It’s that time of the year again when Samsung introduces us to their latest premium phones and yes, this year it does get better with the inclusion of AI features. I’ve been using the Galaxy S24 Ultra for over 2 weeks now (got to return it next week) and so far, it’s been a journey of discovery. No doubt about it – this phone is big with a display measuring 6.8 inches (Dynamic AMOLED 2X with 1440 x 3120 resolution) ensuring clear, crisp images. There are obvious advantages to having a phone this size which means you don’t need to squint when you read. Personally though, I would be happy with a more compact phone like the Galaxy S24 which fits so neatly into my pocket but everyone has their own preferences. The weight is 232g which to me is rather heavy. This is a phone with serious heft.
The titanium frame makes the S24 Ultra look posh and more premium than its predecessor which had an aluminium frame. There’s better scratch resistance with Corning® Gorilla® Armor and it’s water and dust resistant too as one might expect from this flagship model. The model for this review came in Titanium Gray, other colours available are Yellow, Black and Violet with a few other shades exclusively online.
Other than the AI features, other factors such as 7 years of updates (not sure if anyone would want to keep phones for 7 years), built-in stylus and a camera that I have found to be able to take crisp photos from a distance away make this phone quite appealing. With a 5000 mAh battery, it does last all day – you can watch videos up to 30 hours and listen to music up to 95 hours which is certainly a long time! It also charges impressively fast, so much so you would not want to risk overcharging.
With a 2600 nit display, you don’t have to worry about not being able to view the display even under extremely bright sunlight. This is Samsung’s brightest adaptive mobile display under the sun. Corning® Gorilla® Armor reduces reflections and improves visual clarity, even in direct sunlight. Then, an improved Vision Booster enhances contrast and colour for a clearly exceptional experience. Watch videos to your heart’s content outdoors as the quality of the display even under the most sunny of days is unparelelled.
The built-in S Pen is useful if you do a lot of work on the phone. Maybe you’d just want to take it out because it’s too stylish not to use it haha! I am sure it’s just what you’d want to whip out when you use the “Circle to Search” feature whereby you hold the Home key and use your finger or the S Pen to circle the object you want to search and images of the object will pop up.
If you love editing photos (I don’t unless I have plenty of spare time), then this phone is for you as the “Generative Edit” feature allows you to adjust the angle of your images, then generate new background to fill in the gaps around the edges. Move, remove or resize people and objects, then fill in any gaps in the background.
There’s no need to fret when you’re in another country about finding someone to translate as Live Translate gives you real-time interpretation while you’re on the phone.2 Break down language barriers like never before — even through messaging. Reply back in your own language — it’ll get translated on their end too. You have to download the language packs on the phone, choose from Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Korean, Portugese, Thai and Vietnamese.
The Optical Zooms and Selfie Camera are impressive. I was taking photos from a relative distance and the objects came up looking so clear. With the most megapixels on a smartphone and AI processing, Galaxy S24 Ultra sets the industry standard for image quality every time you hit the shutter. The new ProVisual engine recognizes objects — improving colour tone, reducing noise and bringing out detail. you can get 2x, 3x, 5x and even 10x close-ups with optical or optical quality zoom. Plus, the new, powerful Tele OIS is wider than before to stabilize the shot for less zoom-in blur.
The main upgrades of the S24 Ultra over its predecessor are:
Display
S23 Ultra: 120Hz refresh rate and 1750 nits peak brightness.
S24 Ultra: 120Hz refresh rate and 2600 nits peak brightness.
Camera:
S23 Ultra Main Camera: 200 MP wide lens, 10 MP telephoto (3x optical zoom) and 12 MP periscope telephoto (5x optical zoom).
S24 Ultra Main Camera: 200 MP wide lens, 10 MP telephoto (3x optical zoom), 50 MP periscope telephoto (10x optical zoom) and 12 MP ultrawide.
I’d recommend the S24 Ultra more for the camera than the AI features. I’m not saying the AI features aren’t great but I can live without AI features. What is important to me is having a really awesome phone camera and the S24 Ultra delivers exactly that.
