Galaxy S24 Ultra – Amazing 8 Things No One is Telling You!
Samsung’s latest ultra flagship, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, has been out for nearly two months, and several standout features haven’t received enough attention or hype. Sure, people have discussed the specs, performance, and typical upgrades you’d expect from a new model, but some aspects truly shine after extended real-world usage. Let’s dive into the details, shall we?
Recently YouTuber Mobiscrube reviewed Galaxy S24 Ultra and found the best things that no one talking about. So let’s have a look and a deep dive into those Amazing hidden Features and things that you need to know.
S24 Ultra Body Overview
The Display: A Marvel of Engineering
I cannot emphasize enough how incredible the S24 Ultra’s display is. No iPhone 15 Pro Max or OnePlus 12, even with a staggering 4500 nits of brightness, comes close to matching its vibrancy, accuracy, and insane sharpness. The big deal isn’t just the brightness; it’s the way the display maintains colors, readability, and content accuracy that’s simply amazing.
But wait, there’s more! The S24 Ultra has a layer that makes it less reflective, adding clarity that’s easier on the eyes outdoors and at various angles. And if you wear polarized sunglasses, you’d typically experience an odd darkening or rainbowing effect on your phone’s display. Not with the S24 Ultra – it goes right through your shades, looking super clear. Trust me; I use the iPhone 15 Pro as a daily driver, and the S24 Ultra’s display is a league ahead of all phones right now.
The Size: A Double-Edged Sword
While the large display is a visual treat, the S24 Ultra’s size can be a double-edged sword. I get the need for ample real estate, but this one goes a bit overboard. As good as the display is, the form factor makes one-handed use quite difficult. You’ll always, always have to use two hands with this phone, or risk it slipping through your grip.
Samsung made the S24 Ultra thicker and wider than the S23 Ultra, making it tougher to hold comfortably with one hand. Slapping on a case will only add to the size and weight, but you’re better off doing that since the corners tend to dig into your palm during use. And let’s not forget how easily this unapologetically large phone can jut out of your pockets. There’s still a base and plus model for those preferring a more manageable size, but the Ultra is truly massive.
Durability: Scratch-Resistant Titanium Beast
Now, let’s talk about the S24 Ultra’s durability, and I’m not referring to the IP68 water and dust resistance. I’m talking about the titanium build and the fact that this phone has 4X more scratch resistance than previous models. It’s crazy, but it’s true!
I have the base S24, which has Gorilla Glass Victus 2 (very strong, but not as tough as the Ultra’s Gorilla Glass Armor – the latest generation of Gorilla Glass). While my base S24 already has tiny scratches despite lighter usage, the S24 Ultra remains flawless without a single scratch, even though I’ve never used a screen protector or tempered glass.
In fact, the other day, I dropped the S24 Ultra flat on concrete while running, and any other phone would have cracked, guaranteed. But this beast? All it got were some scuffs on the titanium frame’s edge. The display glass had absolutely no scratches – it’s unbelievable! If you enjoy using a flagship phone without a case, the S24 Ultra is the one to get.
Galaxy AI: Useful for Some, Situational for Others
Samsung went all-out advertising Galaxy AI, but honestly, I’ve never felt the need to use it much. Sure, there’s the live translation and chat assistance, where you can have conversations with someone in a foreign language, and Galaxy AI will translate for both parties in real-time. It works, but I don’t have calls or texts from people who don’t speak my language, and I’d wager that’s true for most people. I’ll probably use it when traveling to a country where English isn’t widely spoken, but that’s a relatively small use case.
However, there are some useful aspects of Samsung Notes powered by Galaxy AI. For instance, I can easily align my handwritten notes and convert them to text by selecting everything, which is much less embarrassing to share with someone. The ability to shorten an article into a summary with just a tap is remarkable and really saves time, especially for longer pieces.
The “Circle to Search” feature is nice, but it’s something you need to intentionally remind yourself to use. Personally, I find myself just using it to highlight text, copy it, and share it with someone – that’s it. The photo editing features like generative fill are cool (Pixel phones have had some of these for a while), but I haven’t had much need to use them.
Overall, I think it’s great that these AI features exist, and they’ll be really useful for people who travel a lot or communicate with those who speak different languages. But for me, I didn’t end up using them as much as I thought I would.
Oh, and let me address the elephant in the room: there’s been talk about Galaxy AI being free for a limited time and Samsung potentially charging for it later. Here’s how I see it: Samsung is just covering themselves in case Galaxy AI becomes a big deal and they need to monetize it.
They’re keeping that window open. It doesn’t mean they’re going to charge you, and even if they do, some Galaxy AI features will likely remain free, with high-end capabilities falling under a subscription plan. It’s not like everything will be chargeable – we’ll have to wait it out.
Battery Life: Impressive Endurance
Next up, battery life – and this is really important. It’s a bit weird because I haven’t been able to drain the battery fully in a single day for the last 6 to 8 weeks of using the S24 Ultra. Typically, it lasts more than a day, so I wake up with 100% charge in the morning and only feel the need to charge it the next day morning. That’s a full day’s battery life – is that even possible?
It’s not like I use my phone any less than the average person. I have everything going on – emails, Slack, WhatsApp, YouTube, gaming, the camera, Instagram – you name it, just like everyone else. And FYI, I’ve always had it connected to my Galaxy Watch 6, with location and always-on display enabled. I was running on auto-refresh rate, auto-brightness, and FHD+ screen resolution. I never switched on power saving mode or charged it in between, using it just like you would when you get this phone.
Clearly, the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset (slightly overclocked for Galaxy phones), One UI 6.1, and the 1.9 times larger vapor chamber are really doing their thing when it comes to battery optimization.
Cameras: Capturing Life in Stunning Detail
Now, let’s talk about the cameras.
- First question: is it a lot better than the Galaxy S23 Ultra?
- Second question: is it the best camera in the world of Android smartphones?
- And third: is it better than the iPhone 15 Pro series?
Let’s go one by one.
Compared to the S23 Ultra, there’s quite a difference. Colors are captured better, highlights are better managed, and the dynamic range is superior on the S24 Ultra. Just look at how the whites are overexposed on the S23 Ultra – it’s all much more well-balanced on the S24 Ultra. The colors on the S23 Ultra look a little washed out, while the S24 Ultra manages dynamic range better and captures a more accurate scene, even in low light.
While the overall detailing is a bit higher on the S24 Ultra, it also handles well-lit scenes or light sources better, toning down the exposure to bring back detail instead of overexposing the highlights.
But selfies are where things really take a downturn for the S23 Ultra. In the daytime, the difference isn’t significant, but in low light, the gap is huge. I don’t remember the S23 Ultra being this bad, and trust me, I didn’t do anything to make it look like that – the S24 Ultra is clearly superior here.
However, the new 5x 50MP zoom lens on the S24 Ultra is an absolute banger! It’s actually a lot more useful than the 10x 10MP zoom lens we had previously. Just look at the comparison between the S23 Ultra’s zoom capabilities and the S24 Ultra’s – it’s quite clear that the latter is doing a better job, even with a shorter zoom range but a higher-resolution sensor. I think it was a better swap overall.
Also, when shooting videos and switching between different lenses, the transition is definitely smoother than before, but there’s still a bit of a jerk that Samsung can work on. It’s a small use case, but I do that quite often, so I thought I’d point it out.
Now, let’s talk about 4K video recording. Both are really good, but I wanted to see if there was an upgrade in low-light performance. I’d say it’s not a massive improvement, but the S24 Ultra is just a little brighter and a little less noisy. The greens look a bit brighter, and the overall scene is slightly more well-lit in the S24 Ultra’s footage, but that’s about it.
Samsung really hyped up how they’ve improved the native camera capabilities for use in apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Snapchat – and they’ve delivered. On the left, you’ll see a picture I took directly from within WhatsApp’s camera, and it’s actually quite good and well-detailed. I would say it’s a bit oversharpened, especially if you look closely, but it doesn’t look bad overall, just a bit of aggressive sharpening.
But is it the best camera in the Android world, and is it better than the iPhone 15 Pro series? First of all, all three are absolutely amazing cameras with their own pros and cons, so it’ll come down to your personal preference.
The iPhone tends to be warmer, with a more magenta hue, while the S24 Ultra leans greener, and the Xiaomi 12 Ultra tends to be brighter. The iPhone will always take more natural yet slightly duller photos, while the S24 Ultra and the Xiaomi 12 Ultra will produce punchier, brighter pictures – so it really depends on what you prefer.
However, when it comes to selfies, I strongly felt that the S24 Ultra and the Xiaomi 12 Ultra did a better job than the iPhone 15 Pro. The skin tones on the iPhone are a little softer and pinkish, and in low light, it really suffers, lacking detail in regular low-light scenes. While the iPhone isn’t bad, I personally found the S24 Ultra and the Xiaomi 12 Ultra doing a better job overall.
The iPhone again adds that magenta hue that takes away from the natural night scene feel. Samsung, with its Night photography features, and Xiaomi, with its 1-inch sensor, are definitely better in low light.
Indoors, I felt they were all pretty much the same, with very minor differences that I wouldn’t read too much into.
In terms of 4K videos, I still think the iPhone is slightly better than the other two during daytime videos. It feels more natural, with great stabilization and a lot of detail. However, in low light, the iPhone again takes a bit of a back seat, as the S24 Ultra and the Xiaomi 12 Ultra take the lead with lesser noise, better stability, and more color accuracy.
So yeah, if you prefer punchier, brighter pictures, better low-light performance, and very high-quality 4K videos, the S24 Ultra definitely looks like a better option than the iPhone 15 Pro.
Vibration Motor: Never Miss a Notification
The next thing I really want to talk about is the vibration motor on this thing. I’m generally the kind of person who wouldn’t realize when the phone is vibrating in my pocket, so I miss calls a lot. But this one is amazing!
It doesn’t matter whether I’m wearing jeans, which press the phone more firmly against my body, or chinos or track pants that don’t press it as firmly – I get to know when the phone vibrates. And that’s true not just for longer call vibrations but also for smaller notifications like messages.
Software Experience: One UI 6.1 Brings Fresh Features
Lastly, let’s talk about the software. It’s called Android 14, obviously, but it’s running One UI 6.1, which no other Samsung phone has as of now. It’s got a lot of new stuff and different ways of doing the old stuff.
So, you can have alarms with custom or even video backgrounds. You have Samsung’s own way of implementing depth wallpapers and applying creative effects to wallpapers on the lock screen, a lot like how iOS did it. There’s a photo ambient wallpaper that can depict live weather on your lock screen based on the wallpaper you set. There are generative AI wallpapers, much like how we saw on the Pixel 8. There’s an adaptive color tone now and more ways of increasing battery life.
Even the camera app has a couple of updates, with dual recording and slow-motion at 4K quality, which looks phenomenal, I must say. In fact, I’ve done a full video explaining all of these new features and how to use them. I’ll leave a card right over here, so watch it in your free time.
Also, I noticed that the fingerprint reader on this thing is crazy fast. Even the lightest of taps quickly unlocks the display. And FYI, this is still the ultrasonic fingerprint reader, which is a lot more secure than the optical fingerprint sensors you get on all other Android smartphones.
You know, this is a great phone, but it’s pointless if you don’t run the right apps on it. And if you guys think I should do a top app for the Galaxy S24 series, just let me know in the comments section. I’ll definitely work on that.
So anyway, those are a few things that I felt not a lot of people have talked about in detail or given as much importance as I think someone should have. And I know I haven’t touched upon performance, but come on, guys, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (which is also slightly overclocked for Galaxy phones), so performance is not really an issue on this phone. Everything is super snappy!
But I just wanted to give you a very realistic experience of using the S24 Ultra, and hopefully, I’ve been able to do that in this video. But hey, if you guys still have any questions, concerns, doubts, or insults, let me know in the comments section, and I’ll definitely help you out.
And if you guys enjoyed watching the video, make sure you hit that like button, subscribe to the channel, hit that bell notification icon, and smash that all button – it really helps the channel grow.
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