Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Review: Accessibility still Trails Innovation

Last updated on 4 June 2024

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra was released on January 31, 2024, and, as a flagship, represents the best of what Samsung has in store for users: Qualcomm SM8650-AC Snapdragon 8 gen 3 chipset, 7 years of software updates, titanium frame (grade 2), fully flat and less reflective display, glass front and glass back (Corning Gorilla Armor), etc. Even this year’s colors are different: Titanium Black, Titanium Gray, Titanium Violet, Titanium Yellow, Titanium Blue, Titanium Green, Titanium Orange.

I finally got the opportunity to take advantage of a great deal to replace my S23 Ultra, still a great handset, with the S24 Ultra in May, and managed to write my review after spending almost a week with the phone.

The good

• Flat display finally makes life easier for those who like glass protectors.
• Stellar battery life.
• Great speakers with improved audio separation.
• Faster and more accurate under-display fingerprint reader.
• Extended 7 years of software updates.
• Quite responsive with no hot or warm body.

The bad

• Bloatware, apps that should be either removed or disabled.
• Samsung TalkBack is still a step behind Google TalkBack and the annoying TalkBack separation issue persists.
• The camera can be more accessible to recognize stuff beyond faces.
• With some Samsung earbuds, the Accessibility volume can’t be configured easily.
• Spells the end of 32-bit app support.
• Smart Switch for Windows remains inaccessible.
• Circle to Search is largely inaccessible, and this is Google’s fault.

Setting up the phone

As the phone starts for the first time, pressing and holding down Volume Up and Volume Down keys for a few seconds brings up an audio prompt asking users to press this combination for a second time if they want to enable TalkBack on the set-up screen. As my phone is a UK/Europe variant, TalkBack uses a UK English Samsung voice during the set-up process. For whatever it is worth – and I understand this might be personal, the UK English voice sounds a bit excited and high-pitched to my ears. As one selects US English in the language selection screen, TalkBack will switch to a US English voice which sounds a lot more neutral and less excited.

Transferring data from the S23 Ultra to the S24 Ultra is a breeze with the Samsung Smart Switch app. I used the provided USB C cable to connect the phones, and Smart Switch on the S24 Ultra took care of the rest of the process. Other than WhatsApp which requires its own Google Drive back-up and restore mechanism, everything was transferred to the S24 Ultra including the layout of my Home and App screens, Wi-Fi passwords, call logs and messages, and almost all modified settings from the Settings window. Even with WhatsApp, my voice messages belonging to all chats and groups were successfully transferred inside WhatsApp as it has its own independent back-up and restore facility – a bit annoying – yes, but I didn’t choose to back up my videos to Google Drive. One issue, albeit a really minor quibble, is that the Smart Switch app on the S24 Ultra needs to be updated and brought to the same version as the one on the S23 Ultra in order for the restore process to start. This can be achieved by going to the Play Store, and the app itself sends you there.

In passing, it’s worth mentioning that the Smart Switch app can accept back-ups stored on flash drives or hard drives, requiring either an OTG connector or a USB C cable if your flash memory is a type C one. By the same token, data can be backed up on flash drives or hard drives via the app. However, as Samsung’s Smart Switch for Windows remains largely – and woefully – inaccessible, restoring to or backing up from a PC or a laptop becomes possible only via sighted assistance. Alternatively, one can call Microsoft Accessibility Desk via Be My Eyes, if you have it installed on a different phone, in order for a Microsoft representative to do these tasks for you via the Windows Quick Assist app. But it’s both more time-consuming and a bit cumbersome.

Hardware

Design, display and build quality

As the S23 Ultra successor, the S24 Ultra looks very much like its predecessor to the point that my friends didn’t immediately notice the new handset. However, The S24 Ultra’s 6-8 inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 2600 nits (peak) display is, finally, flat not curved. This means, unlike the S23 Ultra or the S22 Ultra, using a glass screen protector is a possibility. The display is also noticeably less reflective, a boon for reading under sunlight for sighted users. The front and back of the phone utilize Corning Gorilla Armor Glass, which is tougher and less prone to scratches. Also a first for Samsung and something within the lines of Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max, the S24 Ultra uses titanium for the exposed frame, making the handset even more durable. It weighs 232 grams or 233 grams – region-dependent.

on the top of the phone, almost on the opposite side of the USB C port on the bottom, two little holes can be felt. These house 2 microphones, and show an improvement over the S23 Ultra’s single microphone in the same position. The SIM tray is located on the bottom of the device alongside the USB C port, the speaker/microphone grill, and the S Pen. The left side of the phone is blank, and the right side accommodates the larger Volume Up/Down button and the smaller Side button. The S24 Ultra still carries the IP68 rating, so it’s dust-tight and should be able to survive down to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes.

CPU, GPU, memory and RAM

In the chipset department, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra offers Qualcomm SM8650-AC Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, one step ahead of the Gen 2 chipset found in the S23 Ultra. This is a Samsung-customized 4 nm, 8-core arrangement chipset and offers very good test results – check here. For daily use, it will be difficult to notice any salient difference compared with the S23 Ultra. But the SnapDragon 8 gen 3 CPU doesn’t have support for 32-bit apps.

The S24 Ultra’s GPU is Adreno 750, which offers a huge boost for gaming.

The phone also provides 12GB of 800 MHz LPDDR5X RAM, and the storage options include 256GB, 512GB and 1TB, all with UFS 4.0 flash chips. Mine is the 256GB variant.

Fingerprint reader, face unlock and accessibility gestures

Like the S23 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra utilizes an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint reader. Unlike optical fingerprint sensors, it works very well even with wet fingers. For no apparent reason, registering the fingerprint reader on the S24 Ultra took less time compared with what I spent achieving that on the A54 and the S23 Ultra. It is said that the S24 Ultra uses a newer and faster fingerprint sensor, and this might be the rationale behind my more pleasant experience. I have no difficulty unlocking the phone via my registered fingerprint even with a glass protector, and oftentimes it gets unlocked with the first attempt. Like the S23 Ultra, Registering a fingerprint is quite accessible, and TalkBack provides the needed prompts.

On the other hand, the face recognition technology used on the S24 Ultra is very similar to its predecessor in that it doesn’t work well when no lighting is available. On Android no phone manufacturer has been able to match the iPhone’s Face Unlock and Face ID accuracy, so I haven’t set it up on the S24 Ultra either.

As I’m well accustomed to large phones and prefer them to smaller ones because of their improved battery life, I have no difficulty using it with my left hand when it’s held in the right hand. The screen accommodates screen reader touches very well and despite the improved CPU, it’s as responsive as the S23 Ultra.

Audio quality

The Galaxy S24 Ultra offers a stereo setup with one speaker producing audio out of the bottom of the handset, and another one at the top end, which outputs sound forward through a slit that also serves as the earpiece. The phone is capable of producing 32-bit/384kHz audio, and the speakers are tuned by AKG.

The audio can become loud with no signs of distorting, and the phone’s sound quality is great, too. Even frequencies towards the low end of the spectrum are acceptably presented, but, to my ears, the S23 Ultra speakers had a bit more base at the cost of the relative absence of mid-tier frequencies. In this sense I call the speakers more neutral. Coming from the S23 Ultra I can notice more left/right audio separation on the S24 Ultra which might be a good thing for dialogs. I also find the audio TalkBack produces on the S24 Ultra slightly more pleasant compared with what I used to hear on the S23 Ultra with Google TTS – maybe because of the basier sound of the older phone, but they are quite similar.

I also like the phone’s microphones, and the audio I record in apps like WhatsApp and Telegram sounds pretty decent. For serious or pro audio recording, microphones like Shure MV88+ Stereo USB Microphone are recommended. A few recording samples will be provided below for comparison purposes.

Recording 1: this was recorded using ASR Voice Recorder app, and the phone’s internal microphones.

Recording 2: this was recorded using Samsung Voice Recorder app, and the phone’s built-in microphones.

Recording 3: this was recorded using Shure MOTIV app, and Shure MV88+ external microphone connected to the S24 Ultra.

Recording 4: Similar to the previous recording, but this time with a Shure furry windscreen.

Connectivity

the Galaxy S24 Ultra provides 5G, eSIM support, Dual SIM support, Wi-Fi 7 – the first in the S Series, Bluetooth 5.3 (A2DP, LE), and NFC. I have no issues with Wi-Fi reception, and the network signal is quite stable. However, I have not yet been able to test 5G, as 5G coverage here is not good.

One of the oddities of the S24 Ultra with my Galaxy Buds 2 Pro is that if the screen is touched after at least 10 seconds of not using the phone, the TalkBack audio starts with a lower volume, but quickly gets corrected. While annoying, it doesn’t result in any audio cutouts. More serious than that, however, is the fact that at the time of this writing and with Android 14 and One UI 6.1, when the Buds 2 Pro is connected, the Accessibility volume can’t be properly adjusted. The slider is there, but adjusting it oftentimes doesn’t alter the Accessibility volume. As such, the TalkBack volume gets tied to the Media volume, and with mid-to-loud music playback, TalkBack’s audio will be difficult to hear or understand.

It’s not clear which Samsung earbuds are affected. Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro is, Samsung Buds Live isn’t, and your so-called Samsung milage may vary. The fact is that Sony or Apple earbuds are not affected. Interestingly, the Buds 2 Pro used to work but when Samsung got a firmware update, they broke it. What a mess!

Cameras and battery

The S24 Ultra is equipped with a quad camera set-up:

Rear cameras:

• Wide: 200MP.
• Ultra Wide: 12MP.
• Tele 1: 10MP.
• Tele 2: 50MP.

Optical Zoom at 3x 5x.

Optical Quality at 2x 10x.

Space Zoom at 100x.

Front Camera :

• 12MP.

I’m not the best person to evaluate them given my visual impairment as my use of the cameras is limited.

The phone is powered by a 5,000mAh battery, similar to the S23 Ultra. I’ll discuss some aspects of the camera and battery life later.

Software

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with One UI 6.1 based on Android 14. As usual, it offers many Samsung apps as alternatives for Google apps: stuff like Samsung Phone, Messages, Internet, etc. Of course, what makes One UI 6.1 special for the S24 Ultra and a couple of older phones belonging to the S series is the inclusion of mobile AI features, facilities like Circle to Search, Live Translate, chat assist, Note Assist, and Generative Edit. These can be used during phone calls for translation purposes, the conversion of audio into text in recordings, altering some aspects of captured photos, generating summaries, keyboard suggestions, grammar, spelling and punctuation corrections, etc. However, I haven’t yet used them much. The AI features for the camera don’t fit my use case, and as I’m mostly tied to Google apps as opposed to Samsung apps, I’m effectively deprived of them. However, I’ve used the Writing Assist AI with the Samsung keyboard to check for grammar issues and misspelled words, and the feature is both usable and quite accessible.

At the time of launch, one of the hallmarks of the S24 Ultra was Circle to Search, which was offered in collaboration with Google. It allows you to either circle, highlight, scribble, or tap on the object or person you want more information on. However, it seems that Circle to Search isn’t accessible with TalkBack as the screen reader can’t interact with controls or elements on the screen when the feature gets activated either with the three-button navigation or with the gesture navigation feature.

The S24 Ultra is the first Samsung phone to provide 7 years of software updates. Will users keep their phones for 7 years in this day and age, and won’t phones fail in that time span? It remains to be seen how Samsung wants to handle this generous update policy in the long run.

The phone comes with some pre-installed apps which, unsympathetically, should be called bloatware. This is a premium phone but, like the S23 Ultra, has stuff which can be either uninstalled or simply disabled without offering an uninstallation option. I managed to uninstall Facebook and some Meta-related apps, for instance, but One Drive and Swift Keyboard as well as few Meta-related services can’t be uninstalled. Most, if not all Samsung apps which are more useful, admittedly, can also be uninstalled. For instance, I uninstalled Samsung PENUP, a social network for people who like to draw and interact with creative types, as well as some TTS voices for the languages I don’t use, and managed to also uninstall Samsung Free Zone, and some game-related apps.

After setting up the phone, I updated all Samsung apps via the Samsung Store and the rest of the apps on the Play Store. However, my Google Play System Update still displayed July 1, 2023. I knew that I needed to update it, and a bit of Googling indicated that I should go to Settings, Security and privacy, Updates, and select Google Play System update to download and install the latest release. This way mine was updated to the May 1, 2024 release.

Accessibility

The Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with Samsung TalkBack V14.1, oddly displaying the V13.5 release on the Galaxy Store. Typical of Samsung and their oddities, it lacks Google’s TalkBack image descriptions and a few configuration options like downloading data sets for image descriptions and image labels. Samsung TalkBack has recently been a step behind Google TalkBack, and I’m not sure when Samsung wants to put an end to this strange policy. Installing and activating Google TalkBack on Samsung phones is a bit difficult and technical, and I activated Google TalkBack via a couple of ADB commands – courtesy of these steps. Among other things, Google TalkBack, V14.2 at the time of this writing, remains silent when the phone listens to spoken commands for Google Assistant.

TalkBack on Android 14 feels quite responsive, and scrolling lists, not as buttery-smooth as VoiceOver on iOS, doesn’t pose any irksome issues. With One UI 6.1, closing apps has, once again, become possible via TalkBack actions, so this bug which affected One UI 6.0 has been fixed.

One UI 6.1 supports TalkBack actions in many areas like the App screen, Recent apps, Notifications, and Quick settings. But Samsung apps, like most Google apps, don’t support TalkBack actions. The nice point is that Samsung apps – if you like them, are quite accessible and usable even without action support. For instance, I use the Samsung Health app extensively to have athletic challenges with friends. The Weather app is also a joy to use.

With TalkBack, I’ve set the Side button plus Volume up button as my shortcut. Unlike Volume up button plus Volume down button which is the default for Samsung TalkBack, it does its trick immediately, enabling or disabling TalkBack in a wink. Moreover, as I’m a heavy user of multi-finger gestures, I’ve customized TalkBack in a way that a 3-finger swipe-left gesture activates the Back gesture, and a 3-finger swipe-right gesture describes images. The 4-finger tripple-tap gesture also copies the last spoken item or phrase to the clipboard, and a 3-finger tripple-tap and hold shows or hides the screen.

As I’m not a Jieshuo, AKA CSR, user, I can’t comment on its accessibility with the S24 Ultra and One UI 6.1. As mentioned earlier, the S24 Ultra no longer supports 32-bit apps like Eloquence, generating a bit of inconvenience for some users. This issue also affected a few of my banking apps, but I was lucky enough to find their 64-bit counterparts.

As for camera accessibility, it’s definitely usable as long as proper positioning of faces is concerned. TalkBack tells you how many faces are in focus, and where they are positioned. However, unlike what iPhones have done for years and what Pixel phones have recently been able to do, the Samsung Camera, or rather TalkBack, doesn’t provide us with information about other objects within the focus range. The Pixel camera is even better for selfies as it can take them automatically when the face gets properly focused, and with the S24 Ultra we should take selfies manually as soon as the focus is right.

In case you might wonder, the unexpected and elongated message which pops up out of the blue about how to unlock the phone using the fingerprint sensor also affects the S24 Ultra with One UI 6.1, and it’s as strange and annoying as what I used to see on the S23 Ultra. It doesn’t pop up very often, but when it does, it will be long-drawn-out enough to pester you.

Finally, it’s worth noting that similar to One UI 6.0, it’s not possible to use the 2-finger double-tap gesture to answer WhatsApp and Meet calls on One UI 6.1, and one should resort to their respective on-screen buttons. The same is true about ending calls.

Performance and battery life

Being used to Apple’s recent iPhone Pro Maxes when it comes to offering first-class performance and battery life, I was wondering if the S23 Ultra, and its successor, could be worthy competitors. But my own experience with both of them indicates that on the Android side of the pond, both the S23 Ultra and the S24 Ultra are respectable options. The S24 Ultra, in particular, performs admirably with its Snapdragon 8 gen 3 chipset, Adreno 750 GPU and 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM. I’m sure I’ve not been able to stress-test the CPU and the GPU to see a single instance of stuttering. The phone doesn’t heat up even while working with apps like Instagram or when apps are being updated or installed. Also my feeling is that TalkBack with Google TTS is as responsive as, or even more responsive than VoiceOver on iOS.

As for battery life, it seems that the use of 5,000mAh batteries has become the norm in many Samsung phones. However, what sets these phone apart is the CPU, the GPU, screen refresh, and a couple of other factors. As I’m using the Maximum battery protection setting with One UI 6.1, my battery can’t be recharged beyond 80 percent, and I recharge it when the level reaches between 30 to 40 percent. With this pattern, I recharge the battery on a daily basis, and sometimes 36 hours after the previous recharge. In One UI 6.0, phones could be recharged up to 85 percent. Anyhow, the phone has slightly improved battery life compared with the S23 Ultra, placing it along the lines of iPhone 15 Pro Max with its rigorous battery optimizations and harsh app management mechanism. Like the S23 Ultra, the S24 Ultra suffers the highest degree of battery loss when 4G is used instead of Wi-Fi. With TalkBack, my screen is hidden and screen brightness is set to 0 percent, so those can’t affect battery life much.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra can accept 45W chargers, but I use a Samsung 25W charger. It recharges the battery a bit more slowly, but is better for the battery as time goes by. Honestly I don’t like the idea of super-fast charging as it damages batteries in the long run. But if you like charging at 45W speeds, you need to purchase such a charger along with a proper cable as the provided USB C cable in the box is maxed at 25W. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra also supports wireless charging at 15W, and it can reverse-charge devices like the Buds 2 Pro via its Wireless Power Share capability.

Conclusion and final remarks

Is Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra the best Android phone at the moment? Probably yes if you are willing to pay its price – about $1,300 for the 256GB variant, or if you get it with a discount or a nice upgrade deal. But is it the most accessible Android phone? It’s difficult to answer this question as Samsung and Google leave a lot to be desired. After all, with the S24 Ultra we are in the realm of Android flagships, but its accessibility hasn’t reached flagship status. The Samsung TalkBack saga, the Accessibility volume issue with some Samsung Galaxy earbuds, and the inaccessibility of Circle to Search all affect many older Samsung phones, but with the S24 Ultra you’re paying more to tolerate these nuisances. And gone are the days when you could send emails to Samsung’s Accessibility department to report TalkBack issues to them.

If you buy other flagships like Pixel 8 Pro or OnePlus 12, you might get rid of a few of these annoyances, but at the cost of losing most software features and perks found in One UI 6.1. S Pen and DeX mode on the S24 Ultra are also nice perks, but they are not distinctive accessibility-defining features at all. Hardware-wise, it’s tough to beat the S24 Ultra. To put it into perspective, I’m glad I have the S24 Ultra in my hands, but I was happier when I switched from the A54 to the S23 Ultra as I could notice the improvements in a more pronounced way. In short, the S24 Ultra might not do justice to our pockets, but this is generally the case with flagships on the Android and iOS side, and those who opt to get flagships have already decided to make such a sacrifice. Like many Samsung phones, however, the S24 Ultra also receives frequent discounts, making its purchase a more pleasant deal.

At any event, with One UI 7, Android 15 and TalkBack 15 on the horizon, It would be interesting to find out about accessibility fixes and new features for Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. As such, this review will be updated in the future as I gradually gain access to them.

You may want to check the phone’s full specifications here.