S24 Ultra - Avoid this phone like the plague
A £1,200 absolute disgrace. Paying £1,200 for a supposedly top-tier flagship device only to be handed a broken, overly complex piece of hardware is an absolute disgrace. The Samsung S24 Ultra is a complete and utter sham that fails at basic, fundamental tasks. 1. Core Functionality & Native App Failures Play Store Disasters: The phone routinely hangs on "can't download" when installing basic apps like WhatsApp. No troubleshooting works, clearing caches, restarting, or updating does nothing. Your only option is a full factory reset, wiping all your data just to install basic software. (I had this exact same bug on a Samsung S9 years ago; they still haven't fixed it). Camera Crashes: Even the native camera and video apps freeze up in the middle of recording and crash with an "unexpected error," losing whatever you were trying to film. Broken WhatsApp Voice Notes: Half the time, voice messages fail to send, crash, or send as completely blank audio, wasting your time and deleting your recordings. Unreliable Phone Calls: Features like Wi-Fi calling and network enhancements actually ruin basic calls. If you get put on hold in a queue (like the NHS 111 line), the phone simply drops the call after waiting for ages. You have to manually strip away all "modern" features just to make it function like an old-fashioned telephone. 2. Infuriating "Smart" Decisions & Broken Features Useless Airplane Mode: Instead of cutting off all wireless signals like Airplane Mode is meant to do, Samsung’s software "guesses" what you want and leaves Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on, giving you a condescending message telling you to turn them off manually. Silent Assistant: Google Gemini / Assistant refuses to speak on the lock screen. Unless you have the actual app open directly in front of you, it stays completely mute rendering the assistant virtually useless. Even 3rd party apps such as ChatGpt work fine on my lock screen or on Another tab, but somehow my phones native built in A.I assistant can't manage this. Fingerprint & NFC Pain: The fingerprint scanner is practically useless if you apply a screen protector. To make matters worse, NFC payments are a mess, the phone frequently forces you to scan your fingerprint a second time at a card reader even after you've already unlocked the device with your biometrics. Forced Menu Changes: seemingly near daily software updates constantly mess with your personal configuration, randomly changing settings like splitting the top quick-settings menu into two panels without asking. 3. Rapid Battery Degradation Despite turning on Battery Protect from day one (capping charges at 80%) and never leaving it plugged in overnight, the battery life collapsed within less than a year. It went from lasting a full day to needing multiple recharges just to survive till evening. 4. A Completely Broken Ecosystem (Galaxy Watch 5 Pro) The wider Samsung ecosystem is just as terrible. The Samsung Watch 5 Pro is virtually unusable, it lacks the processing power to run its own operating system. It constantly freezes on your wrist, takes up to half an hour to unfreeze, and chokes when trying to navigate basic menus or start a simple exercise track. Syncing with the phone forces you to constantly re-agree to endless terms of service while updates scramble your app layouts and order. Samsung's support for any of these issues is virtually non existent giving generic unhelpful advice. Conclusion: I moved from Sony to Samsung hoping for an upgrade. Sony was poor, but Samsung is infinitely worse, at least Sony phones can actually download an app and hold a call. Because its now just out of warranty, I can't even get a refund for this mess. Save your money, avoid the gimmicks, and stay well clear of Samsung.