Samsung's flagship Galaxy S24 series has just been unveiled, and as has been teased for a few weeks, the phones are all about new generative artificial intelligence features. I got to try all three phones for a couple hours ahead of the launch, and I have mixed feelings.
On one hand, the new AI features worked much better than I anticipated, and some will genuinely come in handy. At the same time, they're not tied to the new hardware at all, meaning they can run on older Samsung devices just fine. I wouldn't expect, say, a four-year-old Galaxy S20 with the Snapdragon 865 to run these demanding machine learning tasks properly, but last year's Galaxy S23 phones will be able to handle these AI tasks without issues.
While there are upgrades in silicon, cameras, and displays, this year's Galaxy S24 phones are mainly selling new software features. I suppose Google also took that approach recently with the Pixel 8 series, and on-device generative AI should improve user experience significantly. It's just that most of the exciting stuff announced at Samsung Unpacked doesn't actually require the S24 phones at all.
Pricing and availability
The Galaxy S24 series includes the S24, S24+, and S24 Ultra, and all three are available for preorder now. The phones will be available starting Jan. 31 on Samsung's online store, Best Buy, Amazon, and all major carriers in North America. The Galaxy S24 starts at $800 with 128GB of storage; the S24+ starts at $1,000 with 256GB of storage; and the S24 Ultra starts at $1,300 with 256GB of storage.
Those who preorder the phones before Jan. 30 will get a free storage upgrade, so the $800 S24, which comes with 128GB of storage normally, becomes a 256GB model if you order before then. Those who preorder via Samsung's website will also receive a $100 store credit.
-
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
- SoC
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy
- Display
- 6.8-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz refresh rate, 501 PPI, 2,600 nits peak brightness
- RAM
- 12GB
- Storage
- 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
- Battery
- 5,000mAh
- Operating System
- Android 14, One UI 6.1
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is Samsung's premium flagship phone for 2024, further refining everything Android enthusiasts love about this big, beautiful phone.
- Connectivity
- 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6E/7, Bluetooth 5.3
- Dimensions
- 6.39x3.11x0.34 inches (162.3x79x8.6mm)
- Weight
- 8.22 ounces
- IP Rating
- IP68
- Stylus
- S Pen included
-
Samsung Galaxy S24+
- SoC
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform
- Display
- 6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate
- RAM
- 12GB
- Storage
- 256GB, 512GB
- Battery
- 4,900 mAh
- Operating System
- Android 14, One UI 6.1
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus features a bigger screen and battery than the base model Galaxy S24. It is great if you want something larger that charges faster.
- Connectivity
- 5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi Direct Bluetooth v 5.3
- Dimensions
- 6.24 x 3.00 x 0.30 inches (158.5, 76.2, 7.62 mm)
- Weight
- 6.95 ounces (197 g)
- IP Rating
- IP68
- Stylus
- No
-
Samsung Galaxy S24
- SoC
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform
- Display
- 6.2-inch FHD+ AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate
- RAM
- 8GB
- Storage
- 128GB, 256GB
- Battery
- 4,000mAh
- Operating System
- Android 14, One UI 6.1
The Samsung Galaxy S24 is the base model of the S24 lineup. It is great for those looking for a smaller smartphone with good cameras at a reasonable price.
- Connectivity
- 5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi Direct Bluetooth v 5.3
- Dimensions
- 5.79 x 2.78 x 0.30 inches (147.1 x 70.61 x 7.62 mm)
- Weight
- 5.93 ounces (168.1g)
- IP Rating
- IP68
- Stylus
- No
Galaxy AI seems genuinely useful
Galaxy S24 phones will ship with OneUI 6.1, based on Android 14, out of the box. This software includes a whole suite of generative artificial intelligence features that are being marketed as "Galaxy AI." I'll be blunt: Most of these features are available in some form on other apps and services. However, the Galaxy S24 series offers them natively within the phone's UI and default Samsung apps, so users don't have to install third-party software.
Real-time on-device translation and interpretation
One of the coolest features (and one I would use regularly) is real-time two-way live translation. This could be done via written words displayed on the phone screen or for voice calls. When you make a call with S24 phones, you'll see a new Call Assist button. Tapping that gives you the option to translate that phone call in both directions, so you could be speaking English, and the person on the other end would hear another language. Likewise, when they speak back in their language, you will hear English. All the translation is done on-device, so you don't need an internet connection, and from my testing, the wait time between the person speaking and the translated language is quite fast, around 3-5 seconds.
Currently, this live translation feature supports 13 languages, including English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), Thai, German, and Spanish, among others, and there will be more to come.
Generative AI can help you write or read words
I wouldn't personally use this feature, but those who aren't confident of their writing abilities will be interested in Writing Assist. This feature can only be accessed with Samsung's first-party keyboard, and is triggered via an on-screen button on top of the keyboard.
Tapping the button will translate something you wrote into another language or can help change the tone. For example, you could write a very formal sentence, and Writing Assist can turn it into a slang-heavy casual one or a hashtag-heavy social media caption. I watched as Writing Assist turned a formal Chinese sentence into a profanity and slang-filled Cantonese sentence, and I was quite impressed.
Samsung's AI can help you consume words faster, too. You'll find the new Browser Assist in Samsung's browser, which can summarize an article into bullet points or even into another language. For example, jump into a long XDA review, and you can get a Cliffs Notes version of that article in any of the 13 languages. Just tap the button and wait 10-20 seconds.
Photo search and editing
Finally, the S24 phones have photo-related AI features (although they both require an internet connection). The first is Circle to Search, which Samsung developed in partnership with Google. You just circle any image on the phone screen to perform a Google image search. Yes, you can do this with the Google Lens app already, but this new gesture is much faster and more seamless. From my testing, Circle to Search was very accurate. I was able to snap a photo of someone's shoes, scribble a circle around it with my finger, and find the exact model on Google.
Finally, there's generative AI photo editing, which is built directly into Samsung's photo gallery. It's similar to the AI-powered photo editing Google offers with the Pixel 8 series, meaning if you erase or alter some part of a photo, the phone will generate entirely new pixels to fill in that part of the image. As I wrote in my Pixel 8 Pro review, using generative AI to alter images (or create images from scratch) is clearly the trend going forward, and even though I am concerned about misuse, it will undoubtedly be a part of our lives. The Galaxy S24 phones are the second phones behind the Pixel 8 series to bring these game-changing, industry-altering features directly to a phone.
What's new with hardware?
It's another iterative year
The Samsung Galaxy S24 series comes in three variants: the 6.2-inch S24, 6.7-inch S24+, and 6.8-inch S24 Ultra. The non-Ultra phones are slightly larger than last year's phones (0.1-inch larger, to be exact), but unless you hold both models side by side, you won't see the difference. The S24 Ultra keeps the same screen size, but the display is now entirely flat instead of curving at the left and right sides like Samsung flagship slab phones have for the past nine years.
The Ultra model also has a new titanium frame, while the two lower-tier phones keep the "armor aluminum" one. All three models in the U.S. and China will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but other regions, including Europe, will see only the Ultra model using Qualcomm silicon. The two smaller phones will be running on the Exynos 2400.
All three phone screens are now LTPO panels with a variable refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz (last year, only the Ultra model got an LTPO screen). The Ultra's display is also brighter, reaching 2,600 nits peak brightness.
For optics, the S24 and S24+ bring back the exact same hardware as last year, while the S24 Ultra gets a new periscope zoom lens: a 50MP camera with a 5X optical zoom range. This is notable because, at first glance, it's a downgrade from the last three Ultras, which had a 10X periscope zoom. However, this new lens has a larger image sensor and five times more pixels, which Samsung says will result in superior zoom image quality. In fact, Samsung said the S24 Ultra can do a 10X zoom using in-sensor crop that's better than the S23 Ultra's 10X zoom. I haven't had the chance to do in-depth testing, but I'm inclined to believe those claims from what I see. The 5X zoom is also a more practical focal length for everyday use, as the 10X is usually a bit too long for real-world usage.
That's about it in terms of new hardware. Everything else, from the IP68 water/dust resistance rating to battery sizes, remains unchanged.
Samsung Galaxy S24 series early thoughts
As I said, the Galaxy S24 series is all about software AI features this year, and while we've seen similar features on other devices and in third-party apps, having all of them on the device is useful. Real-time call translation, for example, should come in handy when I'm in a foreign country, and I'll definitely use Circle to Search often.
However, the fact remains that all of these AI features are not tied to the new silicon in the phone at all, so most of the exciting new features are overall Samsung features, not S24 exclusives.
The iterative hardware updates could disappoint phone nerds like me who are used to testing Chinese phones that do design overhauls and add new camera sensors every year. But we must remember that Samsung's Galaxy S phones are very mainstream, and in Samsung's two biggest markets (South Korea and North America), it's almost the default alternative to the iPhone. This means the Galaxy S24 phones don't need to appeal to those who own the S23 phones. Instead, it just needs to target anybody who uses Android and wants to upgrade to a 2024 flagship.
-
Samsung Galaxy S24
- SoC
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform
- Display
- 6.2-inch FHD+ AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate
- RAM
- 8GB
- Storage
- 128GB, 256GB
- Battery
- 4,000mAh
- Ports
- USB-C
The Samsung Galaxy S24 is the base model of the S24 lineup. It is great for those looking for a smaller smartphone with good cameras at a reasonable price.
-
Samsung Galaxy S24+
- SoC
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform
- Display
- 6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate
- RAM
- 12GB
- Storage
- 256GB, 512GB
- Battery
- 4,900 mAh
- Ports
- USB-C
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus features a bigger screen and battery than the base model Galaxy S24. It is great if you want something larger that charges faster.
-
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
- SoC
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy
- Display
- 6.8-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz refresh rate, 501 PPI, 2,600 nits peak brightness
- RAM
- 12GB
- Storage
- 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
- Battery
- 5,000mAh
- Operating System
- Android 14, One UI 6.1
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is Samsung's premium flagship phone for 2024, further refining everything Android enthusiasts love about this big, beautiful phone.