Samsung Galaxy S24

Introduction

Samsung's Galaxy S series is over a decade old and going strong. The Galaxy S24 followed the traditional yearly launch schedule and hit the stage at Unpacked in January 2024, 11 months after the Galaxy S23.

The Galaxy S24 doesn't look all that different from the 2023 model, but it is undoubtedly one of Samsung's most intriguing and eye-catching S-series sequels because the company considers it its first AI phone.

Design

Samsung appears to have hit the pinnacle of smartphone design with the Galaxy S23 series, and the Galaxy S24 doesn't stray from the formula. It may not look revolutionary, but this consistency in design has allowed Samsung to improve the user experience in many other meaningful ways.

The Galaxy S24 has a flat display, back panel, and frame. It abides by what Samsung calls a “One-mass” design. It's an elegant, beautifully finished slab of mobile technology.

Samsung's 2024 flagship measures 147.7 x 70.6 x 7.6mm and weighs 168 grams. It's a compact phone by today's standards, but its thin bezels allow it to sport a generous 6.1-inch display. Unsurprisingly, the device has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, and its Armor Aluminum frame makes it more resilient to drops.

The Galaxy S24 has no contour cutout for its rear-facing camera system, and the device continue to use an Infinity-O display cutout for the selfie camera, as Under-Panel Camera technology doesn't seem to have evolved much over the past couple of years.

Color options include Onyx Black, Marble Gray, Cobalt Violet, and Amber Yellow. The Galaxy S24 ships in a box made from 100% recycled paper, and the phone itself uses more sustainable and recycled materials than any other Galaxy S before it.

Specifications

Samsung's Exynos chips are back, and the company uses a two-pronged strategy for the Galaxy S24. While some markets get the Galaxy S24 equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, most get the Exynos 2400 variant.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC has one Cortex-X4 CPU core clocked at up to 3.3GHz, five performance cores running at up to 3.2GHz and two efficiency CPU cores @2.3Ghz.

The SoC also sports a new Adreno GPU that claims 25% better performance, 25% improved power efficiency, and 40% better Ray Tracking than its predecessor.

Samsung says the in-house Exynos 2400 solution is 70% faster than the Exynos 2200 and has 14.7x better AI processing. The chip features a new Xclipse 940 GPU.

Each of these SoCs boast a 1.5x larger vapor chamber for better cooling.

Other specs include 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and a 4,000mAh battery with 25W wired charging and wireless PowerShare.

Display

The Galaxy S24 features a 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X FHD+ display with an incredibly high brightness of 2,600 nits. The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

This time, Samsung upgraded the panel to have a refresh rate range of 1-120Hz, which makes the display more energy-efficient.

The panel also boasts improved Vision Booster technology. And through One UI 6.1, Samsung has added a new Adaptive Color Tone feature that uses the phone's cameras to determine the best color and white balance based on the environment.

Camera

At the back of the Galaxy S24, there are three cameras, including a 50MP primary shooter with OIS and an f/1.8 aperture, a 12MP ultra-wide camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 120-degree FOV, and a 10MP telephoto camera with an f/2.4 aperture and 3x optical zoom.

The selfie camera consists of a 12MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and a field of view of 80 degrees.

Although this hardware sounds familiar, Samsung's new AI tools bring numerous improvements and enhanced experiences to the Galaxy S24. A new ProVisual Engine sits at the core of the experience.

Nightography is improved, and third-party apps like Snapchat and Instagram can use the Galaxy AI-powered camera system. And now, Dual Recording can be used for two rear cameras at the same time.

Generative AI editing tools can fill empty spots in cropped images, and users can now preview photos in Super HDR in the Gallery app or Instagram feed. Users can also preview videos in slow-mo inside the Gallery app, even if the videos were not originally shot at a higher framerate.

Software and features

Android 14 was released in 2023 along with the One UI 6.0 update. The upcoming Galaxy S24 still rocks Android 14 at launch but brings an iterative update to the proprietary interface through One UI 6.1.

The most striking aesthetic change brought by One UI 6.1 is the integration between the Always On Display and lock screen. The AOD now borrows widgets and even wallpapers from the lock screen, and the transition between the two is blended together nicely.

Samsung defines the Galaxy S24 software experience through AI and Large Language Model-based features. Some of the most notable One UI 6.1 features, AI or not, that haven't been mentioned already are:

• Circle to Search.
• Live Translation in phone calls.
• Chat Assist.
• Auto Summary for Samsung Notes, Internet, and Voice Recorder apps.
• Auto Formatting for Samsung Notes.
• Generative Wallpapers.

In line with Samsung's sustainability efforts, the Galaxy S24 is guaranteed to receive seven OS upgrades and seven years of security patches.

Availability and price

Samsung announced the Galaxy S24 at Unpacked in San Jose, California, on January 17, 2024.

The phone became available for pre-order on the day of the announcement and was scheduled for a January 31 release. The Galaxy S24 went on sale for $799 / €899 and up.