A couple weeks and change into a new year and Samsung has decided it needs to make a statement on what your phone should become, yet again, with the announcement of the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and the S24 Ultra. Whether or not we’ve bought one, we’ve all become familiar with what the prestigious Galaxy S series brings to the table: a distinct flavor of Android, powerful cameras, and all-day performance.
Now, the company is joining its partners and rivals in big tech and throwing in a dash of generative artificial intelligence as well. The big question here is whether that fundamentally changes the game for the Galaxy S24 series. We’re not going to get definitive answers here, but we will explain every last aspect of it that we can and let you make up your mind about buying a new phone.
Samsung Galaxy S24
The Galaxy S24 mixes in Galaxy AI features for the first time in the series but still brings excellent performance and great cameras in a relatively compact package for great value.
Samsung Galaxy S24+
The Galaxy S24+ is living up to the “plus” part of its moniker this year with a bump up to QHD+ resolution in the display. Other than that, it’s still the bigger Galaxy S that you’ve come to know and love, but with Galaxy AI features that should make your digital life just a bit easier.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
100x Space Zoom, a vibrant, curve-free AMOLED display, an S Pen with great features, and a lot more wrapped up in a titanium package. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is Samsung’s statement on what a traditional slab smartphone should be in 2024.
The Galaxy S24’s spec changes
This year’s slab-style flagships come in three flavors, as ever: the Galaxy S24, S24+, and S24 Ultra. While most of the small details are the same as they were with the Galaxy S23 series – you can check out the numbers in the tables above – there is a decent cache of year-on-year changes that are worth pointing out.
For the Galaxy S24 and S24+, customers in certain regions will need to get used to a Samsung-made processor again. Last year, everyGalaxy S23 seriesdevice in the world got a Qualcomm chip. This year marks a return to a split-distribution strategy where most markets, including North America, will see theSnapdragon 8 Gen 3while Europe and others will get theExynos 2400.
Samsung silicon has a worse track record than Qualcomm’s in terms of overall performance and bugs, but the hope is that with a new processor architecture and plain ol' tender-loving care, the Korean company will be able to fill the gap. The smaller phones of the trio are also getting a bit more display space in tandem with thinner bezels. Even better if you’re considering a Galaxy S24+ is the boost in resolution from 1080p to 1440p, the same as the Ultra.
Really, though, the Galaxy S24 Ultra shines brightest here. Whereas the other devices sport updated aluminum frames, the top-of-the-line option is chasing afterthe design of the iPhone 15 Pro serieswith a titanium body. As with Apple’s design, this is less about offering more durability as much as offering the same level of protection while enabling internal design enhancements with zero net impact on size and weight – the company points to its vapor cooling chamber which is 1.9x larger than the one in last year’s Ultra as an example.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra holds the only major change in the camera department this year with a change to the extended range telephoto unit: instead of a 10MP sensor paired to a 10x lens, we’re now looking at a 50MP sensor at 5x zoom instead – this means even at a 10x crop, the new sensor will be able to produce a slightly sharper picture than the S23 Ultra’s setup. The aperture is much wider as well, opening up from f/4.9 to f/3.4. And, as before, the sensor is optically stabilized.
All the devices will benefit from a better display with peak brightness coming up from 1,750 nits last year to 2,600 nits this year. The effect won’t just result in greater contrast, but vastly improved outdoor visibility with the help of Corning Gorilla Armor on the S24 Ultra – glass that’s touted to reduce reflection by up to 75%. The devices are also the first in the Galaxy S series to incorporate recycled materials including cobalt, steel, some rare earth metals, and thermoplastic polyurethane into their builds.
What’s new in the Galaxy S24’s software
Samsung says we’ve entered into the age ofGalaxy AI, but you probably won’t notice until you stumble upon it. Much as Google is deploying a bite-sized generative AI model to help its Pixel 8 Pro do things it couldn’t before, the Galaxy S24 is making use of Samsung’s Gauss model to power features you’ve probably used with Google Bard, ChatGPT, DALL-E, or even Adobe Firefly. With the Galaxy S24 series, some of the processing happens on-device, without the need for an internet connection to a centralized server, and applies in contexts that are local to you. For example, you’ll be able to use Live Translate and Chat Assist to perform instant two-way translation and even adjust how you convey yourself in real time from right within your social media or Samsung’s Phone app.
AI is playing a leading role in propping up what you may do with the cameras on the S24 series. Nightography capabilities have been improved on the Galaxy S24 Ultra by grouping together pixel sites on the sensor, forming blocks that are 60% larger than the S23 Ultra’s. On the generative front, users will be able to create slow motion sequences in videos shot at normal framerates with the help of Galaxy AI. They’ll also be able to cut, paste, expand, and patch up sections of existing photos with generative fill. Edits made with Galaxy AI will be watermarked in media and disclaimed with a metadata tag.
On security, Samsung’s Knox suite will now supportpasskeysvia the Knox Matrix service, allowing owners to use their device authentication methods to log into all sorts of services online. They’ll also be able to toggle privacy settings to ensure that data from their usage of Galaxy AI features won’t be shared for model training purposes.
Finally and, perhaps, most importantly, Samsung is expanding its commitment to software updates by two years, now promising seven years' worth of OS bumps and security patches for the Galaxy S24 series –this matches Google’s own commitment to the Pixel 8 lineupand bests Apple’s track record of late, giving its recent iPhones up to six iOS version updates.
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Pricing and availability
Samsung was expected for the most part to hold steady on pricing as it had in recent years. Even with inflation taking a bite out of its bottom line, its annual Galaxy S refreshes were seen as undeserving of a rise, becoming more iterative deep into its second decade. With the changes in the Galaxy S24 Ultra, however, it seems that the company was more than happy to crank the lever on that device.
The Galaxy S24 will come with 8GB of RAM and options of 128GB and 256GB of storage starting at $800. The S24+, meanwhile, juices up the RAM to 12GB and the storage to 256GB and 512GB with a base price of $1,000. The Galaxy S24 Ultra will also be available with 12GB of RAM and 256GB and 512GB of storage plus an additional 1TB variant. Its starting MSRP is $100 more than last year, coming up to $1,300.
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