Samsung Uses Lower-Grade Titanium on Galaxy S24 Ultra; Reveals Teardown Video

Apple and Samsung use Titanium for their latest flagships, but their strength are not the same.

Written by Nithya P Nair, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 6 February 2024 14:00 IST

Samsung Uses Lower-Grade Titanium on Galaxy S24 Ultra; Reveals Teardown Video

Photo Credit: Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the only handset in the new series to sport Titanium frames

Highlights

The interior shows 17 Phillips head screws
Samsung uses a combination of Aluminum and plastic for internals
Use of Titanium improves the durability of the Galaxy S24 Ultra

Samsung has used titanium on the flagship Galaxy S24 Ultra's frame this year instead of Aluminium. The South Korean brand's biggest rival Apple also provided titanium on its latest iPhone 15 Pro series. Most recently, YouTuber Zack Nelson from JerryRigEverything channel, took the Galaxy S24 Ultra apart to find out the amount of titanium that Samsung has used on the phone. The teardown video revealed that Samsung used lower-grade titanium for the frame on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, while Apple treated the iPhone 15 Pro with higher-grade titanium.

Zack Nelson in his latest episode of JerryRigEverything strips the Galaxy S24 Ultra to find out the exact amount of Titanium being used to make the phone. The 11-minute video starts with removing the back panel. The handset features flat glass panels on the front and the back and the YouTuber was able to get inside the device quickly with a single slice from the knife around the exterior. The interior shows 17 Phillips head screws and beneath the screws, Samsung has arranged the 15W wireless charger with copper wires. The teardown offers a look at the arrangement of interior components. The haptic motor is placed inside the bottom speaker chamber and the handset seems to have a bigger copperish vapour chamber under the cell.

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As the video progresses, Nelson states that Samsung has laid out a thin cosmetic border of titanium around the exterior. He then melts down the frame of the phone and an XRF scan indicates that Samsung packed grade 2 Titanium on the phone. Apple, in contrast, uses grade 5 Titanium on its latest iPhone 15 models. He claims that a purple anodised aluminium frame fills up the majority of the inner space.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra's metal was put through a 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit furnace to separate the materials. The plastic elements quickly burned out while the edges and corner pieces remained. After melting the plastic and Aluminum, the YouTuber notes that Samsung performed an over-moulding process to form parts around one another with Aluminium, plastic and Titanium materials. Apple, on the other hand, developed a custom solid-state diffusion process that fuses Aluminium directly with Titanium. Both phones have about the same thickness of Titanium around the outside, but Apple's grade 5 Titanium is about four times more expensive.

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Nelson opines that Apple could be using $10-15 (roughly Rs. 800 to Rs. 1,200) worth of the material in every iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Samsung, on the other hand, could be using $3-5 (roughly Rs. 250 to Rs. 400) worth of Titanium in the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The added cost is of shaping and casting the metal to work with titanium. The YouTuber states that both titanium exteriors are more cosmetic than anything else. Apple might be getting some minor strength improvements with solid-state diffusion, but with a plastic intermediary, Samsung is not getting any additional strength.

Is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 the best foldable phone you can buy in India right now? We discuss the company's new clamshell-style foldable handset on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Bright display with fewer reflections
Great battery life
Useful AI features
Excellent performance
Top-quality cameras
Longer software support

Bad
Expensive
Relatively slower charging speeds

Read detailed Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review

Display 6.80-inch

Processor Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

Front Camera 12-megapixel

Rear Camera 200-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 50-megapixel + 10-megapixel

RAM 12GB

Storage 256GB, 512GB, 1TB

Battery Capacity 5000mAh

OS Android 14

More Samsung mobiles Samsung mobiles price in India

Apple iPhone 15 Pro

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Display 6.10-inch

Processor Apple A17 Pro

Front Camera 12-megapixel

Rear Camera 48-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 12-megapixel

RAM 8GB

Storage 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB

OS iOS 17

Resolution 1179x2556 pixels

More Apple mobiles Apple mobiles price in India

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Further reading: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Specifications, Apple, iPhone 15 Pro

Nithya P Nair

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Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations. More