Episode 74 - What's in the box with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

We’ve talked many times on this show about how the smartphone space is reaching a state of… let’s call it “advanced maturity”… On any given day you can pick up just about any given mainstream “flagship” phone and you’re going to more-or-less have the same experience… a (normally) over-sized slab of metal, glass, and plastic that powers on to become a gateway to the internet…

But even in this period of same-phone-different-day experiences, there is just enough room for a standout… an opportunity to push the space one step further than the competition and, quite frankly, be different!

That moment very much describes the one I had when I first unboxed the subject of today’s show… on parting the cardboard and peeking what was inside, visually I was greeted by exactly what I expected… a dark metal rectangle… However it was when I picked it up I was immediately aware that this wasn’t you’re every day pocket(ish)-sized super computer…

The heft hit me first, it was weighty in the hand in a way that harkened back to the days of my first iPod, when the perceived value and quality of the object was identifiable in the sum of its parts… once powered on, the screen came to life in near-perfect blacks and popping colors that, put simply, delighted the eyes… 

Things really get interesting as you fly through setup, download apps with ease, and begin noticing the thoughtful touches in the operating system guiding you to new features, potentially game-changing AI enhancements, and suddenly the “why” behind this device is coming into focus… 

This device isn’t just a flagship… its a tour de force to showcase everything single party trick one of the world’s largest technology brands can pack into that dark metal rectangle…

So lets find out, just what is in the box with Samsung’s brand new Galaxy S24 Ultra…