Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: Smartphone of the Year

We’re at the end of the year and Samsung is ready to reveal its next flagship phone but 2024 has seen new releases, especially in the premium segments and a few could be called the smartphone of the year including the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which is the best phone so far.

Choosing the best smartphone is difficult between appearances and the mountain of specifications. But, consumers want these combined with a factor called “usability”.

New customers may think “Can I use this phone and how much will it cost?” or “Would it be better than my current device and is it worth upgrading?” (if you are upgrading”).

These are some common thoughts, yours may be different and it’s better not to fix anything on this specific topic.

Also, the criteria differ for different consumers, you may like mobile photography, consuming or creating audio-video content, playing games, jotting down creative ideas, or anything else.

And if you are looking for a flagship phone, it should serve each of these above-mentioned purposes and even more.

Coming back to the topic, Samsung, Chinese phone makers, and Apple released their latest devices at different times in 2024. However, only the Galaxy S24 Ultra is more consumer-centric.

In that case, we brought you 6 reasons why the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra tops the list as the best smartphone released this year and why it surpasses the competition.

Author’s comment – Before we move forward, I want to give my condolences to Pixel lovers (not the entire user base), it is a “good” device but needs to learn a few things from ecosystem counterparts to be called a flagship.

Note to readers – These facts and information might differ from your experience and opinions about the S24 Ultra. In the end, consumer choices matter.

Table of content

• Display
• Improved Design
• Stability
• Performance
• Camera
• Software Policy

Display

That’s the front look at the phone, right? The Galaxy S24 Ultra has the best and the brightest display in any phone released in 2024. That’s where we kick in a practical guide.

Its QHD+ resolution screen is capable of running 4K and 8K videos right on the device. If you are not into this video stuff, let’s go to the basics.

The screen has an anti-reflective layer, which reduces the glares and reflections compared to the S23 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro. It improves visibility to read on-screen content and even outdoors in direct sunlight.

Let’s take a look at more practical experiments, I’ve held the S23 Ultra, iPhone 16 Pro, and S24 Ultra in my hand for 10 minutes and read a few online articles. The aim of this brief test was to look at the screen continuously and check the experience.

S23 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro offer great views but S24 Ultra has the upper hand with this anti-reflective capability. That made my reading session comprehensible and less eye-straining than the other two devices.

This result was identical to watching YouTube and the video quality appeared a lot clearer in the S24 Ultra with its 6.8-inch screen.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (Credit – Sammyfans)

Most improved Design

There are only three smartphone lineups that intrigued me about the phone designs – Galaxy S series, Galaxy Note series, and iPhones.

Since Samsung has discontinued the Note and blended it into the Ultra model, we’ll be talking about Galaxy S and iPhones.

Over the past three years, Samsung has adopted a minimal upgrade policy for Ultra devices. Its design is heavily influenced by the Note device.

The curved screen is the only special feature that remained consistent in Samsung’s flagship phones for nearly a decade. That also changed in the past few years, Samsung spirited away from this display type and reduced its radius.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (Credit – Sammyfans)

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra launched as a major milestone in design shift and flattened the screen from all sides and corners. Providing a wide view for you to surf content and enjoy more screen time.

This flat display allowed the company to reduce frame curves to the lowest, providing a better grip and fewer accidental touches, which used to happen in a curved screen environment.

These two aspects cooperate and make them more accessible and interactive than previous flagship devices.

Stable than ever

The design improvement doesn’t end there, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is the first phone with titanium material use, improving the stability of the overall device.

The material offers durability and more impact resistance compared to aluminum. It provides better strength and overall weight reduction. It is more heat resistant due to the nature of this material. One more thing, the titanium-infused frame is way more sturdy in hand than the previous arc design.

More competitive

It was launched in January 2024, and the phone offers both efficiency and power for everything you open on the device. Whether you are multi-tasking, scrolling through the 120Hz refresh rate screen, capturing images, playing games, or using

It derives power from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, a 4nm technology processed chipset. I’ve been using this device for the past 10 months and there has been no reason to put it away.

I’ve been using this device alongside the iPhone 16 Pro but most of the screen time goes to the S24U. It’s because the S24 Ultra is more practical as a daily driver than the 16 Pro.

Gaming on Galaxy S24 Ultra (Credit – Sammyfans)

This practicality continues from previous generations and S24U made it even better with fast performance. The phone remained stable and performed in sync with the software to not stuck in any app or games that I’ve opened.

Efficiency is the flip side of the coin when you talk about performance. The app’s runtime could take a heavy toll on the battery.

However, the S24 Ultra has improved this part thanks to the efficient power handling in the SD 8 Gen 3. Therefore, the phone offers a better battery and could last a day even after good use.

Camera

S24 Ultra has four cameras including a 200-megapixel sensor. With this, you can capture significant scene details. To simplify the user interaction and pace up the shutter speed, Samsung has set the default resolution to 12mp.

Even in default resolution, the camera takes more light and captures bright images than its predecessor and iPhones. Features such as live portrait videos make the camera more useful for recording important moments.

The nighttime photography is also improved, reducing noise and grainy elements from the images. These things are quite important when you are taking pictures or recording videos in a low-light environment and S24U passes this test with 10/10 marks.

The 12MP ultra-wide angle takes more scene into account, there’s not much of the difference here compared to the S23U but to improve the lighting.

The phone can zoom between different distances with a periscope and a secondary telephoto. You can use it to close into a distant object, it can retain the captured object’s quality. However, the use of AI in this segment could do better for digital zoom.

Samsung Camera App (Credit – Sammyfans)

Meanwhile, 3x optical zoom works great and captures so much detail in smaller objects in case you like macros.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s camera can do more than just take pictures. If you are an expert photographer, try the Expert Raw app to enter a whole new world of advanced features and imaging parameters. I’ve used this app and you can take its output to edit on a PC or Mac with dedicated photo editing software.

That’s not it, you can shoot videos at 8K resolution for max resolution, which most phones cannot record at the moment. If not, you can try 4K at 120fps utilizing the main camera at its full capacity. Samsung S24 Ultra has improved the 4K mode along with color accuracy.

Software

The Galaxy S24 Ultra packs One UI 6 (Android 14) software system out of the box. It has plenty of new features and UI improvements over One UI 5 but most of them are contributing to the usability factor.

You don’t need to be a pro to use the software, swipe left and right or up and down to unfold its features. That’s all you need to see this software in action.

The camera app is easy to use, quick settings provide access to key features, and gesture helps you to pace up the interactions and switch back and forth through already opened apps.

You can edit images and remove objects with AI or create videos with the onboard studio app.

Lock screen customizations enable you to personalize the device by setting a customized image and adding different effects for a better user experience.

These are just a few examples of what One UI is capable of, once you get a grip on this software, it expands to even more customizations with the Good Lock app.

One UI 7

The phone brings 7 years of OS and security updates thanks to the newest software developments.

At the time of writing this article, Samsung has released One UI 7 beta. This is the first major software upgrade for S24 Ultra with drastic changes in UI and features. The camera app has received an overhaul, animations are smoothened, UI is redesigned with more dynamic elements.

This software rollout will transform Galaxy S24 Ultra into a whole new device from a software perspective and it’s coming first for the model.

That’s something special about Samsung’s after-sales service, which keeps on getting better and the S24 Ultra is the latest example of this change.

Undefeated S-Pen

Samsung’s flagship phones are the only smartphones to bring a stylus, especially fitting inside the device. You can push and pull this accessory out of the smartphone at any time.

This is durable and you can use it to draw, doodle, sketch, and do more within the device. That’s the technological advancement, Samsung has over its competitors in a flagship device, which others cannot.

Conclusion

Just like any other premium device, no smartphone is perfect for every buyer but the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with these capabilities and upgrades reached on top of the list for many consumers this year.

The flagship is still on sale and the holiday season has brought huge discounts. If you looking to buy a new flagship, check the latest offers on the official Samsung website or Amazon.

Doesn’t like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra as the smartphone of the year, what’s your pick? Reach to our social channels and share your opinion with others.