Galaxy S24 Info & Discussion

[dkyeager]

8 hours ago, floorguy said:

Hum, considering they are saying this is 1 of the big improvements. Was it 2600 nits I think?  

1750 nits for s21 ultra, 2600 nits for s24 ultra, thus should be easy to tell apart in bright sunshine.

[PythonFanPA]

Finally see movement activity - my order left Louisville at 2:09pm EST, and supposedly slated to be delivered here in south central PA by 7pm tomorrow.

[floorguy]

4 hours ago, PythonFanPA said:

Finally see movement activity - my order left Louisville at 2:09pm EST, and supposedly slated to be delivered here in south central PA by 7pm tomorrow.

I just checked mine. From Louisville and tomorrow by 7 as well.  Utah here

Edited January 26 by floorguy
Add location

[floorguy]

We might complain or be bugged that updates take longer than we like. 

But it could be worse. Ick fortunately my wife or son either didn't update or hasn't affected them.

 

Thank you Samsung for double checking things

 

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-pixel-phones-unusable-after-january-2024-system-update/

[floorguy]

Bah I wished UPS was like Amazon or something. I gotta wait another 5.5 hours?  Not knowing how close? Lol

 

I wonder if it was a dedicated UPS truck for new Sammy's?  If everything originated in Louisville. Then shipped by air (took 1.5 hrs to salt lake) to places.

 

I dunno, the thoughts that run through my head while I wait.

[PythonFanPA]

Well judging by the T-Mobile site from an account access perspective, I wouldn't sweat it....I keep getting 'Request Timeout' either after I finally get logged in but trying to go into the detail view for my line (initially via Chrome), or otherwise immediately upon clicking the Log In button (Firefox).   For now I'm just focusing on the SSmart transfer, I'm not in a major rush to get switched over.  We've got until Feb 6th I think to send in the trade in.

 

Edit:  Actually, in Chrome I get a never ending 'Loading.....' screen that's all white otherwise at that point. 

[floorguy]

8 minutes ago, PythonFanPA said:

Well judging by the T-Mobile site from an account access perspective, I wouldn't sweat it....I keep getting 'Request Timeout' either after I finally get logged in but trying to go into the detail view for my line (initially via Chrome), or otherwise immediately upon clicking the Log In button (Firefox).   For now I'm just focusing on the SSmart transfer, I'm not in a major rush to get switched over.  We've got until Feb 6th I think to send in the trade in.

 

Edit:  Actually, in Chrome I get a never ending 'Loading.....' screen that's all white otherwise at that point. 

Is it a business account?  I had huge issues "verifying" account even after I had done it.  Their "business" account for small businesses blows.  I am sure it's great for large enterprise. But otherwise bleh.

 

Did you order through TMO or direct from Sammy?

[PythonFanPA]

Nope, but I don't think what kind of account it is matters given what I'm experiencing.   My guess is they're overloaded with everyone getting the S24 variant of their choice today and trying to switch out.

 

Edit:  And I ordered direct from Samsung as far as the phone goes (unlocked again)

[floorguy]

wooohooo.. Just showed up

[bill875]

For anyone who uses Smart Lock with bluetooth devices and such, please know that this is now called Extend Unlock on the S24 series. See this post on Reddit.  I spent over an hour trying to find Smart Lock/Trusted Devices, whatever on the S24.

Having recently upgraded from one iPhone to another, I realized how superior the iOS upgrade experience is.  EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING carried over to my new device.  It was a delightful experience.  Meanwhile, going from my S22U to S24U, its like having to set back up 1/3 of the device to get everything working again.  Heck, even getting my Galaxy Watch 6 moved over required me going into settings in the watch and starting the process.  This should have been automatic!  I realize we've come a long way from having to factory reset the watch when upgrading phones, but still, this is where Google and Samsung's focus needs to be going forward to make upgrades as seamless as possible.

Come to think of it, I thing my Note 20 to S22U was a better experience with simply restoring from the Samsung Cloud.  I had less that I had to set back up.  Smart Switch needs a lot of work too since my S24U updated in the middle of the transfer and I had to start back over the almost 2 hour process.  What a joke . Perhaps they should update the device BEFORE starting the transfer of data.

[floorguy]

Good to know thanks.

Mine updated too. But it was able to just pickup where it left off.  Outside of PW's i haven't found much that didn't carry over.  

 

Oh wait Google keyboard vs Samsung.  That defaulted, so I had to go in and set up my Google 1 again.

[dkyeager]

Factory unlocked notes: update occurred during file transfer so had to start over.  Recommend using wired instead.  Converting from sim to easy was easy, done in sim manager.  *#2263# appears to work (some trickeration required).  SCP appears to work.

SCP has minor issues mostly related to two sims.

Cell mapper issue with n2 instead of n5 and carrier confused (Verizon MVNO instead of T-Mobile).

 

[floorguy]

On 1/17/2024 at 10:18 PM, PythonFanPA said:

I swear by the SUPCASE Unicorn Beetle Pro cases only, have used them across 4-5 different phones now and doubt I'd ever change unless the company went out of business. The new one gets here Monday awaiting the new device in a few weeks. 

This thing makes the phone HUGE flash back to the old note 2 days. BUT gives good screen protection.  But oh baby is it an act of god to get it out of the case hahaha. 

Just put my crave case on. Feels back to normal, but the screen almost looks even with the case, that could be bad.  I guess the 1 positive of a curved screen, it dropped it out of the way.  

 

Decisions decisions.

 

And I got small hands lol

Edited January 27 by floorguy
added info, and moved a sentence

[floorguy]

Ok I am kind of chatty as I go.

I do find it interesting they send the phone UPS, yet the return of your trade-in, is through FedEx Spreading the money around I guess??

[dkyeager]

27 minutes ago, floorguy said:

Ok I am kind of chatty as I go.

I do find it interesting they send the phone UPS, yet the return of your trade-in, is through FedEx Spreading the money around I guess??

Maybe Fed Ex only drops the packages at the residential end. 

 

[PythonFanPA]

21 hours ago, floorguy said:

This thing makes the phone HUGE flash back to the old note 2 days. BUT gives good screen protection.  But oh baby is it an act of god to get it out of the case hahaha.

I could care less about overall size including the case - the importance to me is experience in action of how well the UBP cases protect really the entirety of your phone, not even just the screen.  Yes it's difficult to pull a phone back out, but for me that's only ever one time ever in the life of the phone.  

 

The pull out stand that works both in landscape & portrait view is also an awesome bonus. 

[PythonFanPA]

Interesting btw that Google Play system update appears stuck on July 1st 2023 at least on my S24+ unlocked.

[gr8nuguy]

15 minutes ago, PythonFanPA said:

Interesting btw that Google Play system update appears stuck on July 1st 2023 at least on my S24+ unlocked.

not sure you would want to update. apparently it's been causing a lot of issues, even on pixel devices 

[dkyeager]

1 hour ago, PythonFanPA said:

Interesting btw that Google Play system update appears stuck on July 1st 2023 at least on my S24+ unlocked.

On that version with s24 ultra factory unlocked.

[dkyeager]

Just had an incident where I noticed my phone had downloaded an adyghe language from the central caucus region of Russia etc for my Samsung keyboard. Checked general management  | keyboard list and default | Samsung keyboard | languages and types.  I found that English and Spanish no longer selected. Instead it was Chinese and a few others. Quickly removed those added english and spanish back. Pitched my security software and downloaded another. (No problems found). Rebooted.

Rechecked the languages and found updates for English and Spanish. Matched those on an unaffected s24 ultra, so updated them on both.  Also found my reddit app language was listed as unl so changed that to system default. Put the phone on my wi-fi which has its own business security software to see if any thing else kicks up.

Edited January 30 by dkyeager
Of course it could just be panic. Shoot first ask questions later. if so you should see the same language added, but hopefully English not dropped.

[dkyeager]

Finally had a sunny day. So I checked out the outside brightness of the s24 Ultra to the s21 Ultra. I had to give the S21 a bit more brightness before starting the test to even them out. S21 looked slight more yellow.  In my outside tests, a slight edge in brightness to the s24 Ultra. Both had glossy screen protectors, but with its special finish, the S24 Ultra was defineately less glossy. Which made it a bit easier to read and see a photo. I then changed the S24 Ultra screen protector to one with a matte finish. Far easier to read typically or far worse if at the wrong angle. With the sun reflecting in the top half of the screen the matte finish was total glare while the bottom quarter of the glossy screen protect was readable. Now with the glossy protector you might need to change angles to read through an entire screen while with the matte no such changes required. Some say matte screens give more privacy but I can easily read the screen at angles. No loss of quality in displaying photos that I could detect.

Other items I can share notes on if desired: dual PD/PSS car charger that can handle two s24 ultras at full speed, 5x mil spec protective case, optical grade individual lens protectors, 45w wall outlet adapter, wireless charger.

Impressed with 100x camera using it on bush branches, better to use 50x for birds. Will have to try it on a tower.

[iansltx]

My S24 arrived while I was out of town on the 26th. Got back in town on the 29th and set it up, mostly, that day; Smart Switch over WiFi did most of the work, with some additional account sign-ins required. I also had to fiddle with Chrome a bit before Passkey notifications came through.

I'm keeping my S23 until probably tomorrow to ensure I have everything I need off of it, but at this point I haven't needed to grab anything for a day or two so I think we're good.

Re: storage upgrade, yeah, I'm on the standard S24, so 256 is the max, and that's plenty for my purposes (though 128 isn't unless I actually cleaned things up, so it's just as well that I got the double storage upgrade for free as it cost money on the S23 when I bought that phone).

Re: warranty, I just got the damage option, not loss + theft + damage, as knock on wood loss/theft haven't been issues for my primary phone.

Signal-wise, jury's out on whether T-Mobile connectivity is as good as on the S23, but VZW C-Band seems to be better. In theory my lower speeds on the S24 could've been due to other people hammering the network with *their* new S24s, as things seem to have gone back to normal now.

Oh, and I now have one phone that can work on all four networks; I activated a Boost Infinite line last night and hit nearly 600 Mbps on n71 10x10 + n70 25x15 + n66 SDL 20 MHz. VZW/T-Mobile might've been faster at that particular location, but not by much.

[PythonFanPA]

28 minutes ago, iansltx said:

Re: warranty, I just got the damage option, not loss + theft + damage, as knock on wood loss/theft haven't been issues for my primary phone.

 

I may be on an island here, but I haven't carried phone insurance since ~the LG G4/G5ish days.  When I stopped and thought about it, it made no sense to be sending $15+ a month into some entity when vast majority of the time you typically don't even have a need to engage it.   So instead, I used the ease of initiation/use Capital One 360 savings accounts I was already using, and just created an extra one and started auto-depositing $15/month into that instead.  That combined with the aforementioned Unicorn Beetle Pro cases I've used for years now which make my phone(s) almost impervious to drops anyway, and I really have no worries - plus the added benefit of having that cash nest egg that can be used elsewhere if say an emergency situation came up.  

 

Bottom line, if you're paying for phone insurance, you're paying out money you'll likely never see again, whereas controlling it on your own end gives you the flexibility to still have the coverage you need in principle but also be able to use the surplus now and then for other things.

[floorguy]

On 2/1/2024 at 10:02 AM, dkyeager said:

Finally had a sunny day. So I checked out the outside brightness of the s24 Ultra to the s21 Ultra. I had to give the S21 a bit more brightness before starting the test to even them out. S21 looked slight more yellow.  In my outside tests, a slight edge in brightness to the s24 Ultra. Both had glossy screen protectors, but with its special finish, the S24 Ultra was defineately less glossy. Which made it a bit easier to read and see a photo. I then changed the S24 Ultra screen protector to one with a matte finish. Far easier to read typically or far worse if at the wrong angle. With the sun reflecting in the top half of the screen the matte finish was total glare while the bottom quarter of the glossy screen protect was readable. Now with the glossy protector you might need to change angles to read through an entire screen while with the matte no such changes required. Some say matte screens give more privacy but I can easily read the screen at angles. No loss of quality in displaying photos that I could detect.

Other items I can share notes on if desired: dual PD/PSS car charger that can handle two s24 ultras at full speed, 5x mil spec protective case, optical grade individual lens protectors, 45w wall outlet adapter, wireless charger.

Impressed with 100x camera using it on bush branches, better to use 50x for birds. Will have to try it on a tower.

Always interested in other "stuffs" for the phones.

I tried a privacy SP but between the lack of angle display (that's what its for duh) at night, the tinting of it (causing difficulty with sunglasses on while driving) and issues with finger print (might be a glass thing over all, been a whole with glass and sammys lol) I am going to switch to a zagg one.  My son works at best buy and can get them for cost, so why not?

Also that Beetle case is a beast, I don't like the "plastic" on the back of the phone though, and I am considering jumping into the Magsafe sphere, as I need a new holder in my work truck (only been 9 yrs) So might as well try the magnet, and charge at the same time. 

So any ideas on those would be nice 

[dkyeager]

18 hours ago, floorguy said:

Always interested in other "stuffs" for the phones.

I tried a privacy SP but between the lack of angle display (that's what its for duh) at night, the tinting of it (causing difficulty with sunglasses on while driving) and issues with finger print (might be a glass thing over all, been a whole with glass and sammys lol) I am going to switch to a zagg one.  My son works at best buy and can get them for cost, so why not?

Also that Beetle case is a beast, I don't like the "plastic" on the back of the phone though, and I am considering jumping into the Magsafe sphere, as I need a new holder in my work truck (only been 9 yrs) So might as well try the magnet, and charge at the same time. 

So any ideas on those would be nice 

No tinting on the matte SP I use: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR13N27B?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1  *** Note that I have to lick my finger to get the finger print to work. ***   I recommend this one glossy clear SP for the easiest possible install: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPJ1QBMR?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I am still quite basic in my needs, but I do want them to work.  For case I went with the Otterbox Defender XT, although I must say the traditional back is much more sturdy (two parts) than the clear one part (except front edge), although both are rated at 5x military spec.  No prices difference so buy where is easiest for you.   Hard to get drop data in print or video on most of the cases.  The SUPCASE UB Beetle Pro looks very much like the clear Otterbox above with a better stand option.

The Magsafe sphere interested me, but I am leary of magnets around my computers, likely for ancient reasons.  It is a pain to carefully put your phone on a wireless charger and then not bump it, versus the magnets guiding you and locking it in place.  *** Magnetic cases do cause problems with stylus. *** JerryRigEverything loves them and considers their lack in the S24 itself as a shortcoming:

From a wireless charger perspective I do consider the s24 Ultra weak, especially when compared with the OnePlus 12's 50 watt wireless and 80 watt plug charging (Now only ordering 100w cables).  My 5 year old truck has a wireless charger pad which holds the phone better than my two port Samsung desktop unit but likely operates only at 10 watts.  If Samsung's s24 Ultra wireless charging was better than 15 watts I would figure out how to replace it.  Of course all these charging watts are graduated: for the first 50% charges much faster than the next 35% which is better than the last 15%. hence 80 watt is not twice as fast as 40 watts, etc.

Recently dropped a S21 Ultra on tile, which smashed the lens protection for one camera, but covered all.  A real pain to get off.  Thus I approached the S24 more like a high end camera, where clear filters using optical glass have been used for decades.  The one I chose has optical glass with individual lens protection and a removal tool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPJ1QBMR?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details  Fits my cases no problem.

Instead I went wired with connectors that glow in the dark and a dual 45 watt (90w) PD PPS charger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFPNQPJY?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details The other part is has one PD PPS and the a QC more for iPhones.  I reviewed it in more detail.  Tight 12V fit on my Toyota, slips in my truck and splitters thus I will tape it in place.

I often agree on typically avoiding phone insurance (best for political or cash flow reasons only on top of the line phones for a limited time based on resale value), Samsung has a great deal on it for these phones, including theft coverage. Still miss the old days when I took my run-over crushed phone into the carrier store and walked out with a new replacement a few minutes later.  It will be interesting to see if the 7 years of firmware update support increase the resale value.

 

P.S:  Some other views I found interesting:

 

 

S24 Ultra versus $5,000 camera:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKypEsf9QvA

 

 

Edited February 3 by dkyeager
added note on Matte SP and mag cases