Samsung is relying heavily on artificial intelligence for its Galaxy S24 Ultra. We were able to test the latter to verify if the latter is indeed the worthy heir of the “smartphone of the year 2023”.
Could the future of our smartphones be based on artificial intelligence? If Google has focused heavily on AI for its latest Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, this new movement still seems underdeveloped among other brands (waiting for Apple?). However, Samsung also decides to focus on artificial intelligence with its own solution called “Galaxy AI” in order to promote its new Galaxy S24, S24 and S24 Ultra.
With the status of “best smartphone of the year” in 2023, Samsung is therefore launching an S24 Ultra which takes up the characteristics of its predecessor while improving a few points and adding its artificial intelligence. But is this enough to reproduce the magic of last year? This is what we will see with this test of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
For the design of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Korean manufacturer initially based itself on its predecessor while improving several points. The smartphone therefore has a completely flat 6.8-inch screen with very straight edges which contrasts with the rest of the industry. The S24 Ultra’s screen has completely symmetrical edges whose “harmony” is only disrupted by the presence of the selfie camera in the upper center of the phone.
The edges of the Samsung Galaxy S24 feature the volume and power buttons presented side by side. Big news this year: these edges now have a titanium coating, which is reminiscent of Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max. Samsung, however, seems ahead on the subject since the edges of the S24 retain very little fingerprints, unlike Apple’s spearhead.
The back on Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is… Flat. In every sense of the term. The latter does not really show originality or extravagance in its design and is satisfied with a panel on which rests the photo sensors and logo of the brand. We think that the photo block really needs a little facelift over the next generations, in particular to prevent the smartphone from being wobbly when used on a flat surface.
The bottom of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is where you will find the S-Pen stylus included with the phone, the USB-C port, the SIM card tray and the phone’s only speaker which struggles a lot to achieve sound reproduction of good quality.
As long as you like large smartphones, the handling of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is very pleasant on a daily basis. Its titanium frame is pleasant to the touch and the smartphone fits well in the hand. Who says big size, however, says a fairly imposing weight. The switch to titanium hasn’t really made Samsung’s flagship phone any lighter since the S24 Ultra weighs almost 232 grams (0.2 less than the S23 Ultra). Suffice it to say that you need to have pockets deep enough to accommodate the device.
Let’s discuss the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. The firm announced that it had worked on the latter to offer a Dynamic AMOLED panel with an adaptive refresh rate of 120 Hz and 2600 nits of maximum brightness. This last data represents an evolution of almost 850 nits compared to the previous generation which already excelled in this area.
This is felt in use: the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is beautiful, sumptuous, magnificent, add the adjective you want. Whether you use the smartphone in direct sunlight or in a particularly dark place, you will never lack readability for your displayed content. Your eyes won’t be dazzled either thanks to the automatic screen management which responds instinctively according to the ambient brightness in your room and the time at which you use the phone.
Samsung has also worked well on the colorimetry of the S24 Ultra’s screen. The renderings are rich in detail and contrast and your displayed content appears more beautiful than ever. The smartphone also offers two screen modes depending on your preferences:
By default, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra screen is displayed in FHD quality with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. If this is already more than sufficient for daily use, it is always possible to switch to QHD to improve quality, but at the expense of a little autonomy.
Little icing on the cake: the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is a little marvel in terms of anti-glare. Samsung’s smartphone reflects very little light to keep the screen as black as possible. What a shame that the firm didn’t communicate more about it!
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the only one in its range to benefit from a chip from Qualcomm in Europe. A decision that has caused a lot of ink to flow since the release of the Galaxy S22 and their restricted Exynos chips compared to their international equivalents.
Samsung therefore made the decision to only equip its most expensive phone with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is one of the most powerful processors on the market. In use, the latter obviously works wonders: very fluid applications, open and close quickly and without any slowdown. It is possible to have multiple applications at the same time without the Galaxy S24 Ultra suffering from freezes or heating.
Resource-intensive games like Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail automatically launch in “high” quality with 30 FPS to save battery life and not put too much strain on the processor. However, it is possible to push the graphics to the limit and go to 60 FPS without this having a negative impact on your gaming experience. Both titles run very smoothly and we did not feel any heating of the phone despite long sessions.
Samsung has communicated a lot about “Galaxy AI”, its artificial intelligence solution integrated into its new high-end smartphones. This galaxy of features is built around options that make everyday life easier or increase productivity. Here are the different uses that we were able to try during our test week:
Instant translation: available within calls and SMS, this rather impressive function automatically translates exchanges between you and your interlocutor. By SMS, we must admit that the option is stunning and allows you to have long conversations in several languages ??perfectly.
Writing styles: a feature as incongruous as it is effective, it allows you to offer different writing styles for your SMS. This makes it possible to make a conversation more polite or, on the contrary, more relaxed, but also to write professionally without having to worry about turns of phrase.
Audio transcription: definitely the AI ??feature that disappointed us the most. Tested in several meetings or discussions, this option should allow us to write down audio recorded with the S24 Ultra. Unfortunately, the results obtained are far too approximate, and the phone even invents several interlocutors during our solo tests.
The audio summary: if the transcription of the audio recordings frankly leaves something to be desired, this is surprisingly not the case for the summaries made from them. S24 Ultra was able to synthesize our various discussions and meetings and format them according to the different subjects discussed.
Photo editing: perhaps the least impressive aspect because it is already found a lot in Google phones. Samsung has, however, worked on its subject and the photo improvements via AI are quite convincing. However, we will regret the famous “magic eraser” supposed to remove unwanted objects from a photo and which turns out to be much less precise than on the Google Pixel.
Search by surrounding an object: at the very center of Samsung’s communication for its S24s, this option allows you to perform a Google Lens search by surrounding a subject on your screen. Nothing to complain about there: our S24 Ultra responded perfectly to surround the desired objects and carry out searches.
The summary of web pages: although linked to the Samsung browser, this option turns out to be quite impressive and perfectly summarizes the different articles that we were able to consult. It is also possible to translate them into other languages.
Few changes to note in the photo sensors of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with the exception of an improvement in night zooms and a new x5 optical sensor which replaces the x10 present on the S23 Ultra. Samsung notably defends this choice by arguing that users use the first more to the detriment of the second.
During the day or when conditions are good, there is almost nothing to complain about. The photos taken with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra are excellent. The 200 Mpx sensor manages to capture many details and offer more than satisfactory sharpness in our shots. We will still observe colors that are still a little too bright, but this is a detail inherent to Samsung’s digital processing and which the brand does not seem to want to get rid of. However, we can note a slightly lower dynamic range during certain backlights (the shrubs in the foregrounds are much darker than in reality).
The x5 optical zoom is also a real success. The latter manages to crop the image without loss of quality and to restore the smallest details without observing any digital noise on the shots taken. Samsung certainly made the right choice by opting for the latter instead of the x10 optical zoom. By being very finicky, you may be able to observe some slight blurring on the edges of certain objects when zooming x5.
At night, the results remain very good. Where many smartphones see their photo quality fade, details fade and the appearance of halos and light lines more frequent, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra comes out on top. The smartphone manages to capture many details and almost does not lose quality despite the absence of light. Using “night mode” reduces the halo around light sources such as street lamps in order to give them a much better rendering. The height of happiness: it barely takes a second to activate.
The previous S23 Ultra already established itself as a champion of autonomy when it was released. We therefore wanted to test the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to check if the Korean firm had continued this momentum and offered a powerful smartphone capable of lasting a long time.
Unplugged at 8 a.m., our copy of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will have experienced a fairly average day with messages sent and received, social networks, photographs and videos taken, a few Twitch streams viewed and a bit of video gaming on Genshin Impact. At the end of our day, the S24 Ultra was still at 54% around 6 p.m. This is enough to last for almost a day and a half before needing a recharge. An excellent score which allows the smartphone to be one of the best on the market in this category.
On the charging side, however, we are less enthusiastic. Samsung continues to limit itself to 45 W for charging its high-end smartphones. If this remains better than for the S21 Ultra which was stuck at 25 W or the Google Pixel 8 with its 27 W, we are still far from other manufacturers who can now offer 120 W on some of their products. As is, and with a suitable charger, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is capable of fully recharging in 66 minutes.
We were able to try out the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra as our primary smartphone for a little over a week. We encountered no connection or communication problems during our tests, whether it was a 4G/5G mobile network or with Wifi (especially since the S24 Ultra is already compatible with Wifi 7 networks ).
Before being an armored machine of artificial intelligence, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is a phone. We were able to try the latter to make multiple calls during which our conversations remained clear and clear even in the presence of numerous extraneous noises such as traffic.
Beyond the surprise effect of the previous generation, this Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is close to perfection. Featuring excellent performance for gaming and applications, Samsung’s high-end smartphone remains a must-have for taking photos and videos while sporting one of the best screens on the market. Add to that an original design and excellent battery life and you have all the good reasons to purchase the S24 Ultra.
The addition of “Galaxy AI”, however, remains unconvincing and does not constitute, in our opinion, a sufficient reason to go for the S24 Ultra rather than its predecessor which remains as excellent today. However, Samsung would just need to improve its fast charging to have the ultimate Android smartphone.
