First impressions with a S24 Ultra Titanium Blue:
After receiving the phone, I put it to charge. I thought for a moment that there was a problem with charging and the USB port because there was no sign on the screen that it was charging. Stupidly, I assume that the film protecting the screen was transparent. After trying different cables and chargers, I realised that the film is black and blocks all light.
I had a mix of excitement and dread, after reading some many posts about screen, audio, WiFi on the 5gHz band, and camera not performing well.
I managed to get my phone up and running. I set it up as new, I did not transfer any settings or app from my S22 Ultra. The only crossover were contacts and messages. The process was absolutely painless. WiFi worked without a single problem when setting the phone.
There were quite a few updates, both on the Galaxy Store and Google Store, including the Galaxy Store. Installed a few needed apps, some more apps to be done later. Copy all my media to a solid-state drive (T7), and from the drive to the phone. The read and write speeds are excellent.
The screen is quite brilliant to my eyes. I love it. It is very responsive. The fingerprint reader is very fast. I thought that the colours on the S22 Ultra and the S24 Ultra were similar. I can see a very small change between vivid and normal modes. I do not dislike either, but I prefer normal. The lack of a very intense vivid mode could be an issue if that it is your preference.
After installing VLC, I played Mary J. Blige, Family Affair. The visuals and audio were fantastic. The speakers were loud and clear. It really sounded good, and the video was excellent. I felt very relieved that both audio and visuals were very pleasing for me.
If you use WhatsApp, Viber or similar communication app. Make sure that you do backup your chats on the cloud before you try to set it on the new phone, so they can be restored. On the WhatsApp case, do the restore when setting the app. If you skip the restoring process, then there is no clear way to restore it. If you did skip the restore by accident, go into Settings -> Apps, stop the app, clear cache, clear data and start the app again to restore the backup.
Transferring my Galaxy Watch 5 Pro did not work. It did work initially and gave me a false sense of security, but after I browsed the watch setting, it decided that it could not transfer it. I tried to do it several times with the same result. I rebooted both the watch and the phone, but to no avail. I have not cleaned the cache partition. I might need to reset the watch.
The camera is acceptable for first release. It can take some OK pictures in low light. It looks decent enough as whole, but not if zoom in. The stock camera performance is very similar to the S22 Ultra at its release time. It lacks details and colours look messy on the photo mode. On portrait mode, either the selfie or the main cameras can have a decent amount of detail. I did not get any buzzing noise or rattle with the camera or near the camera.
I did not set any saving battery feature. Resolution QHD+, I did not toggle off any feature that makes the Ultra an Ultra. After more than 12 hours and intense use, it still has 50% of the battery. I do not think that is bad at all, considering all the setting up. I think that the phone overall performance is very decent.
I ordered a case from Amazon yesterday to be delivered today, and the phone went into it faster that that it came out the box. It might have tough glass, but I did not want to test it. I am very pleased with the phone so far.
I am well aware that my experience is not a universal one. I am not trying to prove or disprove anything, just sharing.
Technology enthusiast, but not related to any technological company.
