The long awaited AI heavy Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is finally here. The tech giant took the stage to announce their new flagship smartphone which brings a new camera, AI features, flat screen and new materials.
At first glance, the Galaxy S24 Ultra looks very similar to the S23 Ultra, but upon closer inspection, you notice that the curved display is fully gone. The Galaxy S24 Ultra flat screen is a 6.8-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a variable refresh rate that goes from 1Hz up to 120Hz. It is also brighter hitting 2600 nits thanks to an improved Vision Booster.
The frame is now made of a titanium alloy instead of aluminum. Titanium is more durable and scratch-resistant than aluminum without increasing the weight – the Galaxy S24 Ultra is actually a gram lighter than the S23 Ultra. The new Ultra is a bit thinner (0.3mm), and shorter (1.1mm), thanks largely to slimmer bezels. Glass-wise, the S24 Ultra employs a new Gorilla Glass Armor on the front and rear that’s 4x tougher to crack and 75% less reflective.
This year, all Ultra devices will run on the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 “for Galaxy” version which is usually higher-clocked compared to the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 other brands flagships are getting. The S24 Ultra also has a nearly twice bigger vapor chamber to keep maintain high performance even in intensive tasks without the device overheating.
Rounding up the firepower is 12GB of RAM and either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. The whole package runs on Android 14 with One UI 6.1 from the box and will get an industry leading 7 years of software support.
The new chip enables next gen AI features which include Live Translate, Interpreter, and Chat Assist enable two-way real-time voice and text translation. Live Translate lives inside the native phone app, Interpreter is a split-screen app that transcripts live conversations between two people in two different languages. Chat Assist helps make translated conversations natural and lives inside the Samsung Keyboard. These features work in 13 languages at launch.
Inside Samsung Notes, Note Assist will summarize notes, create templates and covers, and streamline notes with pre-made formats.
Transcript Assist will transcribe, summarize, and translate recordings using AI and Speech-to-Text.
Circle to Search is a gesture-driven feature made in collaboration with Google. Just long press on the home button and you’ll be able to circle, highlight, scribble on, or tap anything on the screen to get search results – like the name of the landmark in the background of someone’s photo in Instagram.
In terms of photography, the S24 Ultra has a new 50MP 5x (115mm) telephoto camera with optical stabilization and an f/3.4 lens which enables the new 5x optical zoom. The other cameras seem to be borrowed from S23 Ultra, they include the huge 200MP 23mm f/1.7 wide angle unit, 12MP 13mm f/2.2 ultrawide shooter with AF, and a 10MP 69mm f/2.4 short telephoto. Upfront, there’s a 12MP 26mm f/2.2 selfie camera. As you would expect, the photography has a lot of AI features a backed in.
A 5,000mAh battery with 45W wired and 15W wireless charging keeps the lights on.
If you are itching to get your hands on the new device, you are in luck, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is up for pre-order from today in a choice of Titanium Gray, Titanium Black, Titanium Violet, and Titanium Yellow colors. Those who pre-order will get the 512GB model for the same price as the 256GB one. Pricing starts at $1,300/£1,250 for the 12GB/256GB model. Strangely, in Europe, the S24 Ultra starts at 8GB of RAM with 256GB of storage but costs €1,450.
