there's something wrong with the S24 Ultra, at least that's what Twitter will have you believe. Today I'm going to take a look at the narrative at there being something wrong with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Let's [Music] go. On the surface, on paper anyway, the S24 Ultra has amazing numbers and specs. It is an upgrade over the S23 Ultra in every department that you can think of, every category that Samsung can make a smartphone with. It's better than its predecessors and likely what's out there at the moment in other brands as well. But there's something missing, at least when you read online, people make you believe that this phone is lesser than what it actually is. So let's break down what people are saying. There's a lot of things people are saying: lesser battery life, worse camera performance, worse zoom performance, especially in the longer range zoom. There are algorithm issues and hardware issues that are plaguing taking good photos at longer magnification length. Display issues as well, especially in the early stages of the phone being

out there was the display graininess issues. People were saying that the colors were off, especially with the new coating on the display, making it less reflective. People were blaming that and then giving it a bad name and saying that the whole display is ruined. Those are some of the issues, the main ones: battery, camera, not just in magnification L too but even in normal algorithmic purposes, and then the display. That's what people are saying. The thing is, are they right, and there's a case to be made for them to actually be correct, especially when you talk about the camera, the zoom in terms of that 10 times and Beyond. Samsung made major changes to the hardware on the s24 ultra. A lot of people were thinking, okay, Samsung are the best at 10 times and Beyond, whereas I think Samsung kind of gave up that Crown this year in favor of a different type of Zoom performance. Samsung brought in the 5x camera so you could focus between five and 10 with a high resolution sensor doing that digital cropping between five and 10.

times Zoom, thus improving the quality of Zoom at the length of Zoom that most people are going to be using, which is between 0.6x and 10x. Very rarely are people going to be going beyond that, and if they are, Samsung's 10 to 20 time zoom is serviceable for the purposes that people would want. But beyond that, like 30X and further, yeah, Samsung have made the Zoom, or at least the zoom performance is worse than what you've had previously. Is that a bad thing? It depends on how you use your phone. Obviously, Samsung have a lot of user data to go through where they can actually see how people are using their smartphones and what zoom lens they're potentially using. And for me, I'm very much in the ilk of, I would rather have better Zoom between zero and 10 than I would between 10 and 100, because for me, a lot of my stuff that I do, my life with the kids especially, takes place in that 0 to 10 range, and having better Zoom

which this is better than the S23 Ultra in that range is what I'd like. The other thing they kind of say too is the 3x camera is not very good, and I'll tend to agree to an extent that it's not the best in class, but it's not terrible. It's not like you're taking photos that look like watercolor paintings with it. It just hasn't got the same quality of detail as the other cameras that are on the phone. So we'll look about that with the S25 Ultra potentially a little bit later, but that's the camera situation. Is they're saying that the zoom is bad and that it's a terrible phone because of it, but I don't think that's right. That's a very shallow take to be had. The battery has been something that I've definitely noticed. I was a very big power user of the S23 Ultra, still am. It does record some of my YouTube videos, and I think the thing is is that the battery on this doesn't give me the same confidence as

what I had as the S23 Ultra had. Other people have said this too. Alex from Alex Gear and Tech is very much on record as saying that the battery is a bit hit and miss. The S20 Ultra, whether that's down to the Snapdragon HJ3 for Galaxy not being as efficient or the phone just drawing too much power from that processor to do the tasks that it needs to do. Whatever the case or could be the new display, which we'll get on to in a minute, this is definitely not as long-lasting in the battery stakes and day-to-day life as what we've had in the past with the S23 Ultra confirmed. Is it terrible? No, it's still definitely a best-in-class battery performance. It just doesn't have that same level of comp confidence that you had with the S23 Ultra, but again doesn't make the phone worse because the rest of the phone with its performance capabilities far ways and exceeds what the S20 Ultra was capable of doing. So you have to think about that on top of the battery.

you can't just isolate the battery on its own, which then brings me to the display because the display was what a lot of people were saying. There's a lot of issues with it. It all started right at the start of the year with the display having that anti-reflective coding, and a lot of people said that it's causing issues with the display being discolored. There's like a yellowish hinge to it, tinge to it, hinge, hinge. And to be honest, I saw that at the start of the year, but Samsung fixed that with an update by bringing in an extra option to make the display more vivid. That fixed it totally, so that problem's gone, that's not existed anymore, but everyone kept talking about the grainy display issues where it extremely low brightness when you've got a dark sort of picture on the screen. You could see some grain, and yes, I've seen the internet that affect very small minority of users who end up being the loudest when they talk about their issues they're having, but then I'm not.

experienced that this display is the best display on a smartphone, period. The anti-reflective coating is so good that it just blows away any other phone that I've used. The ability to be able to see things outdoors so clearly because of the fact it's not bouncing reflections off trees or the ocean, wherever you are, is amazing. And the brightness to go with that. I've had some issues with the outdoors and overheating. The display kind of dims a lot quicker than I remember the S23 Ultra doing. That seems to have sort of gone away as time has sort of gone on. The software updates that have sort of come out since have kind of rectified that issue, and it's been able to sustain itself in peak sort of brightness a lot longer than what I've had previously in the last few months. This discourse about the S24 Ultra isn't by accident. The market is super competitive with high-end Ultra flagship smartphones, and with the amount of money that you're spending on these things, the scrutiny on the detail and

the quality is going to come from the most intensive of power users that have a platform to share it. There is stronger hardware as well coming out from brands that overseas that don't necessarily launch everywhere, but the hardware discourse is that people are expecting more than what they're expecting before, even if what they're getting is still super incredible. If we go back 10 years, smartphones could do a fraction of what they can do now, but people's expectations are higher, so that's why they are scrutinizing and going over with a fine-tooth comb everything that the phone does, and they want it to be at its 100% every single time that you turn it on and use it. But there's a discourse that's missing from the conversation that I think is very, very important to how Samsung are making their phones now. Samsung are a global brand. They aren't making phones just for certain countries, especially at this level. They are making phones for a wider generation, whether that be in the US, whether that be in the home market in Korea, whether that be

here in Australia, Samsung have a lot of types of consumers to consider when they're making phones to appeal to that broad audience. So yeah, they could throw everything out of phone, and they've got the R&D to do it and make a phone that appeals to 1% of the population. That would be really good for that 1%, but for 99% of people that like Samsung phones and want to enjoy their capability, they'll either be priced out of the market, or it won't appeal to them because it's too much phone. And what ends up happening is Samsung will slowly sort of erode away, and they'll become a niche brand, not a global brand, which is what they are. So I think Samsung had to find a balance, and the last couple of generations, particularly from S22 Ultra onwards, Samsung have tried to strike that balance between Hardware Innovation and software Innovation. Because if you put better Hardware on here or more advanced Hardware, it's going to inflate the cost, and then that put buyers off, and then we're not going to see the

Samsung that we know now existing for much longer because they'll just be bleeding cash into areas that people aren't interested in. I think it's a much more mature approach from Samsung to take that look because ultimately we want them to keep making phones. They will get to the point that we know they're capable of. It's just going to be a bit slower than what we're used to seeing from them. So what do I think about this all? Well, I think we know what my thoughts on the s24 ultra are. I've got my review live. I know what this phone phone strengths are and I know what it can do better at in future versions of the phone. I do however like the hardware changes that Samsung made when it comes to thing like the display and the camera. The 5x camera at first I was really skeptical but in use of it it's much more practical than a three and a 10 times because that Gap is too big between three and 10. So that five times fits it perfectly and with the 50

megapixel resolution and larger sensor. It means the gap is actually not existent anymore. You could take good sharp photos at any one of those magnification lens between that 5 and 10. And that begs the question, what does Samsung need to do next? The S25 Ultra, there's already some rumors that Samsung are changing the boxy industrial design and going back to their previous note design with the rounded still kind of square but not as sort of sharp as this. So, is that something, is that the direction they need to take? Is it just a design change to keep it fresh as opposed to trying to change internally the hardware and slap lots of new cameras on there? Or do they need to push this innovation to the level and make this a DSLR-like camera or mirrorless-like camera experience just to make people happy, even if it then becomes too expensive and won't be available as widely because making products with that hardware innovation means that you're going to have failure rates, you might not be able to scale the production as

high and wide as what they're capable of doing right now. That's also stuff that needs to be factored in when you're looking at a phone like the S24 Ultra. Like a 1in sensor isn't going to solve the problem as much as we all think that bigger hardware will increase the capability of the phone tenfold. The phone is more than its camera system. It's the S Pen, it's the display for entertainment, it's the multitasking software for productivity, it's the big battery, it's the big processor. All of that completes the package of the Ultra. It's not just this thing or this thing that's here. It's this thing that you hold in your hand and put into your pocket. This was a little bit of a different take on this phone because a lot of people are looking at this and thinking Samsung could do more. I want this, I want that, but you need to be grounded and have some perspective as to where Samsung is heading and the new direction they're taking. That's it.

that's all I wanted to say. If you have any thoughts or comments, you can leave them in the comment section below. Tell me I'm wrong, start an argument, we'll see what happens. Other than that, hit subscribe if you like this and go back and check out my other Samsung stuff. And I'll see you in the next one.

What's WRONG with the S24 Ultra?

What's WRONG with the S24 Ultra?