It's not entirely clear how, but compared to previous years, Samsung seems to have done a slightly better job of containing juicy leaks starring its next big smartphones in the flesh. Don't get us wrong, we've more or less known everything there is to know about the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra for quite some time now, but it was only a couple of weeks ago that the first legit-looking photographs of an actual unit out in the wild made their way online.
That same jumbo-sized and state-of-the-art device initially pictured by itself in a gray colorway is today captured on film alongside a black-coated Galaxy S23 Ultra, giving us the perfect opportunity to analyze and admire some of the subtle but potentially important visual changes Samsung is evidently preparing for the highly anticipated and fast-approaching Galaxy S24 Ultra.
The devil is in the details
Because everybody already knows (or at least suspects) that the S24 Ultra and S23 Ultra will look incredibly similar at first glance, it's certainly nice to see that Samsung is working on refining a bunch of little details, which often make such a big difference for the real-life user experience of so many people.
One interesting refinement you'll undoubtedly notice very quickly in these new leaked snapshots concerns the built-in stylus, which will apparently sit flush with the Galaxy S24 Ultra body when placed into its dedicated compartment rather than sticking out like a sore thumb as on this year's S23 Ultra.
Right next to the S Pen slot you'll find a completely redesigned speaker that also looks subtler and arguably more elegant than the old S23 Ultra grill, with the USB Type-C port and SIM card slot of course going unchanged as... there's really nothing you can change about those two components.
Moving to the side of the two super-premium handsets, it seems that the power and volume buttons are now thicker, which could also be a welcomed little revision for folks with unusually fat fingers. Interestingly, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is set to reduce its predecessor's overall thickness by just a tiny bit, purportedly going down from 8.9 to 8.6mm while impressively retaining the same 5,000mAh battery capacity.
Although it's not exactly obvious in these side-by-side photos, the S24 Ultra is all but guaranteed to replace the S23 Ultra's already robust armor aluminum frame with an even more durable titanium alloy material that Ice Universe claims to have "better texture" as well, thus feeling smoother in the hand. And then you have quite possibly the biggest change of them all, which should see the S23 Ultra's curves reduced to a minimum even though that's also not very clear in these freshly leaked pictures.
What about internal differences?
That may not always be true in life, but as far as the best phones in the world are concerned, what's inside generally matters a whole lot more than appearances. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of major under-the-hood upgrades currently tipped for the S24 Ultra (or the other two members of the Galaxy S24 family), with memory and storage options seemingly not set for a big bump after all and a hot new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor likely to deliver improvements largely in line with previous Samsung flagship generations.
Our S24 Ultra concept render looks pretty close to the recently leaked reality.
Granted, any performance enhancement has to be greatly appreciated in an era where smartphones are becoming more capable than many mainstream computers, but it's hard to believe this type of customary yearly upgrade will make a lot of people ditch their S23 Ultra and even S22 Ultra units in favor of the S24 Ultra.
The same goes for the new quad rear-facing camera system, which is reportedly composed of familiar-sounding 200, 10, and 12MP shooters plus a 50MP telephoto sensor with 5x optical zoom functionality that may or may not prove better than the S23 Ultra's 10MP periscope telephoto lens supporting 10x optical zoom technology.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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