AI-focused Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra brings new 5x camera, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is here, bringing a bunch of updates, while maintaining its predecessor's formula.

Visually, the Galaxy S24 Ultra looks very similar to the S23 Ultra but there are notable changes. The frame is now made of a titanium alloy instead of aluminum. Titanium is more durable and scratch-resistant than aluminum without increasing the weight - the Galaxy S24 Ultra is actually a gram lighter than the S23 Ultra. The new Ultra is a bit thinner (0.3mm), and shorter (1.1mm), thanks largely to slimmer bezels. Glass-wise, the S24 Ultra employs a new Gorilla Glass Armor on the front and rear that's 4x tougher to crack and 75% less reflective.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra made the screen less curved, now the Galaxy S24 Ultra has made it completely flat - rejoice, glass screen protector lovers!

The centerpiece is once again a 6.8-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a variable refresh rate that goes from 1Hz up to 120Hz. But Samsung brought a much brighter 2,600 nit panel with an improved Vision Booster.

Unlike the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+, the Ultra uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in every market. It's once again a 'for Galaxy' variant with, presumably, a higher-clocked Prime core. Samsung has put a nearly twice bigger vapor chamber inside the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which will help thermal performance across all tasks.

The new chip has enabled a whole host of AI features on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Live Translate, Interpreter, and Chat Assist enable two-way real-time voice and text translation. Live Translate lives inside the native phone app, Interpreter is a split-screen app that transcripts live conversations between two people in two different languages. Chat Assist helps make translated conversations natural and lives inside the Samsung Keyboard. These features work in 13 languages at launch.

Android Auto will summarize incoming messages and suggest replies - sending someone your ETA, for instance.

Inside Samsung Notes, Note Assist will summarize notes, create templates and covers, and streamline notes with pre-made formats.

Transcript Assist will transcribe, summarize, and translate recordings using AI and Speech-to-Text.

Circle to Search is a gesture-driven feature made in collaboration with Google. Just long press on the home button and you'll be able to circle, highlight, scribble on, or tap anything on the screen to get search results - like the name of the landmark in the background of someone's photo in Instagram.

All the AI smarts you could want

AI is a also big part of the camera system on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but a word on the hardware first. The Galaxy S24 Ultra brings a new 50MP 5x (115mm) telephoto camera with optical stabilization and an f/3.4 lens. The sensor is a 1/2.52-inch unit (possibly the IMX854), which is a marked improvement over the 10MP 1/3.52-inch imager behind the Galaxy S23 Ultra's 10x camera. Samsung says the new 5x camera is capable of better 10x shots than the old camera.

The rest of the cameras are seemingly the same - 200MP 23mm f/1.7 wide angle unit, 12MP 13mm f/2.2 ultrawide shooter with AF, and a 10MP 69mm f/2.4 short telephoto. Upfront, there's a 12MP 26mm f/2.2 selfie camera.

Back to AI. New this year is the ProVisual Engine and a dedicated ISP Block for noise reduction. The ProVision Engine is a collection of AI-powered tools - you can erase objects and let AI fill in the empty space with Generative Edit. It can also fill in empty space created by straightening a crooked shot. Instant Slow-mo can generate additional frames to smoothly slow down moments in a video.

Nightography has been upgraded thanks to the better optical image stabilization angle and enhanced hand-shake compensation. The dedicated ISP Block for both front and rear camera will deal with noise.

Finally, Super HDR will show an HDR preview in the camera app's viewfinder before you've taken the photo and show photos and videos in HDR in the Gallery.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra's new camera features

The Galaxy S24 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery with 45W wired and 15W wireless charging. The phone ships with 12GB of RAM and either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. Software-wise, the S24 Ultra runs Android 14 with One UI 6.1 from the box and will get a blockbuster 7 years of software support.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra is up for pre-order from today in Titanium Gray, Titanium Black, Titanium Violet, and Titanium Yellow. As last year, Samsung will offer a free storage upgrade for those who pre-order so you can get the 512GB model for the same price as the 256GB one, and so on, but make sure you order the higher version - this will be priced like the lower one while pre-orders are open.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra starts at $1,300/£1,250 for the 12GB/256GB model, or €1,450 in Europe but over there you only get 8GB of RAM with your 256GB of storage for some reason.