What you need to know
- Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra features Corning's Gorilla Armor, a cover material said to be less reflective and more scratch-resistant.
- Zack Nelson of JerryRigEverything put the Galaxy S24 Ultra to the test with his famous durability test.
- While the Galaxy S24 Ultra can certainly still be scratched, it does hold up better than other phones.
Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra was unveiled earlier this month as the company's latest flagship smartphone. It reaches stores worldwide on January 31, but reviewers and influencers have had their hands on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. That means it's time to see how durable this year's Ultra smartphone really is, with the help of Zack Nelson of JerryRigEverything.
Nelson's durability test might be more important than ever this year due to the changes Samsung made to the Galaxy S24 Ultra. First off, it's partly made out of titanium. That is something to watch because Nelson uncovered that the OnePlus Open didn't actually include that much titanium alloy in its design. In his teardown of the foldable, only the screws in the hinge were found to be titanium.
Luckily, Samsung's claims appear to be more accurate regarding the Galaxy S24 Ultra's titanium frame. While the power and volume buttons are not made of titanium, the frame is. As such, it will scratch less easily than an aluminum frame. However, it will still scratch if it comes in contact with harder materials.
We were more eager to see how the Galaxy S24 Ultra fares against Nelson's scratch test since Samsung and Corning have made bold claims about the phone's cover material. Instead of Corning's typical Gorilla Glass, the S24 Ultra uses something new called Gorilla Armor. It is said to be less reflective and more scratch-resistant, but the only evidence of that to date came from Corning's in-house test.
Now, the JerryRigEverything test gives us a more quantifiable and independent representation of the scratch resistance of Gorilla Armor. At first glance, it looked like the Galaxy S24 Ultra scratched lightly on the Moh Scale of Hardness. Upon further inspection with Nelson's microscopic camera, that wasn't actually the case. Instead, Nelson suspects that the material of his pick rubbed off on the glass, rather than scratching it.
That means the Galaxy S24 Ultra will scratch at level seven of the Moh Scale of Hardness, with deeper grooves showing up at level eight. For reference, many smartphones — including those with Gorilla Glass — scratch at level six during Nelson's test. As a result, Gorilla Armor on the Galaxy S24 Ultra appears to be better poised to resist micro-scratches than any other phone on the market.
It's also worth noting that the smartphone has an IP68 water and resistance rating, so it will withstand submersion in shallow bodies of freshwater for brief periods of time.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra passed the durability test with flying colors, and it shows that the new titanium finish and Gorilla Armor cover material actually make a difference.
Durable and feature-rich
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the only smartphone to feature Gorilla Armor, and it's proven to be more scratch-resistant. With the S24 Ultra, you'll also get a snappy processor, high-quality display, and impressive camera hardware.
