Moved from a ROG Phone 5 to an S24 Ultra.

Most phones nowadays accomplish all that we ask of them, so it's difficult to differentiate based on speed or core functionality.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra does not disappoint - it's got an IP68 rating, a great camera setup, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, and an S Pen. For most people, this will make a great daily driver device. But the problem is, most other phones, including its siblings in the Galaxy lineup, will as well.

What a buyer of this device is looking for is unparalleled function with no compromise on form - and that's where the Galaxy S24 Ultra does fall short.

Let's look at hardware first. Despite its large footprint, it doesn't have the largest battery in its class - presumably because of the space taken up by the S Pen's slot. At the same time, the 5000mah battery will comfortably get you through the day. There are phones on the market with IP68 rating, alongside a side USB-C port (for landscape gaming) with a 3.5mm jack - here the Galaxy S24 Ultra just brings the standard singular USB-C port on the bottom. There are no auxilliary displays on the rear of the phone, and again Samsung has persisted with no notification LED on the front side either. Again, it's been in the design language since the S10 era and expected, but it does feel like an incremental refinement rather than a bold step forward in innovation. The speaker set up is again standard, but lacking if you hold your phone in landscape as you'd likely obscure the primary speaker.

In terms of software, Samsung's claim to fame this generation is Galaxy AI. While some might find these features useful, for someone whose phone is primarily a transactional and away-from-home substitute for a computer - it didn't take long for me to completely disable Bixby and image processing (which didn't produce quite natural looking images anyway). The battery care features are appreciated, but more polish would have been expected - for example - why not offer the user an option in the notifications pane to skip the charging limit once, or enable fast charging once - this would be such a quality of life improvement for those wanting to have those options set to preserve battery lifespan, but still allow exceptions (say when travelling) without having to dig through the menus to turn them off/on and remember to do the opposite.

The same thing does with "Do not Disturb" mode - with AI and machine learning surely it would be easy enough to implement either an algorithm or more options to have the mode play nicely with bedtime/sleep mode, with again a notification to temporarily disable it for 30 minutes or for the day.

That said, the software is solid out of the box, and so is Samsung's dedication to support the phone with regular updates. While I would like to see Samsung continue to push the envelope personally, I understand that they're unlikely to do this with the standard S series (kudos to them on the Z series though) - nevertheless, one can keep hoping!

Having used Android phones for the past 13 years, and Samsung phones for the last 6, I was impressed at how snappy and responsive the S24 Ultra felt. The build quality seems very good and matches what I would expect from a premium phone at this price point. The device feels very comfortable to use, and the new AI focussed features have already become second nature – the circle to search function is very useful when watching videos and you suffer from face blindness!

The speaker and sound quality is very striking. As someone who is heavily into music production, goes to lengths to use audiophile grade headphones and listens to music on studio monitors, I was taken aback at how good this phones speakers actually sounded. I was expecting a tinny speaker with no bottom end, but the large aperture for the bottom speaker certainly provided more low end than I was expecting and I found myself impressed at the quality, I would even go as far as to say I enjoyed listening to music through it!

Having not used an S-Pen for anything other than doodling, I found it quite tough to get started with it, though once I found the instructions the gestures felt natural and easy to get to grips with. My handwriting is terrible so I was surprised to find that the software was able to interpret my scrawl with a pretty good degree of accuracy, though I think it’s a little too inaccurate for me to use daily – having to go back and edit misinterpreted words meant I put the pen down and fell back to the keyboard anyway.

I was impressed how responsive the fingerprint sensor was compared to my old S10e’s fingerprint scanner and even seems a step up from my S23e Ultra’s scanner. The one downside I did see was that once I added a screen protector the sensitivity of the scanner was reduced.

The battery life is brilliant compared to other smart phones I own, even surviving two days of fairly heavy use between charges which surpassed my expectations. The camera quality is incredible, I especially enjoyed the macro shots I could take, having this level of fidelity in a handheld device is amazing. One thing I found when poking through the setting is the adaptive battery protection, which is a very interesting feature. I don’t recall seeing this when setting the phone up so calling this out would have been a nice touch.

I'm very happy with my new purchase and I am looking forward to discovering more about the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and all of it's intuitive features.

This is my fourth product from the Galaxy Ultra/ Note series. Honestly, I was wondering whether to choose between the S24+ and the S24 Ultra now. The disadvantage of the Ultra was the size and the disadvantage of the "plus" was the processor. In the end, I focused on performance at the expense of having to get used to a larger phone. As it turns out, I was needlessly worried about the size, the S24 Ultra is only slightly larger and literally after a dozen or so hours of use it stopped bothering me. It is true that operating the phone with one hand is a bit problematic, but it can be done by grabbing it more from the side if you have larger hands. It seemed to me that my previous phone worked flawlessly, but it was only after switching to the S24 Ultra that I saw that I was wrong. The speed of scrolling through menu, windows, loading and running applications is completely incomparable. I have had the phone for a few days, but I performed a "stress test" on it, loading it in various ways and it handled it without a problem. The stylus is a cool gadget, it is convenient for browsing websites, marking elements in screenshots, drawing arrows or taking notes and annotations. The screen works flawlessly, the colours are very nice, warm, as befits the S series. I haven't tested the camera too well yet, to be honest but so far quality is great. To sum up, you have to pay a lot for the phone and this is its definite downside, but as far as I can tell after a few days of use, it is a good choice. Especially for people who perform a lot of operations, using the phone intensively. A Flagship Phone worth Recommending As for the price (IN MY OPINION) it pays off very well.

-PROS-
+Excellent multitasking processor which in my opinion is the best processor on the current phone market, it does not lag, does not slow down, full power all the time, zero slowdown +The quality of the cameras is 100% comparable to
+Reliability and speed of the phone and its multitasking
+The look which in my opinion is perfect and distinguishes the current Samsung flagship from other phones, which is why you can easily attract the interest of others
+The size of the phone and the matrix specifications which allow for a better experience when watching movies/series or even playing games, plus the fact that this version of Samsung allows you to browse the phone even in bright sunlight, where normally in other brands of models it is clumsy and you have to squint to see something on the screen, but a huge plus for the flagship, and as for the size, it is an individual matter.
+ AI which, as it is currently an addition to Samsung phones, has great potential and in itself makes it easier to use this phone.

- CONS-
- Weight of the phone: although Samsung did not slim down its flagship, the weight has increased slightly in the hand without a case, it is acceptable, although with a case for this phone (i.e. Spigen case), the weight is bothersome and does not allow you to hold the phone in one position for longer than 10 minutes, but this is a matter of getting used to and getting used to it and an individual matter.
– No mains charger (Samsung) includes a cable in the set, but it is not adapted to charge the phone, only to data transmission and it is slower than the charger, and in terms of the charger itself, it costs about £30-40 for official fast 45w charger ... which may be problematic for some when buying a phone at this price.

I have been using the S24 Ultra for a few weeks. I upgraded to the Samsung S24 Ultra from the S22 Ultra -Although the improvements between every generation might seem incremental, the Ultra remains the absolutely best Android phone every year in a row. I went for the Ultra mainly as i wanted the better camera and it is worth while It's quad camera setup with a 200 MP main sensor, a 50 MP periscope telephoto lens, a 10 MP telephoto lens, and a 12 MP ultrawide lens has so far as well as massive flexibility not found on any other phone (0.6x, 1x, 3x, 5x zooms). taken stunning pictures.

Dynamic AMOLED 2X display providing a beautiful screen to look at, a super fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor that works in harmony with the hardware, and a 5000 mAh battery that, so far, has allowed me to go a whole day on several occasions with a charge.

The new Galaxy AI really does add a lot of useful features that are really interesting and can prove very useful in specific situations (e.g. the live call translation, or the call/conversation transcript, and of course the AI image editing capabilities that work impressively).The new Circle to Search feature is also fantastic, being able to identify where item are from, what the location of buildings are etc.

The design isn't anything radically different from before but the combination of flat display and the type of glass/coating used means the device is so much better to use. The flat display enhances the use with the S-Pen in my opinion.The introduction of Titanium this year hasn't really impacted the weight of the device overall.

The display not only offers an excellent quality, but this year it also increases the brightness to an excellent level that helps a lot outdoors. - The performance from the new Snapdragon is top as expected, everything is fast and smooth can handle demanding tasks, including gaming, multitasking, and productivity applications,

The S24 Ultra is the best phone I’ve ever owned, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a premium and powerful smartphone. It has everything I need and more, and it’s worth every penny it you want premium, fast, and luxury!