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.

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!

Have been using the S24 Ultra for a few weeks now after previously trying the S22 Ultra and S23 Ultra - Samsung have pretty much hit the mark for me this year.

Firstly, the design isn't anything radically different from before but the combination of flat display (much prefer this to curved displays) 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 and the lack of reflections on the edges as well as the improved reflection performance across the screen just makes the devices so much easier to use in all lighting conditions.

Much has been talked about online about the 'Vivid' setting of the display not being as bold or punchy as before - what the setting now offers though is a far more natural/accurate looking display which doesn't exhibit so much warmth in dark mode as the previous version did - I much prefer this year's setting.

The introduction of Titanium this year hasn't really impacted the weight of the device overall but the S23 Ultra does feel more balanced weight wise and perhaps not as top heavy as before?

One other thing that stands out is battery life - this took me completely by surprise - 8-10 hours screen on time is now the norm, compared to the usual 6 or so on most recent Android flagships that I achieve - impressive when the phone is constantly connected to a Galaxy Watch 6 and is frequently being woken my me wanting to have another look at the fantastic display!

Other than that is business pretty much as usual for Samsung. The camera is good, but will likely become great after a few software upgrades, the AI functions work very well and the overall feeling is of a daily workhorse device that really doesn't have any major negatives. The only thing I wish Samsung could incorporate next time would just be a way to soften the corners of the device - these are a bit on the harsh side and likely to shred through pocket linings at a rapid pace!

All in all though - the S23 Ultra comes highly, highly recommended. Great work Samsung.

With my previous phone being the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, it was time for an upgrade and moving to the S24 iteration of Samsung's flagships has been a monumental upgrade in so many ways:

The physical appearance of the phone for a start, the completely flat screen feels uniform and slick amd with the matt metal frame there is instantly a top quality premium feel to the phone. The camera lenses placement on the rear of the phone again is another example of how Samsung have refined the build of the phone in every way to make ot the best looking Samsung Galaxy I've seen & used.

Then turning the phone on immediately the screen jumps out as being seriously impressive. The QHD+ display is pin point sharp and with the increased peak brightness of the Galaxy S24 series I am able to see the sheer complete beauty of this screen in in the most brightly lit environments.

The Galaxy UI software is incredibly intuitive, with seemingly endless customisation options to really personalise the phone to how I want through the menus, apps, wallpapers and backgrounds.
The Generative AI Wallpaper creator is a really fun feature to use. Creating impressive AI wallpapers from different options that I can choose.

The Photo AI editor is also massively impressive. Being able to make changes to images that are then indistinguishable is fantastic. Of course some photos with challenging lighting, shadows and textures can prove to be harder for the AI to interpret, but from my usage so far I'd say 90% of the photos I've edited using the AI Editor have come out extremely well.

The new Circle to Search feature us also fantastic, being able to identify where clothing items are from, what the location of buildings are etc all from the phone screen I'm on at the time. Regardless of what app I can use this feature with a simple press and circle.

AI is also impressive with the Samsung Note summary and auto format feature aswell as Summarising webpages that I am on. All features that I've found myself using on a daily basis.

Speaking of efficency, the battery life has been superb thus far. The added battery protection settings provide further piece of mind for battery durability but I've been amazed so far with how much I've been able to use my phone.

The cameras, a perfect set up with the different lenses. And with the multiple shooting modes for my work I've been able to shoot 4k video and edit it all on my phone.

A productivity king with magic of AI the icing on the cake.