Samsung Galaxy S24 release date, price, specs, colors and latest news
The Samsung Galaxy S24 was unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked 2024, alongside its larger siblings the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. As you'd expect, this means a whole host of welcome upgrades that should help make the phones some of the best Android phones of 2024.
Naturally the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has some of the more noteworthy upgrades, including a 50MP telephoto camera, and a titanium frame with a textured grip. But that isn't to say you should ignore the Galaxy S24 or Galaxy S24 Plus either. They'll no doubt be some of the best Samsung phones with various changes and features that make them worthy purchases in their own right. Especially if you want to pay a little less.
Here's you can get a rundown of what each model has to offer, including pricing, availability and all the other changes that will caught our attention at Galaxy Unpacked this year.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Specs
Samsung Galaxy S24 Pricing and availability
The Samsung Galaxy S24 starts at $799 for a model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The Galaxy S24 Plus boosts the RAM and minimum storage to 12GB and 256GB for a $999 price tag. At the top of the line-up is the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which offers the same 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for a $1,299 starting price. It officially went on sale on January 31, along with the S24 Plus and S24 Ultra.
You'll notice that the S24 Ultra has endured a $100 price hike since last year. There's are likely a bunch of factors playing into this, including the loss of a cheaper variant with just 8GB of RAM though the exact reasoning hasn't been revealed yet.
Both the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus are available in Onyx Black, Marble Gray, Cobalt Violet and Amber Yellow, plus the Samsung.com exclusive Jade Green, Sapphire Blue, and Sandstone Orange options.
Meanwhile the Galaxy S24 Ultra is available in Titanium Gray, Titanium Black, Titanium Violet, and Titanium Yellow, plus the Samsung.com exclusive colors Titanium Green, Titanium Blue, and Titanium Orange.
Galaxy S24: for was $799 now $199 w/trade-in @ Best Buy
Its small size makes it the easiest of the three new Galaxy S24 models to handle. Since it's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, the Galaxy S24 has a strong punch that makes graphically intensive games perform fluidly. Best of all, its new Galaxy AI features add more utility to the phone.View Deal
Galaxy S24 Plus: was $999 now $249 w/trade-in @ Best Buy
Moving up a size has its advantages with the Samsung Galaxy S24+. On top of having a larger battery, the new Galaxy AI features add a ton more utility to the phone, saving you more time. It's also a fantastic camera phone boosted by its 3x optical zoom camera.View Deal
Samsung Galaxy S24 Design & Display
The Samsung Galaxy S24 comes with a flat 6.2-inch AMOLED display. This offers FHD+ resolution and an adaptive refresh rate that dynamically switches between 1 and 120Hz depending on what you're going.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S24 Ultra up the screen size to a respective 6.7- and 6.8-inches at QHD+ resolution and the same 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate.
Both of those are flat screen devices, meaning this is the first year since 2015 that there isn't at least one Galaxy S flagship with a curved display. This lack of display curve doesn't stop Samsung offering 42% slimmer bezels on the S24 Ultra — and ensuring it's even thinner than the S23 Ultra.
The S24 Ultra display also features Gorilla Armor on the front for even better durability, and reduced screen glare. That's 4x more scratch resistant and reduces up to 75% of the screen's reflectivity. The back panel will still be made from Gorilla Glass Victus 2, as will the display and back panel on the S24 and S24 Plus.
All 3 phones offer a 2,600 nit display, with Samsung claiming that outdoor visibility is improved by a whopping 40%.
The standard and Plus models will also be kept with aluminum frames, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra will be taking a leaf out of Apple's book. That means it has a titanium frame with a satin finish, alongside advanced vapor chamber cooling — which is now 1.9 times larger. That will be extra beneficial given titanium's reputation for poor heat management.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Cameras
The Samsung Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus both come with a triple lens rear camera array. It's comprised of a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera with OIS, a 12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide lens with 120-degree field of view, and a 10MP (f/2.4) telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. There's also a 12MP (f/2.2) selfie camera with an 80-degree field of view.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra takes it up another level with 4 rear camera lenses, They include a 200MP (f/1.7) main lens with OIS, a 12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide lens with 120-degree field of view, a 50MP (f/3.4) telephoto lens with OIS and 5x optical zoom, plus a 10MP (f/2.4) telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. On the front is the same 12MP (f/2.2) selfie camera with 80-degree field of view.
While it seems disappointing that Samsung is downgrading the optical zoom from 10x to 5x on the Ultra, it claims that the 50MP lens will be capable of "optical quality" at 2x, 3x, 5x and 10x zoom levels. Samsung is calling this a Quad Tele System, and it used a cropped 12MP image that just appears to be zoomed in. 100x enhanced digital zoom is also making a comeback for another year
Space Zoom will also be returning as part of the Nightography feature, for those times you want extra long-magnification. As part of this the Ultra's camera offers 60% larger pixels and wider OIS — with the phone gyro capable of recognizing if movement is deliberate and can compensate accordingly — which is perfect for low light conditions.
There's also improved noise reduction and AI image editing features that utilize generative AI to fill in any blank spaces. Super HDR will also show you lifelike previews before you actually take a photo, and will now be available in third-party social apps like Instagram and Snapchat.
All these specs look good on paper, especially given Samsung's track record producing some of the best camera phones. But we won't be able to definitively say how good the Galaxy S24's photos are until we have the chance to thoroughly test the phones for ourselves. That's especially true given the number of AI enhancements the camera will be getting
Samsung Galaxy S24: Performance
The Samsung Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus phones run on the a standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset in the United States. Some regions will see the phones come with the Exynos 2400, though, including the U.K.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra, meanwhile, comes powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy. This chip promises improved AI processing from the built in Neural Processing Unit (NPU), and if last year is anything to go by it could see an overall boost to performance as well.
We've already seen how the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 performs in benchmarking tests on other phones, but we'll have to wait until we can test the Galaxy S24 series in person before we can come to any conclusions. We also have no idea how much more performance will be available as part of the "for Galaxy" variant, either.
There's an uptick in performance compared to last year, especially since the Galaxy S24 Plus and Ultra models have also scrapped the 8GB RAM option this year in favor of 12GB.
But Samsung promises that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will offer a more powerful CPU, GPU and NPU with greater efficiency that ensure the phone will last longer on a single charge. The phone maker also claims that we can expect "unparalleled gaming performance", with smoother gameplay, higher performance, better lighting and shadows, plus improved ray tracing.
Samsung Galaxy S24 AI
Galaxy AI is one of the defining features of the Galaxy S24 line-up, and it's fair to say that all three phones are packed full of features aided by artificial intelligence. In the past Samsung has used machine learning to optimize and improve performance, but now AI experiences are going front and center.
The AI experiences are a mix of on-device and cloud-based AI, built with help from Google and Qualcomm. The idea is that it's all centered around the user experience, and maximizing creative freedom.
A lot of these features are about assistance too. Browsing assist can summarize content for you, while Chat Assist is built into your keyboard — offering AI translation, tone tweaks and the ability to rewrite in six different styles or tones. Android Auto will also be able to summarize incoming messages, while offering relevant replies and actions in response.
The Notes app similarly features Transcribe Assist, for translating and transcription duties, summarization and automatic formatting. If you're using the S Pen this can even straighten and neaten up your handwriting. Of course there's also a Live Translate option that is essentially a two-way interpreter built into the phone app. It can understand 13 languages and 17 dialects, then shows you the a live text translation.
There's also a feature called Circle to Search with Google. Press and hold the home button or gesture, then circle content with your finger or S Pen, and Google search results for the contents of your circle will show up on screen. All without having to leave whatever app you were in.
Samsung has also invested a lot into Galaxy AI editing tools for the camera. These offer new features while simultaneously upgrading and enhancing old ones. That means we've got improved object recognition, a dedicated color tuning solution, a simple object eraser and more professional editing tools.
In fact the Galaxy S24 goes so far as to analyze your shots and makes suggestions on how it can be improved. The more photos you take, the more it learns and the better your overall results will be. Instant Slow-Mo also lets you slow down videos to 120fps after they've been shot, with AI filling in the extra frames needed for the effect to work.
Finally there's Generative Edit, which lets you tinker with your photos while using generative AI to fill in the gaps. This includes extract or moving objects, resizing them or reframing your photos. Images edited with generative AI are documented as such with a star watermark in the corner and a label in the metadata.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Battery life and charging
Battery capacity on the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus is up this year. The Galaxy S24 is now 4,000 mAh, up 100 mAh from last year, while the S24 Plus is 4,900 mAh — and increase of 200 mAh.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is still at 5,000 mAh, but this is still a pretty hefty battery pack compared to some of its rivals. Not to mention the fact the Galaxy S23 Ultra still has some of the best phone battery life around.
We've seen Samsung battery life rise considerably over the past couple of years, and bigger battery lives in the non-Ultra phones is certainly going to help improve them further. Similarly the extra efficiencies in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset also help extend that battery life, alongside other optimizations Samsung has done to the phone. For example, the Galaxy S24 Ultra sets a new benchmark for flagship phone battery life.
The Galaxy S24 is still limited to 25W charging, which restores 50% charge in around 30 minutes. Meanwhile the Galaxy S24 Plus has upgraded to 45W charging, the same as the Galaxy S24 Ultra, with both phones recouping 65% charge in the same amount of time.
All three phones have Samsung's Fast Wireless Charging 2.0, which offers up to 15W speeds.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Sustainability
Like Google, the Galaxy S24 series will come with 7 years of software support, including Android OS upgrades and security updates. That means you can keep hold of your phone for longer. Hopefully it'll also mean 7 years of spare parts availability, just in case something breaks before 2031.
Samsung says that Galaxy S24 batteries feature at least 50% recycled cobalt and the phone has been designed to use recycled steel and TPU. The phone maker has also emphasized that certain components do contain recycled materials, including 100% recycled neodynium and 40% recycled steel in the speakers. Packaging is all made from 100% recycled paper as well.
Volume and side keys feature "a minimum of 10%" recycled TPU. Which is rather a weird flex, but I guess it's better than nothing. Still we'd like to see more recycled materials in use across the whole phone, not just a few minor components.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Outlook
AI is clearly the major focus of Samsung this year, with the company itself admitting that we're currently in the "era of AI". Needless to say the Galaxy S24 manages to offer a great many AI features, though not all of them are unique to Samsung phones.
On top of that we have seen some minor hardware updates, particularly in the battery and camera departments — plus the standard annual upgrade to the latest Snapdragon chipset (in the U.S. at least).
