Last year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra was a very impressive phone with excellent gaming performance to boot. We used it to create videos, and as a first-time pen user, I really got to like scribbling on my phone screen while reviewing it.
With the launch of this updated model almost exactly a year later, one has to wonder what major updates Samsung brought to the table this time around to make it an appealing upgrade. From a hardware point of view, it feels much the same in hand, but there are a number of new features that make this a compelling upgrade if you are not already using the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
From a chipset point of view, the Qualcomm SM8650-AC Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 offers a good bump in performance which shows impressive improvements for processor-intensive apps like video editing tools. For gaming, the 1GHz Adreno 750 GPU showed some really impressive numbers and helped secure this as the best new flagship of 2024…so far.
With all that power under the hood, Samsung also upgraded some of the phone’s cameras. The main wide-angle camera still features a 200-megapixel sensor with laser autofocus, and the telephoto camera is still a 10-megapixel sensor with 3x optical zoom. The big camera upgrade this year is the bottom camera of the rear cluster. The Galaxy S24 Ultra features a 50-megapixel sensor (upgraded from 10-megapixels) with periscope-style optics to deliver a 5x optical zoom. It’s a bit of a downgrade in terms of the zoom range from the S23 Ultra’s 10x optical zoom, but the bigger sensor (upgraded from the S23 Ulra’s 10-megapixel) more than makes up for that.
While photographs taken with the Galaxy S24 Ultra look great, video is where it really stood out for me. This phone can shoot at a maximum resolution of 8K at 30fps while you can push 4K recording up to 120fps and 1080p to 240fps. The selfie camera still produces a really great shot, too, at 12mp for photos and 4K/60fps for video. Image stabilisation is great and images look great straight out of the camera. I’ve managed to use the Galaxy S24 Ultra on a few shoots already, and it’s great for low-light conditions, close up shots are just fantastic, and colour saturation is impressive.
The 6.8-inch screen also received a bit of an overhaul, more than a bit to be honest. While screen resolution remains at 1440 x 3120px, Samsung managed to work some special magic and more than double the screen brightness from the previous model. At 2600nits, this screen looks great in direct sunlight, and at night, you can dim it quite substantially if you are a late-night scroller. At 120Hz this screen is buttery smooth and really makes for an excellent mobile gaming phone. And that brings us to performance.
As a mobile gamer, I am very particular about the phone I choose to ensure my games run great and that I can still review new high-end mobile games without any performance issues long after the phone’s launch. Last year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra was already my favourite mobile gaming phone; the Galaxy S24 Ultra just raised the bar a bit higher.
One of the things I’ve always liked about the big rectangular shape of the Ultra phones is that they are comfortable to hold. I’m not one to use a controller; I prefer on-screen controls, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra offers a great all-round gaming experience with loads of performance to tap into.
As usual, I played loads of PUBGM, Call of Duty Mobile and even some GTA III for most of my gaming time over the last three weeks. With each of the games I played, the phone managed to handle it effortlessly. The Galaxy S23 Ultra also features an improved heat chamber dissipating heat much more effectively. The phone still gets warm during intense gaming sessions, but not overly so.
Looking at 3DMark’s mobile benchmarks, Wildlife Extre produced a score of 4,712 (compared to 3,868 of the Galaxy S23), and Solar Bay produced an impressive score of 8,786. Compare it to yours and see how well your current phone does. I doubt you can crack this score. Geekbench produced a single-core CPU score of 2,263 and a multi-core score of 7,093.
Of course, there’s no point in having all this power if there is not enough battery capacity to keep the games going. The Galaxy S24 Ultra has a hefty 5,000mAh battery which is good for a couple of days of use if you are not playing games or editing video. In my case, I got about a day and a half to two days on average, with moderate to heavy use, benchmarking and some gaming thrown in the mix. The results have been seriously impressive. For charging, this phone is rated at 45w and will charge your phone to about 70% in 30 minutes. Sadly no charger is included in the box, so you’ll need to buy a compatible 45w adapter. My old Xioami 65w adapter did the trick. To charge the phone from flat to 100% takes about an hour and a half. Of course, your usage may vary. That bright screen can chomp a lot of battery when you game outside. I was equally surprised at how dim the screen can be set when you are doom-scrolling TikTok at 2 o’clock in the morning.
Then pen has been a welcome addition to my life, with notes and drawings taking on new meaning again. The pen is also handy as a remote camera shutter as before and it actually makes navigating apps far easier once you have used it a couple of times.
The other major focus for Samsung with the Galaxy S24 Ultra is AI. This phone features a number of AI-driven features that are designed to improve the user experience across a number of usage scenarios, my favourite from the list by far is the translation capabilities that let you have written or verbal conversation with someone talking another language with Live Translate and Interpreter which also works in the Messages app. While there are no African languages on the list yet, we’ve been told it’s coming. From what I’ve seen in basic tests with this technology, we’re in for a wild ride when it comes to travelling to foreign places.
Photo and video editing on the Galaxy S24 Ultra is insanely impressive. Considering the use of the stylus and the number of AI tools at your disposal, you’ll be able to run your YouTube channel from this phone alone. I am still blown away by how well subject removal works.
Magic Compose is an interesting feature that I still have my reservations about. It essentially lets you generate AI messages that are used in conversation with someone. Soon we’ll just be chatting to each other’s AI bots, mark my words. teehee
Even the recorder app on the Galaxy S24 Ultra has received an AI overhaul. The app will transcribe audio recordings and identify each speaker for you. This is a major feature and one I wish I had as a junior journalist back in the day when I started out.
The quality of life improvements that these AI features bring have turned even a hard AI sceptic like myself into a fan of its implementation in consumer tech. We still have a way to go for full AI assistance to run the admin side of your life, but I love what Samsung has brought to the table here. My only gripe is that the tools are difficult to find; you have to click Settings, Advanced Features, and then Advanced Intelligence. An app shortcut from the start would be a better way to give me access to these tools.
As a photographer and media creator, the Galaxy S24 Ultra has spoiled me. The screen is impressive, and I love to play mobile games on this device. The productivity features have proven themselves over and over and I’ve most definitely improved my workflow with this device in tow.
At R30,000 this phone sits at the high end of the smartphone ecosystem and if that is just out of your budget range, don’t worry; the Galaxy S24 and S24+ are R20,000 and R24,000, respectively, offering largely a similar experience and most of the AI tools. In benchmark tests with the in-house Galaxy S24, the performance numbers were very close.
Having said that, on contract, this may be a no-brainer if you are looking for a beast of a smartphone to cater to your media and gaming needs. If you currently use a Galaxy S23 Ultra, the improvements may not be enough to sway you to make the upgrade so soon after your purchase – but hand in there, some of those AI features will be coming to your device soon.
There’s no hiding the fact that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the best smartphone I’ve tested to date. I wish it would ship with a 45w charger and protective cover, but the device itself is nothing short of superb.