The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra continues the legacy of the Ultra series, offering a premium smartphone experience with cutting-edge features.
This year's model introduces Galaxy AI, enhancing productivity and creativity, while maintaining the exceptional build quality and camera performance that users have come to expect. I've had this device in my hands for six months now. As well, it was one of two phones I took on my Summer vacation to Italy. I've even used it as my primary b-roll camera for a number of recent product reviews on my YouTube channel. With all of that perspective, this is my long-term review of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
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The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is a stunner with its premium design, exceptional display, and helpful AI features, making it a top choice for power users despite its hefty price tag and size.
When it comes to the most premium of premium smartphones, Samsung has been at the top of the heap for years with the Galaxy S Ultra series. The latest Galaxy S24 Ultra doesn't drastically change the formula, but it does bring some extra useful and impressive features that you need to know about.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra maintains the top-tier premium look and feel that the Ultra series is known for. It's a large device, about the same height as a Pixel 8 Pro but a bit wider on the sides. The new titanium frame adds some heft, making it the heaviest among premium flagships at 8.22 ounces (232 grams.)
Despite its size, it's a beautiful device. The brushed titanium frame has a nice pop to it, and the shiny, reflective framing of the rear cameras catches the sunlight elegantly. The frosted glass back and seamlessly included S Pen complete the premium look. No question, the S24 Ultra looks and feels expensive.
Samsung's displays are consistently considered the best in the smartphone world, and that is proven here. The S24 Ultra's 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED display delivers impressive sharpness and color reproduction with the smoothness of 120hz to boot. The anti-reflective Corning Gorilla Glass screen coating significantly reduces glare, making a huge difference both indoors and outdoors. I truly hope to see this type of anti-reflective coating on more smartphones in 2025.
The OLED reaches a maximum brightness of around 2600 nits, significantly improving over the S23 Ultra's 1750 nits. Samsung has also opted for a flat display this year, bypassing its tradition of curved edges. Aside from being an esthetic choice that I prefer over rounded edges, this change benefits artists and S Pen users, as I'll discuss later.
The S Pen remains a huge differentiator and an incredible productivity enhancer. It's always integrated, charged, and ready to go. Its Bluetooth capabilities allow it to act as a shutter button for your camera or advance slides in presentations.
For quick notes, simply remove the S Pen, and it immediately jumps into note-taking mode. The Smart Select feature allows you to draw a box around a portion of your screen and quickly share or mark up that snippet. Sure, you can do things like this with your fingers but not with the type of precision you get with the S Pen.
Artists will appreciate the flat display as I mentioned earlier because it improves S Pen accuracy at the edges. However, it's important to note the offset cameras on the back as their position does make the phone wobble when using the S Pen while the phone is placed on a table. I would highly recommend furnishing the device with a case to even out the back surface area to provide for stabilized drawing.
Samsung's One UI 6.1, running on Android 14, strikes a balance between offering an extensive feature set while remaining restrained for those who don't need the extras. The key focus this year is on Galaxy AI, Samsung's artificial intelligence layer.
Galaxy AI is chock full of enhancements for productivity and customization on the device. There's far too many to go through exhaustively, but a few of my favorites include:
An intuitive way to search for objects on your screen by simply circling them.
Summarizes and formats your notes, even converting handwriting to text.
Provides on-device translation, which came in handy during my trip to Italy.
Creates unique desktop imagery based on your preferences.
Allows for advanced image manipulation, like removing or moving subjects in photos.
The camera system on the S24 Ultra is truly impressive and one of my favorite things about the S24 Ultra. I'm a sucker for a solid optical zoom lens and this phone offers two of them: Separate 3x and 5x optical zoom lenses, with an additional 10x optical quality zoom that is achieved by cropping into the 5x optical image. Using this collection of options gave me plenty of framing to choose from while we were touring Italy this Summer. Honestly, it was the ideal smartphone for a vacation of a lifetime.
An assortment of Zoom levels
I also used the RAW mode extensively in Italy, knowing that it would give me maximum editing flexibility when I got home. RAW mode was particularly useful for scenes with both dark shadows and bright details.
Some other select pics from my camera roll
The Nightography features, now usable with the zoom lens for the first time, were particularly useful for capturing the San Giovanni fireworks display in Florence. Overall, I was never let down by the camera system, taking around 1,000 pictures during my trip.
The S24 Ultra starts at $1299, which is undoubtedly expensive. However, Samsung seems to have proven its worth with the inclusion of the S Pen, a core differentiator from nearly everything else out there. The device also comes with a commitment to 7 years of operating system and security updates, ensuring a long lifespan.
While it may not be the every-person phone, the S24 Ultra offers a premium experience for those willing to invest. The combination of top-tier hardware, a versatile camera system, and innovative AI features make it a compelling option for power users and tech enthusiasts alike.
