Hoping to get your hands on the coolest phone out there? Samsung’s S-series Ultra phones have been a top choice for a while, and the new Galaxy S24 Ultra for 2024 is no different. The Galaxy S24 Ultra steps into the spotlight with a snazzy titanium look, loads of smart features, and it’ll cost you a bit more than before: $1,299, that’s $100 more than last time. I will explain a few important things as well as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra release date and prices.
Better Build for Greater Durability
One of the most immediately noticeable new features of the Ultra is how it’s built. This year model has a titanium frame — like Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro — which Samsung allows for better. Unlike Apple, Samsung hasn’t used the material in an attempt to make the phone lighter; titanium is heavier than aluminum, but it’s more durable so you can use less of it. In case, Samsung has gone for the durability factor.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra has Display and Camera Upgrades
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra weighs the same as the S23 Ultra (8.22oz or 232 grams) which makes it slightly heavier than the iPhone 15 Pro Max. other big change up front is the display. The24 Ultra comes with a 6.8-inch 1440p display, just like the S23 Ultra, but it finally ditches the curved edges inherited from the Note series in favor of a flat screen.
There’s another hardware shake-up on the back of the phone: Samsung swapped the S23 Ultra’s 10-megapixel 10x zoom for a 50-megapixel 5x. It uses a lossless crop zoom to get to 10x, and even though it’s no longer a native focal length, several Samsung representatives told me the image quality at 10x should actually be improved compared to the S23 Ultra. You can still zoom all the way out to 100x.
Samsung Galaxy S24 has A Flood of AI Features
Hardware on the other four cameras is unchanged from last year, so you’re still working with a 200-megapixel f/1.7 main, a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto, and a 12-megapixel ultrawide on the back, plus a 12-megapixel selfie camera on the front. And oh, the AI. Samsung has filled its new phone series with just about every AI feature you’ve seen on other flagship phones to date.
The S24 Ultra, S24 Plus, and S24 are loaded with local and cloud-based AI features and are running Google’s Gemini foundational models on-device. The S24 series has a handful of new image and video editing tools powered by generative AI, noted throughout the UI with an extremely Google Bard-esque star icon.
Editing, Translation, and Search Made Simple
You can circle photo subjects to isolate them and resize them, move them around, or totally remove them from the frame. You can also adjust the horizon level in your photo and, rather than cropping, have AI fill in the edges of the image. But the coolest feature I saw demoed wasn’t for still photos — it was for videos.
Other features throughout the system include a new Circle to Search feature from Google, which is about as self-explanatory as it gets. A few AI features center on translation. There’s a feature that acts as an interpreter on phone calls, translating your speech in real time into the other party’s language and vice versa.
Bringing AI to More Devices
And if any of the above is enticing enough to tempt you to trade in your S23, you can stop right there. Samsung plans to bring these AI capabilities to S23-series phones and the Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 sometime in the future.
Future-Proofing with Snapdragon and Wi-Fi 7
The Galaxy S24 Ultra will come with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset in all regions where it’s sold. On the connectivity side, it’s also getting a bump up to Wi-Fi 7. One thing that’s curiously missing from every Galaxy S24 phone? Qi2 wireless charging.
Extended OS and Security Updates
But there’s some very good news to offset that disappointment: Samsung is joining Google in offering seven years of OS upgrades for the S24 series, which includes seven years of security updates. The Ultra may cost a bit extra this year, but you’ll get much more bang for your buck if you want to hang onto it for a long time.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Release Date & Prices
The S24 Ultra will start at $1,299 for 256GB and ships starting January 31st. Preorders are available starting today.
