Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs S23 Ultra Camera Comparison - First Look! 🔥 (Photo Samples)
-Written by Aaron, 18th Jan 2024
(Correction: The S23 Ultra has 10x Optical while the S24 Ultra has up to 5x Optical. Also, with the S23 Ultra, you don’t get any optical zoom on 50MP or 200MP. On S24 Ultra, there is 5x optical zoom at 50MP. Coupled with the NPU, this really made an impact on the differences you will see in this comparison. In the next review, I'll be doing more in depth testing, and this time with the default 12MP resolutions so that we can compare their actual optical zoom capabilities on an even keel. Stay on this space. Aaron - 19 Jan 2024)
In this article, we’re going to compare the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s camera quality to the older S23 Ultra. It’s now got a brighter 2600nits screen with thinner bezels, more durability with a new titanium frame, Corning Gorilla Armor glass, and a closer integration of both the hardware and software that takes its AI abilities beyond what we saw on the S23 Ultra.
I’m talking about real time language translations during calls, pulling search results from the web by lassoing around a subject or text in a picture, and a camera powered by Pro-visual engine that automatically suggests edits and provides tools that fixes imperfect shots.
You can even move a subject around a picture, resize it or even erase it, and Galaxy AI fills in the empty spot with what it thinks is appropriate for the picture.
If you’re thinking, “Hey! Isn’t this what Google did for the latest pixel phones with Live Translate, Google Lens and Magic Eraser?” You’re absolutely right, this does appear to be heavily inspired by that. In fact they’ve been working with Google to bring these features to the S24 ultra. Goes to show that Samsung rapidly responds to new shifts in tech. Plus, it’s just a matter of time before people will want such AI features on a high end device like the S24 Ultra.
The question is even before we touch up photos with those AI editing features, are the pictures shot on the S24 Ultra really an improvement over the S23 Ultra?
Compared to the S23 Ultra, the S24 ultra has a Quad-telephoto system that now provides up to 5x optical zoom*, which seems like a downgrade at first because the S23 Ultra could do up to 10x. but its camera sensor has bigger pixels of 1.4nm, 60% bigger than the last model, and it now captures a wider angle at the same focal length, so the OIS has more to work with. This means better stabilization for handheld shots for both photos and video. Coupled with the larger sensor pixels this means lower noise in shots even in low light situations since the phone doesn’t have to pump up the ISO as much.
(*NOTE: S24 Ultra has up to 5x True Optical Zoom. 3x and 5x distances are True optical zoom. 2x and 10x distances are optical quality zoom enhanced using Adaptive Pixel Sensor.)
I thought it’ll be interesting to test this, so we’re going to compare some picture samples shot at similar zoom stops on 50MP, then 200MP. At those resolutions, the S23 Ultra’s zoom stops are at 1x, 2x, 4x, and 6x, while the S24 Ultra has zoom stops at 1x, 2x, 5x and 10x.
Camera comparison
But before I continue, I need to issue a disclaimer. The pictures you’re about to see from the S24 Ultra are shot on a pre-release firmware, so the results could be different after it gets firmware updates post-launch.
But at this moment, these are the pictures shot in a low light environment. The subject is a lego artwork of Singapore’s boat quay area.
Right off the bat we can already see some differences at 1x zoom. The S24 Ultra’s colors are more contrasty, and a bit more bluey, but flat, whereas the S23 Ultra preserves a bit more of the hues of purple ambient lighting, although it also looks a little washed out.
At 2x zoom it’s the same, but I’m beginning to notice a little more background blur on the S23 Ultra. Even when they’re shot at the same f1.7 aperture, the S24 Ultra retains sharpness outside the center of focus.
Zooming in further to 5x zoom on the S24 Ultra, or 4x on S23U, it’s still looking pretty good, but I’m starting to notice some aliasing on the S23 Ultra. S24 Ultra looks more smooth and contrasty, but as before, the picture looks quite a bit more bluish and flat.
When you punch in further to 10x Zoom vs the S23 Ultra’s max of 6x at 50MP, when blown up to match the 24’s 10x, the S24 Ultra still looks more clean and polished. So that 10x AI-assisted optical zoom is not just for show, if you need better-looking zoom at 50MP, the S24 Ultra is a no brainer since it can do up to 5x True Optical Zoom at 50MP, while the S23 Ultra only has Telephoto at 12MP.
Now let’s be a little naughty and zoom in further to the max 100x space zoom on both phones. As you can see, although the S23 Ultra preserved more gradation, the S24 Ultra produces a cleaner picture.
But what about if we shoot a 200MP image at 1x, then crop into the image. Which is better? After all, some people do crop in from a full-res picture because they want to shoot first and frame later.
It turns out that the S23 Ultra holds up pretty well at 1x zoom. It even looks a bit more natural because the colors don’t look too contrasty. But when you crop in, you’ll see that the S24 Ultra looks a lot less noisy even at a 10x digital zoom equivalent.
So overall, at 50MP and 200MP, the S24 Ultra has better zoom capabilities, and less noise. That being said, some of you may have noticed a problem with the S24 Ultra’s shots at 5x optical zoom. Somehow it produces some weird horizontal lines which I can only attribute to software issues.
But like I said, this is still on a pre-release firmware. Based on my past experience, once the phone reaches the hands of consumers, we could expect firmware updates to fix these teething issues. Anyway I’ll be back with another review of the S24 Ultra with post-launch firmware, comparing it to the iPhone and others, so if you don’t want to miss out on those videos, get subscribed to the main channel.
