Galaxy S24 Ultra: Specs and Benchmarks

• Dimensions: 162.3 x 79.0 x 8.6mm
• Weight: 232g
• Screen: 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 2,600-nit peak brightness
• Resolution: QHD+
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy
• RAM: 12GB
• Storage: 256GB / 512GB / 1TB
• Rear Cameras: 200MP f/1.7 wide, 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide, 50MP f/3.4 periscope (5x), 10MP f/2.4 telephoto (3x)
• Front Camera: 12MP f/2.2
• Battery: 5,000mAh
• Charging: 45W wired, 15W wireless
• Colors: Titanium Violet, Titanium Gray, Titanium Black, Titanium Yellow, Titanium Blue, Titanium Green, and Titanium Orange

Galaxy S24 Ultra: Design

The Galaxy S24 Ultra looks almost identical to the S23 Ultra, with only minor changes like different speaker grills and microphone positions. While its design isn't very exciting at first glance, a closer look reveals intricate details. The back glass has layers of metallic paint, creating a unique depth, especially in the grey titanium and violet finishes. Each color option features a matching frame tone that complements the Gorilla Glass Armor back.

Unlike Apple's focus on symmetrical design, Samsung prioritizes smart design, with power and volume buttons on the same side to avoid accidental screenshots. The new titanium frame, similar to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, doesn’t significantly reduce weight, making the S24 Ultra only a gram lighter.

The S Pen remains a standout feature, offering precision and functionality with a satisfying clicky top. It doubles as a motion-sensing stylus and a Bluetooth remote, especially useful for camera control. This year, the S24 Ultra has a flat screen, ending the curved design trend, and though it feels large and somewhat sharp, it’s not uncomfortable to hold.

Galaxy S24 Ultra: Display

The Galaxy S24 Ultra's display is excellent—large, bright, and colorful, especially with the Vivid color tone option. It features adaptive brightness and color tones that adjust based on ambient light, and can boost brightness to 2,600 nits for outdoor visibility. The Extra Dim option maintains color fidelity at just one nit, ideal for low-light conditions.

The phone also offers an always-on display mode and supports S-View cases, which show time, weather, and notifications through a small window in the case. While the display could be better with a 144Hz refresh rate and Dolby Vision support for enhanced video quality, it still offers a great viewing experience.

Galaxy S24 Ultra: Software

Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra has hardware improvements, but its software, One UI, is frustrating and complicated. New AI features are buried in settings, making them hard to find and use. Despite efforts, Samsung's keyboard is unreliable, causing frequent autocorrect errors and difficult corrections. 

Samsung’s AI tools, like the voice recorder and image editor, fall short compared to Google's Pixel. However, features like DeX, which turns your phone into a desktop-like interface, are unique and useful.

Samsung promises seven years of updates, but there's uncertainty. The company might make some AI features subscription-based or limit updates. Users hope Samsung will match Apple's approach, providing software updates to all eligible devices regardless of hardware limitations.

Galaxy S24 Ultra: Cameras

The Galaxy S23 Ultra was praised for its camera, especially its 10x optical zoom. Concerns arose when rumors suggested the Galaxy S24 Ultra would reduce this to 5x zoom. However, the S24 Ultra's zoom camera is still impressive, offering better color and dynamic range even at 10x or 100x zoom compared to the S23 Ultra, though it sacrifices some fine detail for overall quality.

In direct comparison, the iPhone 15 Pro Max produces better images at 5x zoom, but the S24 Ultra excels at higher digital zoom levels. Samsung has improved its photo processing, making colors look more natural and reducing digital sharpening issues.

Despite these improvements, low-light performance still lags behind competitors like the Google Pixel 8 Pro and OnePlus 12. Overall, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is a top camera phone, excelling in macro shots, selfies, and portraits. For editing, Samsung's Generative Edit AI features are handy, but third-party apps like Adobe Lightroom are still recommended for more advanced edits.

Samsung's AI moon photography and other improvements are promising, making the Galaxy S24 Ultra a strong contender in the smartphone camera market.

Galaxy S24 Ultra: Performance

The Galaxy S24 Ultra matches and even surpasses the iPhone 15 Pro Max in performance, marking a significant achievement for Qualcomm and Samsung against Apple's Bionic chipset. This means everything you do on your phone, from gaming to photo editing, can now be done faster. Games like Call of Duty Mobile run smoothly at the highest settings, making the S24 Ultra a strong gaming phone, outperforming even the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro.

For non-gamers, the performance boost is still noticeable. Photo editing in Adobe Lightroom is faster, with real-time adjustments and quicker intelligent masking. However, the new AI features on the S24 Ultra introduce delays. While these features have potential, the wait times diminish their value, turning what could be impressive tools into minor frustrations.

Galaxy S24 Ultra: Battery Life

The Galaxy S24 Ultra boasts exceptional battery life, lasting 16 hours and 45 minutes in our 5G web browsing test, surpassing the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra. Samsung didn't increase the battery size but improved power management. You can customize settings to save power, like adjusting screen resolution and processor performance.

An "Adaptive power saving" mode exists but is buried under multiple menu layers in Settings > Device care > Battery graph > Power saving > three-dot menu.