Hands-on: The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s titanium is good, but the flat display is all that matters

Ben Schoon | Jan 17 2024 - 10:20 am PT

Samsung has just announced its new, more expensive Galaxy S24 Ultra. What’s new? At a glance, not much, but there are a few key points we took away from our hands-on time.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra looks a lot like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which looked a lot like the S22 Ultra before it. Clearly, Samsung has settled into a design language that it likes. And, it works. Like those previous phones, Samsung’s latest is a big ol’ brick, but in a good way. But what’s actually new?

On the hardware front, there are really only two changes.

The first is the titanium rail on the side of the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Apple made a huge marketing deal out of this on the iPhone 15 Pro and it was definitely overhyped there. I’m not sure how hard Samsung will push it on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but it’s really a minor point at best. The frame feels nicer this year since it’s matte rather than glossy (but it’s still plenty grippy), but there’s no difference in weight here. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is still a hefty phone at 233g.

The far bigger impact here is the display, which is finally flat.

Using a flat display on an S Pen-touting, giant-screen phone has always felt like the right call to me, and it’s absurd that it took this long for Samsung to get on board. Nonetheless, we’re finally here, and it’s wonderful. The screen looks better visually (even though yes, the bezels are a bit more visible) and it’s way nicer to use with the stylus. It should also leave screen protectors easier to install and cheaper as no crazy methods of application will be required.

I also really dig the purple color and how it contrasts with the titanium rail.

The rest of the story with the Galaxy S24 Ultra is all about the software, at least so far. I look forward to putting the hardware through its paces in the weeks to come (stay tuned for our full review), but AI was Samsung’s big focus during our demo time.

We’ve got a whole article breaking down Samsung’s new “Galaxy AI” suite, but what I’d like to add to that here is just how impressively cohesive Samsung’s work here is. Galaxy AI features feel natural, non-invasive, and logical. I’ve really struggled to integrate this new wave of AI into my life, but the way Samsung has implemented a lot of this stuff is genuinely great, especially the translation bits. Samsung’s “Live Translate” for calls feels, while not quite as commonly useful, as powerful as Google’s “Call Screen” on Pixel.

As good as it all does seem, though, I have one big concern.

The price.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra at $1,199 was already a pretty tough sell, and now Samsung wants $100 more for a phone that is really not all that inherently better. It has basically all of the same hardware features, and the company is porting back all of the AI stuff to last year’s phones anyway. The only big selling point is that you get 7 years of software updates, but you can get that on a Pixel 8 Pro for $300 less.

I’ll be very interested to see if more time with the Galaxy S24 Ultra changes my mind here. What do you think so far?

The Samsung Galaxy S24 series is available for pre-order now, starting at $799. Pre-orders come with doubled storage, boosted trade-ins up to $750, and bonus credit up to $150.

You can get an additional $50 off your purchase on Samsung.com using our exclusive links above.