Review: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Deciding if you should upgrade your smartphone is always a tricky one and it boils down to: is it worth it? If you are in the market for a new device, Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy S24 range may have caught your eye. It stands out as being the first phones to feature on-device generative AI (GenAI).

We had an opportunity to test the new Galaxy S24 Ultra, the top of the range flagship. It is Samsung’s most powerful phone featuring the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, a 6.8-inch display with built-in S-Pen support, advanced cameras with AI features and a long-lasting battery.

What’s new on the S24 Ultra?

The biggest cosmetic change on the S24 Ultra is the curved edges, in favour of a completely flat display. While I preferred the curved-edge design, I understand the decision to go with a flat screen – it’s easier to use the S-Pen, and well, there won’t be glare on the edges.

When compared to its predecessor, the S24 Ultra is now made from titanium, which is lighter yet stronger, just like the iPhone 15 Pro. But being a 6.8-inch device at 233g, it is heavy in my hand. I had to make sure it fit into my bags and the screen didn’t scratch against other items.

It also has a much brighter display of 2600nits over the S23 Ultra’s 1750nits, with an anti-glare coating and an “extra brightness” setting.

I tested this outdoors, during Johannesburg’s 30° plus temperatures, and could easily browse and take selfies in bright sunlight without squinting, despite wearing glasses. This is a noticeable improvement.

How did the S24 Ultra perform?

You can do a lot on this phone simultaneously, being the powerhouse that it is. I ran multiple apps and did various tasks one after the other, easily switching between them without any stutter or lag.

I also found the standby time excellent; you don’t lose a lot of battery when the screen is locked – even overnight. That said, make sure the screen’s extra brightness setting is off, and that you’re using adaptive brightness for it to automatically adjust to your surroundings.

I kept the screen refresh rate to adaptive for smoother scrolling on 120Hz, though you can save more battery with it on standard, at 60Hz.

When it comes to the S-Pen stylus, it wasn’t something I reached for on the daily. If you’ve been a long-time user of the now defunct Note device, the Ultra may appeal as it’s the “replacement” model. I used it for precision editing on my photos, but more on that soon.

What’s the new AI-powered camera like?

The cameras on the S24 Ultra features a 200MP wide lens; 12MP ultra-wide; and two telephoto lenses – a 10MP and 50MP. It has 5x optical zoom and 10x ‘optical quality’ zoom, which, just like the 100x Space Zoom, is digital.

I’ve always been a fan of Samsung’s selfie camera, its 12MP shooter takes great photos, and I still find the rear cameras tend to take bright and saturated images.

The S24 series is also the first to support HDR photos on Instagram, through a partnership with Meta; HDR video uploads are already supported.

The camera system introduces new AI features like the ability to remove reflections and remove objects from photos. I tested this and it did a good job removing glare on my glasses the first time. I tried it on another photo, and it wasn’t as great, so it can be a bit of hit and miss.

I also removed an object from these picture on the beach. It did well to remove the artwork, but left the shadow at the bottom right of the lip. However, I just carried off editing and selected the shadow, and it was removed. A two-step process that worked well.

In another close-up image of the statue on the left, I used the tool to move the object higher up, and it just added a ball to the top of the stick to look “natural”, while the statue was up in the sky. The capabilities are all there for clever editing but don’t expect perfect results all the time.

As a journalist, who already uses the Otter AI live transcription app for all interviews and events, I tested Samsung’s native Voice Recorder that can transcribe and convert it to different languages.

The first six-minute recording I tried to run through – never went beyond the 29% progress mark. I eventually timed it and after 10 full minutes, I gave up.

Other recordings I tested were then intentionally shorter, between three to four minutes, and it converted the audio to text in about under 30 seconds. I tested files in different accents were English was spoken – Chinese, German and British, from what I’ve had on file from a recent visit to Mobile World Congress.

The results were mostly awful and unusable. Words were missing from speakers, and most sentences did not make sense.

I then ran a TikTok of mine, where I made sure I sounded clear on my recording, and the results were better than the above – but still with some errors.

The general rule of AI transcription services is that it will never be 100% accurate. I would not recommend this version of the software for actual work purposes as it was very rare to get a full accurate sentence.

I tested the Call Assist in the US, under a controlled environment, and managed to book a taxi in Spanish, successfully. I believe this feature would be especially useful for travellers or those who conduct business in different countries.

What I did enjoy using was Google’s Circle to Search feature, not exclusive to the S24 Ultra though. It’s useful if you’re watching videos on social media and want to quickly search items when you pause a video.

I received accurate videos for Middle Eastern and Indian inspired desserts of videos I was watching, and items of clothing, shoes or travel related searches. The follow up searches are great for researching a travel trip.

Other features like translating a website via Samsung’s browser or translating text messages is not something I could accurately test as I don’t speak any of the other 12 out of 13 languages supported. Though, getting summaries and bullet points of long articles in English is useful.

Would I recommend the S24 Ultra?

It’s important to distinguish that the S24 Ultra already has its own niche following, like power users, content creators and gamers – anyone that needs a powerhouse to handle everything they throw at it.

For that reason, it is difficult to fault a device that packs in the best hardware you can get on a premium Android. In fact, there’s just so much available now with GenAI in the mix. But it’s still a very expensive handset, aimed at a niche audience.

If you’re keen to try the GenAI features, which is still hit and miss, you’re better off buying the S24 or 24 Plus that run on the Exynos 2400 chipsets. The S24 Ultra exclusively runs the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip.

You will likely get the most use out of Circle to Search, the photo editing features and Call Assist for travel and business users. The transcribing features have a long way to go; Otter AI is still far superior.

Additionally, Samsung’s GenAI features are only free until the end of 2025. There is currently no confirmation on what the subscription would cost or what tiers would be available.

However, if you tend to hold onto your devices for longer than the two-year upgrade cycle, all three Galaxy S24 models are eligible for seven years of Android updates, up from the previous five years, which is tough to beat in Android land.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra costs R29 999. Don’t pass up on the base model S24 at R20 999 if you want to play around with AI.