Galaxy S24 Ultra vs S23 Ultra: is an upgrade worth it?

The Galaxy S24 Ultra is Samsung’s new flagship. I had the chance to take a closer look at it at the Unpacked event. Many people are now wondering whether an upgrade from the Galaxy S23 Ultra is worth it, or which model to buy if they need a new smartphone anyway. At the end, I name what I think are the only three reasons to switch.

Design and materials

Not much has changed in size: like the S23 Ultra, the S24 Ultra is an angular 6.8-inch smartphone. The display, however, is no longer curved, but completely flat like on the other S23 and S24 models. The display bezels are also 15% smaller, so you can write much better with the S Pen, even at the edge. The S Pen is back on board, which personally makes me happy because I use it regularly.

There is more that is new in the materials:

• Titanium frame like on the new iPhone, sturdier and longer-lasting than the stainless steel frame of the predecessor.
• Corning Gorilla Armor instead of Gorilla Glass Victus+. The glass is supposed to be even sturdier and reflect less, so you can read it better in sunlight.
• Display brightness: 2,600 nits instead of the S23 Ultra’s 1,750 nits, which is around 40% more. I’m curious how that affects the battery. The battery stayed the same at 5,000 mAh.

Processor and performance

In most regions outside the USA, the S24 Ultra runs on the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy. The S24 and S24 Plus, on the other hand, have the new generation of the in-house Exynos 2400. According to Samsung, compared to its predecessor the S24 Ultra improves by:

Area	Increase
CPU	18%
GPU	32%
NPU	42%
Ray tracing	57% (thanks to optimized cooling)

Touch response is also said to be improved. Translated, that means better performance and better cooling, which mostly pleases gamers who play graphically demanding games.

Camera: only small improvements

The camera has changed only a little. The S24 Ultra has a 200-megapixel main camera with 3x and 5x optical zoom. The S23 Ultra’s 10x optical zoom is gone. In return, the 5x telephoto camera now has 50 instead of 10 megapixels. According to Samsung, quality should improve, especially for night shots. Whether that is true or whether there are even regressions in the worst case will be shown by later tests. I wouldn’t upgrade just for the camera.

Galaxy AI, updates and price

On the software side, Samsung is putting everything on Galaxy AI this year. My highlight is live translation during phone calls: you keep speaking German, and the person on the other end hears what you said in their own language. For international communication, that is a milestone.

The new AI features are not exclusive to the S24 series, though. They are also coming to the Galaxy S23 devices and to the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 via an update. Seven years of OS and security updates, on the other hand, only come from the S24 models onward. I think that is great, but you don’t need an S24 Ultra for that.

As for price, the smallest S24 Ultra model costs €1,449. That is €50 more than the S23 Ultra at launch, while the other two models became €50 cheaper.

Verdict: who is the S24 Ultra worth it for?

The new features at a glance: a flat display, sturdier materials, higher display brightness and more performance thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy. For me, that leaves only three reasons to upgrade:

1. You don’t want a curved display. The flat display simply sits better in the hand.
2. You are a gamer and benefit from the extra performance.
3. You want to retire your old smartphone and are looking for a good new one that you can use without a problem for up to seven years.

For purely economic and objective reasons, I don’t think an upgrade to the Galaxy S24 Ultra is worth it. But when was the last time reason played the deciding role when buying a smartphone?