Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - A Long Term User Review

Today, the smartphone market is all about market share because technology has stagnated in many ways and how Samsung got here, in part thanks to the launch of its cutting-edge Galaxy s24 Ultra and by offering a generous program commercial to achieve it. In the hands of as many people as possible, they take many of those features and, over a few generations, distill them into lower-priced series. I mean look at their sales as of 2023, the a series continues to be their best selling phones worldwide, the s20 3 Ultra hasn't. It's not even on that list, so when we look at its accessory, the s24

ultra

, in this case it seems like the aspirational phone that many people would use as a reference point when it comes to making a purchasing decision.

You see, I've been using this phone for the past four months and I wanted to share my experience with you, basically skipping all the hype and just diving into the real deal, from cheap $200 phones to Pixels and iPhones. The

ultra

is the most advanced I have used so far. so let's see what's good about it and also know what might need some fixes in future models. From the outside, there's not much to talk about this phone compared to the s23 ultra, the design remains largely unchanged, although we've made some minor tweaks to the materials, such as opting for titanium to create a lighter frame.

They also offer a variety of colors, some of which are exclusive to their online store, and they have laid out the curved screen for a flat design and you also get slightly smaller bezels, but at the end of the day this is still a great lab of glass with sharp corners and honestly not the most comfortable to hold in one hand. I prefer phones with rounded corners like the Nothing Phone 2, which is similar in size. to the ultra and costs half as much and feels much better in the hand it's a case of form over function and I hope Samsung takes note of that now initially I thought operating it with one hand would be a nightmare considering its size but I have to Give it to Samsung for including one hand mode, so essentially this can be activated by swiping down the app drawer and this basically reduces the active area of ​​the screen um, making it more accessible.

This feature alone has been a huge lifesaver for me, then there's the lack of Mac security, but honestly, that's more of a problem with me than Samsung's because I invested in a lot of Max sa accessories during my time with the iPhone and didn't. Having them available was a bit of a pain, but Fortunately, there are third-party cases to fill that gap, but it's worth noting that they increase the overall bulk of the phone, so choose wisely. Now let's talk about this screen. I won't bore you with the list of specifications. here, but from a high-level perspective, it follows the same recipe as the last few generations, with some minor tweaks, so first they increased the brightness to a remarkable 2600 nits, which is pretty impressive considering the limitations of the old technology.

For perspective, laptops with older panels often struggle to reach 500 nits, making this display a GameChanger, especially when used outdoors or even traveling on top. Corin's Gorilla Glass Armor significantly reduces reflectance by 75%, resulting in an even more immersive image. experience, this is actually one of the first things that caught my attention when I started using this phone and let me tell you, the difference is quite noticeable, especially compared to the iPhone 15 Pro and the Pixel 8 Pro now, although some may discard it. So clever at first glance, once you actually experience this, going back is a bit of a pain now, if you plan on adding a screen protector on top this feature is completely useless and I kind of paid the price for that like you.

I can see, I ended up scratching the screen, I'm not happy with that. You see it's nice to have these hardware improvements, but it's not a necessity for everyone. I want to return to the aspirational concept I mentioned earlier in a few years. I guarantee you. These additional benefits that you see with these flagship models will eventually make their way to the A-series phones. I mean, look where we are now: we went from 60 H Herz on the Galaxy A51 to 120 HZ with high brightness levels and better durability on the current one. 855 something to think about now I must admit that the larger 6.8 screen makes watching movies and shows much more enjoyable and the fluidity with 120HZ is excellent, however I noticed that the touchscreen sensitivity on this phone seems slightly Minor compared to some of the other phones I've tested they are light.

Touches often don't register and scrolling just feels out of sync with my thumb at times, even though this thing boasts a 240HZ touch sampling rate there are certain aspects that just felt off, interestingly, I'm not the only one who experienced this, others who upgraded from the S21 Ultra also noticed similar issues, so I thought it was worth mentioning that Samsung sets the screen resolution to Full HD Plus by default to increase power efficiency, so that if you want to fully utilize the capabilities of this $1,300 smartphone just make sure to switch it to Quad HD Plus in the settings, it won't affect the battery life as much, the ultrasonic fingerprint reader on this phone works wonderfully, it actually works has become faster with recent updates, unlike optical readers. subtle and doesn't blind you at night, it works all the time when I try to unlock it, which I love.

Call. The quality is excellent, there are no problems with reception. The physical buttons also feel nice and tactile and I like their position. For easier operation now on the performance front, I did not find any issues with this phone. It's actually a pretty refreshing change compared to the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro I recently

review

ed. Editing my Raw photos on the Ultra was pretty smooth, though the processing. 200 megapixel photos still take around 5 seconds but keep in mind that doesn't affect the camera experience, there is no shutter lag when capturing fast paced subjects, HDR processing works in the background and is seamless unlike of the Pixel 8 series. which is known to be slow in that regard, is actually really ironic when you think about it because Samsung seems to have nailed the optimizations with hardware and software better than Google.

I mean, sometimes there are occasional lags and YouTube Studio takes a while to load. comments section, Instagram messages sometimes take forever to load, the grid layout also doesn't fully expand to the navigation menu. Now these things don't happen often, but it's worth noting that third-party apps on Android have always lacked that. Final polish compared to iOS but overall it's been a pretty smooth sailing for me on paper the Snapdragon 8 gen 3 brings some notable performance improvements over Gen 2 on the s23 ultra but in the real world you can't really notice the difference, guys, maybe. on the gaming front, but if you have a flagship phone that's 2 or 3 years old, you're not really missing out much now that there's been a lot of talk about the following, but there's an ongoing issue with the s24 being able to reliably To start, establish and maintain the connection with the Russian constellation of Glus.

Gloss is a global navigation satellite system used by both military and civilian

user

s to obtain real-time position and speed information. We use it every day in apps like Google Maps for example, this issue was actually raised by one of our team members who just likes to walk and had difficulty with his Galaxy s24, his phone is basically having difficulty registering with precision the exact location. Other

user

s on Reddit have also indicated movement even when stationary. I ran gnss logger. on my s24 ultra to compare it to my pixel 8 and the Nothing Phone 2 and yes the phone has a hard time staying locked on glus so if you have an android phone I recommend you take that test but Samsung um if you're seeing this. just please fix that thank you ok S Pen it's actually been a staple feature since the Galaxy Note series and I'm glad to see it on the ultra phones but I personally never found it particularly useful but that doesn't mean it won't be beneficial for you.

Some use it for media playback controls when docked for charging, such as using air actions to adjust volume levels or pause playback. It also serves as a shutter button for large group photos, but more important is its ability to take. screen off notes quickly signing documents, you know, quickly writing down your contractor's measurements if you're renovating your space or even keeping track of scores during games with your friends and family, it adds value and I get it, but I don't I see it as a necessity. I should also note that many times I have noticed that the S Pen just pops out by accident.

Now luckily it's just a release button but the rest is held on by a magnet but you know it's something. To note that battery life has been pretty solid, Samsung has stuck with the same 5000mamp battery for the last four generations, so you can count on this device to last more than a day. In fact, I managed to stretch it to almost 3 days on a single charge with moderate use and this includes watching TV shows, scrolling through Instagram, browsing the web, using maps and messaging, of course everyone's usage may vary but for For me, even on light work days where I'm mostly glued to my computer, this phone doesn't give me nearly as much inside as my 15 Pro.

I traveled with it to Japan, took a ton of photos and videos, and was completely satisfied with it. its efficiency, but let me remind you that phones that cost a fraction of the ultra can still offer comparable results, they may not be the fastest or have top-notch camera performance, but if you're looking for toughness, there are better options. affordable ones available, I mean sure you can miss out on fast charging or wireless charging or reverse wireless charging for that. It matters, but that's a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things, but that said, the 45W ultra charging is pretty good, although I mean I was able to boost it from 0 to 60% in 30 minutes, huh, but I had to get a separate adapter for that.

I think it's silly that they don't include it in the box, especially for the price you pay, speaking of which, we have some bills to cover so let's listen to the sponsor's question for today's video, why is that? It's cold here, well, I installed new refrigerators, turns out they're too good, they're meant for computers, you know that, sure, I have them in every room, hey, the price is too good. I guess the big VM fans help with cooling. Yes, also the swivel connecting hoses are wonderful. I love the styles and the different sizes too. The new Arctic Freezer 3 aios, use it only on CPU.

They are optimized specifically for LG GA 1700 and a54. Check them out below. Alright, have fun with your freezer. This was all filmed with the S24 Ultra in 4K and a standard feature for me was its remarkable image stabilization. This isn't limited to a single lens, it's actually consistent across the entire camera. The footage almost gives the impression of having been filmed with a tripod. It was portable, the details are sharp, the dynamic range is balanced, and the zoom capabilities are extraordinary. I mean, being able to zoom in on a football match from the top of a Tokyo Tower is just mind-blowing and is a testament to the advancements in the camera. technology if you're someone who loves documenting life on video the s24 ultra is the ultimate tool, it's actually comparable to what the iphone 15 pro can achieve although i wish

samsung

could include the option to record on record , basically it is a preferred flatter profile. by cinematographers for creative post-production work - this is an Ultra phone after all - but that said, there is a pro video mode built into the app for granular control for ISO, shorter speed, wide balance and focus points , this is something the iPhone lacks.

What about the photos? Well, if I had to describe it in one sentence, what you see is not what you get when you shoot with the s24 ultra, let me explain, here is a screen recording of me capturing this beautiful sunset in Tokyo. I frame it and press the shutter button. going to the gallery to see the results takes about 5 seconds to process and, uh, the HDR processing just destroyed the natural contrast, increased the shadows and made it look atrocious. Please note that this is an out-of-the-box configuration. Here's another example I'm taking. thisnice layer but this time in 200 megapixel HD mode the shutter waited a while to process and oh god it just increased the contrast, desaturated the greens and just took away the natural look of the image, that's what it actually looks like. life unlike this, I tried to research this issue and to my surprise I am not the only one with a lemon, many people have also addressed similar concerns.

I tried to dig into the settings and I tried to minimize the amount of optimization but no luck so far guys and this is with the latest update installed at the time of making this video so at the end of the day the photos that came out of the s24 Ultra offered a mixed bag of results, while some images exhibit aggressive post-processing, others are vibrant and sharp with really good dynamic range, there are some cases where noise is introduced even in bright lighting, and in some cases, the photos simply lack contrast, however the one common element in all of these photos you are seeing here is the phone's ability to capture incredible detail the upgrade to the 50 megap Periscope lens is refreshing I love shooting with this compression if you already you know me this is my favorite focal length of course there's the useless 100x zoom feature that i barely touched on you might get some shots of the moon that are fake than the AI's but don't fall for that marketing nonsense shooting with the 200-megapixel main sensor provides impressive depth of field, although Samsung defaults to 12 megapixels for low-light storage efficiency, the main and Tel photo sensors work quite well, but the ultra-wide-angle camera has problems with dynamic range in certain scenarios.

Portrait mode works well overall, although I will mention that it is slightly overexposed in some cases. The selfie camera offers pretty good performance, but I should note that the Pixel 8 series offers a slightly wider depth of field shift. PR mode allows for raw capture resulting in a significant reduction in post-processing, as you can see there is less sharpening around the text and the wood texture looks natural and that unlocks more creative control. Order editions. Each raw file averages around 30 megabytes and with that amount. information in hand I got to work with my Lightroom edits and I must say that the results are quite satisfactory.

In my opinion, the DG files are far superior compared to the originals straight from the camera, which again is quite disappointing for those. For those looking for a simple point-and-shoot experience now, this camera app could use a little polish. Samsung is simply trying to include every possible feature, even just once, like a dedicated mode for food photography, which could leave users questioning its necessity. I also had a hard time distinguishing between raw and promo expert mode when trying to capture raw photos to explore the capabilities of the camera um. I feel that simplifying the layout could eliminate these hiccups, as a simple change to the main viewer to enable or disable raw mode would be greatly appreciated again.

The professional photographer in me speaks instead of a consumer, so you could probably ignore it, so let's talk about the software experience, it's the last piece of the puzzle, so with this phone you are in for a unique journey through Samsung's only user interface. So, as expected, you'll find a bunch of pre-installed apps, a handful of Microsoft 1s, and a bunch of other random additions that you may never use. Cleaning up this mess took me some time, especially when I was transferring content from my Pixel 8, but once. You get past the setup stage, there are some standout features in a UI that I've come to appreciate to begin with, the Quick Settings tray is neatly condensed with all my frequently used controls Google, please don't take, this management system File format is top notch, it's one of the things I admire about Android, plus there is the ability to customize wallpapers using generative AI, speaking of AI, there are some interesting new additions built into a 6.1 UI, for True, this applies to all previous Samsung phones running this particular version, so first we have Circle to Search, which can be activated by

long

pressing the home button.

All you have to do is circle or tap anything on the screen, which will then display useful search results. It's pretty fast and accurate. Photo assistance is useful for editing photos on the Go, it is very simple, similar to Google Magic Eraser. You can reposition or remove subjects in the photo. It takes 5-10 seconds to generate the final result. Keep in mind that you need data for this instant. Slow motion uses AI to artificially generate additional frames. From a normal 24, 30, or 60 frames per second video, it works pretty well when you shoot with the main sensor, but once you magnify 5x or zoom in, you can start to see the artifacts, especially around the head of the deer, in In this case there are now other notable features including live translation, interpreter notes support, chat support, all powered by AI to improve various aspects of using your phone, translation is great, but using everything else I found a little intrusive.

I mean, I don't want to send hashtags to people. texting, I mean, look, I don't know where you stand on advancements with AI, it's scary, it's probably going to replace our jobs sooner rather than later, but for now, 80% of the AI ​​stuff built into This phone are features that I guarantee to most people. it won't even be used and did I also mention that all the AI ​​features are actually included or disabled out of the box and you need to create a Samsung account to use them, so now Bixby is still here, is it still present?

I understand that no, yes, but you can use Google Assistant if you invest in that ecosystem. I feel like these things shouldn't exist side by side and I can't help but wonder what the potential chaos would be when the Google Gemini Nano launches. On these phones at the end of next year we will have a showdown of three AI models fighting for control. Only time will tell. Samsung Dex is quite impressive and I was surprised at how much work can be done by simply plugging this phone into multitasking on a monitor is very easy with split screen mode and I even managed to complete most of the script using dexs, however, It's not without floss, there are some software bugs, particularly with the YouTube player, which could use a bit of polishing and it would also have been nice if Chrome could automatically switch between desktop mode and mobile mode when using decks, instead of needing manual adjustment every time you plug and unplug the device.

I feel like this could be a really nice addition to your living room setup too, you know? With a simple connection to a TV and a Bluetooth keyboard, you're pretty much set: It won't replace your computer, but it's just there as an option or a feature that, you know, is cool, it's cool, so the s24 ultra is big. It has all the fancy hardware you'd expect in the flagship, the AI ​​features are pretty cool, it's certainly an impressive engineering feat, but we've been stuck in the cycle for the last few years, smartphones have almost nothing left. to prove.

Days, guys, every year, whether it's a Galaxy device, an iPhone, or a Pixel, it's just another iterative update to what you may already have in your pocket right now, and as the title suggests, there are things about this phone that make me I would like to see. dripping into some of the affordable phones that could arrive in the next few years features like anti-glare coding on the screen um maybe a faster fluid experience um Wireless and fast charging better software support Samsung actually announced 7 years of updates starting with the s24 series, but what about the s23, s22 and the affordable A series phones?

You see that the s24 ultra is not perfect. Samsung wants you to think this sets the benchmark for the competition to follow, but it needs a lot of fixes, starting with the aggressive one. post-processing, I mean, that should end the photos. I hope they also solve the GPS problems and the lower sensitivity of the screen. I also think it's too expensive, this should be a $1,000 phone. I mean, if you're looking for an upgrade, explore commercial options, but remember. There are currently other phones on the market that cost half as much as this one and can do 95% of what this one can do.