Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra mobile phone released: titanium alloy body, AI function blessing
IT Home reported on January 18 that the Samsung Galaxy S series has always been the top flagship of the Android camp, and the Ultra model is the best among them. Today, Samsung brought the new Galaxy S24 Ultra, which not only has a new titanium alloy body, a 1440p straight screen, but also is equipped with powerful AI features, and the price has also been raised to $1299 (IT home note: currently about 9353 yuan).
First of all, the most striking change to the S24 Ultra is the titanium body, which is similar to Apple's iPhone 15 Pro, which Samsung says offers better durability. Unlike Apple, Samsung did not opt for titanium for weight reduction, but rather for its superior durability, as titanium alloy is heavier than aluminum. The S24 Ultra weighs almost the same as the S23 Ultra at around 232 grams, which is slightly heavier than the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Another big change in the S24 Ultra is the screen. The S24 Ultra comes with a 6.8-inch 1440p display, the same as the S23 Ultra, but the new device finally ditches the curved screen inherited from the Note series in favor of a straight screen. Unlike the straight edges of the S24 and S24 Plus, the bezels of the S24 Ultra still have a slight curvature, but now the likelihood of accidentally touching the edge of the screen with the S Pen is greatly reduced.
There are also some changes to the S24 Ultra's rear camera. Samsung swapped out the S23 Ultra's 10-megapixel 10x zoom camera for a 50-megapixel 5x zoom camera, which achieves 10x zoom with lossless crop zoom. Despite no longer being the native focal length, Samsung claims that the S24 Ultra's 10x zoom image quality is actually an improvement over the S23 Ultra. The device can still achieve 100x zoom, but this still seems to be a gimmicky feature.
The hardware of the other four cameras remains unchanged from last year, including a 200-million-pixel f/1.7 main camera, a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto camera, and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, as well as a 12-megapixel selfie camera on the front.
One of the highlights of the S24 Ultra is the AI capabilities, which integrate AI features from almost all current flagship phones. The S24 series is packed with on-premise and cloud-based AI capabilities and runs Google's Gemini base model. It's worth mentioning that the AI features of the three new devices are exactly the same.
The S24 series introduces some generative AI-powered image and video editing tools, with a Google Bard-like star icon everywhere in the UI. Users can circle subjects in a photo to cut out and resize, as well as move or remove them outright. You can also adjust the horizontal line of the photo and let the AI fill in the missing edges of the image, which is great for taking photos with shaky hands.
In addition to still photos, the S24 Ultra also boasts a really cool video feature that converts any video into a 120fps slow-motion video afterwards, no matter what mode, frame rate, or even camera you use to shoot it, the feature uses AI interpolation technology to make up for lost frames.
Other system features include Google's new Circle to Search feature, which lets you press and hold the navigation or home button to circle the content you want to search for, and Google will do it for you. The keyboard can also suggest text based on what you're typing, making your message more in line with the tone.
In addition, there are features such as real-time call translation, text translation, speech-to-text translation, auto-formatting notes, and more.
It's worth mentioning that Samsung plans to bring these AI features to the S23 series phones in the future, as well as the Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 phones.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chip, which is used in all sales regions worldwide. The S24 and S24 Plus only use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the US market, and Exynos chips in other regions, but Samsung says this will not affect AI capabilities. In terms of connectivity, the new device has also been upgraded to Wi-Fi 7.
Surprisingly, all Galaxy S24 series phones have removed Qi2 wireless charging, meaning MagSafe-like magnetic attachments and accessories aren't supported. However, Samsung, like Google, promises to provide 24 years of OS upgrades for the S7 series, including 7 years of security updates. While the Ultra is slightly more expensive this year, it should be worth the price if you plan to use it for a long time.
The Samsung S24 Ultra is available for pre-order today, and shipping will begin on January 31, with the 256GB version starting at $1299.