Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra Now Has a Titanium Design

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra arrives on Jan. 31 for $1,300, which is $100 pricier than last year's Galaxy S23 Ultra. It launches alongside the cheaper Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S24. 

The biggest new features across all three new phones is Galaxy AI, a collection of tools powered by generative AI, or AI that can generate content in response to prompts based on training data. Examples include having the Notes app summarize and format notes for you, the ability to circle any image to launch a Google search for that item and tapping a button to rewrite your text messages in a different tone before sending them.

Galaxy S24 Ultra in particular has a new titanium frame. The color shown here is Titanium Gray.

One of new feature that falls under the Galaxy AI umbrella is called Chat Assist. In addition to changing the tone of your message before sending it, you can also choose to translate conversations. 

Here's another look at Chat Assist. 

Here's what the Chat Assist options look like on the S24 Ultra. 

But it's not just text messages; the Galaxy S24 can translate phone calls in real time too. The feature is called Live Translate, and I used it to chat with a coworker in Korean, and at Samsung's demo area (pictured). 

Live Translate took a little getting used to, but I was impressed by how easy it was to carry out a conversation with a Korean language speaker once I got the hang of it.

Among the other new AI features, the S24 Ultra can summarize documents in Samsung's Notes app. 

Circle to Search was one of my favorite parts of Galaxy AI. Just circle any object on screen and it'll launch a Google search for that object or location based on the image. 

It's available on all three new Galaxy S24 phones and will also be coming to the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. Galaxy AI is also arriving on the Galaxy S23 lineup through a software update eventually, so you don't necessarily need Samsung's newest phones to use these features. 

Galaxy AI also introduces another new tool to the Galaxy S24 family: Generative Edit. Like Google's Magic Eraser, it lets you move, erase and manipulate individual objects in photos.

Like the Pixel 8, the processing can take a few seconds or more, especially when filling in a background.

Samsung uses Google's underlying technology to power Generative Edit. Even though the features are similar, they can sometimes produce different results. 

The other major aspect that's new about the Galaxy S24 Ultra is its camera. Samsung replaced the S23 Ultra's 10-megapixel 10x telephoto camera with a 50-megapixel 5x telephoto camera. 

You can access AI features by tapping the tiny blue button with three stars near the corner of the screen. 

Otherwise, the S24 Ultra's camera hardware is essentially the same as the Galaxy S23 Ultra's, consisting of a 200-megapixel main camera, 10-megapixel telephoto camera with a 3x optical zoom (in addition to the 50-megapixel, 5x telephoto camera) and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera.

I found that the S24 Ultra did indeed capture more detailed images at a 5x zoom compared with the S23 Ultra, although I had to look really closely to tell. 

All three new phones run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, which performed smoothly in my experience when playing games and handling other various tasks. 

Since Galaxy AI is available on all three new Galaxy phones, it's really the Ultra's giant screen, embedded S Pen and additional telephoto zoom that set it apart from the regular Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus. 

The S Pen does make certain Galaxy AI features like Circle to Search and Generative Edit easier to use. But that alone isn't reason enough to choose the S24 Ultra over one of Samsung's cheaper phones for most people. 

Like its predecessor, the Galaxy S24 Ultra charges via USB-C. The charging port is located right near the S Pen slot on the bottom of the phone. 

Color options for the Galaxy S24 Ultra are as follows from left to right: Titanium Yellow, Titanium Violet, Titanium Black and Titanium Gray. 

The Galaxy S24 Ultra has a brighter screen than its predecessor, although I couldn't really notice a difference. 

Here's another look at the S24 Ultra's titanium design. 

Check out CNET's full review for more details about the Galaxy S24 Ultra.