Unboxing a new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 512GB in titanium yellow.
Samsung introduced their new Samsung Galaxy S24 phones.
I pre-ordered a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 512GB in titanium yellow from Vodafone, which arrived on time on official release date 24.01.2024.
Inside the box are the phone and an inner accessory box.
The box contains the phone, USB-C to USB-C cable and pin tool. Also included are a quick start guide and warranty leaflets in multiple languages but no charger.
I always like the included charges because with Samsung phones they became a bit more capable over time. As many will have numerous chargers in the house those can be used and leaving out the charger is considered ecologically friendly.
Note the the included cable is a USB-C to USB-C type. This means you either need a charger with USB-C outlet. If yours still has a USB-A port you need to find a suitable USB-A to USB-C cable.
Wireless charging of course works but is slower than a wired charger.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra screen is protected with an opaque black sticker. It cannot be used as an initial screen protector. Other phones sometimes have a clear protector applied which can be used as an initial protector. Here, if you want screen protection you will need to bring your own.
Before launch, I ordered a set of screen protectors which come with a guide. The guide aligns the protector with the phone: Insert phone, then insert protective film which will be guided by three pins. Then close the lid, pull out the protective back. The lid can slide back and forth. Doing so will move a rubber roller (green roller in the picture) across the screen. This will press the protector firmly onto the screen and eliminate most of the air. I had very little air under the film at one edge which I could easily push out with an included squeegee.
The backside has a nice yellow tone and is flat except the five camera lenses, which do protude a little.
I really liked the yellow color. For over a decade my phone were mostly either black or white. Lately I like colored phone. The iPhone Pro Max 12 blue was really nice, as was the Pro 14’s deep purple.
Out of the 2024 color range, yellow, black and titanium have matching colored bezels. The other colors (violet and the three Samsung store exclusive blue, green and orange) have titanium colored bezels which do not match the back color.
That is another reason to like the titanium yellow: You get matching colored bezels. I also liked the violet but would have preferred violet bezels over the titanium colored ones.
The glass back, bezel and camera borderings are tone-in-tone.
Buttons are only one one side, leaving the opposite bezel clean. This also avoids accidental button presses i.e. when tilting the phone up on the side to watch a video in landscape format.
You can see the slim plastic strips in the titanium bezels which separate the antennas.
Samsung has the Smart Switch software installed on their phone which will let you sync your data, apps and settings from your old phone.
Smar Sync will give you a summary and also explicitly list what will NOT be synced. In my case this was one app (Homo Machina, an educational app) which was noted as incompatible. A bit strange since I tested installing same app on the new phone after the sync and that worked without issue.
I had only to enter my WIFI password and Samsung Pass passwords.
When the transfer completes you can detach the cable. The phone continued to work in the background but could already by used.
I have been using the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra now for three days since launch date 24.02.2024 and must say I really like the phone. For the last two years I have been using a Galaxy S22 Ultra as my company phone. The one thing I did not like so much were the rounded edges. They looked nice but made the phone a bit more difficult to hold without touching the screen. The rounded edges also made it more difficult to apply a screen protector. I used a film type protector to fit the edges. If one preferred a hard protector you had to get one made for the rounded edges.
The flat display is also more usable with the S-Pen.
The slide-out panel which lets you pin app shortcuts and has a ruler is available with the flat screen. In the old days (around S6 to S9) this slide-out panel was exclusive to the models with the edge displays but not the flat ones if I remember correctly.
So far a great phone! I got a Samsung Standing Grip Case in “Dark Violet” along with the phone. It is essentially a silicone case with a kind of integrated lug on the back.The lug is normally flat and almost flush with the back but can be slid a little which will make it bend outwards, giving a curved strap to either hold your phone or to prop it up in landscape mode to i.e. watch videos.