Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

GSMTechTok analysis

Who it's for

The Galaxy S24 Ultra is, at this point in its life, best understood as a value-refurbished-flagship purchase rather than a new-retail one — a 2026 buyer's guide from Alibaba's electronics desk puts new 256GB pricing around $899-$1,099 and certified refurbished units with full warranty as low as $649-$799, a real gap versus a current-generation Ultra. It suits power users, content creators, and anyone who genuinely uses the S Pen for note-taking, document signing, or sketching — TechRater UK and multiple other reviews single out the S Pen as the phone's defining, hardest-to-replace feature, and BGR's own 2026 analysis notes the S24 Ultra is the last Ultra model with a Bluetooth-enabled S Pen, since Samsung removed that specific capability from later generations. It's a strong fit for anyone comfortable buying one generation behind to save real money: Samsung's own software commitment covers it through several more years of OS updates and security patches, which several 2026 buying guides independently confirm remains intact regardless of purchase date. It's a weaker fit for anyone chasing the newest Galaxy AI features first, the lightest possible phone, or brand-new retail stock with full local warranty certainty in every market. It's a genuinely strong fit for anyone who has already decided they want a large-screen, S Pen-equipped phone and is simply choosing between paying full price for the newest Ultra or saving several hundred dollars by going one generation back — the S24 Ultra is specifically the phone that lets that second option remain a fully-capable one rather than a compromise.

Standout features

The 200MP main sensor remains the headline two years on, and TechRater UK's fresh 2026 testing confirms it's aged well: daylight shots are still sharp with accurate color, and the sensor's pixel-binning continues to control noise effectively once the light drops. The flat display — a genuine change from the curved-edge design of earlier Ultra models — remains one of the best mobile screens available according to that same 2026 review, and the flat glass specifically makes S Pen handwriting more predictable than it was on curved-edge predecessors. The titanium frame has held up well physically, with TechRater UK reporting no dents after two years of testing, and the four-focal-length camera array (200MP main, 50MP 5x periscope telephoto, 10MP 3x telephoto, 12MP ultra-wide) gives genuinely more usable zoom range than the token macro lenses some rivals still bundle instead. Galaxy AI, introduced at launch on this exact phone, remains a real, still-useful feature set two years later — Live Translate, Circle to Search, Note Assist, and Generative Edit all continue to function and receive some software support even as newer Galaxy phones get certain features first. The camera bump on the S24 Ultra is also noticeably slimmer than on some rivals since it integrates directly into the titanium frame rather than sitting as a separate raised module, a small but genuine industrial-design touch that's held up well against two years of newer competing designs.

Trade-offs

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip is now two generations behind current silicon, and while every review sourced here found real-world performance still smooth for day-to-day use, it's an honest limitation for anyone specifically chasing benchmark-topping speed or the newest AI processing capabilities. PhoneArena's own long-term review flags a more specific, easy-to-miss change worth knowing about: Samsung quietly changed the telephoto setup from the previous generation's 10x optical periscope down to a 5x optical lens that relies on sensor crop-in to simulate the 10x figure, a real trade Samsung didn't heavily advertise at launch. Charging speed is a repeated, genuine criticism across reviews — 45W wired charging is meaningfully behind what several Chinese flagship rivals now offer at similar or lower prices, and there's no microSD expansion slot, a real limitation for buyers used to expandable storage. Regional chipset variance is also worth knowing: North American and European units ship with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, while other regions received a different Exynos-based configuration, meaning benchmark and thermal performance can genuinely differ depending on where a specific unit was purchased — something a value-focused refurbished-market buyer should specifically verify before purchasing. iFixit's own repairability scoring is another honest data point worth knowing: the S24 Ultra rates just 4 out of 10, meaning component-level repairs like a battery or camera swap are a real undertaking rather than a simple DIY job. TechRater UK's 2026 revisit is a useful data point here too: despite two full years passing and the S26 Ultra now on shelves, the S24 Ultra's core photography, display, and build-quality package held up well enough that the outlet still recommends it as one of the smarter buys in Samsung's own back catalogue, not just a budget fallback option.