I went to the Samsung showroom to check out (😁as much possible) the Galaxy S24 Ultra and its capabilities, and I wanted to see if this phone can convince me to upgrade from my S22 Ultra.
So here’s what I saw and what I felt. I picked up the Galaxy S24 Ultra and noticed some differences from the S22 Ultra. The phone is slightly wider and feels more solid, mostly because the frame is much more boxy and the back is also flat, just like the front.
Galaxy S24 Ultra Design & Display
The display has many changes. But are they really visible in real life? Are they that much different? Well, actually, in certain scenarios they are, and in certain cases they aren’t. For example, the flatness of the display is something that you can see and feel every single time. But is it better than the curved display? I doubt it. Because it’s about preferences.
But the point is, the S22 Ultra has a very similar style of screen. It is still a boxy screen and it also has similar colors. It’s not like a 2013 vs 2019 display panel difference. They are very much similar in terms of color reproduction and everything. But where are the differences? Well, there are two big places where you can see differences. One is the bezels, which are really thin on the S24 Ultra because of its flatness. And the punch hole is also slightly smaller in comparison.
But the difference that I wanted to see was the brightness. And to my surprise, even though it’s 2600 nits vs 1750 nits, which I couldn’t test out because I wasn’t able to take this phone out in the sun, but under direct sunlight, yes, there is going to be a good difference. But under manual brightness, which is what most people use or are supposed to use, that’s not where there is a big difference. Because it’s 1500 nits on the S24 Ultra vs only 1200 nits on the S22 Ultra that too with the extra brightness toggled on.
And for those people who don’t know about the peak brightness, it usually is reserved for a few more pixels, not for the full display. And that lasts for a short amount of time, because it makes the phone go quite warm. The coating on the display, which makes it much less reflective compared to the S22 Ultra is one of the biggest changes.
Galaxy S24 Ultra Other Upgrades
The next change I wanted to see was the battery, but hey, a battery test needs like seven to fifteen days at the very least to do that. I didn’t feel the difference between titanium and stainless steel. I didn’t feel the difference between the titanium frame of the S24 Ultra and the armor aluminum frame of the S22 Ultra. Both of them felt very solid. Except the fact that the S22 Ultra looks more beautiful, because it’s glossy, but it also a fingerprint magnet. Whereas the S24 Ultra has a matte finish, and it looks gorgeous too. But you know, glossy things make it kind of like a jewelry, so I think I like that. Well, anyway…
Another thing that I couldn’t test out is the performance. The performance to open normal applications is similar on both of them. I mean, you can’t really see a difference in that department. But the difference is actually going to be in the bigger applications, such as games or something like that. Or if you’re doing something on direct sunlight or with higher brightness on, and things like that, where it needs a lot of juice from the CPU and GPU together. The system performance and the peak performance are going to be better on the S24 Ultra, just like the way the battery performance is.
So you’re getting a much more headroom, but for the normal applications, like YouTube, music, and all these things, or the normal standard games, both of these two phones are just fine.
Camera Comparison (in Video format)
So overall, from what I saw and what I felt in that one hour of usage, even being a phone reviewer, I still think the S22 Ultra holds its own ground, if not better in some smaller scenarios. And I think the upgrades are good upgrades. Like the flat display is a good upgrade. The bezels are a pretty cool upgrade. The brightness is definitely an upgrade, even though manually it’s not that much difference. The performance is going to be a difference too, but in the long run, I would say. Or when you put it under too much load. And the same thing can be said about the battery life. Even though I haven’t tested it, many of you are saying it is better than the S23 Ultra, which was even way better than the S22 Ultra.
So the overall upgrade is very good, if not too good. But when Samsung has to convince me, they will have to convince me through the price as well. How much am I paying for this in my market? The phone starts at 1560 bucks. Yes, that’s the base 256GB model. But if I do pre-order, then I’m going to get those offers, like 512GB RAM and a little more discount here and there. back in Galaxy S22 Ultra’s time, it was also launched at the same exact price$1500, almost. But if I do trade in and get all those offers that Samsung are offering while pre-ordering, then the value they are giving me currently is about 730 bucks for this phone, including all those discounts. Whether that is the bank discount or whether that is the exchange bonus or anything. So literally, I have to pay $830 bucks only for these upgrades. And if that is the case, then this upgrade is not worth it for me. No, hell no. Since of the AI features are gonna be behind paywall after 2025, others will also arrive on most Galaxy models.
Because my S22 Ultra is fairly new and it doesn’t do anything wrong in day to day life. It’s not lagging or anything. So don’t see myself upgrading this year. But if your S22 Ultra is lagging or cracked screen or not giving good battery life (probable) then you should upgrade, in the US for the $1300 S24 Ultra(unlocked), you will have to pay only $649 if you trade in a Galaxy S22 Ultra. So depending on how satisfied you’re with the Galaxy S22 Ultra or its condition it might be good enough deal.
Note: This video/article is only for reference. This is not a proper comparison between the S24 Ultra and the S22 Ultra, because I only had one hour of time and that too under artificial lighting, not natural sunlight or something like that. So even being a phone reviewer, I can’t really give you a judgment on certain things like the peak brightness, the battery life, or even the real life performance, because that needs at least 30 days to do that. This video is just to see how much Samsung has done to convince a customer like me
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