Please note that these are my own personal initial thoughts.
S24 Ultra 1TB / 12GB RAM 5G Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
UAE.
Unlike the previous years, this year’s major improvements are on the software side, which doesn’t mean no hardware upgrade is there, but it’s only normal for every new phone to be more powerful than the year before, it’s a given that doesn’t need advertisement. The S23 Ultra was the champion in my opinion, for the first time in many many years, it amazed me in every aspect, especially the battery. So what did really change, and will it beat the S23??
Design:
- It's simply gorgeous. On the back, there’s nothing to the naked eye you can spot as different from the S23. I will say it again, I personally don’t care about the design and colour, I use a skin and a case, the phone is always on its back and screen facing me, so it’s 99% the same as the S23 Ultra. If you use it without a case, you will start noticing first of all the new flat screen, which is amazing to me as I use the S-pen a lot, and now, no more annoying curved edges for the pen to slip, so I love that. Then comes the finish of the paint and the lovely titanium frame. Some are claiming it looks like the iphone in the edges, it’s more squared and it actually looks beautiful and elegant. It’s a few grams lighter and you will not feel it. Samsung is using this year the Gorilla glass Victus Armor instead of last year’s Victus 2 which is better for drops, but same scratches resistance. You can also see that the speaker grill is different, there’s a missing mic from the bottom that was moved to the top and the S-pen has a slightly smaller square now.
Display:
- Same as last year, the display is beyond amazing. Still very efficient in terms of battery consumption due to the new technology they used(LTPO 3.0 display), much brighter as brightness went up from 1750 nits to 2600 nits, very crisp and absorbs reflections like no other phone. I am pasting again the link to the 120HZ display explanation here in case you want more information on that.
Camera:
- The camera is not much of an improvement in the hardware, same 200MP sensor, same 12MP ultra wide, but the change is on the telephoto cam, the old zoom was 10MP 10x and 10MP 3x now it’s 50MP 5x and 3x.
- The selfie cam is the same12MP with minor improvements.
- Night mode has slightly improved as per Samsung, but that’s pending testing.
- The shutter lag has improved, not the best out there, but a lot better, and it depends on the setting/mode you have specified.
- The camera app has improved, and the software processing is much better.
Battery:
- The battery was already good on the S23 Ultra, and now it’s 1.5 hours better as per Samsung due to the Snapdragon 8 gen 3 used along with the screen efficiency. Once again, the phone will drain very slowly if not used or when left alone.
- We still have the 45W charging in the S24 Ultra.
- I will post the tests later after I use the phone for almost 10 days.
Ram and Storage:
- We have the same awesome UFS 4.0 storage, here’s a link to the article I posted about it to know more.
- Also still using the DDR5 RAM which makes the phone snappier and faster.
Sound/Speaker:
- Haven’t noticed any difference.
Performance:
- Once again, It’s only normal that the phone is better than last year’s, thanks to the same perfect combination of the “Snapdragon for Galaxy” (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) which was also overclocked specially for Samsung, with the UFS 4.0 storage and DDR5 ram used along with the OS and efficiency of the screen.
Software:
- This is where all the magic is, AI in almost every category. You have seen the vids, I will go in depth in the full review after 10 days, but it’s a game changer. Yes it’s Gen 1, will not be 100% perfect, but with time and learning and updates, everything will become better, especially with the best chipset that can handle AI, as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has one of the best NPUs in the market(Neural Processing Unit)
- The device will get 7 years of android and security updates compared to the S23 Ultra's 4.
Should you upgrade?
- S23 Ultra users, once again I will leave that up to you. The AI was enough for me to upgrade, I have the curiosity to see what it does as well as the added value to my daily tasks and personal usage.
- To all the rest, yes! Now!
Initial Verdict:
The software and AI battle has begun, Samsung is leading the way, and I can’t wait to see how this will play and to which level they will take all of this..
Make sure you pre-order online from Samsung.com to benefit from everything Samsung is offering like exclusive colours, and discounts. I will post a link to the pre-order I did and the benefits you can get as well as where you can pre-order from, hurry up!
Remember to activate the Samsung Care+ within the 1st 30 days of receiving the device. Here's a link from before on how to:
Let me know if you have any questions, as usual I will post the full review and my experience with the device as well as battery life etc.
Stay tuned and enjoy your new S24 Ultra!
Hi Krishcold1, funny u asked cause i literally just received another one as the first got damaged. I use the dbrand blue camo as skin & dbrand case with integrated black camo, left is the old and right is the new. 
