Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - 1 Week REVIEW!

Summary

Tom Chaplin reviews the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, comparing it to the S23 Ultra. He highlights upgrades like the brighter, more anti-reflective screen, faster Snapdragon performance, and AI photo editing features. The camera has improved dynamic range and colors. Video options are more versatile with 4K recording across all lenses. Overall Tom thinks it's a solid upgrade for S22/older users, but minor changes for S23 owners.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video is a first impressions review of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
• 👁️ The S24 Ultra has a brighter, more anti-reflective screen than the S23 Ultra
• ⚡ The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip provides faster performance, especially for AI features
• 🔍 The rear camera setup is improved, with better dynamic range and colors
• 🎥 Shooting 4K 60fps video allows switching between lenses while recording
• ⏩ The shutter lag is noticeably reduced compared to the S23 Ultra
• 🖼️ New AI photo editing tools allow removing objects cleanly from images
• ⏳ Instant slow motion uses AI to convert regular videos to slow motion
• 🎨 Generative AI wallpapers are a fun new customization option
• 💸 With a starting price of $1249, the S24 Ultra is very expensive

Q & A

What phones are being compared in the video?

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

What are some design changes with the S24 Ultra?

It has a flatter screen, matte titanium frame instead of glossy aluminum, reduced lower bezel, and is slightly wider but thinner than the S23 Ultra.

How much faster is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip compared to the Gen 2?

In benchmarks, it showed a 35% jump in peak performance and 30% faster GPU. Real world use may not show as significant gains.

How does the S24 Ultra's camera compare to the S23 Ultra?

The S24 handles dynamic range and colors better in most examples. The 5x optical zoom produces crisp images but isn't a huge jump over the S23's 3x zoom.

What new video features does the S24 Ultra have?

You can switch lenses while recording 4K60 video. It also supports 4K 120 recording in pro video mode.

Has the shutter lag been improved on the S24 Ultra?

Yes, shutter lag is noticeably faster now and closer to the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

What are some of the new AI photo and video editing features?

Object erase, one-tap slow motion generation, creative wallpapers, and Google Lens integration via circle drawing.

How long will the S24 Ultra receive Android OS updates?

Samsung has committed to providing 7 years of Android OS updates.

What are the storage and pricing options for the S24 Ultra?

It starts with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for $1,249.

Should S23 Ultra owners upgrade to the S24 Ultra?

Not necessarily. Many of the camera AI features will come to the S23 series. Those with older devices may benefit more from upgrading.

Outlines

00:00

📱 Introducing and Comparing the New Galaxy S24 Ultra to the S23 Ultra

The host introduces the new Galaxy S24 Ultra in titanium gray and compares it side-by-side to the S23 Ultra in terms of design, display, performance, and other specs. He notes minor differences like a wider and thinner body, flatter screen, new matte frame, and reduced bottom bezel on the S24.

05:01

📷 Testing the New Cameras with Zoom, Color, and Dynamic Range

The host tests the S24 Ultra's cameras around London, examining the zoom capabilities, color reproduction, and dynamic range compared to the S23 Ultra. He finds the S24 produces better colors and handles highlights/shadows better in certain shots, with crisp but potentially oversharpened zoom images.

10:02

🤖 Using New AI Photo and Video Editing Features

The host demonstrates new AI-powered editing features on the S24 Ultra like object removal and resizing in photos as well as instant slow motion video creation. He also shows the new generative wallpaper feature and Google's Circle to Search.

Keywords

💡camera

The camera is a key focus of the video, comparing the camera capabilities between the new S24 Ultra and the previous S23 Ultra. Things examined include image quality, zoom capabilities, dynamic range, shutter lag, and new AI photo editing features.

💡display

The display on the S24 Ultra is brighter, more anti-reflective, and has a flatter edge-to-edge screen compared to the S23 Ultra. This makes it better for outdoor visibility and using the S Pen.

💡performance

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip provides faster CPU, GPU, and AI performance compared to the previous generation. This speeds up things like gaming and the new AI camera features.

💡battery

Battery life is examined through benchmarks, with 2% greater battery drain observed on the S24 Ultra compared to the S23 Ultra when running intensive tests.

💡video

New video capabilities like 4K 120fps shooting and the ability to switch lenses while filming 4K 60fps are examined. Low light video quality seems similar between models.

💡AI

Many new AI features are highlighted, like instant slow motion video, generative wallpapers, and the ability to erase objects from photos.

💡updates

Samsung now offers 7 years of Android OS updates, which is industry leading and encourages keeping devices for longer.

💡price

Pricing starts at $1249 USD, making it an expensive flagship phone. The video questions if upgrades are compelling enough coming from an S23 Ultra.

💡design

Subtle design changes like a flatter screen, reduced bezels, and a matte frame aim to make the phone more durable and usable.

💡zoom

The switch from a 10x optical zoom camera to 5x optical with improved cropping is analyzed in depth, with mixed results in tests.

Highlights

New phone is a tiny bit wider but also a little bit thinner with a flat screen

New matte titanium armor frame is tougher and more durable

New AI features seem useful, not just gimmicks

35% jump in peak CPU performance but only 12-13% in sustained performance

New chip runs hotter and uses more battery despite larger vapor chamber

New screen is brighter and more anti-reflective, better for outdoor use

New camera has better dynamic range and color, but higher sharpness seems artificial

Can switch lenses while shooting 4K60 video on new phone, not on old

Shutter lag is noticeably improved on the new phone

New AI photo editing lets you easily remove objects from photos

New instant slow-mo AI feature is impressive and fun to use

New wallpaper AI generates creative images from text prompts

New Google Lens visual search seems gimmicky in practice

7 years of Android OS updates is far beyond any other brand

Very expensive at $1,249 starting price

Transcripts

hey guys I'm Tom the tech Chap and I've

got my titanium gray Galaxy s24 Ultra

with me here and also my s23 ultra to

add a little bit of context for this

first review if you will and by now

you've probably watched a bunch of

Hands-On videos you know the specs and

the deal but once it actually been

likeed to use is it much of an upgrade

is the camera better are the AI features

actually useful or they just gimmicks

and ultimately should you buy one well

let's start with a little bit of a blind

test can you tell me which is the new

one between the s20 Ultra and the s24

ultra it's tough on the right yes is the

US s24 Ultra but certainly they are very

similar looking the new phone is a tiny

bit wider but also a little bit thinner

we also now have a flat rather than

slightly curved screen which I must

admit I do prefer although Samsung say

it's so that you can run your finger or

the S Pen right to the edge of the frame

and it not sort of fall off the cliff we

also have this matte titanium armor

frame as opposed to the glossy armor

aluminium from before which is a little

bit tougher and more drawable plus we

also get the latest Gill glass armor

which again is tougher and more scratch

resistant and apparently more

anti-reflective but I'll put that to the

test in a second and you can also just

about see they've reduced that lower

bezel so we do actually have a fully

symmetrical bezel right around the edge

which is quite nice and that chin is a

little bit thinner but we're still

getting that gorgeous 6.78 in Quad HD

AMOLED display ip68 water resistant

stereo speakers the S Pen of course

which functionally is the same although

they have slightly reduced the overall

size of this year and of course we have

that new five time zoom lens replacing

the old 10 times but we'll dive into

that in a second so I've taking them

both outside with me it's like the first

sunny day we've had in the UK in months

and if you can forgive the pretty

scratched upop s23 Ultra hopefully

that's not going to be the case with the

new guy you can see this new screen is a

good deal more anti-reflective it's less

of a mirror and paired with the high

brightness we're talking about 1750 nits

Peak outdoor on the s23 versus 2600 on

the new model model although apparently

up to 3,000 with their Vision booster

but you can certainly see the brighter

screen and that better anti reflectivity

does make it a better screen

particularly to use outside although

credit to my friend suaf who pointed

this out to me but you can see the s23

ultra is actually a little bit more

vibrant a little bit more saturated

these screens are set up identically

Quad HD maximum brightness Vivid mode

but you can see the s24 is just a little

bit more muted although you may actually

prefer that now because I'm a massive

nerd one of the first things I wanted to

do was a couple of benchmarks to see how

much faster this new Snapdragon 8 gen 3

for Galaxy is versus the 8 Gen 2 for

Galaxy we're looking at a 35% jump in

the Peak Performance although by the end

of the test we're only looking at about

a 13 1 12% optic and you can actually

see the stability is lower and that's

despite having a almost double the size

Vapor chamber cooler it also has a

higher Peak temperature it hits 43

versus 40 and it did use 2% more battery

than the s23 ultra in Gig bench 6 the

single core performance is about 10% %

higher but an impressive 30% in

multicore and look at that in the

geekbench open CL GPU test the s24 ultra

is 61% faster and firing up a bit of War

Thunder maxed out 120 FPS mode with rate

tracing cranked up you can see we're

getting a good 20 FPS more on the new

s24 are you going to notice this in

everyday life outside of high-end gaming

well probably not although the new chip

with its much faster mpu will speed up

some of the AI features okay let's play

with the new cameras so uh you'll

probably guess where I am I figured the

Old Clock face might be a good uh demo

for the zoom lens although first I'm

actually recording this with the selfie

camera 4K 60 on both at arms length and

looking at the screens can't see a turn

difference if I'm honest let me know if

you can see or hear much difference they

haven't really talked about any changes

with the selfie beyond the pro visual

engine that's now sort of uh using more

AI to upgrade the camera throughout

across all the lenses but if I sort of

get the sun on me there spin around have

everyone look at me like why is this guy

holding two phones in front of

him oh there you go it's

chiming yeah so that's the selfie but

let's switch around play with the zooms

and see if the camera is actually much

better okay so here we are Central

London beautiful but very cold day and

we've got the same 0.6 times Ultra wide

same 200 megapix Main same 10 megapix

three times Optical but this is where

things changed now we've got the five

times Optical on the new guy versus the

10 times on the s23 which is quite a

controversial change but let's have a

look at what they've taken and see how

they compare and in good light there

isn't an awful lot between them the main

thing that strikes me though is actually

the color the white balance you can see

that the clock face of the Elizabeth

Tower Big Ben of course is the Bell this

is the Elizabeth Tower is white as

opposed to that bluish tint it has on

the old phone and stepping up to five

times we do get a slightly crisper image

image on the s24 ultra although it's not

pushing it much beyond that three times

Optical on the s23 but this is where it

gets interesting 10 times Zoom we've got

the native Optical telephoto on the s23

and then we've got this sort of hybrid

cropped in Zoom of the five times on the

s24 ultra although at 30 times there

isn't a lot between them again the color

is the main difference and actually even

if we go into the space zoom 100 times

there's still kind of oil painting but

certainly the differences seem to be

less significant the further we zoom in

let me show you a couple of other

examples and one theme one pattern I am

seeing is the s24 seems to handle

dynamic range and colors a bit better

you can see here the s23 is a little bit

blown out it's a bit Overexposed and

zooming into 10 times there is a marked

difference here in the detail the

quality I mean just look at this Chap's

face and his fantastic helmet you can

see a little bit more fine detail on his

jacket on the older phone but that just

seems to be because the Shadows have

been raised too much and it's not a

naturally pleasing image and you can

also see with this lady's blonde hair

that the highlights are a little bit

blown out on the s23 it handles that

dynamic range better on the

s24 and again here the new s24 is just

doing a better job at pulling those

Shadows down retaining detail and not

looking as washed out and certainly not

bringing in that blue tint that seems to

keep cropping up so it's not always

vastly different but I would say the s24

is a notable upgrade in terms of the

camera however I'm not entirely

convinced I like the quote unquote

upgrade here certainly the s23 is quite

soft it looks a little bit like a oil

painting but the s24 just looks like

they've put it into Lightroom and

dragged sharpness and Clarity way up

don't know if I love that but certainly

it is more

detailed all right so let's switch to

video and I'm recording the audio now on

the phones internally and I'll switch

between them so you can get an idea of

how it deals with the London busy

traffic and school kids around me so

this is shooting at 4K 30 on both got

Westminster Cathedral over there and uh

David Lord George hanging out saying I

should go that way probably so let's do

a little Zoom test again going between

0.6 the one the

three and then the five on the new guy

10 on the old one and then match the

10 so this is at 4K

30 I'm still reasonably stable and then

punching back out

and then back

in you get the idea back in back

out so now I've switched to 4K 60 and it

should obviously be a lot smoother

nothing new there we've got old Winnie

Churchill just hanging out but one thing

that is immediately different is that I

can use all the different lenses while

recording on the s24 so I can go to the

three the five the 10 the ultra wide I

can't switch any lenses once I start

recording at 4K 60 on the s23 so as

someone who does shoot a lot of 4K 60

because it allows you to you know make

it slow motion in the edit if you're

half the speed I kind of like the

smoother frame rate you have a lot more

versatility now with the new phone so

regardless of image quality that's just

a

functional Nic little upgrade as for low

light video well this is being shot at

4K 30 on both I can't see much

difference I've watched this clip back

like 10 times and maybe there's a little

bit less noise and compression on the

s24 but I mean these are side by side

and I just can't see much difference so

I guess I would have liked to see a bit

more of a marked difference uh in low

light

video what is new though is the ability

to shoot 4K 120 it is limited only to

the pro video mode so of course then you

can play around with the wi balance and

shutter speed and all that good stuff

stabilization definitely takes a hit at

this resolution but it does give you

more options if you are a keen

videographer and I think it's the first

time we have seen it on a

smartphone now one thing I really hoped

they improved is the shuttle lag and I

have good news s23 on the left s24 on

the right and it does seem to be quite a

bit faster what's interesting though is

if we go to intelligent optimization by

default it's set to maximum the amount

of processing it does for the camera but

if we turn to minimum you can see it

does speed up on both phones but still

faster on the s24 but if we put it back

to maximum which is by default and how

you'd probably want to use it it is a

good deal faster now and if I play the

same clip again at half speed you can

really see the

difference and so now versus the iPhone

15 Pro max they're a lot closer I still

think the iPhones are touch faster but I

am very pleased to report that Samsung

has improved the shutter speed with the

s24

ultra okay it's too bloody cold to be

out here I've taken a lot of photos but

I want to try out some of the camera AI

features let's head back home for that

okay so let's open up the gallery and I

want to show you a couple of the new AI

photo editing features so for example

here we've got a nice photo but in the

background we have this lady and that

bag just lying there so if we go to edit

and then tap this new magical AI button

we can now draw around or highlight

objects and then move resize or simply

delete them and then if we press

generate after about 15 seconds or so

it'll fill in the image and you have a

nice clean photo you would never have

known a lady in a bag with there let's

try another one so if I draw around the

Elizabeth Tower uh you can see it

actually highlights it immediately I can

then change the size of it move it

around or simply erase it and as if by

Magic it's completely gone and now I'm

pointing at the sky like an idiot you

can even straighten your image so if

you're a little bit wonky like I am well

my this photo is at least you can rotate

to either straighten it or I don't know

make it even more wonky and then as it

says on the screen it will fill in the

missing pieces let me try one more again

my picture is a little bit skew whff

there so let's try and straighten up

quite a bit of background for it to fill

in there press generate let it do its

magic and all its reticulating splines

and all that then that's a pretty

convincing edit you wouldn't

know but my absolute favorite new AI

feature and the first thing I show my

friends when they ask about this phone

is instant slow-mo this uses AI to

interpolate or create new frames so even

if you shoot a 30 frames per second

video just tap on the screen and in a

second it will turn it into slow motion

it is pretty magical and then you can

open up the video in the editor and

change the speed and the duration and

then save a new clip although it's work

mentioning a 30 FPS video can either be

slowed to half or one4 speed but a 60

FPS video can go down to 1/8 speed and

in the edit you can have multiple slow

motion segments so you can do a little

bit of speed ramping almost this is also

fun to play around with if you open up

the wallpaper menu from the home screen

and then go to creative you've got this

new generative AI option other Android

phones also offer this but I do quite

like the implementation on the s24 ultra

because rather than writing in a full

prompt you just fill in a few different

op options like a surreal castle made of

chiffon in shades of pink and purple or

perhaps a painting of a lake and

spaceships in a broke style perhaps give

it a few seconds to work its magic and

that's pretty cool I think I might

actually use that as my home screen

wallpaper what do you think Samsung's

also very proud that they are the first

to implement the new Circle to search

from Google long press on the home

button or if you're using gestures in

this case just the bottom of the screen

like that you'll get this fancy

animation and then just draw around

anything you want to search let's see

what happens if I draw around myself

okay all right let's try again from my

Instagram profile see if it picks up

anything oh it's Pig top clicks clearly

I'm not important enough this phone is

rubbish don't buy it I'm also really

pleased to see Samsung now offering

seven full OS updates 7 years of Android

which is Way Beyond everyone else so

hopefully they all start to catch up cuz

this is the cash support we want the

only downside is it's very expensive

we're talking

1,249 or1 99 and that gets you 12 gigs

of RAM 256 gigs of storage so what do

you think so far are you impressed by

the new s24 Ultra have you pre-ordered

one are you going to get one for

yourself or not convinced let me know

what you make of this in the comments

but so far I'm having a really good time

with this I really like the brighter

more anti-reflective screen the

performance is obviously quite a bit

better although you don't really get to

notice it that much but certainly with

the AI features I do find myself using

it quite a bit however Samsung has said

that these AI features will also be

coming to the s20 3 Series later in the

year in the first half of 2024 so if you

already have an s23 then it's One Less

Reason to upgrade but if you are on an

s22 or anything older than I reckon this

could be worth the upgrade thank you so

much for watching guys hit that like And

subscribe button if you enjoyed my first

review and I'll see you next time right

here on the tech chat