Yesterday, Samsung introduced the latest additions to its flagship phone line—the Galaxy series—featuring the standard S24, larger S24 Plus, and top-of-the-line S24 Ultra. Undoubtedly, these phones are some of the best Samsung has ever produced, showcasing stellar design, features and support, further refining and updating the successful formula they introduced with the S22 series.Another way of putting this however, is that these models lack significant changes. The S24 Ultra swaps the prior generations’ 10x Zoom telephoto lens for a more practical 5x Zoom lens; the screen is now completely flat, made from the latest, toughest Gorilla Glass; the rails are titanium instead of steel or aluminum on the Ultra; and the entire range is available in a sophisticated palette of matte colors.The most impressive updates come courtesy of the new AI-equipped Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, enabling near-instant on-device AI trickery. Hold the home button and tap or circle something on screen and the phone will instantly pull up a visual search of it on Google, as you can through Google Lens; or if you make phone calls or text with live translation. New features also allow live photo editing using AI generative fill and adjusting handwritten notes made with the S Pen.It’s too early to assess the quality and user desirability of these features, but even were they to prove flawless, it’s no reason to buy these phones.The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Courtesy SamsungThe only justifications for clicking check out is that you can make use of Samsung’s incredible buy-back program, or that you particularly value Samsung’s premium Galaxy take on the high-end smartphone and want the latest one. For everyone else though, comparable features are available from other brands at a significantly lower cost. I would even recommend last year’s S23 range over these; simply because they should now be heavily discounted. The S24 Ultra’s starting price of $1,299, albeit for only 256GB of storage, goes to $1,419.99 for 512GB: folding-phone money for a non-folding phone. In turn, the lower tier phones in the Galaxy range — the S24 and S24 Plus — have to cut down on features they should have in order for the Ultra to be a real upsell. Despite this, the S24 line still lacks super-fast charging, and doesn’t come with the latest wireless charging standard, Qi2.There was great controversy when Apple’s premium iPhone X broke the $1,000 barrier. Now, Samsung’s entry Galaxy S phone starts at $799, rising to $859 for a reasonable 256GB of storage, and the S24+ is $999.This price point is excessive for the features offered. For contrast, I consistently recommend Nothing’s Phone (2) as the top all-around phone on the market, which has premium design, exceptional software, and most S24+ features — but also fast charging — for $200 less, at $799. If you’re not in a rush though, I would wait as Nothing has an event at the Mobile World Conference at the end of February, potentially unveiling the Phone (3). The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Courtesy SamsungEven if the highlighted AI features are your primary interest, you don’t need Samsung’s phones, as they are merely skinned versions of Google’s AI suite, available on the Pixel 8 — starting at $699, but currently on sale to $549 — and the Pixel 8 Pro — on sale to $799. Other companies will follow Samsung’s lead, and these features will extend to other, more affordable phones throughout 2024.All of this is to say that the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra are not bad phones. Quite the contrary, they boast exceptional build quality, design, and screens, along with a promised seven years of software and security updates. But they’re overpriced for their features, and I can’t recommend them to the average reader.
