The annual refresh of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy Ultra series arrives in the form of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, signalling the end of the curved display and settling for a flat-screen design while introducing cutting-edge technology and an impressive array of features.
The improvements over its predecessor are marginal, with Galaxy AI being the primary marketing point.
From the outset, the S24 Ultra boasts a sleek and premium design, with a Gorilla Glass Armor back and titanium frame to keep up with the Joneses. There is a feeling of assurance that it will not slip from one’s fingers: it is not top-heavy despite the location of the camera array on the upper half, which is something Thanos would approve of.
The S24 Ultra exudes elegance from the moment you lay eyes on it, with the 6.8-inch (17cm) Dynamic Amoled display with QHD+ resolution offering vibrant colours, deep blacks, and excellent viewing angles.
Boasting a 120Hz refresh rate, you can enjoy smooth scrolling at all times while streaming your favourite movies and TV series. The slim bezels and flat screen further contribute to the immersive viewing experience.
Samsung ups the ante over the S24 Ultra’s predecessor with a peak brightness of 2,600 nits, and superior design and quality of its stereo speakers. For Note enthusiasts, the S Pen is tucked away at the bottom-right slot when not in use.
As usual, water and dust resistance (IP68 rating) is part of the deal, allowing you to be more creative with your photography – for instance, when taking underwater shots in shallow areas.
Performance and software
Unlike the Galaxy S24 and S24+, which feature Exynos processors, Samsung ensures its flagship is powered by the best Qualcomm processor on the market.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, with 12GB of RAM and a choice of 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB of internal storage, makes this a beast: there is no lack of processing firepower here to handle all the apps and games you throw at it.
Powered by One UI 6.1, the Android 14 skin from Samsung continues to work its magic with a clean and intuitive user interface. Samsung’s promise of seven years of major OS upgrades and an equal number of years of security patches is unprecedented in the smartphone world.
Assuming the battery of the S24 Ultra lasts the length of the software support, amortising the RM6,299 cost of this handset makes perfect sense. The future remains unknown, but would Samsung be willing to stake its reputation on such a promise if it didn’t already have some sort of roadmap?
AI functionality
The Galaxy S24 Ultra boasts an impressive collection of AI features, but they seem to be patched on rather than designed to work together seamlessly.
The most useful AI tool would be the “Circle to Search” feature, which helps you save time by doing exactly what it says: circling an object to search.
Depending on what you’re looking for, the results can be hit or miss, but it is similar to querying Google after taking a photo about which you’d like to find out more.
Live translation, which was advertised as a real-time interpreter of phone calls, works best with short phrases – like some people, the AI gets impatient when natural conversations are punctuated with pauses.
As the artificial intelligence is unable to accurately translate what is said casually or colloquially, it is best to stick to formal conversations.
Camera
At first glance, the S24 Ultra looks to have inherited all the cameras of its predecessor. Upon closer inspection, the 5x lens now sits in place of the 10x lens with a larger, higher-resolution sensor.
It relies on crop zoom to obtain 10x shots, but since this is entirely dependent on how often you’d capture shots at 10x zoom anyway, the 5x lens is more practical for most users.
Apart from this change, you get a primary 200MP camera (f/1.7 with OIS), a 3x telephoto 10MP camera (f/2.4 with OIS), the aforementioned 5x telephoto 50MP camera (f/3.4 with OIS), a 12MP ultrawide shooter (f/2.2), and a 12 MP selfie shooter (f/2.2).
Plus, Ultra HDR is now supported by Samsung, allowing you to upload vivid photos to Instagram. Hopefully, more third-party-app support will arrive to take advantage of this.
Battery and charging
The S24 Ultra runs on a 5,000mAh battery that carries more than enough power to last an entire day of heavy usage. “Fast” and wireless charging are supported here, though its 45W charging speed pales in comparison to the likes of Xiaomi and Oppo.
You can also charge the S24 Ultra wirelessly, and it further doubles up as a power bank thanks to its reverse wireless-charging support.
The bottom line
While the S24 Ultra continues to deliver in terms of flagship performance with minor improvements, the search for the perfect smartphone continues to be a wild goose chase. Expect to see more incremental upgrades in the next iteration with the high possibility of software being the differentiating factor.
It will be interesting to see how much more integrated AI becomes in the successor, but for now, the Galaxy S24 Ultra maintains its position as the top dog in the non-foldable Android smartphone world.
Edwin Kee dreamt of being a pro-gamer only to have circumstances mould him into a programmer in a past life. He has since moved on to write about consumer electronics and other topics.