Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - what to expect

02 January 2024

Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S24 Ultra on January 17 alongside the S24 and S24+ and it will be the company's best phone yet.

This will be the third time Samsung will use the Galaxy S22 Ultra shell but as you'd expect, the new phone will be better in almost every way thanks to refinements both big and small. Here's what we expect to see based on rumors and leaks so far.

Titanium frame

Like Apple's 15 Pro and Pro Max, the Galaxy S24 Ultra will use a titanium alloy in its frame to bring the weight down. Titanium is very strong and in tandem with aluminum can be very light - Apple shaved off nearly 20g from its biggest phone by using titanium, and we expect the S24 Ultra to shave off a similar amount of weight.

Samsung will launch the S24 Ultra in four colors - Titanium Black, Titanium Violet, Titanium Gray, and Titanium Yellow. Expect additional exclusive online colors from Samsung's retail store - the current Ultra comes in Graphite, Sky Blue, Lime, and Red.

Flat, bright display

The Galaxy S23 Ultra lost a bit of its display curvature, the Galaxy S24 Ultra will get rid of its altogether. That's either a huge win or a grave disappointment to you, depending on your position on the flat vs curved screen debate. In either case it means that regular glass screen protectors will finally be an option on the Ultra (no adhesive required).

The display will light up to a brighter 2,600 nits but is otherwise the same 6.8-inch 1440x3088px 1-120Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2X QHD+ panel we've had since the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

A flat display also makes more sense for a Pen-enabled phone. Speaking of which...

S Pen

One of the Galaxy S Ultra's marquee features is the S Pen and you can be sure the S24 Ultra will have one. Whether the new pen will be smarter or somehow better is unknown - an FCC certification seemingly points to an unchanged pen.

New 5x camera, old 200MP 1x + 10MP 3x + 12MP 0.6x

There was a lot of speculation around the Galaxy S24 Ultra's camera setup. It seems clear now that Samsung will add a new 5x camera module and it will most likely be a periscope unit with a 50MP sensor. That's around 120mm in optical terms and we expect it to perform double duty as a 10x and 100x shooter as well, by leveraging its superior sensor and optics to the ongoing 10x camera.

We should also see the 200MP main sensor from the Galaxy S23 Ultra, a 10MP 3x zoom that's likely the same as the outgoing one, and a 12MP ultrawide with autofocus, and a 12MP selfie upfront.

A word on video - the main camera will be able to capture 8K at up to 30fps and 4K up to 120fps.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra will snap 24MP photos by default, not unlike the iPhone 15 series.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with AI AI AI

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will universally use the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 across the world. It comes paired with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage.

Samsung has reportedly nearly doubled the vapor chamber from the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which would lead to better thermal performance.

Thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the Galaxy S24 Ultra will be Samsung's 'smartest AI phone ever'. The phone will have on-demand Live Translate - you can speak foreign languages straight in the Phone app and have it translated in real-time. Other AI features will be a Dynamic Lock Screen and Smart Keyboard as part of One UI 6.1.

Back to the camera. While the optical hardware is the same (5x notwithstanding), the new chipset will bring a host of improvements.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra will have AI-optimized main camera photos. Samsung reportedly took care to fix the Galaxy S23 Ultra's muddy output by using a new algorithm that recognizes 12 kinds of objects.

Night mode is also better. Nightography Zoom will bring brighter nighttime photos with the zoom cameras. Generative Edit is another AI feature, that lets you move or remove objects, or fill a space with whatever you want (a Samsung account and Internet connection will be required).

Battery and charging

The Galaxy S24 Ultra will have the same 5,000mAh battery as its predecessors with the same 45W wired and 15W wireless charging, and the same 0-65% in 30 minutes charging speed.

Emergency texts via satellite

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will come with emergency texting via satellite support over the 3GPP standard but it remains to be seen whether all markets will offer the feature and how much it will cost.

Pricing

The Galaxy S24 Ultra will come in 12/256GB, 12/512GB, and 12GB/1TB configurations, priced at €1,449, €1,569, and €1,809, respectively. Samsung will once again offer pre-order bonuses - everyone that orders before the launch will get double the storage at the same price - essentially a 512GB phone for the price of a 256GB phone.