Galaxy S24 Ultra Review: It's Better, But…

this video is sponsored by ESR so when you think of a top tier Galaxy smartphone what normally comes to mind is it the elegant industrial design the attention grabbing displays the top-notch specs or the highly customizable software and let's not forget about the incredibly versatile camera system hi everyone T here the good news is that the allnew Galaxy s24 Ultra continues to pretty much offer all of these features it's unmistakably a great Samsung smartphone with a bit of AI magic sprinkled in but there's no shaking that it feels like Samsung has taken their foot off the pedal a bit whether smartphones have truly peaked or if they have bigger aspirations is a whole another topic the display is still 6.8 in 120 HZ and 1440p the big change of course is that Samsung is finally scrapping the curved edges and going with a completely flat screen yeah it doesn't look as futuristic and I will miss how natural it felt for the universal back gester or bringing up The Edge panel but I can finally install a screen protector without spending a fortune and for a phone with a built-in stylist it just makes sense from a usability standpoint visibility is going to be better on this phone thanks to the bump and brightness and a 75% reduction in Reflections that's pretty big just check out the difference between this and some other high-end phones it's wild but before you get too excited I have found that this new anti-reflective glass does introduce a very very slight grain to the display that's more noticeable on Gray backgrounds that's just a trade-off for the anti-reflective layer it's a lot more subtle but if you've ever used a matte screen protector then you sort of know what I'm talking about either way I don't think most people will even notice it if you're like me and can't stand Reflections you're going to absolutely love this new screen the phone as usual gets the yearly processor bump to a Snapdragon AG gen 3 and Samsung is pairing that with a 92% % larger Vapor chamber for better cooling performance- wise you're looking at a respectable jump over last year at least in benchmarks the new phone being slightly more powerful isn't exactly groundbreaking news but I'm sure mobile Gamers and those who plan to take full advantage of Samsung's desktop mode Dex will appreciate the extra juice and finally there's the new more durable titanium frame rounding out the hardware upgrades visually the design is very similar with a couple of minor tweaks the frame has more of a curve to it the punch hole cuddle for the selfie camera is slightly smaller and the bezels around the display are completely symmetrical now we've seen this design for the past few years and I think a refresh is bound to happen next year some of you might argue that the design is getting you know kind of stale but let's be real most of us will likely slap a case on it here are three great options from today's video sponsor ESR the classic hybrid is a clear yellow and resistant case perfect for showing off the phone's color it's scratch resistant equipped with shock absorbing Corners has precise camera cutouts and adds Maxi compatibility the Boo's flick stand case is a personal favorite with a matte fingerprint resistant finish and a Sleek hidden kickstand you can prop your phone up in both landscape or portrait and did I mention it's also Max safe compatible the armor kickstand is all about heavy duty protection this is a two-piece case with a front cover that gives you the option to go with or without a screen protector and has one of the best integrated kickand period pick one up with the links below so while an improved display upgraded processor a titanium frame are all decent upgrades for a yearly refresh the marketing Focus around this phone is all about Galaxy AI my favorite one might surprise you it's actually the instant slow-mo I love that you can just press and hold any video to instantly slow it down even old videos that you saw from like years ago will work it uses AI to generate the missing frames and that's what prevents the slow-mo from looking super choppy honestly we're playing memories in slow-mo is kind of dope oh and heads up if you shoot videos in HDR 10 plus instant slow-mo doesn't work Circle to search is definitely a close second it's essentially a more intuitive way to activate Google 's visual search I'm willing to bet this feature alone is going to increase Google 's usage by like a 100 times and you know Google's happy about that I haven't found the translation interpreter stuff very applicable to my life but I can't deny how well it works the languages it works with are pretty limited for now but lucky for me Vietnamese is one of them like my mom was so amazed by it and absolutely loved it if you travel a lot to foreign countries or work with clients who speak different languages it could be a GameChanger CM idea with the text and voice summary stuff tons of potential just not for me personally the generative AI photo editor is a lot of fun and likely to be a fan favorite but like magic editor on the latest Google pixels I don't don't see myself using it all that often don't get me wrong removing unwanted objects or realigning photos can be super helpful but here's the thing I take pictures to capture memories not so I can edit them to Perfection to Post online the quirky imperfect photos are usually some of my favorites to look back on overall my general feelings towards Galaxy AI is that I think Samsung's done a respectable job integrating Ai and showing us how it can actually be applied to our daily lives I like the variety I think there's a feature for everyone you're bound to like and use at least one of them I also appreciate the option to limit the AI stuff to on device processing only but if you toggle that on several of the AI features won't function with that being said I'd probably put my money on Google and their pixel phones being the leader moving forward when it comes to anything AI Circle to search for example is coming to pixels on February 1st so it's not exactly a Galaxy S2 for exclusive for very long and then there's this statement in the fire print there's a severe lack of clarity from Samsung on this so I guess it's a wait and see for now now the S Pen is probably the phone's most defining feature and one of the main reasons why you'd buy the ultra over the two smaller S2 24s the small size and shape is still not the most comfortable thing to hold and they didn't add anything meaningful to the spin experience but it can be a really handy tool to have for note takings sketching capturing precise screenshots or just anything that requires more Precision then of course you've got the magic wand like air actions using it as a remote shutter for the camera is probably the most practical feature but you could also put it in your pocket and use it as a remote control for your music battery life is really really good I'm trying to cut down on my phone usage but I've consistently been ending days with like 40 is% battery left over averaging around 4 hours of screen on time I could probably squeeze out 2 days but it'd be tight if you don't need all that processing power I highly recommend turning on light performance mode in the settings to get even more juice out of it unfortunately charging speeds are unchanged it's fine but I would have appreciated a bump there it also would have been nice if Samsung was to adopt the new ch2 wireless charging standards with the built-in magnets and all but I have a feeling the magnets interfering with the spin functionality is a big reason why they haven't yet hopefully they find a way to make it happen because Mac saave is awesome Biometrics also remain unchanged you get a combination of a very good ultrasonic fingerprint scanner paired with a 2d Face Unlock using the selfie camera I was hoping to see the same secure Face Unlock that Google introduced with the pixel 8s but no this one can't be used with password managers or banking apps software wise oneui 6.1 is a much bigger update than I expected these 0.1 updates are usually usually fairly small but there's a lot of new stuff here for example you get a couple of new built-in wallpaper tools you now have the ability to create generative AI wallpapers and it's as easy as using a couple of simple prompts pair that with a photo Ambience feature which will slap on overlays based on the time of day and the current weather conditions for example if it's snowing you should get some snow particles over your wallpaper some of the stuff is definitely going to look suspiciously familiar if you've used an iPhone we now have the ability to place a single row of very basic widgets right below the clock on the lock screen there's an updated always on display which now gives you the option to keep your wallpaper we've definitely seen this before right either way props to whoever as Samsung designed this wallpaper because the transition from always on display to lock screen to home screen is pretty sick if you own a Galaxy Tab there's a new camera sharing feature that lets you use the s24 ultra as a webcam one of the most controversial topics with the camera Hardware is Samsung's decision to replace the 10 times Optical lens with a five times one for my testing the downgrade isn't actually all that noticeable I thought more extreme Zoom levels like 30 times or 100 times would 100% be worse too but surprisingly not and as expected the five times Zoom photos just flat out look better the new five times lens also allows the phone to take five times portra shots now which you couldn't do before and gets you a little extra if you're big on portrait mode another nice Improvement is the ability to switch between all the lenses while recording at 4K 60 FPS with the s23 ultra you couldn't switch lenses at all you'd have to stop the recording first I mean this could be pretty useful especially if you're vlogging or something the camera app is also now much smoother to use compared to previous years you feel it immediately once you start swapping lenses or navigating through the options the shutter delay that Galaxy phones are typically known for is thankfully continuing to get better unfortunately once the light gets a little dim it still doesn't handle moving subjects like kids or pets all too well better than before but blurry photos are still common the truth is the cameras aren't all that different from the s23 ultra comparing the pictures side by side I'd have a hard time telling which phone took which picture the biggest difference is probably the fact that the s24 ultra takes and displays pictures in Ultra HDR which is going to just pop out of the screen and look a little more lively there are occasions where the computational photography and AI stuff goes a little wonky and you end up with some weird under or Overexposed shots in general I'm happy with these pictures this is still going to be one of the better camera systems on a phone but it's got some serious competition these days if you haven't heard Samsung is following Google's lead and adopting a 7-year update policy which is a huge win for everyone I've heard a bunch of people say it's unnecessary and no one uses their phone for that long but really that's wild to me it's like complaining that Google and Samsung are offering too much value these Flagship phones are getting too good to just toss away after 3 or 4 years no matter which way you slice it the battery likely won't last 7 years but you've always got the option to replace it so for example a battery placement for the Galaxy s23 Ultra costs around $90 in the US here in Canada there's a spot offering to do it for around $19 bucks which is a bit more but not a terrible amount to give your phone some new life I came in thinking that this was going to be a very very minor update but I was pleasantly surprised at all the little things they improved the screen is a bigger upgrade than many are giving it credit for the speakers are louder with better balance you of course get a bump in performance a slightly longer lasting battery the software feels a little more fluid and they've added a splash of that wow factor with the whole galaxy AI stuff and you know what the AI features are surprisingly useful they aren't as gimmicky as I initially thought they would be all in all there really isn't quite enough to justify an upgrade if you're using a phone from the last couple of years phones are just not innovating as much as they used to unless Samsung is offering you a really good trade-in deal I'd wait at the very least next year when we'll likely see a fresh new design if you need a phone right now have the money and want the best that Samsung has to offer that isn't affordable then yeah the s24 ultra is pretty damn good as usual thank you so much for watching until the next one I'm out here bye

Channel: Thao

Views: 93,425

Keywords: Galaxy s24, Galaxy s24 ultra, Galaxy s24 ultra camera improvements, Galaxy s24 best features, Galaxy s24 ultra specs, Samsung galaxy s24 ultra grey, Samsung galaxy s24 ultra, Galaxy s24 ultra titanium gray, Galaxy S24 AI features, Galaxy S24 features, Galaxy s24 price, Thao Huynh

Id: m2JlZgHLF3I

Length: 12min 37sec (757 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 26 2024