Big, bold and bursting with features, but how well does it handle movies and music?
Smartphone | £1249| whf.cm/GalaxyS24Ultra
In some ways, the Galaxy S24 Ultra follows the current trend of samey-looking spec bumps that we have seen from Sony, Google and Apple. In other areas it’s a revolutionary phone that is bursting at the seams with new AI-based features and subtle tweaks that make it a seriously interesting portable device.
The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, here a “for Galaxy” version of the chip, is backed by 12GB of RAM and either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage; and the S24 Ultra absolutely flies through the Android 14 operating system. Samsung has promised seven years of security updates and seven generations of Android updates; thus impressively future-proofing it, too.
What we are interested in, though, is the phone’s talents for movies and music. The S24 Ultra has an expansive 6.8in AMOLED display with a resolution of 1440 x 3120 and a variable refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz, with a boost over last year’s S23 Ultra to 2600 nits peak brightness. It is compatible with HDR10+, but not Dolby Vision.
Punchy and sharp
The S24 Ultra’s picture is bright, punchy and sharp, but its rivals outpace it when it comes to subtlety. For reference, we switched to the natural colour preset in the display section of the settings menu and used Creator mode on the Sony Xperia 1 V for comparison.
Starting off with Blade Runner 2049 on Amazon Prime Video, first impressions are strong. The large screen plays into this well, as the opening shots of the solar panel fields feel impactful and cinematic. As the shot transitions to the interior of K’s car, we can pick out the stippled texture on the dashboard and even some outlines of the switches found in the very darkest part of the picture. As we transition to an outdoor shot of K walking towards the homestead, we are certainly impressed by the Samsung’s clean-cut edges which really add a sense of depth to the image. That being said, the Sony provides an even more solid and three-dimensional image thanks to its formidable contrast control and higher-res display.
The Samsung is again bettered when it comes to detail and depth, with the Sony serving up a wholly more cinematic image. While its punchy colours make the image a
