hasn’t neglected the clicky top.
Of course, that S Pen isn’t just made for fun, it’s one of the most surprisingly capable accessories ever. It’s as precise as a professional drawing tool, not like a big, clumsy, rubber-tipped stylus you might buy for an iPhone.
Galaxy S24 Ultra review: Display:
Great display in bright light or very dim room
Huge and fast, among the best you’ll find.
The lack of Dolby Vision support still stings.
The display on the Galaxy S24 Ultra is as good as you’d expect on a premium smartphone.It’s huge, flashing and colorful, specially using the Vivid color
inflection option.
There are plenty of tweaks for this display, including adaptive brightness and color tones that measure ambient light and adjust the display to look its best. In bright, outdoor light, the display can crank up to an impressive 2,600 nits, which isn’t the brightest you’ll find, but you won’t need any brighter.
Even more attractive might be the added Dim option. The Galaxy S24 Ultra can maintain good color fidelity even when the brightness is reduced a notch. It’s dim enough that you can almost check your messages in the movie theater, but then you’ll be an extra dim ultra jerk. But you could.There’s always-on display mode, but Samsung still makes its unique S-View cases, which provide a small window for the time, weather and notifications, peeking into the wallet cover case. This is a very cool case feature that Samsung has never abandoned, even if we haven’t checked them in a while.
Can the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s display get any better? Absolutely. There are phone displays that can reach a 144Hz refresh rate, although this may be faster than the human eye.
It would be nice for Samsung to give up the fight vs Dolby Vision on its phone act and lcd sets
. If you watch a lot of Netflix, shows look better when you compare a display with Dolby Vision to a display without. It seems like a no-brainer for Samsung to not support Dolby’s HDR video standard, when it supports Dolby Audio.
Galaxy S24 Ultra review: Software:
Terrible software hides all new features under’ Settings’. The new AI features are sometimes magical, but substantially useless. The seven- time update pledge formerly has an asterisk. It has come relatively clear that Samsung is fully concentrated on tackling and has no interest in perfecting its software. The software on the Galaxy S24 Ultra is terrible, and One UI is getting unworkable. Indeed the simplest features are cluttered with options and menus, and Samsung can not make a decision about what is stylish for its druggies. I am going to give Samsung time to fix its software problems, though I suspect it’ll take two times or further to get out of the current mess. Whatever was wrong with Samsung’s software has gotten worse, and problems persecute each new addition, like complaints. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is weighted with appearance, but where do you catch them? Where do you get new AI restatement tools, or set up an AI point that rewrites your textbook dispatches? Where do you turn on AI to edit prints, or AI to epitomize a web runner? All in one place, sorely. All of the new Samsung Galaxy AI features are buried in the settings, and not on the face. There are 22 disparate choices in the settings menu. 16 of the 22 options are advanced features. Tap on that and you will get ” Advanced Intelligence”, which does not actually meanAI.does it? In any case, this is where Samsung has buried all the cool new appearance for its flagship smartphone three layers down, under the 16th setting choice. I’ve spoken to Samsung about this, and they admit that this is a problem. Features are hidden. Everything is buried in Settings, as if that is where we would anticipate to find colorful features like wireless power sharing, maternal controls for kiddies, and always- on- display contraptions. In a delicate attempt to inform druggies about everything the phone can do, the Galaxy S24 Ultra will sometimes bubble up dispatches and suggestions to try. sadly, Samsung phones are full of dispatches and suggestions. Galaxy phones will infamously present you with an announcement on your brand new Galaxy phone, soliciting you to buy that brand new Galaxy phone. That is not how you educate people. Take it from me, a former high academy school teacher, if you only tell your druggies about a new point formerly, you have not tutored them how to use it. Samsung needs to take a big step back and figure out how to encourage druggies to try out features they will enjoy. Samsung also needs to remove features that are not being used, and hide those that do not need to be displayed. As for the new AI features, they are a mixed bag of stupendous magic and uselessdoggerel.However, it’s like wisdom fabrication, If you get to use AI restatement on a phone call. It’s like you’ve got a sumptuous fish stuck in your observance and you are living in an imaginary future. Samsung can write’ don’t horrify’ on the phone and boot it with a kerchief. Other AI features are useful, but only over to a point. The AI Writing Style point can acclimatize your textbook dispatches in a variety of ways, including a professional tone and further snappy dispatches, filled with emojis and hashtags. In practice, the differences were not veritably useful, and I substantially just stuck with what I wrote. Samsung also promised more on this point. I distinctly remember that the phone would turn my words into Shakespeare, but I noway saw anything like that on my S24 Ultra. These jotting style and restatement features are erected into Samsung Keyboard, so they work across multiple apps. Unfortunately, Samsung has fully broken their software keyboard. During my test period, I had some of the worst problems I have ever had with autocorrect and an on- screen keyboard.
The keyboard often capitalizes words in the middle of a sentence for no reason. Worse, it would autocorrect partial words and automatically insert some nonsensical phrase or string of characters into my typing. While typing contractions, most keyboards are smart enough to insert apostrophes, but the autocorrect on the Samsung keyboard tried to insert completely new words after my contractions. It was taking content out of context, and it was just plain wrong.
When I went back to change the error, the keyboard was pretty unfriendly. While the Apple iPhone keyboard assumes that a backspace after autocorrect means the autocorrect was bad, the Samsung keyboard sticks to its guns and makes correcting mistakes incredibly painful. Is.
I suspect that if I’m diligent with the Samsung keyboard and I keep correcting all of his early mistakes, I’ll eventually teach him to type correctly. I don’t have time for that. I’m not sure how Samsung broke their keyboard so badly, but it’s terrible and needs an immediate update.
Some of the AI features carried over from the Google Pixel 8 family also proved to be disappointing. Samsung promises that its Voice Recorder app will offer transcripts and summaries similar to the Recorder app on the Google Pixel. In practice, Samsung’s app isn’t as advanced or useful as the Pixel version. It’s slower, less accurate, and doesn’t provide a live transcription of the conversation as it happens.
Image editing features on the Galaxy S24 Ultra are less impressive than the Pixel 8 Pro. The Galaxy gets Samsung’s take on the Magic Editor tool, called Generative Edit, which lets you select objects in your photo to move, resize or erase. When you erase an object or the entire background, the phone can use AI to replace that part of the image.
What the Samsung phone lacks are the best editing tools available on the Pixel, namely the Photo In Blur tool that sharpens up even old photos not taken with your smartphone, and the best tech option that gets rid of closed eyes. Combine multiple images to get ugly expressions.
Still, as much as I complain about Samsung’s software, there are things you can do with a Galaxy phone, especially the Galaxy S24 Ultra, that you can’t do with anything else. I like Samsung’s DeX, which turns your phone into something that works like a Chromebook, when you plug it into a monitor with a keyboard and mouse. You get a new home screen with windows and a dock, and everything runs smoothly.
Why is it useful? I have a computer at home, but my corporate IT people don’t like me using it for work stuff. Instead, I use my phone, which is already set up with work and personal accounts. If I need to work at home, or even while traveling, I don’t need to bring my work laptop. I can just plug my Galaxy S24 Ultra into the USB hub and now I have all my work and personal stuff in one place.
I can reply to important emails using a real keyboard, or edit documents in Microsoft Word and Google Docs. I can do everything I need with Chrome web browser’s lack of running extensions. I never need to add my secure work account to my personal computer. I can just use DeX and have the best of both worlds on my Galaxy S24 Ultra.
As mentioned, Samsung has promised that the entire Galaxy S24 family will receive software updates and security patches for the next seven years. With all the new AI features on the phone, I wonder how Samsung will be able to pull this off, especially since AI seems to be advancing rapidly. How can a seven-year-old phone survive in 2031?
A clue may be in Samsung’s terms of service.
in which case Samsung provides prior notice.” “Samsung reserves the right to classify you to prevent quality degradation or disruption of advanced intelligence features.”
It could be completely harmless, or it could be an ominous sign that Samsung is looking for a loophole to get out of its seven-year commitment. It may offer future Android updates in permanent and “premium” flavors. It could also exclude certain models from any future premium features and only offer the most basic, barebones OS to the Galaxy S24 Ultra until, say, Android 18 is launched, likely for four years. I
In any case, there’s now an asterisk on Samsung’s agreement of 7 years of refurbishment, until that becomes clear.. I want and expect Samsung to behave like Apple. Any features that aren’t completely hardware dependent should come on every eligible phone. The five-year-old iPhone XR obviously doesn’t get the new Dynamic Island, but the latest update brings NameDrop, a brand new iOS 17 feature. That’s what we expect when the Galaxy S24 Ultra gets updated to Android 21 in 2031.
Software Score: 3/5
Galaxy S24 Ultra review: Cameras:
Better image quality, even if the specs are questionable.
Less detail than a zoom lens, but better color and range
Still need help with low light and noise contraction.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra was our overall best camera phone of last year, so rumors that Samsung would drop the optical zoom from 10x to 5x were cause for concern. The standout feature on the Galaxy S23 Ultra was the 10x zoom … in addition to the 200MP sensor, two zoom lenses, 100x digital astrophotography, AI image enhancement, and everything a phone can do. Still, it’s strange for Samsung to take a step back, especially where specs are concerned.
its start with the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 5x zoom lens. Samsung didn’t take a step back, it took a step forward. The Galaxy S24 Ultra still has the right zoom camera you can locate on a mobilephone. That’s better than the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 10x zoom, and it’s much better than the 5x zoom you’ll find on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Most of the time, like when you’re really using Zoom to its full potential.
When you zoom in up to 10x or even 100x, the Galaxy S24 Ultra produces images with better color and much better dynamic range than the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Where photos from older cameras look flat, you’ll see more depth and shadows with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. What you won’t see is a lot of information Samsung has sacrificed fine detail in images for better overall quality.
It’s a good trade-off. Those 10x and 100x zoom images from the S23 UItra look terrible. Sure, you can make out some details, but they get mixed up with noise and blur like a virtual chopped salad. On the Galaxy S24 Ultra, you won’t see as much, but you’ll be happier sharing those photos because they actually look like good photos rather than police evidence.
In a direct comparison between the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max at 5x zoom, the iPhone produces better photos. Once you start applying digital zoom, the Galaxy does better. At 5x zoom, I got a nice landscape shot of the lighthouse with both cameras. When I zoomed in at 25x, the Galaxy retained more detail and even better color than the iPhone. The iPhone couldn’t zoom any further, but the Galaxy S24 Ultra Pack could capture enough detail from the Ledge Lighthouse, located a mile off the Connecticut coast, to count the steps leading up to the dock.
Samsung has been criticized in the past for unnatural color in photos, and it’s clear that the company took this to heart and tried to get closer to the iPhone’s processing techniques. Colors look much more natural all around, often cooler than overheated iPhone photos that cast a yellow tint on some photos. Digital sharpening issues have been reigned in, so the Galaxy S24 Ultra produces images with good detail, without the blurriness you’ll see in some iPhone photos.
That’s not to say the camera isn’t without problems. Low light is still an issue, and other phones handle different night situations better. The Google Pixel 8 Pro is better at nighttime landscape and city photos, and even the OnePlus 12 can handle some mixed-light shots, such as taking photos of food in a dark restaurant, with Samsung’s best. is better.
Overall, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is the best camera phone I’ve used in the last year. It may not dominate in every department, but it consistently outperforms every other phone, whether you’re using an iPhone, a Pixel, or even a new OnePlus phone with fancy Hasselblad processing. I am
Where Samsung really excels is in interesting shots. If you need a nice macro photo, or an interesting photo of the pizza you made, Galaxy has you covered. Selfies and portraits look great, with accurate skin tones and enough detail that you won’t look like a poser. The phone had no trouble framing my adorable dog and cropping his fuzzy ears nicely in the portrait shot.
For photo editing, Samsung has made some progress, but you’re better off relying on third-party software, and perhaps some obscure Samsung apps. In the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Gallery app, you can now apply Generative Edit AI features, which can resize and move objects in your photo, or completely change the background depending on the perspective of the shot. are It’s a nice trick, but I’m not sure it counts as photography as much as a mixed media collage. If you apply any of the AI tricks, however, Samsung will add a small watermark to your photo to alert viewers.
The Samsung Gallery app will suggest photo edits, such as removing reflections (above). You can see the results below:
If you’re missing the Photo Unblur feature from the Google Pixel 8 (and it’s pretty desirable), you can head over to the Galaxy App Store and download Samsung’s Galaxy Enhance-X photo editor. This little-known app gives you a lot of advanced photo editing tools, many of which rely on AI and machine learning. These tools aren’t quite as effective as the edits made in Google Photos on the Google Pixel 8 Pro, but it’s nice to peek into Samsung’s software skinkworks to see what the company can create.
You can also run more advanced photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom and Snapseed. These apps run very smoothly on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and editing photos with the S Pen was easier than with my finger.
I haven’t been able to test the AI moon photography features on the Galaxy S24 Ultra since it’s been cloudy since I received my review unit, but rest assured I’ll be shooting the moon soon. Samsung says the on-board AI will recognize objects, then try to identify the subject to create the best photo. We’ll see if the new phone can keep up with last year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra’s stunning astronomical images.