Overall Review of the s24 ultra after 2 months!!

[pi20]

Hi All,

Its 2months since I moved from old android to Samsung's flagship S24 ultra. Sharing my thoughts about what I liked and didn't :

Positives :

1. Screen Quality is really good and displays the graphics perfectly. 

2. Sound is loud enough and doesn't miss the beats. 

3. Camera has improved a lot after update and able to capture the photos vividly. There're still gap like sometimes too much AI causing the images look like cartoons. I mean editing should be done at level that doesn't make it obvious. 

4. Community and Support : I really liked they have a dedicated support person and community is also flourishing and good. 

Negatives:

1. Lowest video/camera quality: I mean this is what this phone is all about but they were not able to give justice to the phone. Literally my 10yr old 12mp phone gave me better video in 30fps HD than this 200mp flagship. photos and videos are too noisy. It will give you Instagram ready vivid and funky photos but at the cost of details. 

2. No option to turn off processing on photos: I mean camera takes the best shot sometimes and then AI makes it worst. Why samsung doesn't want to offer a choice of after processing if required? 

3. No App Security: Samsung doesn't package any application that will provide security to the individual apps. Secure folder functionality is just cool trick and not practically tested for use. For example if I want to secure WhatsApp behind fingerprint, then it will create a duplicate app inside secure folder with separate data storage. Who will want to install new WhatsApp app with all that data migration headache?!? it's like running 2 WhatsApps from one phone and no way to put a lock on existing application. 

4. Battery Life: People suggested that it takes some time to learn the usage pattern and then optimizes it accordingly. However, after so much wait I hardly get less than 1 day battery backup when Always on display is off, refresh rate is 60hz and all other battery consumption is turned off. Vivo, Xiomee are able to provide 2 days with heavy usage. (This is tested in real life by me and not based on bunch of lab parameters)

5. Random loss of data connectivity : You're playing some game or video on YouTube and randomly after 10-15mins data connection doesn't work for some reason. You have to turn off and on again the data then it will work for sometime, again causing the same issue. I mean how frustrating it is to turn off and on data every 15 mins to just make the video work!! 

5. Network Meter : There is no way to see network speed. I told this to their support guy and he asked me to download 3rd party app for this! I generally don't trust 3rd party apps because of data concerns so it's expected that Samsung should not export necessary functionalities to 3rd party. 

6. Data Processing and AI: This phone feels like a giant data feeding machine for Google and Samsung. Everywhere you go, you'll get 100s of prompts to allow permissions and cookies to track your activities. You can't uninstall bunch of packed Samsung and Google apps and also they don't run if you deny the permissions. I haven't been able to use the AI features till now to increase the productivity. 

7. No 3.5 headphone jack: All the smartphone industry is just moving away from actually useful things that made phones smart. Bluetooth Audio quality is not at par with original wired analog headphone. Samsung recently purchased harman which basically sells Audio Bluetooth Devices under the name JBL. Apple introduced Airpods and Huawei is also on the similar path. It's clear, big orgs will do everything possible to collect money, royalties by selling unnecessary products to the customers. 

8. No LED blinkers : You can't see whether you have a new notification or not without turning on the phone. Old phones had this LED blinkers which was a quite useful. 

[himz12]

100% agreed 👍... especially on the camera part... pathetic

[S24ultra1505]

Agreed...
Camera needs lot of improvement....
Content viewing not up to standard...

[S24ultra1505]

Good Analysis...ultra means no compromise...but here reverse is true..😃

[S24ultra1505]

Samsung trying to release updates fast to resolve the ongoing issues.

[nadwiusamaS24Ultra]

You've just juiced them up.
I agree with everything you mentioned here, specially the nerwork issue. It keeps repeating like 100 times a day and sometimes the notification bar shows emergency call only sign. One can imagine how frustrating it is.