Yesterday, UPS delivered the Galaxy S24 and S24 Ultra, which I preordered from Samsung on Jan. 17, 2024. My wife and I each chose one of the three exclusive colors; she moves up from the S22 and I from S23 Ultra. The South Korean manufacturing conglomerate offered generous $450 trade-in value for her phone and $750 for mine. Combined with other discounts and incentives, which includes double storage, my out-of-pocket spend for the new model is less than the older one. For hers, I paid less than the discount given for the trade-in.
Last night, right before going to bed, I finally opened the box for a peak and a shock. Titanium Green wasn’t as strong a color as I expected. Oddly, the Featured Image and companion—even taken with Leica Q2—isn’t representative. The green isn’t as faint or pastel as you see but not really far from it.
The reengineered camera setup had me hemming and hawing about whether upgrading was a good decision. Samsung replaced the feature-differentiating 10x optical zoom with 5x. Longer reach is still available as a 5x-optical and digital hybrid. I haven’t used the camera yet.
And I no longer care. The new display is magnificent and by itself reason to upgrade. The Corning Guerilla Armor glass is even better than advertised. Glare is astonishingly reduced and clarity greatly increased. It’s a happy benefit. The rest is gravy; I already ate the meat and potatoes.
Set up was easy-peasy, but I have yet to try out the new AI features. So there is much more to report on in the future.
I apologize for the photos not being color representative, and maybe shooting a new set in daylight will make a difference. In the first, my wife’s phone is on the left and mine on the right. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/2.2, ISO 800, 1/15 sec, 28mm; 8:06 p.m. PST, today. The second shows off the S24 Ultra alongside my S23 Ultra. Vitals are same but ISO 640, two minutes earlier.