Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs. Google Pixel 8 Pro: Which smartphone is best for you?

This article is part of our series?Battle of the Brands, in which we compare category-leading products to their counterparts to determine which are actually worth your money.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has quickly become one of the most popular flagship phones of the year, thanks to its incredible list of specs and impressive camera capabilities. But there’s another beast of a smartphone that is a true fan favorite among Android users: the Google Pixel 8 Pro.

Starting at $999, the Pixel 8 Pro offers some of the best cameras you’ll find on any smartphone, a huge display and the smartest Android experience available. It’s stiff competition for the $1,299 S24 Ultra, and if you’re shopping for one, you’re likely looking at the other. So, which is better for you? Let’s dig in.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs. Google Pixel 8 Pro at a glance

Quick comparison

Gorgeous, shiny, premium and huge

The biggest thing the S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro have in common is their size: They’re both huge. The Pixel 8 Pro comes with a 6.7-inch screen, while the S24 Ultra has a 6.8-inch panel, eliminating any chance you have at using these phones with one hand. At least they’re good at being big phones; the 8 Pro makes up for its size by curving the corners and edges to feel more comfortable in your hand, while Samsung embraces a notepad aesthetic with flatter sides that’ll make any fan of the old Galaxy Note flutter with glee.

Both phones ship with a combination of metal and glass for their construction. For the Pixel 8 Pro, that means aluminum around the sides and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back. Meanwhile, the S24 Ultra makes the leap to titanium for its frame, as well as Gorilla Armor to protect the front and back. As you might be able to guess by looking at them, the tougher phone is the one that looks like a tank — the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Luckily, they share the same IP68 certification so you don’t have to worry about getting them wet.

There’s about a 20-gram difference between their weights, with the S24 Ultra being the slightly heavier handset of the two. I think they’re both pretty light for their size, although it’s impossible to say if they’ll grow tiresome for you after a while. For me, I don’t have an issue handling them for hours on end, but user experience will likely vary.

I’m a bigger fan of the colors the Pixel 8 Pro comes in than I am the S24 Ultra. They’re nice, don’t get me wrong, but they’re boring and everything but identical to what Apple shipped with the iPhone 15 Pro. They all have a gray/neutral undertone to them that plays into the whole “titanium” design thing, which … eh, they’re kind of underwhelming. Meanwhile, the Pixel 8 Pro’s colors are vibrant and attention grabbing, especially the Mint and Bay Blue variants. If you put a case on these phones, it obviously won’t matter much which color you get, but if you’d like to jazz things up with a dashing dose of blue or light green, you’ll dig the Pixel 8 Pro.

Overall, these phones are built extremely well. Pick either of them up and you’ll understand why they’re priced the way they are. With zero flexing, bending or curious design decisions, the Pixel 8 Pro and S24 Ultra offer good looks and beautiful design with enough durability to keep them safe from life’s everyday mishaps.

Nearly identical display quality

I’ve been using the Pixel 8 Pro and S24 Ultra side by side for a while, and I gotta be honest: The screen quality difference is essentially nonexistent. Sure, these are different screens that use different OLED panels, but the quality is so good on both that I’m calling it a toss-up.

Google gave the 8 Pro a “Super Actua” display, complete with a pin-sharp resolution and 120Hz refresh rate for extra-smooth scrolling. It can also go way up to 2,400 nits of brightness, which is very bright by modern smartphone standards. Meanwhile, the S24 Ultra’s “Dynamic AMOLED 2X” display gets a slightly sharper resolution, the same 120Hz refresh rate and 2,600 nits of brightness. In day-to-day performance, both screens looked fabulous; colors are bright and vivid (while not becoming oversaturated), contrast is on point and you’d be hard-pressed to find a scenario where their brightness wasn’t sufficient. These are some of the best screens on the market, period.

Both devices also get flat displays. It seems that the days of curved edges on your screen are gone, and thank goodness. Some people liked how futuristic it used to look, but in reality, it would interrupt the content you were looking at with a ton of reflections.

Speaking of which, reflections on the S24 Ultra’s screen are no issue. Samsung uses Gorilla Armor to protect the display, which is coated with an antireflective finish, resulting in minimal glare and reflections from exterior light. When you set it down next to the Pixel 8 Pro (or any smartphone for that matter), you can immediately see the difference. If glare is a particular issue for you, you may want to consider the S24 Ultra, although I wouldn’t recommend making that the sole factor in your ultimate decision.

Camera quality is top-tier, but it comes down to feature set

I’m going to sound like a broken record, but it’s worth repeating that the Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 Ultra have some of the best cameras on the market.

No matter how bright or dark it is, how far or close your subject is, or even how steady your hand is, you’re guaranteed to take a great-looking photo by simply tapping the shutter button. Because of that, one isn’t necessarily better than the other. Instead, if you’re looking for the best camera between the S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro, you should shop based on what’s best for your needs.

If you’re looking for raw hardware, go with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Samsung throws everything you could want into the camera system, including a huge 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom, a secondary 10-megapixel telephoto with 3x zoom and a 12-megapixel 120-degree ultrawide camera. With a full lineup of software features like Pro mode, 100x Space Zoom and RAW shooting options, the S24 Ultra is geared perfectly for serious smartphone camera enthusiasts.

If you want something more straightforward with a ton of excellent software features, you’ll want the Pixel 8 Pro. Its hardware, while still plenty capable, is a bit tamer than the S24 Ultra. There’s a 50-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel telephoto with 5x optical zoom and a 48-megapixel 125.5-degree ultrawide.

You get all the resolution you need for great photos, but the real kicker is Google’s HDR algorithm that processes photos like no other phone on the market, preserving accurate colors and details during the day and bringing the night sky to life when it’s dark. On top of that, there’s a plethora of advanced AI features like Magic Editor, Best Take, Photo Unblur,? Motion Mode and more to achieve the photo or video you’re after. You’ll also find a similar Pro mode on this phone, as well as RAW capture support.

It’s worth mentioning that the S24 Ultra also has a few AI features of its own for things like slow-motion videos and editing pictures after you’ve taken them, but the Pixel 8 Pro has the largest collection of AI camera tricks by a long shot.

The Pixel 8 Pro has fast performance, but the S24 Ultra is faster

Google threw its in-house Tensor G3 processor inside the Pixel 8 Pro, which is more than adequate for handling just about anything you throw at it. I’ve enjoyed zipping through multiple apps at once, playing games and doing all the normal smartphone things like cycling through social media, all without any performance issues. Plus, the phone comes with 12GB of RAM, giving your apps plenty of headroom so they don’t crash in the background.

But if you need the most performance you can get, the S24 Ultra is for you. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which has been optimized for the Galaxy S24 series, making it a bit snappier than other phones that use the 8 Gen 3. This makes the S24 Ultra blazing fast. Not only does it handle multitasking as well as the Pixel 8 Pro, thanks to its 12GB of RAM, apps open quicker and feel more fluid. It’s a difference you can only notice if you use the phones side by side, but it’s certainly there.

Part of that has to do with the faster storage. Google uses UFS 3.1 storage for the Pixel 8 Pro, whereas the S24 Ultra uses UFS 4.0 that, by comparison, is snappier and can read/write data in less time. The speed gap between the two phones also became apparent on the Geekbench 6 general performance benchmark, with the Galaxy S24 Ultra beating the Pixel 8 Pro by nearly 54%.

Overall, the optimizations Samsung has made — combined with the impressive spec sheet — make the S24 Ultra the winner in the performance department.

AI-powered software with 7 years of support

Both the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro come with Android 14 out of the box. Samsung layers it with its One UI 6.1 experience on top, while Google keeps things a bit cleaner with the Pixel experience that’s much closer to stock Android.

You may be wondering which version of Android 14 is better, and the only way I can answer that is by asking you what your preferences are. Do you enjoy having every feature known to man at your fingertips — floating windows, advanced multitasking, smart folders and Edge panels? Or would you rather have something simpler that feels more inviting, has fewer features and reminds you of what an iPhone running Android would feel like?

If you nodded your head with the former, go with the S24 Ultra. Samsung refuses to settle until it includes every knob and switch you could ever ask for in its software, and the latest range of Galaxies certainly has that. Meanwhile, those who thought the latter was more appealing will appreciate the Pixel 8 Pro. That’s the camp I personally fall in myself; I’ve been a sucker for near-stock Android for years, and the Pixel continues to deliver that.

Of course, one of the big stories with these phones is AI. On the S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro, you’ll find features like Circle to Search, Magic Eraser, text generators for messaging and lots of camera-specific features. They also keep some features to themselves, like Live Translate for phone calls on the S24 Ultra and Magic Editor on the Pixel. Personally, I don’t think any of these features are reasons to buy one phone over the other, but they do make the software a bit more useful.

If there was a single software feature that’s convincing enough to buy one of these phones, it’s the amount of updates they’ll each get. Samsung and Google have pledged to support the S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro, respectively, for seven years down the line. That means these phones will likely get Android 21, as well as a ton of security patches. This makes them great investments if you want to use them long-term.

Battery life is similar, but the S24 Ultra comes out on top

In my experience using the S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro simultaneously, battery life has been roughly the same. You get a big 5,000mAh cell in the former and a slightly larger 5,050mAh cell in the latter, and with my normal smartphone usage, I’d say that they each last about a day before you have to recharge them.

However, the S24 Ultra is the only one I feel confident about lasting even longer. If I’m careful with the Pixel 8 Pro, I can get it to last a tiny bit longer, perhaps into the next morning. But with the S24 Ultra, it’s much easier to stretch its endurance to the latter half of the second day without plugging in. It’s thanks to Samsung’s optimizations under the hood that preserve more power while you aren’t using the phone, whereas Google still needs to work on battery drain while the Pixel is asleep.

The optimization differences are especially evident in our battery test, where we loop a 4K video with airplane mode on at 50% brightness until each phone dies. During the test, the S24 Ultra lasted 25 hours and 27 minutes, whereas the Pixel 8 Pro could only hold on for less than half that time at 11 hours and 14 minutes.

The S24 Ultra also wins when you plug it in. Samsung includes 45W fast charging, which is much faster than the limited 30W charging on the Pixel 8 Pro. On the other hand, the Pixel is actually faster when it comes to wireless charging. As long as you use Google’s second-generation Pixel Stand, you can charge the 8 Pro at 23W wirelessly, whereas the S24 Ultra can only reach 15W.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra has a stylus, but it comes at a price

By far the biggest difference between the S24 Ultra and the Pixel 8 Pro is the lack of an S Pen on the latter. Samsung has been including one on its Galaxy S Ultra line for a few years now, and it’s proven to be a big hit among users. It makes everything from signing documents to taking notes on your phone way easier, and all the neat software that comes with it enhances the experience even more.

But the S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro are pretty similar smartphones, with fast performance, great cameras, all-day battery life and amazing screens. If the decision boils down to whether you need an S Pen, you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth $200.

That’s the price difference between the phones’ standard retail pricing. Starting at $999, the Pixel 8 Pro seems downright affordable compared to the $1,200 or more it costs to buy the S24 Ultra. Sure, you could consider the 100x Space Zoom, slightly better performance and battery life, and titanium design as part of that premium, but unless you use the phones side by side, those differences won’t matter all that much.

Personally, I can’t tell you whether an extra $200 is worth having a stylus in your phone. It’s something you’ll need to conclude yourself. Just keep in mind that you’ll be shelling out a few extra Benjamins if you decide that writing notes instead of typing them is the smartphone experience you want.

Bottom line

The Galaxy S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro are two of the best phones on the market, and it’ll remain that way throughout 2024. If you buy one over the other, you won’t regret it since you’ll get flagship-level performance, cameras, battery life, displays and build quality. Nuance decisions like software experience, note-taking and in-hand feel will dictate whether you should get the 8 Pro over the S24 Ultra or vice versa.

In the end, you’ll get a great phone regardless of which one you add to your cart. Just keep in mind that you may want to save up before pulling the trigger — great phones rarely come cheap these days.