Samsung is extending the One UI 6.1.1 upgrade to older mobile devices, bringing with it the latest Galaxy AI features! Here is what you need to know…
Samsung extends One UI 6.1.1 to older mobile devices!
Samsung just announced the rollout to One UI 6.1.1 to older mobile devices like the Galaxy S24 series, the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S23 FE, Galaxy Z Fold5, Galaxy Z Flip5, and even the Galaxy Tab S9 series of tablets.
The Samsung One UI 6.1.1 operating system will introduce new Galaxy AI features, as well as other communications and productivity upgrades.
Seamless Communication with Galaxy AI
The new Galaxy AI features in One UI 6.1.1 will allow for easier multilingual communication.
The new Interpreter feature includes Listening Mode and one-way translation for presentations, will now available on the wider range of devices. Chat Assist with Composer allows users to draft emails and social media posts by simply entering keywords, with Galaxy AI generating messages in the desired tone and style.
Additionally, Suggested Replies, once exclusive to the Galaxy Z Flip6, are now available on the Galaxy S24 series, providing quick response options when paired with the Galaxy Watch7 or Galaxy Watch Ultra.
Transform your Galaxy device into a productivity powerhouse with the latest Galaxy AI features.
Note Assist simplifies meeting note-taking with translation and summaries, while the new Transcript feature quickly generates notes from voice recordings. PDF Overlay Translation translates and overlays text in PDF files, and Sketch to Image enhances photos with generated image options based on simple sketches.
The advanced Circle to Search with Google now includes step-by-step math problem solutions and a new Sound Search feature for finding audio content.
Enhance Your Creativity with Ease
Galaxy AI enables users to create professional-quality content effortlessly. With Portrait Studio, transform photos into various styles, including 3D cartoon or watercolor. Instant Slow-mo lets users smoothly slow down videos while preserving image quality, making it easy to save and share.
Availability of Samsung One UI 6.1.1 for older mobile devices
The software update for the Samsung Galaxy S24 series will begin rolling out from 9 September 2024 onwards. Software updates for additional Galaxy devices will be available in the coming weeks.
Please Support My Work!
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Take a look at the battery charging speed of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and find out how fast you can recharge with the official 15W, 25W and 45W chargers!
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Supports Up To 45W Charging!
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box. You can either use the standard 15 watt fast charger from your previous Samsung smartphone, or purchase a 25 watt or 45 watt super fast charger.
Best To Use Samsung Fast Charger
You can use non-Samsung fast chargers, but while they may charge your Galaxy S24 Ultra, they will likely not charge at full speed.
For example, I tested the Galaxy S24 Ultra using 65W and 96W PD fast chargers, but they failed to charge faster than 25 watts. It would only charge beyond 25 watts with an official Samsung 45W fast charger… 🙁
How To Tell If You’re Charging At Full Speed
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra doesn’t make clear how fast you are charging, so how do you know if you are charging fast enough?
When you plug in the charger, the charging protocol will flash for a few seconds on the display of your Galaxy S24 Ultra:
Fast charging : you’re charging at up to 15 watts
Super fast charging : you’re charging at up to 25 watts
Super fast charging 2.0 : you’re charging at up to 45 watts
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has fast charging enabled by default. But if you are using a Samsung fast charger, and it somehow isn’t charging at full speed, here is how you can verify if fast charging is enabled.
Go to Settings > Battery > Charging settings
Make sure Fast charging is enabled.
If not, tap on Fast charging to enable it.
Please note that this setting cannot be changed while the Galaxy S24 Ultra is charging. You will need to pull out the cable before making any changes.
You Must Use Correct Cable
Samsung fast charging protocols also require you to comply with minimum cable requirements:
25W super fast charging : 3A cable minimum
45W super fast charging 2.0 : 5A cable minimum
The Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with the Samsung EP-DN980, which is USB-C to USB-C cable that supports up to 5A of current. So this cable will readily support 45W charging.
In the next section, we will look at how fast the Galaxy S24 Ultra charges with the official 15W, 25W and 45W chargers!
We tested the Galaxy S24 Ultra using the official 15W, 25W and 45W Samsung fast chargers, and the results are really surprising!
Galaxy S24 Ultra
Charging Time
Charging Speed
15 Watts
106.5 minutes
37.6 mAh per min.
25 Watts
68 minutes
58.8 mAh per min.
45 Watts
66 minutes
60.6 mAh per min.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra charges really fast with a 15 watt charger, and even faster with a 25 watt charger. It basically needs just over 1.75 hours to fully recharge with a 15 watt charger, and just over one hour with a 25 watt charger.
Unfortunately, upgrading to the 45 watt charger doesn’t improve its charging speed much. It only shaved 2 minutes off the charging time with a 25 watt charger!
In fact, that’s actually its best time. On two other occasions, it charged slower than the 25 watt charger! Really quite unexpected.
Just in case you are wondering – it does charge at 45 watts, but only at the beginning for a short time. After that it charged at between 12 watts to 24 watts for most of the charge.
With such results, I can only recommend purchasing the optional 25 watt USB-C super fast charger. It will cut your charging time by a considerable 38.5 minutes for a full recharge:
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
We got our hands on the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone right after its official launch. Let’s take a quick look at the box before we check out what’s inside!
Once you fully unbox the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, this is what you will find inside:
the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone
a Quick Start Guide in two languages, and a warranty card
a USB Type C to USB Type C data and charging cable
a SIM tray extraction pin
That’s it! While the Galaxy S24 Ultra supports 45 watt fast charging, it does not come with the charger. You will need to purchase it separately. Neither does it come with a TPU bumper case to tide you over until you get a better one.
Now, let us go through its key features, and show you why the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is worthy of our Editor’s Choice Award!
Boosted Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Performance!
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is powered exclusively by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy in all regions of the world. It comes with a slightly overclocked prime core.
1 x Arm Cortex-X4 core (3.39 GHz, instead of 3.3 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A720 cores
2 x Arm Cortex-A720 cores
2 x Arm Cortex-A520 cores
This mobile SoC also comes with the Qualcomm Adreno 750 GPU which supports ray-tracing, an improved Hexagon NPU, and the Snapdragon X75 5G modem that supports Sub-6Ghz and mmWave connectivity.
Improved Cooling
To ensure that the processor remains cool, the Galaxy S24 Ultra sports a 90% larger vapour chamber. This should allow it to better sustain peak performance during intense gaming sessions or AI photo / video editing,
The Galaxy S24 Ultra sports the same 200 MP Adaptive Pixel main camera, which was first introduced in last year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra.
It is built around the Samsung ISOCELL HP2 (S5KHP2) sensor, which is a large 1/1.3-inch sensor with 200 million pixels, each of which is 0.6 μm in size. The Galaxy S24 Ultra camera can combine up to 16 pixels to form a single large pixel for much better low-light performance.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can also record 8K videos at 30 frames per second, instead of just 24 fps in the Galaxy S22 Ultra. It also boasts better Adaptive VDIS capability, and improved optical image stabilisation (OIS), delivering silky smooth videos by doubling the angle to ±3°, from the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s camera‘s ±1.5°.
50 MP Telephoto Camera
The main camera upgrade in the Galaxy S24 Ultra is its new 50 MP telephoto camera, with a 5X optical zoom. It is said to be built around the Sony IMX854 sensor, which is a 1/2.52″ sensor with 0.7 μm pixels.
While its optical zoom reach has halved from 10X, a combination of its higher resolution sensor, and deep learning AI algorithms, allow Samsung to deliver better digital zoom. This new zoom camera also has the advantage of a wider f/3.4 aperture (compared to just f/4.9), which should improve its low-light performance.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra reuses the same 3X zoom and 12 MP ultra-wide angle cameras from the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
12 MP Selfie Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra also reuses the Galaxy S23 Ultra‘s 12 MP camera, with the same f/2.2 aperture. This is a Dual Pixel camera, which allows for faster and more accurate auto-focus.
SIM Tray Without SD Card Slot
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra supports two physical SIM cards, as well as a single eSIM. The SIM tray is located at the bottom, next to the USB port.
S Pen
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with the same S Pen as the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It too boasts a very quick 2.8 ms latency.
We tried swapping them and both S Pens appear to fit both devices. From what we can tell – they are physically and functionally similar, if not exactly the same.
USB Type C Port
At the bottom of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, you will find a SIM card tray, next to the USB port, as well as the S Pen in its slot. The USB port is, of course, the bidirectional Type C port, which is now the EU standard.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is protected in the front by Corning Gorilla Armour glass, which is not only tougher against scratches, but also reduces reflection by up to 75%.
Titanium Frame
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is the first Samsung smartphone to feature a titanium frame, which is not only tougher, but also allows for a thinner chassis.
5,000 mAh Fast-Charging Battery
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with a large 5,000 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, which supports 45 watt fast wired charging, and 15 watt fast wireless charging.
To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, to fix the brightness level and make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.
We also set its display brightness to 50%, which is slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day.
We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with the Standard and Adaptive refresh rates :
Look at that! The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra lasted almost 14 hours with the Adaptive refresh mode enabled, and lasted almost 16.5 hours with the Standard refresh mode!
This is a 6-7% improvement in battery life over last year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra – approximately an extra hour of battery life, at the same battery capacity. Very nice!
Now, let’s compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the Z Flip5, the S23 Ultra, and the S22 Ultra smartphones.
Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra naturally has the best battery life with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz (Standard) – lasting just under 16.5 hours.
Even though it runs on powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is more power-efficient than Samsung’s older flagship devices like the Z Flip5, the S23 Ultra, and the S22 Ultra.
Work 3.0
S24 Ultra
S23 Ultra
S22 Ultra
Z Flip 5
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
3,700 mAh
Battery Life
16 hrs 25 mins
15 hrs 18 mins
14 hrs 15 mins
11 hrs 4 mins
Utilisation
per min.
4.06 mAh
4.36 mAh
4.68 mAh
4.46 mAh
Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Adaptive refresh rate is so efficient, it lasts almost 14 hours. Even so, the higher refresh rate uses a significant amount of power.
Even with the same battery capacity and similar Adaptive Mode enabled, the Galaxy S24 Ultra uses 6% less power than the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and 23% less power than the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.
So we tested it using the standard 15 watt and 25 watt Samsung fast chargers that shipped with their previous smartphones, which is what we believe most users will end up doing.
S22 Ultra
S24 Ultra
S23 Ultra
S24 Ultra
Z Flip 5
Z Flip 5
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
3,700 mAh
3,700 mAh
Charger Output
15 watts
25 watts
15 watts
15 watts
25 watts
15 watts
Charging Time
64.5 min
68 min
88.8 min
106.5 min
105 min
129.5 min
Charging Speed
(per minute)
62.0 mAh
58.8 mAh
45.0 mAh
37.6 mAh
28.2 mAh
22.9 mAh
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra charges really fast with a 15 watt charger, and even faster with a 25 watt charger. It basically needs just over 1.75 hours to fully recharge with a 15 watt charger, and just over one hour with a 25 watt charger.
This gives us a battery life to recharging time ratio of about 7.8:1 (15 watt), or 12.2:1 (25 watt), which is good. You basically get about an hour’s worth of battery life for every 8 minutes you recharge at 15 watts, or 5 minutes at 25 watts.
If you prefer to get faster charging, you should purchase the optional 25 watt USB-C super fast charger. It will cut your charging time by a considerable 38.5 minutes for a full recharge:
There is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra offers top-notch performance, thanks to its use of a slightly overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, and a 90% larger vapour chamber.
It shows in the benchmarks – the Galaxy S24 Ultra topped all of the benchmarks, except for work performance. It is particularly strong in 3D graphics and ray tracing performance. With gaming performance like this, dedicated gaming smartphones seem rather pointless.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Work Performance
We first tested the Galaxy S24 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.
Work 3.0
S23
Ultra
S24
Ultra
Z Flip
5
Z Flip
4
S23 FE
Mobile Platform
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8 Gen 3
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8+
Gen 1
Exynos
2200
Performance Score
16408
14931
14655
14429
13971
Web Browsing
15680
11663
11404
12097
11664
Video Editing
7879
6474
7943
7387
7369
Writing
22257
20333
19525
17593
18138
Photo Editing
35533
34350
324420
31762
27060
Data Manipulation
12171
14070
11788
12523
12616
Interestingly, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was much slower than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 used in last year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra, and just barely faster than the SD 8 Gen 2 used in the Galaxy Z Flip5.
I should point out that these are peak performance results. The truth is – you won’t be able to actually tell the difference between all these flagship-class mobile processors in normal usage. They are all really fast.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Storage Performance
PCMark also has an Android Storage 2.0 benchmark that measures the smartphone’s storage I/O performance.
Storage 2.0
Z Flip
5
S23
Ultra
S24
Ultra
S23 FE
Z Flip
4
Mobile Platform
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 9
Gen 3
Exynos
2200
SD 8+
Gen 1
Storage Score
48435
41647
33005
31839
27271
Sequential Read (MB/s)
2676.53
2592.42
2907.37
1584.66
1350.51
Random Read (MB/s)
49.95
38.25
60.98
31.25
33.94
Sequential Write (MB/s)
2631.38
603.29
3084.95
510.16
256.81
Random Write (MB/s)
76.66
81.44
106.34
81.13
50.29
Samsung appeared to be using faster flash storage in the Galaxy S24 Ultra. However, its overall storage score was lower than the S23 Ultra and Z Flip5, due to much slower database read and write speeds.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Gaming Performance
For gaming, we tested the Galaxy S24 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :
3DMark
S24
Ultra
S23
Ultra
Z Flip
5
Z Flip
4
S23 FE
Mobile Platform
SD 8
Gen 3
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8+
Gen 1
Exynos
2200
Solar Bay Unlimited
8576
NA
5481
NA
4570
Wild Life Extreme
Unlimited
5020
3814
3705
2636
2233
Wild Life Unlimited
20534
14554
14823
11144
8671
Sling Shot Extreme
Unlimited
19653
13904
13558
6912
9484
Sling Shot Unlimited
22656
16344
16661
10690
11348
Where the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra really shines is in its gaming performance. Its Adreno 750 GPU not only supports ray tracing, it does a fantastic job of delivering top-notch 3D graphics performance.
Not only does it have a faster GPU, the Samsung S24 Ultra also has a 90% larger vapour chamber that allows it to better sustain peak performance during intense gaming sessions.
Although ray tracing games are far and few in between for now, the new Solar Bay benchmark shows that the Galaxy S24 Ultra delivers 56% better 3D with ray tracing performance than the Galaxy Z Flip5, and 88% better performance. than the Galaxy S23 FE!
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Overall Performance
We then tested the Galaxy S24 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :
AnTuTu
S24
Ultra
S23
Ultra
Z Flip
5
S23 FE
Z Flip
4
Device
SD 8
Gen 3
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 2
Exynos
2200
SD 8+
Gen 1
AnTuTu Score
1826776
1212174
1187296
1166868
856357
CPU
456400
261886
393404
329078
205939
GPU
682555
538823
282780
425455
362669
Memory
380519
236163
291048
193981
135707
UX
307302
175302
220064
218354
152042
Will you look at that? The AnTuTu benchmark shows that the Galaxy S24 Ultra is a solid 50% faster than the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 5 – both powered by last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Very nice!
But note that its temperature jumped by almost 12°C! At peak performance, the Galaxy S24 Ultra can get really toasty!
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra boasts a super-high resolution 200 MP main camera, built around the ISOCELL HP2 sensor. This is a large 1/1.3-inch sensor with 200 million pixels, each of which is 0.6 μm in size.
This 200 MP camera can combine up to 16 pixels to form a single large pixel for much better low-light performance. It can also record 8K videos at 30 frames per second, instead of just 24 fps in the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
It also boasts better Adaptive VDIS capability, and improved optical image stabilisation (OIS), delivering silky smooth videos by doubling the angle to ±3°, from the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s camera‘s ±1.5°.
Here are some photo samples I took using the 200 MP main camera in its standard 12 MP mode, at 4000 x 3000 pixels. Its standard JPEG file size is between 4 MB and 8 MB, but to save space, I highly recommend that you enable HEIF – the High Efficiency Image Format, to halve the amount of storage space required for each photo.
By default, the 200 MP camera takes 12 MP photos, combining sixteen pixels into one super-large pixel. Coupled with the improved lens and wider aperture, the final photos are not only much brighter, but have significantly lower noise.
Of course, the 200 MP capability is not there for marketing purposes. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra can truly take 200 MP photos, with a resolution of 16,320 pixels x 12,240 pixels, with each file at about 13-15 MB!
Instead of using the new 50 MP telephoto camera, you can use faraway shots at night using the 200 MP mode, to take advantage of its wide f/1.7 aperture. Then you zoom in, and crop out the section of the photo you want.
Take a look at this 200 MP photo that I took at the Marina Bay Sands using last year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra. From that single photo, I could zoom in to make out individuals within the dome-shaped Apple Store hundreds of metres away – all unbeknownst that they were being captured on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra at night!
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Camera Performance Summary
If you want the best smartphone cameras for photo and video money can buy, you should definitely consider the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Please ignore the 200 MP marketing spiel. In everyday use, it has pretty limited use cases – best used for taking night shots of distance objects IMHO. 99.9% of the time, you are not going to be using this camera in its 200 MP mode.
What you are really getting is an awesome 12 MP camera with super-large pixels for really great noise-free images, and better low-light photos. Just look at the photo samples – everything looks much better when taken with this camera!
It is getting really tough for Samsung to introduce radical improvements in its flagship smartphones. So it’s not surprising that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is an evolutionary upgrade of the excellent Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Samsung didn’t even bother to hide that, reusing the same design almost to the millimetre! It even reused the same S Pen from last year. Its improvements were almost entirely internal.
Its display, for example, is the “same” as the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s display on paper. But it is brighter and offers improved power efficiency. Its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor not only offers really excellent performance, it is also more power-efficient, which helps to significantly improve its battery life.
Even though it comes with the same battery capacity as the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the new Galaxy S24 Ultra boasts 6%-7% longer battery life! That’s an extra hour of battery life on average!
Aside from its Galaxy AI features (which will filter down to older models), the Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with a new 50 MP telephoto camera. While its optical zoom has been halved, its higher resolution sensor and deep-learning AI algorithms allow you to take better quality photos with digital zoom. It also offers better low-light performance, thanks to its wider aperture.
This builds upon Samsung’s legacy of offering the very best photographic and video recording capabilities in its flagship Galaxy S-series, especially when it comes to low-light photography. If you really love photography, and especially like taking photos at night, or in low-light conditions, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will surely impress you.
Finally, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is even tougher this year. It is protected by a Titanium frame for the first time, as well as the new Gorilla Armour glass in the front. As a bonus, Gorilla Armour really is less reflective.
For these reasons, we gladly award the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra our Editor’s Choice Award! Great work, Samsung!
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
The new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra offers two refresh rate options (Settings > Display > Motion smoothness) for its display:
Adaptive : Get smoother animation and scrolling by automatically adjusting your screen refresh rate up to 120 Hz
Standard : Get longer battery life by automatically adjusting your screen refresh rate up to 60 Hz
By default, the Galaxy S24 Ultra uses the Adaptive mode for smoother graphics, but you can choose to switch to the Standard mode for a longer battery life.
While the display may be capable of going as low as 1 Hz, it never went that low. When I tested the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s display in multiple apps, this was what both refresh rate options did:
Adaptive : The display dynamically switches between 24 Hz, and 120 Hz (occasionally 60 Hz, and 80 Hz).
Standard : The display dynamically switches between 24 Hz, and 60 Hz
In the next section, we will look at how the two refresh rate options affect the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s battery life.
To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, to fix the brightness level and make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.
We also set its display brightness to 50%, which is slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day.
We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with the Standard and Adaptive refresh rates :
Look at that! The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra lasted almost 14 hours with the Adaptive refresh mode enabled, and lasted almost 16.5 hours with the Standard refresh mode!
This is a 6-7% improvement in battery life over last year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra – approximately an extra hour of battery life, at the same battery capacity. Very nice!
Now, let’s compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the Z Flip5, the S23 Ultra, and the S22 Ultra smartphones.
Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra naturally has the best battery life with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz (Standard) – lasting just under 16.5 hours.
Even though it runs on powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is more power-efficient than Samsung’s older flagship devices like the Z Flip5, the S23 Ultra, and the S22 Ultra.
Work 3.0
S24 Ultra
S23 Ultra
S22 Ultra
Z Flip 5
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
3,700 mAh
Battery Life
16 hrs 25 mins
15 hrs 18 mins
14 hrs 15 mins
11 hrs 4 mins
Utilisation
per min.
4.06 mAh
4.36 mAh
4.68 mAh
4.46 mAh
Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Adaptive refresh rate is so efficient, it lasts almost 14 hours. Even so, the higher refresh rate uses a significant amount of power.
Even with the same battery capacity and similar Adaptive Mode enabled, the Galaxy S24 Ultra uses 6% less power than the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and 23% less power than the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.
So we tested it using the standard 15 watt and 25 watt Samsung fast chargers that shipped with their previous smartphones, which is what we believe most users will end up doing.
Charging Speed
S22 Ultra
S24 Ultra
S23 Ultra
S24 Ultra
Z Flip 5
Z Flip 5
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
3,700 mAh
3,700 mAh
Charger Output
15 watts
25 watts
15 watts
15 watts
25 watts
15 watts
Charging Time
64.5 min
68 min
88.8 min
106.5 min
105 min
129.5 min
Charging Speed
(per minute)
62.0 mAh
58.8 mAh
45.0 mAh
37.6 mAh
28.2 mAh
22.9 mAh
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra charges really fast with a 15 watt charger, and even faster with a 25 watt charger. It basically needs just over 1.75 hours to fully recharge with a 15 watt charger, and just over one hour with a 25 watt charger.
This gives us a battery life to recharging time ratio of about 7.8:1 (15 watt), or 12.2:1 (25 watt), which is good. You basically get about an hour’s worth of battery life for every 8 minutes you recharge at 15 watts, or 5 minutes at 25 watts.
If you prefer to get faster charging, you should purchase the optional 25 watt USB-C super fast charger. It will cut your charging time by a considerable 38.5 minutes for a full recharge:
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Let’s take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone, which is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile SoC!
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : Flagship Class Performance!
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is powered exclusively by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, which has a slightly overclocked prime core. It has eight processor cores in a quad-cluster architecture:
1 x Arm Cortex-X4 core (3.39 GHz, instead of 3.3 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A720 cores
2 x Arm Cortex-A720 cores
2 x Arm Cortex-A520 cores
This mobile SoC also comes with the Qualcomm Adreno 750 GPU which supports ray-tracing, an improved Hexagon NPU, and the Snapdragon X75 5G modem that supports Sub-6Ghz and mmWave connectivity.
We first tested the Galaxy S24 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.
Work 3.0
S23
Ultra
S24
Ultra
Z Flip
5
Z Flip
4
S23 FE
Mobile Platform
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8 Gen 3
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8+
Gen 1
Exynos
2200
Performance Score
16408
14931
14655
14429
13971
Web Browsing
15680
11663
11404
12097
11664
Video Editing
7879
6474
7943
7387
7369
Writing
22257
20333
19525
17593
18138
Photo Editing
35533
34350
324420
31762
27060
Data Manipulation
12171
14070
11788
12523
12616
Interestingly, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was much slower than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 used in last year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra, and just barely faster than the SD 8 Gen 2 used in the Galaxy Z Flip5.
I should point out that these are peak performance results. The truth is – you won’t be able to actually tell the difference between all these flagship-class mobile processors in normal usage. They are all really fast.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : Storage Performance
PCMark also has an Android Storage 2.0 benchmark that measures the smartphone’s storage I/O performance.
Storage 2.0
Z Flip
5
S23
Ultra
S24
Ultra
S23 FE
Z Flip
4
Mobile Platform
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 9
Gen 3
Exynos
2200
SD 8+
Gen 1
Storage Score
48435
41647
33005
31839
27271
Sequential Read (MB/s)
2676.53
2592.42
2907.37
1584.66
1350.51
Random Read (MB/s)
49.95
38.25
60.98
31.25
33.94
Sequential Write (MB/s)
2631.38
603.29
3084.95
510.16
256.81
Random Write (MB/s)
76.66
81.44
106.34
81.13
50.29
Samsung appeared to be using faster flash storage in the Galaxy S24 Ultra. However, its overall storage score was lower than the S23 Ultra and Z Flip5, due to much slower database read and write speeds.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : Gaming Performance
For gaming, we tested the Galaxy S24 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :
3DMark
S24
Ultra
S23
Ultra
Z Flip
5
Z Flip
4
S23 FE
Mobile Platform
SD 8
Gen 3
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8+
Gen 1
Exynos
2200
Solar Bay Unlimited
8576
NA
5481
NA
4570
Wild Life Extreme
Unlimited
5020
3814
3705
2636
2233
Wild Life Unlimited
20534
14554
14823
11144
8671
Sling Shot Extreme
Unlimited
19653
13904
13558
6912
9484
Sling Shot Unlimited
22656
16344
16661
10690
11348
Where the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra really shines is in its gaming performance. Its Adreno 750 GPU not only supports ray tracing, it does a fantastic job of delivering top-notch 3D graphics performance.
Not only does it have a faster GPU, the Samsung S24 Ultra also has a 90% larger vapour chamber that allows it to better sustain peak performance during intense gaming sessions.
Although ray tracing games are far and few in between for now, the new Solar Bay benchmark shows that the Galaxy S24 Ultra delivers 56% better 3D with ray tracing performance than the Galaxy Z Flip5, and 88% better performance. than the Galaxy S23 FE!
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : Overall Performance
We then tested the Galaxy S24 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :
AnTuTu
S24
Ultra
S23
Ultra
Z Flip
5
S23 FE
Z Flip
4
Device
SD 8
Gen 3
SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 2
Exynos
2200
SD 8+
Gen 1
AnTuTu Score
1826776
1212174
1187296
1166868
856357
CPU
456400
261886
393404
329078
205939
GPU
682555
538823
282780
425455
362669
Memory
380519
236163
291048
193981
135707
UX
307302
175302
220064
218354
152042
Will you look at that? The AnTuTu benchmark shows that the Galaxy S24 Ultra is a solid 50% faster than the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 5 – both powered by last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Very nice!
But note that its temperature jumped by almost 12°C! At peak performance, the Galaxy S24 Ultra can get really toasty!
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Performance Summary
There is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra offers top-notch performance, thanks to its use of a slightly overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, and a 90% larger vapour chamber.
It shows in the benchmarks – the Galaxy S24 Ultra topped all of the benchmarks, except for work performance. It is particularly strong in 3D graphics and ray tracing performance. With gaming performance like this, dedicated gaming smartphones seem rather pointless.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : Price + Colour Options
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is available in four main colours:
Titanium Black
Titanium Gray
Titanium Violet, and
Titanium Yellow
Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Samsung just sent us the new Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone! Take a look at our unboxing video, and find out what’s inside the box!
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : A Quick Primer!
Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone, and here is a quick summary of its key features:
Flagship-Class Performance
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is powered exclusively by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy in all regions of the world. It comes with a slightly overclocked prime core.
1 x Arm Cortex-X4 core (3.39 GHz, instead of 3.3 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A720 cores
2 x Arm Cortex-A720 cores
2 x Arm Cortex-A520 cores
This mobile SoC also comes with the Qualcomm Adreno 750 GPU which supports ray-tracing, an improved Hexagon NPU, and the Snapdragon X75 5G modem that supports Sub-6Ghz and mmWave connectivity.
Improved Cooling
To ensure that the processor remains cool, the Galaxy S24 Ultra sports a 90% larger vapour chamber. This should allow it to better sustain peak performance during intense gaming sessions or AI photo / video editing,
The Galaxy S24 Ultra sports the same 200 MP Adaptive Pixel camera from last year, but introduces a new 50 MP telephoto camera with 5X optical zoom. This camera allows for better night photography through the use of 60% larger pixels (when combined), and the wider f/3.4 aperture.
The other cameras, including the front camera, remained the same from last year. However, Samsung said that its deep-learning AI algorithms now allow for much better quality digital zoom. The faster processor also allows for better quality video zooming through Video Super Resolution.
Titanium Frame
This is the first Samsung smartphone to feature a titanium frame, which is not only tougher, but also allows for a thinner chassis. It is also protected in the front by Corning Gorilla Armour glass, which is not only tougher against scratches, but also reduces reflection by up to 75%.
5,000 mAh Fast-Charging Battery
The Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with a large 5,000 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, which supports 45 watt fast wired charging, and 15 watt fast wireless charging.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : What’s Inside The Box?
We got our hands on the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone right after its official launch. Let’s take a quick look at the box before we check out what’s inside!
Once you fully unbox it, this is what you will find inside:
the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone
a Quick Start Guide in two languages, and a warranty card
a USB Type C to USB Type C data and charging cable
a SIM tray extraction pin
That’s it! While it supports 45 watt fast charging, it does not come with the charger. You will need to purchase it separately. Neither does it come with a TPU bumper case to tide you over until you get a better one.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : Price + Colour Options
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is available in four main colours:
Titanium Black
Titanium Gray
Titanium Violet, and
Titanium Yellow
Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
In addition to those four main colours, you can also buy the Galaxy S24 Ultra in these three special colours, which are available exclusively through the Samsung.com website:
Titanium Green
Titanium Orange, and
Titanium Blue
In addition to those four main colours, you can also buy the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ in these three special colours, which are available exclusively through the Samsung.com website:
Jade Green
Sandstone Orange, and
Sapphire Blue
Samsung Galaxy S24 Series : Price + Storage Options
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with 12 GB of RAM, and storage options of 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB. Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus (S24+) comes with 12 GB of RAM, and storage options of 256 GB, and 512 GB. Here are the official launch prices for the two available storage capacities:
The Samsung Galaxy S24 comes with 8 GB of RAM, and storage options of 256 GB, and 512 GB. Here are the official launch prices for the two available storage capacities:
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone, and here is our comparison of all four main colours!
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : 4 Main Colours Compared!
Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone, and it will be available in four main colours with a matte finish :
Titanium Black
Titanium Gray
Titanium Violet, and
Titanium Yellow
The names of those colours are a nod towards the titanium frame that protects the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, but is not available base and Plus models.
Ahead of the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s official launch, we were given special access to all four main colours that will be offered through retail stores, including Samsung Experience Stores.
Take a look at all four colours, and let us know which you prefer!
In addition to the four main colours, Samsung will also make these three special colours available exclusively through online orders on the Samsung.com website:
Titanium Green
Titanium Orange, and
Titanium Blue
However, I have no idea if these three special colours are readily available for the pre-order, or will be held back until after the pre-order period.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra : Same Price For All Colours!
Regardless of the colour you prefer, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will only vary in price according to storage capacity.
Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Series : Price + Storage Options
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with 12 GB of RAM, and storage options of 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB. Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus (S24+) comes with 12 GB of RAM, and storage options of 256 GB, and 512 GB. Here are the official launch prices for the two available storage capacities:
The Samsung Galaxy S24 comes with 8 GB of RAM, and storage options of 256 GB, and 512 GB. Here are the official launch prices for the two available storage capacities:
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S24 series of flagship smartphones, and here is our comparison of all three models, and their key specifications!
Samsung Galaxy S24 Series : 3 Different Models!
Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S24 series, and there are three models with different specifications:
Galaxy S24 Ultra, with a large 6.8-inch display, and five cameras,
Galaxy S24 Plus (S24+), which is almost as large at 6.7-inch, but with only four cameras, and
Galaxy S24, which has a 6.2-inch display, and four cameras too.
Here is a quick summary of their key features, and how they stack up against each other.
Flagship-Class Performance
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is exclusively powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy in all regions of the world. It comes with a slightly overclocked prime core, but with other cores slightly underclocked.
However, that cannot be said for the two smaller Galaxy S24 models. Depending on region, the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus (S24+) are either powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, or Samsung’s own Exynos 2400 mobile SoC.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is an 8-core mobile SoC, while the Exynos 2400 has 10 CPU cores. Here’s a quick comparison:
Specifications
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
for Galaxy
Exynos 2400
CPU Clusters
4
4
CPU Cores
1 x Cortex-X4 (3.39 GHz)
3 x Cortex-A720 (up to 3.1 GHz)
2 x Cortex-A720 (up to 2.9 GHz)
2 x Cortex-A520 (up to 2.2 GHz)
1 x Cortex-X4 (3.2 GHz)
2 x Cortex-A720 (up to 2.9 GHz)
3 x Cortex-A720 (up to 2.6 GHz)
4 x Cortex-A520 (up to 1.95 GHz)
GPU
Qualcomm Adreno 750
Samsung Xclipse 940
Improved Cooling
To ensure that the processor remains cool, the Galaxy S24 smartphones sport larger vapour chambers:
Galaxy S24 Ultra : 90% larger than Galaxy S23 Ultra
Galaxy S24+ : 60% larger than Galaxy S23+
Galaxy S24 : 50% larger than Galaxy S23
As a result, the Galaxy S24 series smartphones sold have better sustained performance during intense gaming sessions or AI photo or video editing,
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra sports the same 200 MP Adaptive Pixel camera from last year, but introduces a new 50 MP telephoto camera, with 5X optical zoom. This camera allows for better night photography through the use of 60% larger pixels (when combined), and the wider f/3.4 aperture.
The Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ models though retained the same rear cameras from last year. All three models also retain the same 12 MP front camera as well.
However, Samsung said that its deep-learning AI algorithms now allow for much better quality digital zoom. The faster processor also allows for better quality video zooming through Video Super Resolution.
Titanium Frame
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is the first Samsung smartphone to feature a titanium frame, which is not only tougher, but also allows for a thinner chassis. It is also protected in the front by Corning Gorilla Armour glass, which is not only tougher against scratches, it also reduces reflection by up to 75%.
The Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+, on the other hand, retains the Armour Aluminium frame, and Gorilla Glass Victus 2.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Series : Specifications Comparison
Here is our comparison of the key specifications of the three Samsung Galaxy S24 models:
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
