The titanium superphone boasts impressive speed, battery life, and unmatched camera zoom but comes with an ultra-high price tag
Samsung’s newest smartphone integrates numerous cutting-edge AI features aimed at enhancing text, images, video, and search, with varying degrees of success. The Galaxy S24 Ultra combines Samsung and Google’s latest AI technologies on top of one of the most advanced phones available, boasting specs that outperform its rivals. However, this level of capability comes with a hefty price tag of £1,249 (€1,469/$1,299.99/A$2,199), which matches its predecessor’s UK price but is higher in the US and other regions.
The overall design of the S24 Ultra shows iterative changes from its predecessors, featuring a fully flat screen instead of a curved one and new titanium sides akin to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. This design choice provides a grippier finish and theoretically enhances durability. The screen is equipped with Corning’s latest Gorilla Armor glass, offering improved scratch resistance and significantly reduced glare. Combined with its super-bright display, the phone is easy to use outdoors, even on sunny days.
Powered by Qualcomm’s latest top-of-the-line chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the S24 Ultra delivers a 20% speed boost, 26% faster graphics, and improved power efficiency compared to previous generations. It excels in handling games, demanding apps, and multitasking, with noticeable extended battery life in day-to-day use.
The phone provides up to 60 hours of battery life under typical usage scenarios, including activities like photography, browsing, messaging, and a couple of hours of 5G usage with the remainder on Wi-Fi. This makes it one of the longest-lasting phones I’ve tested. However, engaging in high-end gaming or more demanding tasks can significantly impact battery life; for example, an hour of playing Diablo Immortal depleted 18% of the battery. Nonetheless, under normal usage, I only needed to charge it every third day.
Specifications
Main Display: 6.8-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X (500ppi) with 120Hz refresh rate
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
RAM: 12GB
Storage: 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB
Operating System: One UI 6.1 based on Android 14
Camera: Rear – 200MP + 12MP (0.6x) + 10MP (3x) + 50MP (5x); Front – 12MP
Connectivity: 5G, USB-C, Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 5.2, UWB, GNSS
Water Resistance: IP68 (1.5m for 30 minutes)
Dimensions: 162.3 x 79 x 8.6mm
Weight: 232g
Sustainability
Samsung does not specify the expected battery lifespan, but it should endure over 500 full charge cycles while retaining at least 80% of its original capacity.
The phone is generally repairable, with screen repairs costing around £270, and the battery replaceable by authorized service centers. Samsung also provides a self-repair program.
The phone incorporates recycled materials such as aluminium, steel, cobalt, glass, plastic, and rare earth elements. Samsung offers trade-in and recycling programs for old devices. While the company publishes annual sustainability reports, it does not provide impact assessments for individual products.
S Pen, seven years of assistance, and ubiquitous AI integration
The S24 Ultra features Samsung’s popular S Pen stylus, which neatly slots into the bottom. It is ideal for quick notes, sketches, or document editing. The One UI 6.1 software, built on Android 14, offers a wide range of customization options and tools throughout the system, delivering smooth performance. A new addition for 2024 is the commitment to provide software and security updates for seven years from the release date, aligning Samsung with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Pixel 8, with only Fairphone offering a longer support period.
The most attention-grabbing features are driven by generative AI, with some being successful while others are merely playing catch-up with competitors. The phone shares the same impressive AI wallpaper generator as the Pixel 8 Pro. Its keyboard includes various AI tools such as language translation, advanced grammar and spelling checks, and the ability to rephrase messages in different styles like professional, polite, or casual. This can make your writing sound somewhat generic, but it could be beneficial for those who struggle with composing appropriate emails to their superiors.
The Samsung Notes app can summarize documents, but it’s limited to those under 8,000 characters (about 1,500 words), which seems like a drawback. The Samsung Internet browser can also summarize articles, even lengthy ones, with seemingly impressive results at a surface level.
The voice recorder app can transcribe audio to text, but it doesn’t offer real-time transcription like Google’s version. The phone app provides real-time voice translation, allowing you to engage in conversations across languages. It performs adequately for formal tasks such as making reservations but predictably falters with casual language and slang.
I wouldn’t rely entirely on these features without carefully verifying the accuracy of the results, but they can be helpful in urgent situations.
Generative Edit in the photo gallery app is Samsung’s equivalent of Google’s Magic Editor on Pixel phones. It can resize, reframe, erase, or move objects and perform other edits using AI on a server to regenerate the image each time. It is great for quick adjustments that would typically require using Photoshop, but it can also produce undesirable results. Any images edited with AI are watermarked with a small symbol in the bottom left corner to indicate that they are not entirely authentic.
One unique feature is the ability to convert any video to slow motion, using AI to generate additional frames, resulting in impressive results, provided you don’t scrutinize too closely for artifacts.
Finally, Circle to Search is a new Google feature on the S24 and Google’s Pixel 8 series. By holding the home button or gesture bar, you can circle what you’re looking for on your screen with your finger or stylus, and Google does the rest, providing information about an actor, searching for clothing, or highlighting text. It is fast, efficient, and quickly becomes second nature. While Google Lens has technically been capable of something similar, it has never been this intuitive and rapid.
Camera
The phone features four rear cameras and a high-quality 12-megapixel front-facing camera at the top of the screen. Four of the cameras are the same as those in the S23 Ultra, including the main 200MP camera, the 12MP ultrawide, and the 10MP 3x telephoto, all of which deliver equally impressive results.
New to the S24 Ultra is a 50MP 5x telephoto camera, replacing the 10MP 10x telephoto from its predecessor. This camera can also perform an in-sensor zoom for 10x magnification. The addition of the 5x magnification enhances the S24 Ultra’s capabilities, and in side-by-side comparisons, it is very difficult to distinguish the difference at 10x zoom compared to shots from its predecessor.
Overall, the S24 Ultra boasts the most capable and adaptable camera system of any smartphone.
Price
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra starts at £1,249 (€1,469/$1,299.99/A$2,199) for the 256GB storage option.
By comparison, the Galaxy S24 is priced at £799, the S24+ at £999, the Z Fold 5 at £1,749, the Google Pixel 8 Pro at £999, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max at £1,199.
Verdict
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is a versatile powerhouse, boasting a premium build of titanium and glass that offers a wide range of functionalities.
With its robust software, stylus support, top-notch processor, long-lasting battery, impressive screen, and highly adaptable camera that outperforms competitors in zoom capabilities, the S24 excels in nearly every aspect. It can even transform into a full Android desktop when connected to a monitor and keyboard, providing extended usability. Moreover, with a promised seven years of software support, the phone offers longevity.
However, the AI features have mixed results. While some are undoubtedly useful, none of them are compelling enough to justify choosing this phone over a Pixel or other alternatives, especially considering that Google’s Circle to Search feature will be available on other Android devices soon. Additionally, the fine print indicates that all AI features will remain free to use until at least the end of 2025, but there may be additional fees for some features after that.
While it may be only an incremental update from its predecessors and other phones may excel in certain aspects, few can match the S24’s comprehensive capabilities. However, its high price tag and large size are significant trade-offs. In a market inundated with foldable devices, the S24 Ultra’s design may appear unremarkable despite its exceptional performance.