In general, the S24U captured great photos in all kinds of conditions. You'll still notice Samsung's oversaturated colors and penchant for slightly warmer hues, but in most cases this just adds an extra sense of vibrancy. Samsung also has a habit of going a bit overboard when it comes to sharpness, although it's not a major distraction. Even in low-light conditions, the S24U's night mode largely kept up with Google's Night Sight, which is no small feat.
Software: Samsung's big breakthrough in AI
Besides its new hardware, the biggest addition to the S24 Ultra is Samsung's Galaxy AI features, which are a comprehensive suite of tools broken down into three main categories: text and translation, photography and editing, and search.
There is an interpreter mode for in-person conversations as well as a live translation feature that you can use during calls. Both are good enough to use in a pinch when traveling, but some things like word choice and pacing can be a little off. The experience can also feel a bit clunky, especially when you're on the phone and have to wait for the AI to catch up.
Then you have Chat Assist which can check spelling, grammar and adjust the tone of messages. Granted, the social and emojify options are a little gimmicky, but I really appreciate the polite, professional choices because they can help keep a text or email from seeming combative.
In the Notes app, the S24U can also summarize, auto-format, check spelling, or translate a file, which is nice, but not exactly revolutionary. Many of these features are already available on other services like ChatGPT or Bard. That said, these improvements might be the most significant improvements to the S24 Ultra's S-Pen, which otherwise remains largely unchanged.
Among Samsung's text tools, my favorite is the Voice Recorder app's transcription feature. This makes entering interview quotes very simple, although I noticed that Samsung's UX doesn't seem as polished or streamlined as what you get from Google. For example, the Pixel Recorder lets you see the transcript in real time, while on the Ultra you have to record a conversation and then tap the AI icon to generate a chat log when you're done.
AI can also suggest edits for images, such as automatically remastering images (which is similar to Photoshop's Auto Tone feature) or removing distracting elements like shadows and reflections. You can see these options by tapping the Info icon in the Gallery app, which makes them very easy to access and might be the quickest way to improve your photos. The S24 Ultra can also create slow-motion clips from existing footage, simply by long-pressing a video while it plays. This triggers the phone's AI to generate new frames based on the frames per second of the recording (i.e. 30fps to 120fps) on the fly and the results are surprisingly smooth.
If you prefer a more hands-on approach, there are AI generative edits that let you crop photos, move subjects, or remove them entirely, while the phone fills in the empty spaces. This is a simple but effective process that in many cases avoids the need for Photoshop. That said, if you look closely, you may notice areas where Samsung's AI misses more detail than the Pixel 8's Magic Editor, which is a trend I've noticed in many of the features of the Pixel 8. Samsung's AI.
All of the new tools generally work as expected, but things don't seem as simple or polished as most of Google's alternatives. In the Notes app, there's a word limit for auto-formatting, summarizing, and more, which limits you to about three or four paragraphs at a time. This means that if you have a medium-sized document, you'll have to tackle it in pieces, which gets tedious pretty quickly. And sometimes if you try to highlight areas of a photo to remove reflections, the phone will smooth the entire area and paint over the details.
In other situations, the AI will suggest edits that don't make sense, like trying to turn a short animated photo into a timelapse. It's possible that it was my fault for importing a photo taken by another device, but I feel like the phone should know better. The AI is supposed to work on any photo, regardless of where it comes from. Even moving subjects in a photo can get wonky depending on the shot and what you're trying to do. And from time to time, the phone will offer to remaster a photo, only to tell you there's nothing to fix. As a photographer, it's a great feeling. But at the same time, why am I being told that there are things to be fixed if that is not really the case? But this is Samsung's first big push into AI-assisted features, so it shouldn't come as a shock to see a handful of duds.
Rounding out the S24's kit is Circle to Search, the only new AI feature that takes help from the cloud instead of on the device. It's essentially a combination of traditional text queries and visual search tools like Google Lens, but without the need for a standalone app. What's interesting is that it can analyze images from the web or objects in photos you've taken yourself, making it quite versatile. But Google recently announced that Circle to Search is also coming to Pixel phonesso it's not like it's an exclusive feather in Samsung's cap.
Battery life: nearly two days of juice
Between the energy efficiency gains of its new processor and a large 5,000 mAh battery, the S24 Ultra offers truly impressive longevity. In our local video test, it lasted 24 hours and 19 minutes, up four hours from last year. And in the real world, its battery life was even more impressive. Often more than 50% of the S24U remained after 24 hours. So depending on your use, it is possible that this phone will last two days without recharging.
Conclude
At this point, you'd be forgiven for getting tired of companies trying to integrate AI into everything. But if you think of them simply as software upgrades meant to make your phone more useful, Samsung's push into machine learning makes a lot more sense. The S23U was already a great phone and on the S24 Ultra we get the same design (although a bit simple) but with a tougher titanium frame, a much faster chip, a brighter screen and a longer battery life. Even longer battery life. Samsung has also tweaked its main telephoto lens to provide a more useful focal length but without a major decrease in range or quality.
But most importantly, with its Galaxy AI suite, Samsung finally has an answer to sophisticated features that were previously only available in the Pixel family. Sure, S24's tools aren't as sophisticated as Google's offerings, but they get you 80-90% of the way there. And complementing what is more or less a top-to-bottom list of the best smartphone hardware, it appears Samsung is using AI to shore up one of the few remaining weaknesses of its flagship phone. Especially now that the company follows Google's footsteps and increasing software support from six to seven years of operating system and security updates.
However, the Ultra's biggest sticking point – its price – remains an issue. With the S24U starting at $1,300, it costs $100 more than the outgoing model. I'm also disappointed that Samsung hasn't adopted Qi2. It's frustrating to see all the major OEMs, including Apple, agree on a wireless charging standard only to have largest phone manufacturer in the world is dragging its feet. Qi 2 obtained approved last year and we may not see it on a high-end Samsung handset until 2025.
While leveraging AI might not be a very exciting development now that everyone and their grandma is trying to integrate it into everything, it does make the S24 Ultra a more powerful and well-rounded handset. And when you add that to a phone that already had a lead in hardware, you get a pretty imposing device.