SAMSUNG GALAXY UNPACKED
Price: £1,349 from fave.co/3vZF5G6
Samsung releases dozens of phones every single year but unless you want a high-end foldable, it’s the Galaxy S series that gets most of the attention.
And within that range, the Ultra model is the one Samsung really wants you to buy. This is a Samsung smartphone at full throttle, offering almost every conceivable feature people are looking for in a handset.
That’s certainly true of the S24 Ultra, which adds a new chipset, titanium build and several AI features to the mix, not to mention a new and improved commitment to software updates.
But is that enough to make it worth the eye-watering price tag? For some people, the answer will be a resounding yes. And from using it as my main phone for a week, I can understand why.
DESIGN
Samsung has changed the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s design in a couple of major ways, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the back of the phone. Aesthetically, it’s almost identical to last year’s S23 Ultra, which itself was a nearcarbon copy of the S22 Ultra.
While this may be frustrating to some, I’m pleased to see Samsung stick with this tried-and-tested design. Provided you don’t mind a huge 6.8-inch phone, it’s still comfortable to use.
A matte coating on the glass back helps the phone avoid picking up visible fingerprint smudges and other dirt. But it still looks and feels very premium, even on the muted grey model I tested. Black (shown below), violet and yellow versions are also widely available, plus blue, green and orange if you go direct to Samsung.
All seven colours are prefixed with the word ‘titanium’, hinting at the frame of the device. The Ultra is the only S24 phone to include titanium, though you might be aware that it’s not the first smartphone: Apple introduced it on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max in 2023 to much fanfare.
