All right, you have $1,300 to spend on an Android slab phone in 2024. Why would you get any other phone? No, seriously. Why would you get any other phone? This S24 Ultra has taken the best things from every other ultra high-end phone and stuffed them into one place, so anything that you could possibly value, it has pushed to the max. And then there's just multiple cherries on top, just sprinkled all over the place. This phone sets the tone for 2024. So, the formula for Samsung's Ultra phones has evolved a little bit over the years. At first, it was just the most numbers, the biggest megapixel count, the most zoom and all that. Then it added the S Pen and got a little more refined, then it replaced the Note. Now it's just everything. It's just everything in one place. It's all the best hardware, all the best software I can think of, all in one phone. So, on the outside, like I said in my early impressions, this phone looks almost the same as last year's phone. But if you think this phone is almost the same as last year's phone, turns out you're missing a lot. So, the more you use this phone, the more you look for weaknesses, the more impressive it gets. So maybe what? You're a, you're a screen snob, right? You like to pixel peep. Maybe you were thinking about getting one of the ultra high-end Oppo or Xiaomi phones just for an amazing screen. All right, well, look no further. Literally one of the best screens in any phone. S24 Ultra has dropped in a class-leading 6.8-inch Quad HD AMOLED display, and it is awesome. These Ultra phones have had, you know, 120 Hz LTPO for a while, and they've been this really sharp Quad HD for a while now, too. But now, on top of that, two new things. One is it's completely flat, and two is it's much brighter. So, there's been this whole new batch of like 2,500 plus nit phones in the past couple months that I've seen. This, I think, is the best-looking one that I've seen so far. So, now it's up to a max 2,600 nits, which is awesome outdoors or anywhere. But it also gets extremely dim at night, too, without any of the weird banding I've seen in some other phones. And they've flattened the display completely and brought the display right up to the very corners with some of the thinnest bezels we've seen all the way around. Plus, there's also this new anti-reflective coating on this Gorilla Glass Armor that makes a noticeable difference with certain light hitting it at off-axis angles. And then there is a crazy fast ultrasonic fingerprint reader underneath to top it all off. And, you know, maybe I wish the touch target was a little bit bigger, but that's about it. Honestly, if you're a screen snob, it doesn't really get better than this one right here. This is the phone you should get. Okay, so what if your primary concern is battery life? Well, you could always get the Energizer phone that we saw at CES at one time, but as far as reasonably sized flagship slab phones go, it doesn't get much better than this. Again, they're keeping a 5,000 mAh battery in one of the best-performing battery phones from the past few years, despite making it thinner and keeping the S Pen. So, you might as well get this one. Still got 45-watt wired charging, you still have 25-watt wireless charging, and just battery life-wise, I was able to have long days with no problems with 6 hours plus screen-on time. I was able to baby it into getting two full days. That's at 1440p, at 120 Hz, and with high brightness use. So, yeah, why, why get anything else? So, okay, what if then it's just performance is the main thing that you care about? Okay, so we're seeing all these phones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 starting to come out, and they're looking really good. Great high-end performance. There's efficiency gains all over the place. Plus, this phone pairs it with 12 gigs of RAM, and it is a multitasking champ. And if it's the stylus you're into, I already know you weren't really considering any other phone. The S Pen is basically the only high-end stylus still going in slab smartphones. It's really good for note-taking, drawing, highlighting, all that stuff. But if you're like me and you hardly ever use that, there's still the gaming performance, and the everyday performance. There's the newly added ray tracing, plus a 90% larger vapor chamber to cool the phone for much longer stuff. Turns out, it's an A+. Now, you could always get a gaming phone and squeeze 5 to 10% more frames out of a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with some huge badass cooling setup. And that's great. But then you also have to accept all of the sacrifices that come with said gaming phone over this. And do you really want those extra frames that bad? Depends on who you ask. Okay, cameras. There's a lot of other phones out there that you could buy if your $1,300 specifically has to go to the best cameras. You know, the Pixel just won the blind camera test. Sony has the best manual mode. Like, there's other great camera systems. But here's a way to simplify it. I think in evaluating smartphone cameras, there's basically two ways to review them. There is the utility, the actual technical evaluation, and the aesthetics, the art of it, the subjectivity part. And I think utility-wise, like, on paper, specs-wise, this, this camera's got it all. Like, you've seen this camera array before. There's four cameras on the back of this phone. Turns out, they're basically the same cameras as last year's S23 Ultra, except for one. So, there's a primary camera, an ultra-wide, and a pair of two different telephoto cameras. The primary camera is still the ridiculous 200-megapixel sensor with all the same pros and cons. It's consistent and versatile across the board. It has great dynamic range. It's a quick shooter with quick autofocus, and it's always binning down to 12 megapixels, and you should almost never switch it to the 200-megapixel mode unless you have incredible lighting. It has an ultra-wide with a bit of distortion near the edges, but it's actually meaningfully wider than the primary camera, so it's really fun to shoot with. Even though the automatic macro mode from it looks like trash, and you should just turn it off anytime it turns your pictures from this to this. Pro tip. And then it has a medium-range 3x telephoto camera that kicks in smoothly and matches the colors and exposure from the main camera really well. And so the one new thing in hardware this year is they've gone from a 10-megapixel 10x camera to a 50-megapixel 5x camera. So, technically, shorter optical zoom range, but I would say with the extra resolution, it is actually more powerful. It means all the photos in the gap between 5x and 10x look sharper than last year. And then you can literally put the 10x photos side-by-side from the S23 Ultra and the S24 Ultra, and the new 5x cropped in actually looks better. Plus, you can still zoom all the way in and shoot at 100x if you still want to take ultra stable pictures of far-away objects like the moon. But basically, what I'm saying is, utility-wise, this camera system checks every single box. It has everything. So, from there, you get into the more subjective, aesthetic differences, which you could always lean one way or the other. I think, I mean, looking at these photos, they're still very much Samsung's slightly extra processed-looking, a little bit extra contrasty, a little bit higher exposure, a little brighter colors. That still happens with these photos. So, you could still convince yourself to lean Pixel or even iPhone. But if you just want to be able to check every single box, why look anywhere else? Honestly, the changes that you notice more aside from the actual camera quality are just like features, using it. Like, the S24 Ultra shoots everything HDR by default now. It's actually in Google's new Ultra HDR format. So, when you have, you know, specular highlights or big dynamic range differences in a photo, it will tastefully crank up that stuff for a more dramatic-looking picture on the phone screen. Similar to what Pixel and iPhone already do. And this passes through all the way from capturing the photo to viewing it in the gallery, and then one more step to actually publishing it on social media. So, Samsung has worked with Instagram and Snapchat for native quality photo and video uploading pipelines. Because at the end of the day, once you take the photo, what do you 99% of the time planning to do with it? Share it. And I think this is, this is important for a lot of people. This is one of the reasons I have carried an iPhone for years. It's one of the things you can always count on is the photos and videos in third-party apps are going to look just as good as if they were captured in the main camera. And now you can actually say that that is true now about photos and videos from this phone, at least in Instagram and Snapchat. All right, maybe you're a software person. Maybe the top of your list when buying a new smartphone is you want the smartest smartphone. It's got to have all the software and AI features, and honestly, it should have a nice long road map ahead of it of on-time software updates. Sounds like I'm describing a Pixel, but turns out, this phone now has a ton, a ton of helpful AI features built in that are actually good. They make a meaningful difference to everyday use. Now, the funny part about a lot of this is a lot of these features were made in partnership with Google, as you'll see. And I can't help but keep thinking, like, it feels like Samsung needs Google to have all of these features in their phone to compete, especially against the iPhone. But then Google, now their own phones are a little bit less competitive, but it's probably worth the trade-off because now, technically, they're helping to compete against the iPhone. It's this weird, like, thing where they need each other. I, I think it's fascinating and probably worth its own separate video. Maybe let me know in the comment or by subscribing if you'd be down to see that. But that's all the background of all of this. So, we were just talking about photos a second ago. The second you're done taking a photo and opening it up in Samsung's Gallery app, there's a ton of useful AI-driven stuff that you can do with it. And it's kind of all based on what sort of scene it auto-detects that you've taken. So, lots of photos just end up with a remaster button where you click it, and then it can add some contrast and brighten things up a little bit as needed and give you a solid before and after. But if your photo has some glass or a window, it'll show you an erase reflections button. And then you can literally go in and circle the reflections you want to get rid of, and it'll generative fill what should actually be in the glass. And it works pretty well. Now, with this photo, I didn't take it in portrait mode, but it's recognized that there's a subject, and so it'll offer to add background blur. And even without a bunch of extra depth information, it analyzes the subject, and it lets me add a little bit or a lot of background blur with a pretty damn good cutout if you ask me, to just create a portrait mode shot out of thin air. But if you ever really, really want to go crazy, there's a whole separate magic editor that feels exactly like what we just got with the Pixel, minus any restrictions. It's never told me it can't do something. So, you open any photo, hit that edit button, and then there's this little blue-green button with the stars. That's Samsung's new Magic Editor. And once you're here, you can just go nuts. You can move the subject around a photo and have it generative fill in the background. Or you can have it remove things entirely from the foreground or the background of a photo, like photo bombers or just unnecessary random objects. I actually found this super useful. But probably actually my favorite one, underrated. You know how normally when you need to tilt a photo, like fix the horizon, you end up cropping in and losing some of the outside of the photo. You can still do that, but with this Magic Editor, you can open it up and tilt the horizon to whatever angle you want, and instead of cropping, it will literally generative fill in the outsides of the photo, which works very well because usually the outside of the photo is the least important part of the photo. You can get away with generative fill. And by the way, literally all of this stuff works with photos you download to the phone, too. Not just photos you've taken on the camera, but photos you just get wherever, just like the Pixel. Now, I also find it hilarious that if you use the Magic Editor to alter a photo on this phone, it'll add a little watermark to the bottom corner with these little stars so that you know that this photo was AI-manipulated. Which is good. That's a good responsible thing to do, especially if you're going to upload this to social media. But then you can also immediately erase that watermark with a built-in object removal tool in Samsung's photo editor app. There's a nice little section in the settings where Samsung's tucked all of the AI features of this phone. It's called Advanced Intelligence instead of Artificial Intelligence. Still AI, though. Uh, that's where you get stuff like the live phone call translation feature, or the new voice recorder app getting much improved speaker labels and summaries and transcriptions. The Samsung browser will now do uh summaries of web pages. This might all sound very familiar. But the best new one, in my opinion, is Circle to Search. Now, Google Lens has been around for a long time. In my opinion, one of Google's most underrated products. So, people might have already known that you could basically do this already, but it would take several steps. Circle to Search just makes it one step. It's much faster. It's pretty awesome. You literally just hold down on the home button or the gesture bar at the bottom, and then circle or tap whatever on your screen that you want to Google Search. And it just immediately Googles over the top of whatever you were doing without leaving that app, and it's so useful. Just even during a week I've been using this phone, I've searched pictures, parts of pictures before. It almost always works just like uploading it to Google Lens. I've searched objects right in front of me through the camera viewfinder. I've searched random landmarks. You can also search text, and you can even append text to your search. And I was just constantly impressed by how fast it is. And it basically works as expected every single time. The one fidgety part is sometimes selecting text gets a little weird. Using the S Pen can solve that a little bit to just get a more precise selection, but yeah, once you do it, it's much faster than if you're going to use Google Lens, having to like take a screenshot and then upload it through Lens and then maybe have to crop it and the whole thing. This is just fast. Now, real OGs will know that there used to be a feature on Pixels called Now On Tap. It was like the same exact thing. Hold the home button, and it would just Google whatever was on your screen and help you out. But that was everything on your screen. And they kind of ended up wrapping that into Google Assistant. This is just so much faster and more selective. Also, Pixels are going to get this feature very soon as well. But then bonus points, if you really love software, Samsung is now promising seven years of security updates and seven generations of major software updates on this phone, on the S24 lineup. I assume seven generations of software updates is basically seven years. That means this phone will be up to date in 2031. Loving that. So, we know the common wisdom was that if you wanted four, five, six plus years of software updates, or if you want every single little software and AI feature, you basically had to go iPhone or Pixel. But now that this phone also has that, why get anything else? But speaking of the iPhone, they're going at them, too. Now, I know I said in the beginning of this video, $1,300 slab Android phone. So, I know the iPhone 15 Pro Max was never really on the table. But if we're being honest, Samsung has never been shy about competing directly against the iPhone. So, why not take some of the best stuff from there, too? They weren't being subtle about it. So, they've got this shiny, brand new titanium color with titanium rails on the S24 Ultra, just like the iPhone. They have flattened the screen and the sides and made boxier corners all the way through the lineup, just like the iPhone. They have moved to a max 5x telephoto lens, like I talked about earlier, also just like the iPhone. They also have this new always-on display that doesn't just show the time, but shows your whole wallpaper now, kind of like it's half-awake, just like the iPhone. Thankfully, you can also turn that off and save some battery, just like the iPhone. You can also now long-press to select an object in a photo that automatically cuts it out and makes it a sticker you can use in other apps, just like the iPhone. And there's even these new lock screen widgets now that look exactly like the iPhones. Like, like copy my homework, but don't even worry if they know you copied it. These two are going to keep copying each other till the end of time. None of this is a surprise. It's just at the end of the day, we are technically winning because they're making each other a little bit better, bit by bit. But at the end of the day, S24 Ultra, I really do feel like, feels, it feels like peak slab phone. And there's also a whole bunch of stuff I didn't even really mention with this phone. The haptics are really nice. I didn't even get to that. Uh, there's AI-generated wallpapers, a whole section for them, if you're into that. And it's nice that the AI stuff is mostly kind of tucked away in ways where you don't ever have to use it if you don't want to, but if you notice it and it's helpful to you, bam, turn it on, could be your favorite feature. Really, the only things that I miss from the Pixel specifically are call screening and now playing. So, really the best argument not to buy this $1,300 phone is the fact that it's a $1,300 phone. And the truth is, you can get 98% of the phone for much less money. You can see it in Samsung's own lineup. Samsung's own S24 Plus has a 4,900 mAh battery instead of 5,000. It has a 6.7-inch display instead of 6.8, and it drops the S Pen and one of the telephoto cameras for $300 off. And, you know, you can get a the regular S24, again, for much less money with almost as much phone. So, you don't have to spend $1,300 on a phone. But if you are going to, and you put the word Ultra in the name, and you stuff as much stuff in one phone as you possibly can, this is the one that you should get. This has all the things. It's reliable, it's fast, it does everything, it checks all the boxes. This phone's great. Kind of feels like an ad when I just say all these positive things about the phone, but it's not. Until right now. This video is sponsored by Ridge. The Ridge Wallet is iconic at this point. It's a minimalist modern wallet. It's like the opposite of those old-school wallets. It's got the patented dual-track design that expands to hold 1 to 12 cards, while being as slim as possible. And at this point, there's like 30 plus different colors and styles, including carbon fiber, burnt titanium, and forged amber. This one is the forged amber, so it's got these little red flex in it, which look cool. You can also get accessories for it. So, if you want to carry cash, you might want the money clip, or this one has the cash strap, or if you want the AirTag holder, you can get one that holds an AirTag to it, so you never lose your wallet. And on top of all that, if you get one and you don't like it, you can return it within 99 days, no questions asked. So, if you want to grab one, you can get 10% off using code MKBHD or go to ridge.com/MKBHD. Tell them I sent you. Either way, that's been it for the S24 Ultra. Thanks for watching. Catch you guys in the next one. Peace.
The man is speaking directly to the camera, gesturing with his right hand, emphasizing his point.
"All right, you have $1,300 to spend on an Android slab phone in 2024."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, slightly leaning forward, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — neutral, focused expression, looking directly at the camera
The man holds up a light gray Samsung S24 Ultra phone in his right hand, displaying the back of the phone with its multiple camera lenses. He looks at the phone, then back at the camera, raising his eyebrows in a questioning manner.
"Why would you get any other phone?"
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, slightly leaning forward, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — questioning, raised eyebrows, slight smirk
The man gestures emphatically with both hands while holding the phone, conveying confidence and enthusiasm about the product. He makes a small pinching gesture with his right hand to emphasize 'pushed to the max', then spreads his hands wide to indicate 'multiple'.
"No, seriously. Why would you get any other phone? This S24 Ultra has taken the best things from every other ultra high-end phone and stuffed them into one place, so anything that you could possibly value, it has pushed to the max. And then there's just multiple cherries on top, just sprinkled all over the place."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated gestures, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, expressive, looking directly at the camera
The man holds the phone in his left hand, presenting it to the camera with a confident expression. He then gently places it down on his lap while continuing to speak.
"This phone sets the tone for 2024."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, presenting, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, slight smile
The Samsung S24 Ultra phone rotates slowly in the center of the screen, surrounded by stylized 3D letters 'S', '2', '4', and 'U' that also rotate and change colors. The background features bright, colorful light rays emanating from the center.
Setting: digital space — bright, colorful, emanating from center
Text: "S", "2", "4", "U"
The man is seated at a desk, holding the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand. He gestures with his right hand, explaining the evolution of Samsung's Ultra phones. He makes a sweeping motion with his right hand, then a pinching gesture to indicate 'most numbers', and finally holds the phone up while speaking about the S Pen.
"So, the formula for Samsung's Ultra phones has evolved a little bit over the years. At first, it was just the most numbers, the biggest megapixel count, the most zoom and all that. Then it added the S Pen and got a little more refined, then it replaced the Note. Now it's just everything."
Setting: indoor office — bright, natural light from the window
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — expressive, engaged
The man holds the phone in his left hand, turning it to show the front, then the side, and then the back again. He uses his right hand to gesture, emphasizing the all-encompassing nature of the phone's features. He makes a small, precise gesture with his right hand, then opens his palm to signify 'everything'.
"It's just everything in one place. It's all the best hardware, all the best software I can think of, all in one phone."
Setting: indoor office — bright, natural light from the window
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — expressive, engaged
The camera focuses on the back of the Samsung S24 Ultra phone, standing upright on a white desk. The phone's design, particularly its camera array, is highlighted. The background shows a white mechanical keyboard and two rolls of colorful tape.
"So, on the outside, like I said in my early impressions, this phone looks almost the same as last year's phone."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
The camera slowly zooms in on the phone's screen, showing the home screen with various app icons and a unique wallpaper featuring a detailed, intricate building. The focus remains on the screen, highlighting its visual quality.
"But if you think this phone is almost the same as last year's phone, turns out, you're missing a lot."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
Text: "Google search bar, app icons (Tools, Notion, Instagram, Photos, Phone, Messages, Chrome, Tesla, Camera), weather widget (38 degrees)"
The man gestures with both hands, using expressive facial movements to convey his point about screen quality. He raises his right hand to indicate 'ultra high-end' and then spreads both hands wide, as if presenting an amazing screen.
"So maybe what? You're a, you're a screen snob, right? You like to pixel peep. Maybe you were thinking about getting one of the ultra high-end Oppo or Xiaomi phones just for an amazing screen."
Setting: indoor office — bright, natural light from the window
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — expressive, engaged
The man picks up the Samsung S24 Ultra and holds it up to the camera, displaying its flat screen with the same intricate building wallpaper. He looks at the phone with a satisfied expression, then back at the camera.
"All right, well, look no further. Literally one of the best screens in any phone."
Setting: indoor office — bright, natural light from the window
People (1):
• seated, presenting phone, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — satisfied, slight smile
A close-up shot of a hand interacting with the Samsung S24 Ultra's display settings. The hand scrolls through options like 'Adaptive brightness', 'Motion smoothness', 'Eye comfort shield', and 'Screen resolution'. The options for screen resolution (HD+, FHD+, QHD+) are highlighted, and the hand selects 'QHD+'.
"S24 Ultra has dropped in a class-leading 6.8-inch Quad HD AMOLED display, and it is awesome."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Display", "Adaptive brightness", "Motion smoothness", "Eye comfort shield", "Screen resolution", "QHD+"
The Samsung S24 Ultra phone is shown standing upright on a white desk, displaying its home screen with app icons and a unique building wallpaper. The camera slowly zooms out, revealing more of the desk and the surrounding office environment.
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
Text: "Google search bar, app icons (Tools, Notion, Instagram, Photos, Phone, Messages, Chrome, Tesla, Camera), weather widget (38 degrees)"
The Samsung S24 Ultra phone is positioned vertically against a white wall next to a black window frame. The screen displays the home screen with app icons and a unique building wallpaper. The camera slowly zooms out, revealing more of the window and the bright outdoor light.
"These Ultra phones have had, you know, 120 Hz LTPO for a while, and they've been this really sharp Quad HD for a while now, too."
Setting: indoor, next to a window — bright, natural light
Text: "Google search bar, app icons (Tools, Notion, Instagram, Photos, Phone, Messages, Chrome, Tesla, Camera), weather widget (38 degrees)"
The man holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, showing its flat side profile to the camera. He points with two fingers of his right hand to emphasize the 'two new things', then uses his right hand to gesture towards the phone's flat edge, and then spreads his hands to indicate 'much brighter'.
"But now, on top of that, two new things. One is it's completely flat, and two is it's much brighter."
Setting: indoor office — bright, natural light from the window
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — expressive, engaged
The man holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his right hand, showcasing its screen with the intricate building wallpaper. He looks at the phone with a satisfied expression, then gestures with his left hand to emphasize its brightness and design, making a small pinching gesture with his left hand.
"So, there's been this whole new batch of like 2,500 plus nit phones in the past couple months that I've seen. This, I think, is the best-looking one that I've seen so far."
Setting: indoor office — bright, natural light from the window
People (1):
• seated, presenting phone, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — satisfied, confident
A close-up shot of the Samsung S24 Ultra's screen displaying a shopping website ('Knoll'). The screen shows images of lounge chairs and sofas. The text '2,600 nits' appears on the right side of the screen, emphasizing the display's brightness.
"So, now it's up to a max 2,600 nits, which is awesome outdoors or anywhere."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
Text: "Knoll", "Lounge Chairs", "2,600 nits"
A hand interacts with the Samsung S24 Ultra's display settings. The hand slides the brightness bar from full to minimum, demonstrating the screen's ability to get extremely dim. The screen briefly goes black, then returns to the settings menu.
"But it also gets extremely dim at night, too, without any of the weird banding I've seen in some other phones."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Brightness", "Adaptive brightness", "Motion smoothness"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, showcasing its flat display and thin bezels. The phone is slowly rotated to highlight the flat edges and the display extending to the corners. The screen displays the home screen with app icons and a dark wallpaper.
"And they've flattened the display completely and brought the display right up to the very corners with some of the thinnest bezels we've seen all the way around."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Google search bar, app icons (Phone, Messages, Chrome, Tesla, Camera), weather widget (42 degrees)"
The Samsung S24 Ultra phone is lying flat on a light gray surface, displaying its home screen with app icons and the intricate building wallpaper. A subtle light source moves across the screen, demonstrating the anti-reflective coating's effectiveness by minimizing glare.
"Plus, there's also this new anti-reflective coating on this Gorilla Glass Armor that makes a noticeable difference with certain light hitting it at off-axis angles."
Setting: indoor — moving light source, highlighting anti-reflective properties
Text: "Google search bar, app icons (Tools, Notion, Instagram, Photos, Phone, Messages, Chrome, Tesla, Camera), weather widget (38 degrees)"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically. The screen is initially black, then lights up to reveal the home screen. The hand then places a thumb on the lower part of the screen, where a fingerprint icon appears, quickly unlocking the phone. This action is repeated to demonstrate the speed of the fingerprint reader.
"And then there is a crazy fast ultrasonic fingerprint reader underneath to top it all off."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Google search bar, app icons (Tools, Notion, Instagram, Photos, Phone, Messages, Chrome, Tesla, Camera), weather widget (38 degrees)", "Fingerprint icon"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically. The screen is initially black, then lights up to reveal the home screen. The hand then places a thumb on the lower part of the screen, where a fingerprint icon appears, quickly unlocking the phone. This action is repeated to demonstrate the speed of the fingerprint reader. The hand also gestures with the thumb to indicate the size of the touch target.
"And, you know, maybe I wish the touch target was a little bit bigger, but that's about it. Honestly, if you're a screen snob, it doesn't really get better than this one right here. This is the phone you should get."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Google search bar, app icons (Tools, Notion, Instagram, Photos, Phone, Messages, Chrome, Tesla, Camera), weather widget (38 degrees)", "Fingerprint icon"
The man is seated at a desk, looking up and to the right, pondering the question of battery life. He gestures with both hands, palms open, as if presenting a problem.
"Okay, so what if your primary concern is battery life?"
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — thoughtful, looking up and right
A screenshot of a tech news article is displayed, showing a large, thick smartphone. The headline reads 'This 18,000mAh battery has a phone in it'. The article details the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop phone.
"Well, you could always get the Energizer phone that we saw at CES at one time, but as far as reasonably sized flagship slab phones go, it doesn't get much better than this."
Setting: digital space — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "TECH / MWC 2023 / GOOGLE", "This 18,000mAh battery has a phone in it", "This phone has an 18,000mAh battery in it", "By Vlad Savov", "Feb 26, 2019, 7:37 AM EST / 0 comments", "Energizer Power Max P18K Pop."
The Samsung S24 Ultra phone is shown standing upright against a light gray wall. The screen displays the home screen with app icons and the intricate building wallpaper. The text '5,000 mAh' appears on the left side of the screen, highlighting the battery capacity.
"Again, they're keeping a 5,000 mAh battery in one of the best-performing battery phones from the past few years, despite making it thinner and keeping the S Pen."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
Text: "5,000 mAh", "Google search bar, app icons (Tools, Notion, Instagram, Photos, Phone, Messages, Chrome, Tesla, Camera), weather widget (38 degrees)"
The Samsung S24 Ultra phone is lying flat on a light gray desk, with its S Pen resting on top of it. A white mechanical keyboard with red and blue keys is visible in the background, along with a pair of white headphones.
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
The man holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, occasionally gesturing with his right hand to emphasize points about battery life and charging. He makes a small, precise gesture with his right hand to indicate 'baby it', then points with his index finger to highlight specific features.
"So, you might as well get this one. Still got 45-watt wired charging, you still have 25-watt wireless charging, and just battery life-wise, I was able to have long days with no problems with 6 hours plus screen-on time. I was able to baby it into getting two full days. That's at 1440p, at 120 Hz, and with high brightness use. So, yeah, why, why get anything else?"
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — expressive, engaged
The man is seated at a desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, emphasizing the importance of performance. His expression is serious and focused.
"So, okay, what if then it's just performance is the main thing that you care about?"
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — serious, focused
The Samsung S24 Ultra phone is lying flat on a light gray desk, with its back facing up. A roll of blue tape is on the right, and a white mechanical keyboard is partially visible on the left.
"Okay, so we're seeing all these phones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 starting to come out, and they're looking really good. Great high-end performance. There's efficiency gains all over the place."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
A person's hands hold the Samsung S24 Ultra phone vertically, displaying a fantasy sports app. The person scrolls through the app, demonstrating its smooth performance and the ability to view player profiles and stats. The app shows 'T.J. McConnell (IND-PG)' with various stats and information.
"Plus, this phone pairs it with 12 gigs of RAM, and it is a multitasking champ."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing unseen and dark pants, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "T.J. McConnell (IND-PG)", "Overview", "Stats"
The Samsung S24 Ultra phone is lying flat on a light gray desk, with its S Pen resting on top of it. A white mechanical keyboard with red and blue keys is visible on the left, and two rolls of colorful tape are on the right.
"And if it's a stylus you're into, I already know you weren't really considering any other phone. The S Pen is basically the only high-end stylus still going in slab smartphones."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
A person's hands hold the Samsung S24 Ultra phone vertically. The screen is black, and the person uses the S Pen to write 'Notes galore' in white text on the screen, demonstrating the note-taking feature.
"It's really good for note-taking, drawing, highlighting, all that stuff. But if you're like me and you hardly ever use that, there's still the gaming performance, and the everyday performance."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing unseen and dark pants, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Notes galore"
A person's hands hold the Samsung S24 Ultra horizontally, playing a racing game. The game displays a car racing through a vibrant, futuristic city. The person's thumbs are actively controlling the game on the screen.
"There's the newly added ray tracing, plus a 90% larger vapor chamber to cool the phone for much longer stuff. Turns out, it's an A+."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing unseen and dark pants, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Racing game UI elements (speedometer, nitro bar, lap time)"
A pair of hands carefully remove a component from the inside of a disassembled Samsung S24 Ultra, revealing the phone's internal cooling system, including a large vapor chamber. The text 'MKBHD REVIEWS' is visible in the bottom left corner.
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "MKBHD REVIEWS"
The man is seated at a desk, holding the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand. He gestures with his right index finger, then opens his hand wide, and then makes a small, precise gesture with his thumb and index finger to emphasize '5 to 10% more frames'. He then holds up the phone and makes a questioning expression.
"Now, you could always get a gaming phone and squeeze 5 to 10% more frames out of a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with some huge badass cooling setup. And that's great. But then you also have to accept all of the sacrifices that come with said gaming phone over this. And do you really want those extra frames that bad?"
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing olive green hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — questioning, expressive
A close-up, low-angle shot of the back of the Samsung S24 Ultra phone, highlighting its five camera lenses. The phone is resting on a metallic, geometric surface, with blue and purple light reflections creating a futuristic ambiance.
"Depends on who you ask. Okay, cameras. There's a lot of other phones out there that you could buy if your $1,300 specifically has to go to the best cameras."
Setting: digital space — blue and purple light reflections
A hand holds a white Google Pixel phone, displaying its camera bar on the back. The phone is held against a background of gray pavement and blue chairs, suggesting an outdoor setting.
"You know, the Pixel just won the blind camera test. Sony has the best manual mode. Like, there's other great camera systems."
Setting: outdoor — bright, natural light
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
A black Sony phone is placed on a dark gray felt surface, surrounded by a black Rubik's Cube, a white notebook, and camera lenses. The camera slowly zooms out, revealing more of the desk setup.
Setting: indoor — soft, diffused lighting
A person's hands hold a black Sony phone horizontally, displaying its camera interface. The interface shows various manual controls for focus, ISO, and shutter speed. The person adjusts the focus and other settings, demonstrating the manual camera mode.
"But here's a way to simplify it. I think in evaluating smartphone cameras, there's basically two ways to review them. There is the utility, the actual technical evaluation, and the aesthetics, the art of it, the subjectivity part."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Camera interface elements (16mm, 24mm, 85mm, 1/100, F1.7, ISO 64)"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds up two fingers on his right hand to indicate 'two ways', then uses his left hand to indicate 'utility' and his right hand to indicate 'aesthetics'. He maintains a serious but engaging expression.
"But here's a way to simplify it. I think in evaluating smartphone cameras, there's basically two ways to review them. There is the utility, the actual technical evaluation, and the aesthetics, the art of it, the subjectivity part."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — serious, engaged
The word 'UTILITY' appears in large, bold, pink letters on a purple background. The man continues to speak, looking directly at the camera, with a confident expression.
"And I think utility-wise, like, on paper, specs-wise, this, this camera's got it all."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
Text: "UTILITY"
The word 'AESTHETICS' appears in large, bold, pink letters on a purple background. The man continues to speak, looking directly at the camera, with a thoughtful expression.
"And I think utility-wise, like, on paper, specs-wise, this, this camera's got it all."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — thoughtful, engaged
Text: "AESTHETICS"
The man is seated at a desk, holding the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, presenting it to the camera. He gestures with his right hand, emphasizing his point about the camera's capabilities. He looks confident and engaged.
"And I think utility-wise, like, on paper, specs-wise, this, this camera's got it all."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra, showcasing its back with the prominent camera array. The phone is held against a blurred background of a purple towel and a dark surface.
"Like, you've seen this camera array before. There's four cameras on the back of this phone."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
A close-up shot of the back of the Samsung S24 Ultra, highlighting its camera array. Text labels appear on the screen, detailing the specifications of each camera: 'Ultra-Wide 12MP', 'Wide Camera 200MP', 'Telephoto (3x) 10MP', and 'Telephoto (5x) 50MP'.
"Turns out, they're basically the same cameras as last year's S23 Ultra, except for one. So, there's a primary camera, an ultra-wide, and a pair of two different telephoto cameras."
Setting: digital space — bright, even lighting
Text: "Ultra-Wide 12MP", "Wide Camera 200MP", "Telephoto (3x) 10MP", "Telephoto (5x) 50MP"
The text labels for the cameras animate and disappear, leaving only the Samsung S24 Ultra on a white background. The camera then cuts to a hand holding the phone horizontally, displaying the camera app. The person points the camera at a fluffy black and white dog, who is panting happily. The person taps the shutter button, taking a picture of the dog, then zooms in on the dog's face.
"The primary camera is still the ridiculous 200-megapixel sensor with all the same pros and cons. It's consistent and versatile across the board."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Camera app UI (12M, 4:3, Photo, Video, More, Portrait)"
A still image of a black Porsche parked on a street with snow on the ground. A house is visible in the background. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
Setting: outdoor street — bright, natural light
A still image of a fluffy black and white dog lying on a gray carpet. The dog is looking directly at the camera with a slight smile. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
"It has great dynamic range. It's a quick shooter with quick autofocus, and it's always binning down to 12 megapixels, and you should almost never switch it to the 200-megapixel mode unless you have incredible lighting."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
A still image of a purple and green plant, with a closed purple flower bud. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
Setting: indoor garden — bright, natural light
A still image showing a textured ground, partially covered with snow and green plants. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
Setting: outdoor — bright, natural light
A still image of an airport terminal at night, with red lights illuminating the roof structure. Cars are visible on the road in front of the terminal, and an orange lift is on the left. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
"It has an ultra-wide with a bit of distortion near the edges, but it's actually meaningfully wider than the primary camera, so it's really fun to shoot with."
Setting: outdoor airport — red and white artificial lights
A still image taken from inside an airplane, looking out a window at a city lit up at night. A white lamp is visible on the left, and a dark seat with a white pillow is on the right. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
Setting: airplane — soft interior lighting, bright city lights
A still image of two cheeseburgers and a side of fries on a red tray. The burgers are large and loaded with toppings. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
"Even though the automatic macro mode from it looks like trash, and you should just turn it off anytime it turns your pictures from this to this. Pro tip."
Setting: indoor restaurant — bright, even lighting
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra horizontally, displaying the camera app. The person zooms in on a black car with red brake calipers, demonstrating the 3x telephoto lens. The zoom level changes from 5.0x to 6.1x smoothly.
"And then it has a medium-range 3x telephoto camera that kicks in smoothly and matches the colors and exposure from the main camera really well."
Setting: outdoor — bright, natural light
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Camera app UI (12M, 4:3, Photo, Video, More, Portrait)", "5.0x", "6.1x"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, presenting it to the camera, and then gestures with his right index finger to emphasize a point about the camera's new specifications.
"And so the one new thing in hardware this year is they've gone from a 10-megapixel 10x camera to a 50-megapixel 5x camera."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, gesturing with his right hand to explain the technical aspects of the camera. He looks thoughtful and engaged.
"So, technically shorter optical zoom range, but I would say with the extra resolution, it is actually more powerful."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — thoughtful, engaged
A close-up, low-angle shot of the back of the Samsung S24 Ultra phone, highlighting its five camera lenses. The phone is resting on a metallic, geometric surface, with blue and purple light reflections creating a futuristic ambiance. The camera slowly zooms in on the lenses.
"It means all the photos in the gap between 5x and 10x look sharper than last year."
Setting: digital space — blue and purple light reflections
Two side-by-side images are displayed, comparing the 10x zoom from the Samsung S23 Ultra (left) and the S24 Ultra (right). Both images show a close-up of small tech accessories on a brown surface. The S24 Ultra's image appears slightly sharper and more detailed.
"And then you can literally put the 10x photos side-by-side from the S23 Ultra and the S24 Ultra, and the new 5x cropped in actually looks better."
Setting: digital space — bright, even lighting
Text: "S23 ULTRA", "S24 ULTRA"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra horizontally, displaying the camera app. The person zooms in on a black car with red brake calipers, demonstrating the extreme zoom capabilities. The zoom level changes from 6.3x to 100.0x, showing increasingly magnified details of the car's wheel and interior.
"Plus, you can still zoom all the way in and shoot at 100x if you still want to take ultra stable pictures of far-away objects like the moon."
Setting: outdoor — bright, natural light
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Camera app UI (12M, 4:3, Photo, Video, More, Portrait)", "6.3x", "100.0x"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, gesturing with his right hand to emphasize the camera's comprehensive features. He makes a small, precise gesture with his right hand, then opens his palm to signify 'everything', and then points with his index finger to highlight specific points.
"But basically, what I'm saying is, utility-wise, this camera system checks every single box. It has everything. So, from there, you get into the more subjective, aesthetic differences, which you could always lean one way or the other. I think, I mean, looking at these photos, they're still very much Samsung's slightly extra processed-looking, a little bit extra contrasty, a little bit higher exposure, a little brighter colors. That still happens with these photos. So, you could still convince yourself to lean Pixel or even iPhone. But if you just want to be able to check every single box, why look anywhere else?"
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, gesturing with his right index finger to emphasize his point. He looks confident and engaged.
"Honestly, the changes that you notice more aside from the actual camera quality are just like features, using it."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
A hand holds a red ping pong paddle against a blue mat on a gray felt surface. The paddle is held in a ready position, suggesting active use. The camera is positioned overhead, capturing the details of the paddle and the textured background.
"Like the S24 Ultra shoots everything HDR by default now. It's actually in Google's new Ultra HDR format."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
A still image of a modern house at night, illuminated by warm exterior lights. Snow covers the ground in front of the house. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
"So, when you have, you know, specular highlights or big dynamic range differences in a photo, it will tastefully crank up that stuff for a more dramatic-looking picture on the phone screen."
Setting: outdoor residential — warm exterior lights
A still image of the front of a red car, highlighting its sleek design and headlights. The car's paint is highly reflective. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
Setting: indoor garage — bright, even lighting
A still image of the side of a black Porsche, focusing on its wheel with red brake calipers. Snow is visible on the ground. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
Setting: outdoor street — bright, natural light
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra horizontally, displaying the camera app. The person zooms in on a green plant, demonstrating the camera's zoom capabilities. The zoom level changes from 1x to 4.8x smoothly, showing increasingly magnified details of the plant's leaves.
"on the phone screen. Similar to what Pixel and iPhone already do."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing blue shirt and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Camera app UI (12M, 4:3, Photo, Video, More, Portrait)", "1x", "4.8x"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying the gallery app. The person scrolls through a collection of photos and videos, then selects a photo of a red car. The selected photo is then shown full screen.
"And this passes through all the way from capturing the photo to viewing it in the gallery, and then one more step to actually publishing it on social media."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Gallery app UI (dates, photo thumbnails)"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, gesturing with his right hand. Icons for Instagram and Snapchat appear on either side of him, emphasizing the phone's integration with social media platforms.
"So, Samsung has worked with Instagram and Snapchat for native quality photo and video uploading pipelines. Because at the end of the day, once you take the photo, what do you 99% of the time planning to do with it?"
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, then brings up a light gray iPhone 15 Pro Max in his right hand, comparing the two phones. He gestures with his right index finger, emphasizing the importance of third-party app photo quality.
"Share it. And I think this is, this is important for a lot of people. This is one of the reasons I have carried an iPhone for years. It's one of the things you can always count on is the photos and videos in third-party apps are going to look just as good as if they were captured in the main camera."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, presenting it to the camera. He gestures with his right index finger, emphasizing the improved photo and video quality in third-party apps. He looks confident and engaged.
"And now you can actually say that that is true now about photos and videos from this phone, at least in Instagram and Snapchat."
Setting: indoor studio — soft, diffused purple and red ambient lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He gestures with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, emphasizing the importance of software and AI features. He makes a sweeping motion with his right hand to indicate a 'long road map'.
"All right, maybe you're a software person. Maybe the top of your list when buying a new smartphone is you want the smartest smartphone. It's got to have all the software and AI features, and honestly, it should have a nice long road map ahead of it of on-time software updates."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — expressive, engaged
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying the 'Advanced intelligence' settings menu. The hand scrolls through various AI features like 'Phone', 'Samsung Keyboard', 'Interpreter', 'Samsung Notes', 'Voice Recorder', 'Samsung Internet', and 'Photo Editor'.
"Sounds like I'm describing a Pixel, but turns out, this phone now has a ton, a ton of helpful AI features built in that are actually good. They make a meaningful difference to everyday use."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Advanced intelligence", "Phone", "Samsung Keyboard", "Interpreter", "Samsung Notes", "Voice Recorder", "Samsung Internet", "Photo Editor"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, gesturing with his right hand to emphasize the collaboration with Google. He looks thoughtful and engaged.
"Now, the funny part about a lot of this is a lot of these features were made in partnership with Google, as you'll see."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — thoughtful, engaged
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, gesturing with his right hand to explain the complex relationship between Samsung and Google. He looks thoughtful and engaged, making expressive hand movements.
"And I can't help but keep thinking, like, it feels like Samsung needs Google to have all of these features in their phone to compete, especially against the iPhone. But then Google, now their own phones are a little bit less competitive, but it's probably worth the trade-off because now, technically, they're helping to compete against the iPhone. It's this weird, like, thing where they need each other. I, I think it's fascinating and probably worth its own separate video. Maybe let me know in the comment or by subscribing if you'd be down to see that. But that's all the background of all of this."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — thoughtful, engaged
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra horizontally, displaying the camera app. The person points the camera at a man working at a desk, then zooms in on a fluffy black and white dog. The dog is panting happily. The person taps the shutter button, taking a picture of the dog.
"So, we were just talking about photos a second ago. The second you're done taking a photo and opening it up in Samsung's Gallery app, there's a ton of useful AI-driven stuff that you can do with it."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (2):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
• seated at desk, wearing black jacket and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Camera app UI (12M, 4:3, Photo, Video, More, Portrait)"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying the gallery app. The person scrolls through a collection of photos and videos, then selects a photo of a purple and green plant. The selected photo is then shown full screen, with a 'Remaster' button appearing at the bottom.
"And it's kind of all based on what sort of scene it auto-detects that you've taken. So, lots of photos just end up with a remaster button where you click it, and then it can add some contrast and brighten things up a little bit as needed and give you a solid before and after."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Gallery app UI (dates, photo thumbnails)", "Remaster"
Two side-by-side images are displayed, comparing the original photo of a purple and green plant (left) with its 'remastered' version (right) after using the S24 Ultra's AI feature. The remastered image shows slightly enhanced contrast and brightness.
Setting: digital space — bright, natural light
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a selfie of the man in a gray hoodie, taken through a window with reflections. The phone shows a 'Erase reflections' button, which the hand taps. The screen then briefly shows 'Analyzing reflections...' before the reflections are removed, revealing a clearer image of the man.
"But if your photo has some glass or a window, it'll show you an erase reflections button."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — neutral, looking at camera
Text: "Erase reflections", "Analyzing reflections..."
Two side-by-side images are displayed, comparing a selfie of the man with reflections (left) and the same selfie with reflections removed (right) using the S24 Ultra's AI feature. The removed reflections reveal a clearer background.
"And then you can literally go in and circle the reflections you want to get rid of, and it'll generative fill what should actually be in the glass. And it works pretty well."
Setting: digital space — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — neutral, looking at camera
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a selfie of the man. The phone shows a 'Background blur' button, which the hand taps. The screen then briefly shows 'Adding background blur...' before the background is blurred, creating a portrait effect.
"Now with this photo, I didn't take it in portrait mode, but it's recognized that there's a subject, and so it'll offer to add background blur."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — neutral, looking at camera
Text: "Background blur", "Adding background blur..."
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a selfie of the man with a blurred background. The hand adjusts a slider at the bottom of the screen, controlling the intensity of the background blur. The blur effect changes dynamically as the slider is moved.
"And even without a bunch of extra depth information, it analyzes the subject, and it lets me add a little bit or a lot of background blur with a pretty damn good cutout if you ask me, to just create a portrait mode shot out of thin air."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — neutral, looking at camera
Text: "Blur slider"
A still image of the man's selfie with a blurred background, creating a portrait effect. The man is looking directly at the camera with a neutral expression. The image is framed within a black background with white dots.
Setting: digital space — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — neutral, looking at camera
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, gesturing with his right hand to emphasize the 'magic editor' feature. He makes a small, precise gesture with his right hand, then opens his palm to signify 'no restrictions'.
"But if you ever really, really want to go crazy, there's a whole separate magic editor that feels exactly like what we just got with the Pixel, minus any restrictions. It's never told me it can't do something."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — expressive, engaged
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a photo of a black car in snow. The hand taps the 'Edit' button, then selects a blue-green button with stars, which activates the Magic Editor. The hand then circles the car, and moves it to a different position on the screen. The background is generatively filled in where the car was moved from.
"So, you open any photo, hit that edit button, and then there's this little blue-green button with the stars. That's Samsung's new Magic Editor. And once you're here, you can just go nuts. You can move the subject around a photo and have it generative fill in the background."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Edit button", "Magic Editor button (blue-green with stars)", "Generate"
Two side-by-side images are displayed, comparing the original photo of a black car in snow (left) with its edited version (right) after using the S24 Ultra's Magic Editor to move the car. The background is generatively filled in where the car was moved from, creating a seamless edit.
"Or you can have it remove things entirely from the foreground or the background of a photo, like photo bombers or just unnecessary random objects. I actually found this super useful."
Setting: digital space — bright, natural light
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a selfie of the man. The hand taps the 'Erase' button in the Magic Editor, then circles an object in the background. The object is then generatively filled in, removing it from the photo.
"Or you can have it remove things entirely from the foreground or the background of a photo, like photo bombers or just unnecessary random objects. I actually found this super useful."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — neutral, looking at camera
Text: "Erase", "Tap the silhouettes of unwanted subjects to remove them.", "Generate"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He gestures with his right index finger, then uses both hands to form a rectangle, mimicking a photo frame. He then makes a pinching gesture with both hands, indicating cropping.
"I actually found this super useful. But probably actually my favorite one, underrated. You know how normally when you need to tilt a photo, like fix the horizon, you end up cropping in and losing some of the outside of the photo. You can still do that, but with this Magic Editor,"
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — expressive, engaged
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a photo of a black car in snow. The hand taps the 'Edit' button, then selects the Magic Editor. The hand then rotates the photo, and the empty corners are generatively filled in, extending the background seamlessly.
"you can open it up and tilt the horizon to whatever angle you want, and instead of cropping, it will literally generative fill in the outsides of the photo, which works very well because usually the outside of the photo is the least important part of the photo. You can get away with generative fill."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Edit button", "Magic Editor button (blue-green with stars)", "Generate"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, gesturing with his right hand to emphasize the photo editing capabilities. He looks confident and engaged.
"And by the way, literally all of this stuff works with photos you download to the phone, too. Not just photos you've taken on the camera, but photos you just get wherever, just like the Pixel."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a photo of a black car in snow. The photo has a small watermark with stars in the bottom right corner, indicating AI manipulation. The hand then taps the watermark, and options to 'Erase shadows', 'Erase reflections', and 'Erase' appear.
"Now, I also find it hilarious that if you use the Magic Editor to alter a photo on this phone, it'll add a little watermark to the bottom corner with this little stars so that you know that this photo was AI-manipulated."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Watermark (stars)", "Erase shadows", "Erase reflections", "Erase"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a photo of a black car in snow with the AI manipulation watermark. The hand then taps the 'Erase' button, and the watermark is removed from the photo, demonstrating the object removal tool.
"Which is good. That's a good responsible thing to do, especially if you're going to upload this to social media. But then you can also immediately erase that watermark with a built-in object removal tool in Samsung's photo editor app."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Erase", "Cancel", "Done"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He gestures with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, emphasizing the AI features. He makes a small, precise gesture with his right hand, then opens his palm to signify 'all of the AI features'.
"There's a nice little section in the settings where Samsung's tucked all of the AI features of this phone. It's called Advanced Intelligence instead of Artificial Intelligence. Still AI, though. Uh, that's where you get stuff like the live phone call translation feature, or the new voice recorder app getting much improved speaker labels and summaries and transcriptions."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a live phone call translation interface. The screen shows text being translated from Korean to English in real-time. The text 'Hello. Who is it?' and 'This is Marquez. I was hoping you could tell me what the best feature of the phone is...' are visible in both languages.
"Uh, that's where you get stuff like the live phone call translation feature, or the new voice recorder app getting much improved speaker labels and summaries and transcriptions."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Korean", "English", "Hello. Who is it?", "This is Marquez. I was hoping you could tell me what the best feature of the phone is..."
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying the voice recorder app. The screen shows a transcript of a conversation with speaker labels and a summary feature. The hand taps the 'Summary' tab, and a concise summary of the conversation appears.
"The Samsung browser will now do uh summaries of web pages. This might all sound very familiar. But the best new one, in my opinion, is Circle to Search."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "English_conversation", "Transcript", "Summary", "Keywords: Strawberry Chocolate Bar, Valentine's Day, Social Media", "Summary: Launching a New Strawberry Chocolate Bar..."
A person stands on a stage in front of a large screen displaying various social media-like cards with images and text. The screen then transitions to show the text 'Circle to Search with Google' in large, bold letters.
"Now, Google Lens has been around for a long time. In my opinion, one of Google's most underrated products."
Setting: indoor event — stage lighting
People (1):
• standing on stage, wearing dark coat and unseen, short, dark hair — neutral
Text: "Circle to Search", "with Google"
A Google Pixel phone is held vertically, displaying the Google Lens app. The camera is focused on a pink and green flower, and the app's interface shows a search bar and various options like 'Translate', 'Search', and 'Homework'. The hand taps the 'Search' button, and search results for 'Red ginger plant' appear.
"So, people might have already known that you could basically do this already, but it would take several steps. Circle to Search just makes it one step. It's much faster. It's pretty awesome."
Setting: outdoor — bright, natural light
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Google Lens", "Tap shutter button to search", "Red ginger plant"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He gestures with both hands, making a small, precise gesture with his thumb and index finger to indicate 'one step'. He then opens his hands wide, conveying enthusiasm about the new feature. He looks confident and engaged.
"So, people might have already known that you could basically do this already, but it would take several steps. Circle to Search just makes it one step. It's much faster. It's pretty awesome."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — expressive, engaged
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a fantasy sports app. The hand long-presses the home button, activating 'Circle to Search'. The hand then circles a player's image, and Google search results for the player appear over the app, without leaving the app.
"You literally just hold down on the home button or the gesture bar at the bottom, and then circle or tap whatever on your screen that you want to Google Search. And it just immediately Googles over the top of whatever you were doing without leaving that app, and it's so useful."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing unseen and dark pants, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Google search overlay", "Nikola Jokic"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying the Google search interface with a transparent overlay of the home screen. The hand taps on the Google search bar, and then circles the Google app icon, demonstrating 'Circle to Search'.
"Just even during a week I've been using this phone, I've searched pictures, parts of pictures before. It almost always works just like uploading it to Google Lens. I've searched objects right in front of me through the camera viewfinder."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Google search bar", "Tap or long press anywhere to search"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying the Google search interface with a transparent overlay of the camera viewfinder. The hand circles the man's face in the viewfinder, and Google search results for clothing appear below.
"I've searched random landmarks. You can also search text, and you can even append text to your search."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing blue hooded sweatshirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — neutral
Text: "Google search bar", "Results for people are limited", "Clothing results (hoodies)"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying the Google search interface with a transparent overlay of the camera viewfinder. The hand circles a colorful elephant painting, and Google search results for elephant art appear below.
"I've searched random landmarks. You can also search text, and you can even append text to your search."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Google search bar", "Elephant art"
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra vertically, displaying a shopping website ('Knoll'). The person uses the S Pen to circle text on the screen, demonstrating the text selection and search feature. The selected text is then used to perform a Google search.
"And I was just constantly impressed by how fast it is. And it basically works as expected every single time. The one fidgety part is sometimes selecting text gets a little weird. Using the S Pen can solve that a little bit to just get a more precise selection, but yeah, once you do it, it's much faster than if you're going to use Google Lens, having to like take a screenshot and then upload it through Lens and then maybe have to crop it and the whole thing. This is just fast."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Knoll", "New Year Sale: Save 20%", "Lounge Chairs"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, gesturing with his right hand to explain the speed and efficiency of the new search feature. He makes a small, precise gesture with his right hand, then opens his palm to convey 'fast'.
"And I was just constantly impressed by how fast it is. And it basically works as expected every single time. The one fidgety part is sometimes selecting text gets a little weird. Using the S Pen can solve that a little bit to just get a more precise selection, but yeah, once you do it, it's much faster than if you're going to use Google Lens, having to like take a screenshot and then upload it through Lens and then maybe have to crop it and the whole thing. This is just fast."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — expressive, engaged
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He gestures with his right index finger, emphasizing a point about a past Pixel feature. He looks confident and engaged.
"Now, real OGs will know that there used to be a feature on Pixels called Now On Tap. It was like the same exact thing. Hold the home button, and it would just Google whatever was on your screen and help you out."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
A close-up of a hand holding an older model Google Pixel phone, demonstrating the 'Now On Tap' feature. The hand long-presses the home button, and Google search results related to the screen content (Android 6.0 Marshmallow) appear as an overlay.
"But that was everything on your screen. And they kind of ended up wrapping that into Google Assistant. This is just so much faster and more selective."
Setting: indoor — soft, diffused lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
Text: "Google search overlay", "Android 6.0 Marshmallow"
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He gestures with both hands, making a small, precise gesture with his right hand, then opens his hands wide, conveying the extensive software support. He looks confident and engaged.
"Also, Pixels are going to get this feature very soon as well. But then bonus points, if you really love software, Samsung is now promising seven years of security updates and seven generations of major software updates on this phone, on the S24 lineup. I assume seven generations of software updates is basically seven years."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
The text '7 YEARS' appears in large, bold, blue letters on a white background. The man is speaking directly to the camera, gesturing with his right index finger, emphasizing the duration of software updates. He looks confident and engaged.
"seven years of security updates and seven generations of major software updates on this phone, on the S24 lineup. I assume seven generations of software updates is basically seven years."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
Text: "7 YEARS"
The man is speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand, presenting it to the camera with a satisfied expression. He looks confident and engaged.
"That means this phone will be up to date in 2031. Loving that."
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — satisfied, smiling
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He gestures with both hands, making a sweeping motion with his right hand to indicate 'four, five, six plus years'. He then opens his hands wide, conveying the comprehensive features of the phone, and looks at the camera with a confident, questioning expression.
"So, we know the common wisdom was that if you wanted four, five, six plus years of software updates, or if you want every single little software and AI feature, you basically had to go iPhone or Pixel. But now that this phone also has that, why get anything else?"
Setting: indoor office — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• seated, animated, wearing gray hooded sweatshirt with red undershirt and unseen, short, dark, curly hair with faded sides hair — confident, engaged
A hand holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in the left hand, and another hand holds a light gray iPhone 15 Pro Max in the right hand. The phones are held side-by-side, backs facing the camera, for comparison. The camera is positioned overhead, capturing the details of both phones.
"But speaking of the iPhone, they're going at them, too. Now, I know I said in the beginning of this video, $1,300 slab Android phone. So, I know the iPhone 15 Pro Max was never really on the table."
Setting: indoor — bright, even lighting
People (1):
• unseen, wearing unseen and unseen, unseen hair — unseen
The man is seated at a desk, speaking directly to the camera. He holds the Samsung S24 Ultra in his left hand and a light gray iPhone 15 Pro Max in his right hand, comparing the
"But if we're being honest, Samsung has never been shy about competing directly against the iPhone. So, why not take some of the best stuff from there, too?"