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Galaxy S24 Ultra: Samsung’s first “AI smartphone”
Photo: Matthias Kremp / DER SPIEGEL
When it comes to design, Samsung was inspired by Apple while remaining true to itself. Just like the iPhone 15 Pro (here our test report), the frame of the Galaxy S24 Ultra is made of titanium. The robust metal feels pleasantly soft and sits well in the hand. You still can't use it with one hand, as the 6.8-inch screen is too big for that.
The basic shape is very reminiscent of the Galaxy S23 Ultra from last year (here our test report). The arrangement of the cameras on the back is also identical, and the S Pen, which you can use to write, draw and paint on the screen, is housed in the same place in the housing. By the way, the small pen works excellently despite its cheap-looking design. Anyone who likes to take handwritten notes - which I don't - will get along well with this.
have a look
A visible improvement is the new design of the screen. The S23 Ultra's display was slightly curved at the edges. The screen of the S24 Ultra is now – finally – completely flat and can be used right up to the edge. The era of curved screens may be over. Why Samsung didn't take this step last year is a mystery to me.
The screen itself, on the other hand, is anything but obscure. Like its predecessor, it is razor-sharp, has 3120 by 1440 pixels, and the refresh rate can vary from one frame per second when reading to up to 120 frames per second when scrolling and playing. The meaning behind it: the fewer images the display has to show, the less energy it requires.
A lot of energy is wasted when you use your cell phone in the blazing sun. The display then reaches a peak brightness of 2600 nits, 200 more than the Pixel 8 Pro and 600 more than the iPhone 15 Pro. This is bright, very bright.
Pixels instead of lenses
As the design suggests, not much has changed with the cameras. Like the S23 Ultra, the S24 Ultra has a wide-angle camera with 200 megapixels. However, their full resolution is rarely of use. It can only be useful for very bright subjects. Use the full 200 megapixels. The better photos can be achieved in 12 megapixel mode, in which 16 sensor pixels are combined to form one image pixel.
The ultra wide-angle camera also has a resolution of 12 megapixels, while the triple telephoto camera has to be content with 10 megapixels. What's new is that the second telephoto camera now has 50 instead of 10 megapixels and its optical zoom lens only has a fivefold magnification. The predecessor still had a tenx zoom. That makes you skeptical. Has Samsung cut the big telephoto?
The answer is yes, but the images are now cropped: Instead of zooming in on the subject using the lens, at zoom levels above a factor of five, a 50-megapixel image of the five-fold zoom is cropped so that the section selected using the zoom function remains. That sounds like cheating, but it works well up to 10x zoom - if it's bright enough. It is better not to use this digital zoom in the dark.
Artificial intelligence – a little bit everywhere
Unlike the hardware, there are many innovations in the software of the S24 series in the form of AI functions. Artificial intelligence, which the company refers to as AI using the English term artificial intelligence, is almost ubiquitous. The AI - or AI - can be found in the devices of the S24 series in the camera, the notebook, the telephone function and more. In order to collect everything on the topic, you can now find the AI options under the name “Modern AI functions” in the settings under “Advanced functions”. Samsung's AI assistant Bixby, which is listed below this menu entry, can therefore be assigned to the old AI functions.
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Not just AI functions, but “modern AI functions”
Photo: Matthias Kremp / DER SPIEGEL
The old AI functions basically include a lot of what goes on in the photo app. For example, there is the option of circling and deleting unwanted objects in the image with your finger or the S Pen. The special thing about it: Instead of leaving a white spot in the image, generative AI fills the missing area with a background that matches the surroundings. Google has long offered such a function as a “magic eraser”. As long as you limit yourself to small areas of the image, it works well. If you snip around large areas, the AI can't think of any meaningful fill patterns and it hallucinates a background.
Generative AI is better used if you want to subsequently rotate a snapshot by a few degrees because the image is crooked. Previously, in such cases, the photo was cropped to a reduced rectangle in order to cut off the corners that had no content. On the S24, the AI now produces filler pieces that fit the edge of the image so that the recording retains its original size.
Put an end to reflections
What's more amusing than useful is that Samsung's software marks images manipulated in this way with a small symbol that is installed as a watermark in the bottom left of the image. You can't do this with the AI delete function because it would leave a new watermark. The easier way is to simply cut off the left corner of the image to make the manipulation unrecognizable.
What can be very useful, but doesn't always work perfectly, is the ability to delete reflections when shooting through reflective windows. Unfortunately, Samsung's user interface specialists have hidden this option well. You can find it in the “Gallery” app by tapping on the circled “i” and waiting a moment until the software has analyzed the image and displays editing suggestions. In the same way, you can add background blur later, which can give some images a SLR look.
What is this text about?
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Quickly summarize a text: This often works well
Photo: Matthias Kremp / DER SPIEGEL
Not only images, but also texts can be processed by the AI in Samsung's new smartphones. What works great: format notes typed as a text sausage in an attractive way and summarize texts such as meeting recordings. After just a few days, the latter in particular has proven to be an extremely useful tool for me in assessing whether it is worth reading a long text in its entirety. It's a shame that this only works in the note app and Samsung's web browser and only with texts that are free of paywalls. The AI can also combine PDF files after importing them into the notes app. However, more than around three pages of text is too much for artificial intelligence.
Moderately multilingual
The interpreting and translation functions are not quite as impressive. The possibility of having the AI interpret telephone calls with people who speak different languages requires patience. Instead of real time, the translation takes place with a waiting time. And only correctly if you speak clearly and not too quickly. The success of such phone calls depends above all on whether those called understand and accept the AI and its peculiarities. Even the computer voice that introduces such a conversation and points out that it will be translated by computer could put some people off.
My attempts to have texts in other languages transcribed and then translated were at least partly off-putting. A recording from Korean television left me completely at a loss; an excerpt from an American talk show was not translated elegantly, but was at least understandable. The AI summary of it actually contained everything important.
Circulate the problem
However, the AI function that I used the most during the testing phase is called Circle to Search. And even though Samsung tried to give the impression in its presentations of the S24 series that this was a Samsung invention, this feature comes from Google and will also be available on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro from January 31st (here is our test report). be available.
The charming thing about this feature is its simplicity. No matter what is shown on the screen: If you press briefly on the bottom center of the screen, a kind of virtual transparent film is placed over the display on which you can use your finger or S Pen to circle the object you want to know more about. The AI then crawls the web and often, but not always, accurately displays what you see. The function is reminiscent of Google Lens, but because it is always available it opens up completely different possibilities. What kind of jacket does the main character wear in the film? In which city did my girlfriend take the selfie that I saw on Instagram? What is the name of the house I'm standing in front of? If they are large enough to be recognized, words and terms can also be searched for in this way. It couldn't be easier to google your way through the world.
How fast is it? Fast enough
As always, Samsung has installed the currently fastest Qualcomm processor in its top model in a Samsung version that is slightly overclocked. This ensures that the device is always ahead in benchmark tests. Since such performance comparisons only provide a theoretical picture, we leave it with the statement: The Galaxy S24 Ultra is fast enough. Almost always. There are waiting times especially for AI functions, such as the transcription of texts.
Updates into the next decade
Samsung ships all models in the S24 series with Android 14, which has been overlaid with its own One UI user interface. The fact that the company is one of the few manufacturers to install the current Google operating system on its new devices is commendable. Honor, for example, still delivers its expensive folding smartphone Magic V2 (here our test report) with Android 13. More importantly, Samsung promises to provide the devices with Android updates for seven years. So it makes sense that it already supports Wi-Fi 7, a WLAN standard for which there is hardly any hardware available so far.
So far, only Google has promised similarly long update times for the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro and Fairphone. Assuming there are enough spare parts and, above all, replacement batteries, an update should be installed in 2031. In view of previous product cycles, this is an idea that is as irritating as it is, from an ecological point of view, exhilarating.
Conclusion
👍 Very good screen 👍 Useful AI features 👍 Good battery life 👍 Long update supply |
👎 High price |
With the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung is currently launching what is probably the best Android smartphone. The hardware is of the finest quality, and some of the new AI functions are really useful. Above all, they provide an outlook on what will be possible in the future once the childhood illnesses, for example in interpreting, are cured. With the promise that the device will receive updates for seven years, you can perhaps even gloss over the high price.
This has increased by 50 euros to 1449 euros compared to the S23 Ultra. Mind you for the entry-level version with 256 gigabytes (GB) of memory. The 512 GB version costs 1,569 euros, the 1 terabyte model costs 1,809 euros. Until January 31st Samsung offers the two small models with twice the storage, the terabyte version at 512 GB price.
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