Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Unboxing & First Impressions!

Summary

Shane provides his first impressions of the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra after unboxing and using it for a couple days. He highlights the refined design with titanium sides, improved display with reduced bezels, enhanced brightness and flat screen. Shane also covers the new AI and camera features like Circle to Search, photo editing, upgraded zoom lens and real-time lens switching while filming. He reports solid battery life despite heavy usage. Overall Shane is enjoying the S24 Ultra so far, but will continue testing the AI features and camera.

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Q & A

What phone is being unboxed and reviewed in the video?

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

What colors is the Galaxy S24 Ultra available in?

The phone comes in yellow, violet, black, gray, green, blue and orange.

What storage and RAM configurations does the S24 Ultra offer?

It offers 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage, with 12GB of RAM on all models.

What change has been made to the display on the S24 Ultra?

It now has a flat display rather than a curved edge display.

What AI features are available on the S24 Ultra?

Text suggestions, automatic translations, photo editing using AI like moving objects, and video slow motion.

What battery life did the reviewer get from the phone?

In the first full day of use with maximum brightness, he got around 7 hours of screen-on time.

What change was made to the rear camera system?

It now has a 5x optical zoom lens instead of a 10x lens.

Can you switch lenses while filming 4K 60fps video?

Yes, the S24 Ultra allows switching between all lenses even when recording 4K 60fps video.

Does the phone come with an S Pen?

Yes, the S24 Ultra includes an S Pen built-in on the left side for left-handed people.

What accessories will the reviewer cover in upcoming videos?

He will be reviewing official Samsung cases for the S24 Ultra, as well as the S24 and S24 Plus phones.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introducing the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

The host Shane introduces himself and previews the contents of the video, which will be an unboxing and first impressions of the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra phone. He provides details on the phone's pricing, color options, storage configurations, and highlights some of the pre-order deals and incentives Samsung is offering.

05:02

😃 Exploring the Refined Design and Display

Shane points out the refinements to the S24 Ultra's design including the new titanium sidings for added durability, slightly reduced bezels, and the switch to a flat display compared to the curved display on the S23 Ultra. He highlights the bright 2600 nit display working well in sunlight. The navigation is now limited to the bottom button bar rather than gestures.

10:03

🤓 Leveraging the AI Capabilities

Shane discusses the AI capabilities of the S24 Ultra enabled by cloud services like Google and on-device processing. He gives examples of using the circle search, text suggestions, translation between languages, and organizing text into lists. He also shows how AI in the photo editor can move or resize objects in a photo.

📷 Testing the New Camera Hardware and Software

The S24 Ultra has a new 5x optical zoom lens instead of the S23 Ultra's 10x lens, which Samsung claims will provide similar quality at 10x digital zoom. Shane demonstrates how you can now switch between lenses while recording 4K60 video on the S24. He tested the improved nighttime video quality with mixed initial results. Overall he is very impressed with the versatility of photo and video capabilities.

🔋 Battery Life and Initial Impressions

In Shane's initial battery testing, he got 7 hours screen-on time with heavy usage enabled like max brightness, lots of AI processing, and always-on display. He reiterates enjoyment of the refinements like the titanium sides, reduced bezels, bright screen and S Pen capabilities alongside the new AI photo/video editing.

Keywords

💡Unboxing

Unboxing refers to the process of opening up a new product on camera and giving first impressions. The video script describes an unboxing of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra phone. Unboxing videos allow viewers to experience the new product along with the host and see all of its features before deciding whether to purchase it themselves.

💡First impressions

First impressions refer to the initial thoughts, feelings, and reactions someone has when first encountering something new. In the context of this video, first impressions relate to the host's perspective on the Galaxy S24 Ultra after unboxing it and using it briefly. Sharing first impressions helps give viewers a sense of the phone's design, display, camera, and other features.

💡AI features

AI or artificial intelligence features utilize machine learning and algorithms to enable the phone to perform intelligent actions. The video script mentions AI photo editing, text suggestions, and the Circle to Search feature that lets users look up information instantly. The S24 Ultra emphasizes AI capabilities as a selling point.

💡Optical zoom

Optical zoom is a camera feature that allows you to magnify the subject without degrading image quality, unlike digital zoom. The S24 Ultra has a new 5x optical zoom camera, replacing the previous 10x optical zoom. This gives users more versatility to zoom in on subjects optically.

💡Screen brightness

The video praises the bright display of the S24 Ultra, with a peak brightness of 2600 nits. This allows the screen to be clearly visible even in very bright, direct sunlight. The bright display is cited as a noticeable improvement over the S23 Ultra.

💡Battery life

Battery life refers to how long the phone can run on a single charge. The host got 7 hours of screen-on time after heavy use on the first day. While not exceptional, it is decent given the power-intensive AI features and high screen brightness used.

💡Camera versatility

The S24 Ultra offers versatile camera capabilities with its multiple lenses and ability to switch between them while recording 4K video. This gives users more creative control and flexibility when shooting photos and videos using the various wide angle, optical zoom, and other lenses.

💡Nighttime video

The video tests the S24 Ultra's nighttime video recording capabilities. Samsung claims improvements here, but the host found minimal differences vs the S23 Ultra after initial testing. More comparisons are needed to truly evaluate night video performance.

💡AI photo editing

The Galaxy S24 Ultra features AI-powered photo editing tools that can alter photos in advanced ways like moving objects and automatically enhancing the image. The host found this useful for adjusting photos precisely by utilizing the AI and S Pen.

💡Premium design

From the titanium alloy frame to the reduced bezels, the S24 Ultra has a premium, polished design meant to give it an elegant high-end feel. This design draws positive first impressions from the host.

Highlights

Unboxing and first impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

The phone comes in 7 colors including 3 Samsung.com exclusives

The base model now comes with 12GB RAM

The display is brighter, with smaller bezels and hole punch

The display is now flat instead of curved

Removed swipe gesture navigation from previous models

New Circle to Search feature using AI

AI features for text, photo and video editing

New 5x optical zoom lens instead of 10x

4K 60fps video now allows switching lenses while recording

7 hours screen-on time from full day of heavy use

Appreciates the premium feel from titanium sides

Enjoyed using the S Pen for AI features and camera shutter

Asks for feedback on initial impressions

Transcripts

hello everyone my name is Shane and in

this video we're going to be doing an

unboxing and I'm going to give my first

impressions on the Samsung Galaxy s24

Ultra this phone is available for

pre-order at the time of this video I'll

have some links in the description if

you want to check it out for yourself

the retail price is

$1,300 comes in seven different colors

we have yellow Violet black and this

gray color we're going to be checking

out here today and there's three

samsung.com exclusive colors we have

green blue blue and orange this phone

comes in three different configurations

we have 256 GB of storage 512 GB and 1

terb and it is worth noting that the

base model this year does come with the

12 GB of RAM just like the other models

and Samsung is offering a free storage

upgrade right now and a lot of other

incentives that I'll leave for you down

below but with all that out of the way

let's go ahead and check out the Galaxy

s24 Ultra shout out to Samsung for

sending out this review unit ahead of

time so we have our device on top let's

see what else we got get in the

Box inside the box we have some

paperwork a Sim ejection tool and a USB

type-c to type-c cable but with all that

out of the way let's go ahead and check

out the star of the show here the Galaxy

s24 Ultra again have it here in the gray

color I'm actually really liking this

gray color initially a lot it's just a

nice clean finish to it of course we

have the new titanium sightings to go

along with it so I'm super excited to

get into his phone

starting with the physical tour of this

phone we have our volume rocker and

power button here these buttons are

slightly larger than on last year's s23

Ultra have our 5G antenna on the left

side we have nothing on the top we have

two mics and on the bottom we have our S

Pen on the left for lefties like me I

absolutely love this we have a slightly

new looking speaker Grill here it's just

one large cutout instead of all the

tinier little grills we have our type-c

Port still capable of Samsung's 45 wat

super fast charging 2.0 we have another

mic and then we also have our slot for

our SIM tray this fits just one sim card

and no expandable storage or anything

here looking at these from the back you

really can't tell much difference

between them at all the only difference

you're really going to find if you look

closely enough is that we have a new

lens here on the s24 ultra it's a new 50

megapixel five times optical zoom

there's what looks to be maybe a larger

lens inside this s24 Ultra but now let's

check the weight here because I was

curious to see if there is any weight

reduction from the titanium so we're

coming in at 234 G now if we take the

s23 ultra from last year that's also

around the same exact weight 235 G these

titanium sidings are not for weight

reduction here it's just for added

durability and it does give the phone a

very nice and premium feel if I haven't

made that clear already taking a quick

look at the S Pen we have the gray to

match the gray color here and then our

tip is going to match the titanium

sidings of the phone this also sits very

nice and flush and flat against the

phone just sticks out a tiny little bit

but now taking our first look at the 6.8

in display do have some minor

enhancements to this display over the

s23 ultra which I think people will

appreciate not as important but we do

have slightly smaller bezels at the top

here we also have a smaller hole punch

cutout on the s24 ultra so that's nice

and what looks to be a bit more

noticeable to me is on the bottom

there's a lot less bezel going on there

as well most notable change on this s24

Ultra is we now have a flat display on

this phone whereas on the s23 ultra the

display still wraps over just a little

bit but the display is flat here on the

s24 ultra it's just the bezel that is on

the edges we also have a slightly

smaller phone overall because it's the

same screen size and those bezels

reduced a bit so it's very minor but

everything is trimmed down a little bit

of course there's a lot more going on

with this phone on the inside with the

new AI features some new camera features

and things like that so I'm going to set

up this phone use it in my personal life

for a day and I'll come back with my

final first Impressions on the Samsung

Galaxy s24 Ultra all right so it's been

a couple of days now since I first

started using this phone definitely

ready to share some of my first

impressions with you guys so getting

into the phone the Biometrics absolutely

love the fingerprint sensor on this

phone just tap it with your thumb and it

just gets you in instantly every single

time also have the face recognition up

here on the smaller hole punch cutout

this also gets you in just as quickly

and effectively just love getting into

this phone instantly now taking a closer

look at the 6.8 in

1440p 120 HZ Dynamic AMOLED 2x display

I've been really enjoying this display

so far in my first couple days of use

now one of the more notable changes to

my surprise is the fact that we have the

flat display now on this s24 Ultra now

the reason this is so noticeable if you

look over here at my s23 ultra on the

right when you're in certain situations

or certain lighting conditions there's a

lot of reflectivity going on on the

phone on the sides now if we focus our

attension over here on the s24 ultra on

that same left side you notice that

you're not having that reflectiveness

going on so there is actually a

noticeable difference with the bezel

change here something else I definitely

noticed on this s24 Ultra is it gets

very bright so the new maximum

brightness of 2600 nits is no joke on

this phone I had it outside yesterday

indirect sunlight and I had sunlasses on

and I could still see the display

perfectly clear and what's also been

noticeable to me is that even though we

have the flatter display on this phone

we still have a very rounded feel in the

hand now as far as navigation of the

phone it is worth mentioning that for

some reason Samsung removed the old

swipe gesture navigation bar that I

would always use on all my previous

Samsung phones so it's basically the

button orientation but you can swipe up

but now for whatever reason it's not

here on the s24 ultra so now there's

always going to be this little bar at

the bottom of the display now granted I

have gotten used to it already in my

first couple days days of use so you

have you can go back on either the left

or right of the screen and then you just

hold down in the middle and swipe up to

get to your multitasking and other

applications and there is also the

option to just swipe over and switch

between your various applications I

think Samsung is making people use this

new navigation bar because it also ties

into the new Circle to search feature so

if you hold down on that bar at the

bottom and then circle with either your

finger or the S Pen you're able to look

up anything instantly rather than having

to switch over to Google or go to Chrome

and look something up that you were

researching on some other platform or

app you're able to just circle something

look it up right away and then you can

just dismiss the screen and move on to

whatever it is you're doing and mind you

this works on any application any screen

able to look things up very easily so I

was actually using the S Pen on this s24

Ultra way more than any previous phone

so it is definitely worth considering

the ultra variant this year even though

all the s24 phones are going to have the

same Circle to search and AI features so

with all that in mind I want to talk a

little bit about Galaxy AI because

there's a lot of AI Elements

Incorporated in this phone some

cloud-based AI services from Google and

then also some Hardware based AI

features on the Samsung phone directly

so when you're doing things like the

circle to search obviously the

cloud-based Google AI is kicking in to

be able to help you with those things

but when you're doing things on the

phone itself as far as photo editing and

text editing and adjusting and things

like that those are Hardware based a lot

of the time when you're using the phone

you'll see this little icon in various

places that tells you that you're going

to be able to use some of the AI

features now at the most simple level

something like the text suggestions was

really useful for me initially because

after I write a long email instead of

having to read it over a couple times

check if I made any errors or typos I

can just run it through the text

suggestion and it's not only going to

help me correct things that were wrong

it's nice to see a few different options

of how to word something this also works

with translating text messages as long

as you have the proper languages

downloaded onto the phone it is going to

be able to show you both languages at

all times so this is genuinely useful

something else I think that could be

really useful is that you can select a

bunch of text and then you're able to

organize it into a bullet point list for

example but unfortunately at the time of

this recording it seems like you can

only select so much text and then it

just kind of caps off and cuts you off

so it does feel like there is some

limitation going on here as far as the

text and character limits but there's

also a couple of AI features that I

really enjoyed on the photo and video

side of things so for example if you go

in your gallery and play any video on

this phone it didn't even need to be

filmed on this phone originally you just

hold down and it turns it into slow-mo

for you so it's using AI to fill in some

of the missing pixels and something that

was even more interesting to me and

seems to have a lot of potential and

utility are all the photo editing

features so you're able to use AI in the

photo editor to be able to move objects

or resize objects you can really alter

and adjust pictures to your needs so for

example here I took this picture outside

yesterday this is a 200 megapixel shot

let's say maybe I want to move the sign

over a little bit so it's not as

centered in the picture so I could just

go over here to the edit go over to the

AI

selection and then I need to draw around

the sign so I'm going to go ahead and

just use my S Pen another reason the S

Pen is just really nice to have on this

phone it's going to clip to what it

thinks you needed it to clip to so it

captures it really nicely it's also

worth noting that Shadows have to be

selected as well if you want that shadow

to move alongside with the sign once you

have your items selected you can just

hold down on it and it's going to move

it to wherever you want to so we'll go

ahead put it there and we can hit

generate and whenever you do generate

this it does take a little bit of time

to process so in about 10 seconds or so

you'll have your result you see here

that the Shadow and the sign I selected

both of them and move them over and then

my revised picture that can be a little

bit more out of the way so you can

really alter and adjust picture pictures

to your liking now with all the added

functionality coming to this phone we

also have a camera update around back so

we now have a five times Optical lens on

this phone instead of the 10 times

Optical lens that was on all the

previous Ultra phones we now have this

50 megapixel lens which is still going

to give us Optical results at that 10

times Zoom Samsung claims I did do a

couple tests of this I'll let you be the

judge initially here of which you think

is better or if they're of the same

quality so that is in a sense the main

just ification for switching over to

this five times lens so now when you

open the camera app on this phone you

have a ton of options you have the ultra

wide lens you have your standard lens

you have the three times optical zoom

you have the new five times optical zoom

and it still shows you the 10 time zoom

option now something else I found with

this s24 Ultra that I absolutely love is

that now in the 4K 60 video mode you're

able to switch between your camera

lenses in real time for whatever reason

on the s23 ultra once once you start

filming in 4k 60 you're stuck to

whatever lens you're on you can

digitally Zoom a little bit but the

versatility is just not there at all s24

Ultra as soon as you start recording

you're able to switch between any of the

different lenses you have digital Zoom

capability up to 20 times digital zoom

while you're filming switching between

all your different lenses so I

absolutely love this added versatility

here now Samsung also claim that there's

apparently clearer nighttime video I

tried to test this a little bit and if

you do push it to its extremes I was out

at night time if you look in the

distance of this video at the cars in

the parking lot on the s23 ultra they

are a little more jittery and then on

the s24 ultra they're a little bit more

cleaned up but I'm going to have to test

this more because I'm not sure what is

really ground breaking here or all that

different all of my initial photos look

great on this phone again we just have

so much versatility with all the

different lens options you can take 12

megapix 50 megapix 200 megapix photos

and in the most simple of use cases it's

still is really enjoyable to just have

the S Pen in Hand and be able to use

that as a Bluetooth shutter for your

camera but now switching over to battery

life cuz this was another interesting

area for me because we have this new

Snapdragon 8 gen 3 processor we have a

lot of new things going on with this

phone as far as the AI processing and

things like that so overall in my first

full day of usage I was able to get 7

hours of screen on time this is running

the phone at the 1440p resolution at 120

HZ refresh rate as you saw previously in

this video I had this phone on maximum

brightness for a lot of the time I was

doing a lot of photo editing a lot of

playing around with the AI features it

was spending a lot of time chugging

through AI processes so while the 7

hours screen time might not sound super

impressive as far as a brand new

flagship phone I was throwing a lot at

this phone in the past day I was not

going easy on the battery mind you I

also had the always on display on which

you could definitely turn that off and

save a lot of battery but overall All

Things Considered after 2 days days of

personal use I am really enjoying this

s24 Ultra initially I have really

enjoyed the refinements being made to

this phone as far as the nice feeling

and looking titanium sides having that

slightly cleaned up bezel and display on

the front getting a ton of brightness to

see this phone in literally whatever

setting you're in I have really enjoyed

using the S Pen alongside all the new AI

features and the photo and video editing

I definitely still need to do some more

testing of the AI but overall it makes

it feel like this device has a lot of

potential poal but I'll be curious to

hear your thoughts on the Galaxy s24

Ultra down in the comments below and if

you enjoyed this video then be sure to

give it a thumbs up and please consider

subscribing to the Shane Simon YouTube

channel today since next up I'm going to

be checking out and reviewing the

official Samsung case lineup for this

s24 Ultra and I also just got the s24

and s24 plus in the mail so definitely

stay tuned for videos on these phones as

well so until then thanks so much for

watching take care