New Delhi: The concept of “premium” takes on a whole new significance with Samsung’s latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, a standout in the Galaxy S24 Series. Boasting cutting-edge camera technology and robust performance within a sturdy titanium frame, the S24 Ultra represents a substantial upgrade from its S23 predecessors.
Its distinction is further emphasized by the incorporation of new Galaxy AI features. Beyond featuring Samsung’s most advanced mobile CPU, the S24 Ultra leverages AI to ensure seamless and effortless mobile functionality.
In this comprehensive review, we will delve into the various aspects of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, including its design, display, software, camera, performance, and battery life, to determine if it lives up to the hype.
Design
In terms of design, the Galaxy S24 Ultra epitomizes a sleek and lightweight profile that exudes premium quality. Samsung has gone the extra mile to ensure that every detail of the phone’s design is meticulously crafted.
It is offered in Titanium Black, Titanium Grey, Titanium Violet, and Titanium Green, ensuring a seamless match with any desired stylish aesthetic. While retaining its distinctive premium touch, this year’s model introduces a slightly more angular frame, crafted from titanium for both a robust grip and a lighter feel in your hand. The back glass is layered with metallic paint, giving it an intriguing depth and a touch of elegance.
Situated at the smartphone’s base, the Samsung S-Pen discreetly resides within the titanium frame. A seamless push effortlessly releases the stylus, offering a convenient avenue for capturing handwritten notes, jotting down ideas, or skilfully sketching out designs and objects. Additionally, the phone features a single SIM slot, compatibility with eSIM, and an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint sensor for convenient unlocking.
Display
The Galaxy S24 Ultra boasts an outstanding display, rivalling the quality one anticipates from a top-tier smartphone. The display is protected by Corning’s cutting-edge “Gorilla Armor,” an anti-reflective and anti-scratch glass.
It also comes with numerous enhancements, featuring adaptive brightness and colour tones that assess the surrounding lighting conditions, ensuring optimal visual performance.
Featuring a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen and reaching a peak brightness of 2,600 nits, the S24 Ultra delivers a visually captivating experience. The display is vibrant, showcasing rich colours and impressive contrast, bringing videos, games, and photos to life with exceptional clarity.
Galaxy AI Features
Samsung has incorporated several new AI features into its flagship smartphones, enhancing convenience and accessibility. The introduction of Circle to Search, Photo Assist, Note Assist, and Live Translate under the Galaxy AI umbrella reflects a commitment to improving everyday mobile experiences, ranging from seamless searches to proficient translation of foreign languages
The “Circle to Search” functionality offers a quick and effortless approach to searching for images or products, eliminating the necessity to navigate to Google and input descriptions manually.
Just press and hold the home button, and then employ your finger or the provided S-Pen to encircle the target image, triggering a thorough search. This feature is especially handy when you come across a photo of a product, like shoes or a hat, that you want to buy online.
The integration smoothly spans the entirety of the phone and its applications, guaranteeing a seamless journey from the initial curiosity to acquiring information within seconds—all without having to directly open the Google app.
At the same time, Samsung’s AI photo editing tools facilitate prompt adjustments, alignment, and object removal for photos taken on the smartphone or within the Samsung Gallery app. In my experience, the tool is easy to navigate, functions swiftly, and substantiates its worth.
Capture any photo, proceed to the Samsung Gallery app, select the Samsung AI button, and use your finger or S-Pen to encircle the object you wish to eliminate. Afterwards, tap the “Generate” button, and witness the magic as the object seamlessly disappears.
Camera
The cameras of the Galaxy Series have consistently stood out as one of the frontrunners in the industry. Much like its predecessor, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the Galaxy S24 Ultra boasts a formidable camera setup, including a 200-megapixel main camera, a 12MP wide-angle lens, and a 10MP telephoto camera for 3x optical zoom capabilities.
The standout hardware enhancement is the introduction of a cutting-edge 50MP telephoto camera, enabling an impressive 5x optical zoom and delivering exceptional optical quality for 10x zoom photos. Under the hood, Samsung has integrated advanced features such as the ProVisual Engine, Super HDR, and a suite of Galaxy AI editing tools, ensuring unparalleled photo enhancement both during and after the capture.
The most significant hardware shift revolves around the switch from a 10x periscope camera to a 5x optical periscope telephoto lens, completing the S24 Ultra’s extensive array of photography tools and cementing its status as a top-tier device for capturing stunning moments.
When utilizing the primary and wide-angle cameras, the S24 Ultra operates similarly to its predecessor, the S23 Ultra. It captures vibrant and dynamic photos ideal for social media, while also retaining depth and detail, providing ample material for enhancement through applications like Lightroom for a refined and polished final appearance. Additionally, the S24 Ultra excels in night photography, maintaining the integrity of light sources and preserving intricate details in the shadows.
Loaded with a plethora of video functionalities, the camera on the Galaxy S24 is a powerhouse. It offers UHD resolution recording with seamless access to various zoom levels, 8K video at 30 frames-per-second (fps), and UHD slow-motion video capturing at 120 fps.
Performance
The S24 Ultra is equipped with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC from Qualcomm, delivering exceptional performance. In a benchmark test, we observed multi-core scores that surpassed last year’s chip by 30 to 35 percent, resulting in a remarkably responsive experience for activities ranging from gaming to seamless app switching.
The incorporation of a vapor chamber, now 92 percent larger, ensures that the S24 Ultra maintains a consistently cool temperature even under sustained workloads. Samsung has also elevated the phone’s RAM across all configurations to 12GB, a notable increase compared to the S23 Ultra’s 8GB base. Storage options remain consistent, with choices of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
Also, it runs on Android 14 operating system, accompanied by the latest iteration of its One UI software, One UI 6.1. Notably, Samsung has taken a significant stride by aligning with Google’s commitment to support, offering seven years of both software and security updates.
Battery Life
The S24 Ultra boasts a substantial 5,000mAh battery, aligning with the evolving standards for premium smartphones and maintaining parity with its predecessor, the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Impressively, the phone delivers outstanding battery life, with the potential for a full two-day span on a single charge, and a day and a half is comfortably achievable even with a mix of light and moderately heavy usage. Even when fully embracing its sophisticated features, the S24 Ultra reliably powers through an entire day without necessitating a recharge.
Despite its commendable battery performance, charging speeds are capped at 45W in the latest Ultra model. Charging up to 60-65 percent in just 30 minutes and reaching 100 percent in approximately 65 minutes, the S24 Ultra offers swift charging, yet there’s an opportunity for Samsung to consider advancing to at least 65W charging. Additionally, there’s a call for improvement in wireless charging speeds, which have remained stagnant at 15W for the past five years.
Conclusion
The Galaxy S24 Ultra stands out as the ultimate all-in-one device, resembling a sleek monolith crafted from premium titanium and glass, capable of handling a multitude of tasks effortlessly.
With its robust software, cutting-edge AI features, integrated stylus, cutting-edge processor, extended battery life, impressive display, and a highly versatile camera that surpasses competitors in zoom capabilities, the S24 excels in nearly every aspect. Moreover, the assurance of a full seven years of software support ensures prolonged and secure use of the phone.
Despite a few minor quirks, if you’re willing to invest Rs 1,39,999 for the best Android smartphone of 2024, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the undisputed choice.