Samsung Galaxy S24 Unpacked event is official for January 17th: reserve yours now

UPDATED: JAN 04, 2024, 6:40 PM 

Intro

Samsung has just officially unveiled its new compact powerhouse, the Galaxy S24, so this is a perfect opportunity to look at the new features and compare it to the previous Galaxy S23.

What's new and what has changed? And is it worth upgrading?

It all starts with a slightly tweaked design, a slightly bigger screen, faster chip and even some long-awaited camera improvements.

Galaxy S24 vs Galaxy S23 specs differences:

Design and Size

With a triple camera setup on its back, the Galaxy S24 looks a lot like the Galaxy S23, but look closer and you will spot some changes.

The big difference surely are the flat sides on the new Galaxy S24, which make it feel similar to an iPhone.

While the screen size is slightly bigger now, the physical size of the phone has changed so slightly you wouldn't notice, so it remains a quite compact option.

Both phones also feature an aluminum frame, but you now have a tougher Armor Aluminum frame on the S24, and the finish is matte instead of glossy. A closer inspection also shows the gap between the rear panel and the frame is practically seamless on the newer phone.

The rest has remained the same between the S24 and S23: both have an IP68 rating and both come with a USB-C port on the bottom. 

You have the following Galaxy S24 colors:

• Onyx Black

• Marble Gray

• Cobalt Violet

• Amber Yellow 

Display Differences

The exact display size on the Galaxy S24 is 6.17 inches (often rounded to 6.2"), while the S23 had a 6.1-inch screen.

The resolution remains the same at 1080p. We are not bothered by this. Yes, it's a bit lower than the 1440p screens on the S24 Plus and Ultra models, but the difference is so tiny most people won't even notice.

The peak brightness, however, jumps to 2,600 nits, up from 1,750 nits on the S23, so the newer Galaxy is much easier to use outdoors.

The S24 is also the first vanilla Galaxy S series flagship to support 1Hz-120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The Galaxy S23 could only go between 48Hz to 120Hz, so this newer model will be more frugal in terms of power consumption thanks to the 1Hz support with static content.

As for biometrics, nothing new. The Galaxy S24 relies first and foremost on an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint scanner, just like the Galaxy S23, and it also supports image-based face recognition (which is a bit less secure).

Performance and Software

The Galaxy S24 comes with a new and faster chipset, but the focus has clearly shifted to something else this year: Galaxy AI, which is embedded all around the new Samsung One UI 6.1 software! 

A bunch of the key apps are now supercharged with AI. The native Phone app now supports real-time translation of phone calls. It uses on-device AI, so that your privacy is protected too.

The Samsung keyboard also gets the new Chat Assist feature, where with a press of a button you can translate messages and you will also see suggestions for tweaking the tone of your texts.

In meetings or when recording voice memos, Transcript Assist will deliver a summary and even translations if needed.

Samsung is also partnering with Google. The new Circle to Search with Google is as straightforward as it sounds, allowing to search for anything easily.

At the same time, it's not clear yet if the Galaxy S23 and older models could get those AI features, or if they will rely too much on the new Snapdragon chip in the S24 models.

Speaking of the processors, we have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor (at least in the United States), a beastly chip with improved power and efficiency. You also get the same 8GB of RAM (same LPDDR5X type as on the S23). That's a bit disappointing, considering the high RAM requirements of the One UI interface.

You have two storage options, just like before: a base 8/128GB model and an 8/256GB version too.

Very impressively, the Galaxy S24 comes with SEVEN years of OS upgrades and security patches, a big leap over the 4 year software suppot (for major updates) on the Galaxy S23. 

Camera

The cameras on the Galaxy S24 look exactly like the ones in the S23, meaning you get three separated, raised camera lenses with the following characteristics:

• 50MP main, f/1.8

• 10MP 3X zoom, f/2.4

• 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.2

• 12MP front camera

This looks like the same 50MP ISOCELL GN3 main camera sensor that Samsung has been using in the past few years. But while the camera hardware remains the same, Samsung is said to improve image processing a great deal, thanks to that magical new "Galaxy AI".

The big change is just in the colors of images. Gone are the vibrant, saturated colors we were used to see from Galaxy phones, and you have a more natural looking colors. Oversharpening was also a big issue on previous models and it's been toned down significantly on the S24.

We will be uploading sample photos from both phones soon, so you can see the differences. Stay tuned for that.

Audio Quality and Haptics

One area that has not changed much is the audio system or haptics too for that matter.

The Galaxy S23 sound quality was fine, but not quite the best out there. The loudspeakers output sound which is a bit "thin" for a flagship phone, with less deeper tonalities than we'd like to hear, and the situation has remained practically identical on the S24.

Battery Life and Charging

With the slightly larger overall size of the phone, the Galaxy S24 gets a modest upgrade in battery size to 4,000 mAh, up from 3,900 mAh on the Galaxy S23.

That's a change of 2.5%, not enough to really make a difference.

The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, however, might, so we would not rush to any judgments about battery life.

What remains the same for sure, however, are charging speeds. Using a cable, you can hit a maximum rate of 25W for charging, while wireless charging works at 15W. There is no support for the fancy Qi2 wireless charging standard on the Galaxy S24.

Samsung just refuses to add faster charging to this smaller model, and if you want truly fast charging rates, you still have to import a phone from the Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Oppo or Huawei.

Summary

If we just looked at the specs and the outward design, the Galaxy S24 looks like an incremental update, but considering the faster new chip and especially the new Galaxy AI features, and those improvements start to pile up.

We are yet to see, if AI will make a big difference in the Galaxy S24 real-world experience, but AI is definitely the hidden ace up Samsung's sleeve.

Are you excited about all these new features on the Galaxy S24? And which one you think will make the biggest difference in real life?