Samsung Galaxy S24: Price, specs, news, and features

Samsung's next flagship lineup is finally here

After months of rumors, Samsung's latest phones are finally here. The Galaxy S24 series looks to improve on three of the best Android devices from last year, and our early impressions of both the Galaxy S24 Ultra and its smaller siblings have left us feeling hopeful. While plenty of power users have moved onto folding phones, if you're after powerful smartphones with massive screens and impressive camera lineups, you simply can't beat the Galaxy S24 trio.

We've already gone hands-on with both the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the smaller two Galaxy S24 devices, but if you want to know what makes these devices tick, you're in the right spot. Here's everything you need to know about Samsung's latest smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy S24 series: Availability and price

Let's start with what everyone wants to know: when can you buy one of these things? Samsung's Galaxy S24 lineup went up for preorder right after their announcement on stage in San Jose on January 17th, 2024, and for the most part, the prices are unchanged for 2024. The Galaxy S24 starts at $800, while the Galaxy S24+ starts at $1,000. As usual, preordering from Samsung's web store gets you a free storage upgrade from now until January 31st, when the phones actually find their way onto shelves at your local carrier.

However, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is a different story. Although it's available for preorder now — and will launch on the same January 31st date — you'll be paying more for this year's S Pen-equipped smartphone than you would've one year ago. The Galaxy S24 Ultra starts at $1,300 in the US, and that's a mighty big asking price for a non-foldable smartphone. Prices only go up as you add in more storage — and remember, there's no microSD card slot for expansion, so you'll need to buy the right allotment at checkout.

Samsung Galaxy S24 series: Design and specs

As usual, Samsung has split its design language between the two smaller phones and the larger phablet model. The Galaxy S24 Ultra looks nearly identical to its predecessor, with two big changes: a flat display and the use of titanium throughout its body. While the former has long been a request from S Pen fans, the latter means the materials along the chassis now use a matte finish, avoiding the grease and grime the Galaxy S23 Ultra's shiny metal finish constantly attracted.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 and S24+ are a little more familiar. These two devices now use slightly larger displays — 6.2-inches and 6.7-inches, respectively — the actual body is nearly identical to last year's phones, thanks to smaller bezels around the display. Those screens now better match the Ultra's panel, by the way, with all three phones using 2,600 nits of peak brightness and supporing dynamic refresh rates from 1-120Hz. Even better is the bump to QHD+ resolution on the Galaxy S24+ — not too shabby.

But otherwise, these devices are unsurprisingly familiar. The smaller two phones use flat edges that feel positively iPhone-esque — it's impossible to ignore when you pick it up. The Ultra is in line with the last few generations of Samsung's smartphone. At 8.6mm, it's just a smidge thinner than its predecessor. Some other minor tweaks include slight changes to the button designs, a new speaker grill at the bottom of the phone, and a flatter S Pen top, though it still protrudes just enough to rock back and forth when standing upright. These are all really, really minimal efforts to shake up the overall design, but it's better than Samsung doing absolutely nothing for another generation.

Let's get to the specs. In the US, all three phones use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, complete with "for Galaxy" branding for another year. Outside the US, only the Ultra uses that SoC — everywhere else, you'll find the Exynos 2400 powering the device. It's unclear how this could affect performance and battery life; Exynos chips tend not to perform as well as their Qualcomm counterparts.

The rest of these spec sheets look mighty familiar. 8GB of RAM in the smaller phone, 12GB in the two larger devices. The Galaxy S24 continues to start at 128GB of storage, while the Plus and Ultra models start at 256GB. Battery sizes are larger than ever, too, at least in the non-Ultra variants. We're seeing welcome bumps up to 4,000mAh and 4,900mAh in the regular and Plus models respectively, while the Ultra stays at 5,000mAh. There are certainly some nice improvements here if you're coming from older hardware, but S23 owners might feel unimpressed.

Let's talk colors. Matching up with that titanium frame, Samsung is introducing four new matching colors: Titanium Black, Titanium Gray, Titanium Violet, and Titanium Yellow. The gray model, in particular, looks like Apple's natural hue for the iPhone 15 Pro, while the yellow makes for a nice change of pace as far as colors go.

The Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, meanwhile, are abiding by Samsung's usual naming scheme: Onyx Black, Marble Grey, Cobalt Violet, and Amber Yellow. It's essentially the same four shades as the Ultra, though the renders appear to look a little less dynamic once you remove that titanium frame. The yellow, in particular, is more of an off-white than anything else. We're also looking at three additional colors, including Jade Green, Sapphire Blue, and Sandstone Orange, as exclusives available through Samsung's web store.

Samsung Galaxy S24: Software

With One UI 6 on most major Android phones, we're looking at the arrival of One UI 6.1 on these three devices. Based on Android 14, One UI 6.1 brings about a big focus with the launch of Galaxy AI. Even better, though, is the announcement of Samsung's new software policy. The company is matching Google's seven years of upgrades promise first rolled out with the Pixel 8, meaning the Galaxy S24 lineup will see new software through 2031. Not too shabby.

The list of AI features coming to this phone is immense, and frankly, a little difficult to keep track of. There's Live Translate, which allows you to have a phone call with someone while you both speak your native languages. It seems pretty impressive in our early testing though we'll need to keep trying it out for ourselves before we render a final judgment.

Some of Samsung's features seem targeted directly towards things you'll find on the Pixel right now. Interpereter is Samsung's swing at translating conversations, letting you chat with a split-screen view. Chat Assist is built into Samsung's keyboard to help you nail tone, which sounds a little like Magic Compose on the Pixel 8. Note Assist in Samsung Notes will let you organize your drawings and doodles, while Transcript Assist is a Recorder clone trying to make the S24 Ultra the phone for aspiring journalists.

We also saw a new partnership between Samsung and Google, this time for Circle to Search. Coming first to the Galaxy S24 and the Pixel 8 series, Circle to Search lets you activate a quick shortcut from the navigation bar to highlight anything on your phone and immediately find more context surrounding it. From addresses to photos, this seems like a powerful — if non-exclusive — tool.

Whether all of these stick around as essential ways to interact with your smartphone remains to be seen, but it's clear AI is the thing for Samsung this year.

Samsung Galaxy S24: Cameras

The Galaxy S23 Ultra packed a whopping 200MP primary camera, and the S24 Ultra is following its lead. Improved processing, OIS and EIS, and larger pixels on that primary sensor should deliver better low-light capabilities and motion support, the latter a big disappointment on the S23 Ultra. That said, the biggest change comes to the telescope lens, and on paper, it's not necessarily for the better. Samsung has swapped out the 10x 10MP lens from last year for a larger 50MP 5x optical zoom lens. While you can still hit 100x digital zoom, we'll have to test these lenses out for ourselves to see how the two generations compare.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 and S24+ see even less in changes, with the hardware relatively unchanged year over year. Improved processing can do a whole lot to make these lenses take even better shots though, so we'll have to see what happens once the phones are in our hands. And as expected, AI has come to the camera, too. Features like Generative Edit and a new Instant Slow-mo feature that uses AI to slow down existing videos sounds pretty exciting if they work as expected, as does the ability to remove reflections from images taken out of windows.

The Galaxy S24 series is finally here

With the arrival of the Galaxy S24, the smartphone race has officially started in 2024. These might not be the most exciting phones we've ever seen, but if you've been waiting for an upgrade from your aging Galaxy S21, these seem like worthy options. We'll have much more to say in the coming weeks about all three phones, but for now, preorders are officially open.

 

S24 ULTRA 

Feature	Specification
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy
RAM	12GB
Storage	256GB, 512GB, or 1TB
Battery	5,000 mAh
Ports	USB Type-C 3.2, OTG
Operating System	Android 14, OneUI 6.1
Front camera	12MP, f/2.2
Rear camera	200MP, f/1.7 main; 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide; 10MP 3× telephoto; 50MP, f/3.4 5× telephoto
Connectivity	NFC, UWB
Dimensions	162.6 × 79.0 × 8.6mm
Colors	Titanium Black, Titanium Gray, Titanium Violet, Titanium Yellow
Display type	LTPO AMOLED, 1-120Hz
Weight	233g
Charge speed	45W wired, 15W wireless
IP Rating	IP68
Stylus	S Pen included
Display dimensions	6.8", 19.3:9
Display resolution	3088 × 1440
Charge options	Wired, wireless, reverse charging
Cellular connectivity	5G mmWave & sub-6, LTE
Wi-Fi connectivity	Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi Direct
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.3

Samsung Galaxy S24+

Feature	Specification
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy
RAM	12GB
Storage	256GB or 512GB
Battery	4,900mAh
Ports	USB-C
Operating System	Android 14 and One UI 6.1
Front camera	12MP f/2.2
Rear camera	50MP f/1.8 OIS main, 12MP f/2.2 wide (120°), 10MP f/2.4 zoom (3x)
Connectivity	NFC
Dimensions	158.5 × 76.2 × 7.62mm
Colors	Onyx Black, Marble Gray, Cobalt Violet, Amber Yellow, Jade Green, Sapphire Blue, and Sandstone Orange
Display type	Dynamic AMOLED 2x, 1-120Hz
Weight	197g
Charge speed	25W
IP Rating	IP68
Price	$1,000
Display dimensions	6.7"
Display resolution	QHD+
Charge options	USB-C wired, Fast Wireless Charging 2.0, Wireless PowerShare
Cellular connectivity	Sub-6 & mmWave 5G
Wi-Fi connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.3

Samsung Galaxy S24

Feature	Specification
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
RAM	8GB
Storage	128GB, 256GB
Battery	4,000mAh
Ports	USB-C
Operating System	Android 14 and One UI 6.1
Front camera	12MP, f/2.2
Rear camera	50MP, f/1.8, OIS main; 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide; 10MP, f/2.4 zoom (3x)
Dimensions	147.1 x 70.6 x 7.6mm
Display type	AMOLED, 120Hz
Weight	168g
Charge speed	25W
IP Rating	IP68
Stylus	No
Display dimensions	6.2"
Charge options	USB-C wired, Qi wireless
Cellular connectivity	4G, 5G (incl. mmWave)
Wi-Fi connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.3