The Samsung Galaxy S24 is the best Android phone, but it comes with certain drawbacks

After spending a few weeks with the Samsung Galaxy S24, one thing is clear: it’s one of the greatest tiny Android phones available. Samsung Galaxy S24 is also evident that Samsung would prefer that you spend more money and acquire the Galaxy S24 Ultra. That’s the brand’s 2024 release, and it has everything you might expect from a high-end tablet.

The Galaxy S24 is an excellent pick for Android lovers, thanks to its long battery life, high performance, and sleek design that can withstand some damage. It has almost enough functionality to be named Ultra, but it’s packed into a tiny phone that can be pocketed and used one-handed. It includes all of the new Galaxy AI and Google circle-to-search capabilities, as well as Samsung’s outdated and overly convoluted software. The cameras aren’t as good as some competitors in this price bracket, but they have more zoom than the iPhone 15, and Samsung provides a variety of creative shooting settings to help you take amazing photos. With a promise of seven years of Android updates, this could be the most cheap Galaxy S phone Samsung has released in a while.

Check price at Amazon

SAMSUNG GALAXY S24 KEY FEATURES

The Galaxy S24 costs the same as the Galaxy S23, but it has a larger battery, better performance, and seven years of Android upgrades, making it a better value. Although it resembles an iPhone, it is also compact, light, and thin enough to easily fit into a front pocket. Furthermore, unlike Apple, Samsung does not limit the power of their smaller phones. There are no complaints regarding the Galaxy S24’s sharp and brilliant display. It’s not the nicest, but it’s colorful and clear enough for little text. Samsung’s main shortcoming is software, and the outdated One UI is more difficult to use than ever before, with hidden menus and features. The latest AI tools can be extremely useful or simply entertaining for show. In comparison to other phones at this price, the cameras are versatile, with genuine optical zoom, which the iPhone 15 lacks. Colors have also improved since prior Samsung phones. Excellent performance, nearly matching the Galaxy S24 Ultra, is only hindered by delays while using the latest Galaxy AI capabilities. Games and productivity chores run extremely fast. Excellent battery life, which increased by hours over the Galaxy S23 even though the battery size did not change significantly. Faster charging would have been preferable, but this phone lasts all day and then some.

SAMSUNG GAlAXY S24 UNBOXING

Of course, the eco-friendly retail package will continue to exist. The Galaxy S24 bundle comes with a 3A USB-C-C connector and a SIM removal tool.

At the very least, the Galaxy S24 pre-order campaign includes a 25W fast charger and a transparent case. Even better, Samsung was selling the 256GB model for the same price as the 128GB model to pre-orderers.

CAMERA

• Most versatile cameras on a phone at this budget.
• Excellent image quality with enhanced color and dynamic range.
• Cool new AI photo editing tools are enjoyable to try.

Sure, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is our best camera phone, but it doesn’t make the Galaxy S24 a slacker. The majority of the excellent work Samsung has done to improve its picture processing continues here. Photos I took using the Galaxy S24 appear more natural than those taken with the Galaxy S23 or my iPhone 15.

The Galaxy S24 also includes a genuine zoom lens, which is useful. Having a true 3X zoom takes you closer to the field or stage, even if the zoom lens is paired with a pitifully small sensor that produces shots with more noise and blur than I’d prefer. No matter, neither the Pixel 8 nor the iPhone 15 has optical zoom around the back, and actual zoom always outperforms digital zoom, all other things being equal.

The iPhone 15’s main camera may occasionally produce sharper photographs, and the Google Pixel 8 performs better in low light, but the Galaxy S24 is far more adaptable. I genuinely like Samsung’s various camera settings, such as the Food mode and the dual-camera video recording mode, to be entertaining and useful. My baked products look delicious when I photograph them with the Galaxy, and the dual-camera video is ideal for reaction shots with my child.

Samsung also incorporates several AI gimmicks into the camera, both in the Camera app and in Samsung’s Image Gallery. I wish there weren’t two picture programs, including Google Photos, but there they are. Unlike the Pixel, which allows for AI editing in Google Photos, Samsung keeps its Magic Editor software in the Gallery.

Magic Editor allows you to resize and reposition an object in your shot. You can completely delete the background and replace it with anything else. The phone will utilize AI to determine what is happening in the foreground and adjust the new background accordingly. If you rotate an image and wind up with blank space, you can use a tool to add more backdrop.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

• Color selections were disappointingly bland.
• Pocketable size
• It looks comparable to the S23.
• Not as sharp as other competitors, but still looks fantastic.
• Maybe too small for all the goodies that Samsung crams in.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 is most easily described as looking extremely similar to the iPhone 15. The flat, aluminum sides with rounded edges and a flat back are evocative of Apple’s flagship handset, and the two phones also feel remarkably similar in the hand. At 168g, it’s exceptionally light and one of the few flagship-level smartphones that many people can operate with just one hand.

The general design is likewise quite similar to the Galaxy S23, with only a few differences distinguishing the two phones. The smaller S24, like the Plus model, increases the screen size this year, from 6.1 to 6.2 inches. It achieves this by removing some thickness from the bezel, leaving the phone roughly the same size as before. A larger screen in the same body size is always a plus.

The Galaxy S24 falls short in terms of color selections. That is until you shop at the brand’s online store, where the selection of three exclusive colors is significantly more appealing.

The regular range is available in four colors: a very mild yellow (as shown in the photographs accompanying this review), violet, and standard black and grey selections. The color scheme isn’t as muted as the S24 Ultra, but it lacks punch and fails to stand out. Samsung’s store offers sapphire blue, jade green, and dusty sandstone orange as a trio of exclusive colors, and these three look significantly better.

While the colors aren’t to my liking, the phone’s feel is. The back is matte, which is great for eliminating markings and fingerprints, and the sides feature a soft feel that’s comfortable to grasp. Samsung switched from aluminum to titanium with the top Galaxy S24 Ultra, but the change did not spread throughout the lineup. Both the S24 and S24 Plus employ Samsung’s Armor Aluminum, which is now claimed to be 17% stronger than the version used in the S23.

Samsung is a perennial favorite for smartphone screens, and the Galaxy S24 is no exception, although it isn’t the clear victor in any category. I enjoyed reading web pages, playing games, and editing images on the smaller screen, and even small text was legible and sharp (with the right glasses). Even when snapping shots with the camera in direct sunshine, the screen remained bright.

Samsung isn’t offering us the sharpest display with the Galaxy S24, and it’s unusual for the firm to lag behind. The Google Pixel 8 and iPhone 15 have increased pixel density, making them technically sharper, albeit you may not notice the difference. The Galaxy S24 can get brighter than both of those phones, but OnePlus is pulling 4,500 nits out of its hat with the similarly priced OnePlus 12, so Samsung isn’t the clear brightness victor.

While I like holding a smaller phone, the Galaxy S24’s six-inch display isn’t large enough to accommodate all of Samsung’s capabilities. The Edge Panel is enabled by default, and it takes up so much space on the phone’s edge that it was easy to unintentionally swipe it open when I only wanted to utilize the back swipe gesture.

The Quick Panel has also become more sophisticated, making it difficult to see and utilize on the smaller Galaxy S24 display than on larger Samsung screens. Overall, more software simplicity would allow that screen to shine rather than be cluttered with icons and menus.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

• Excellent performance; comparable to the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
• More RAM would help, but it’s not necessary.
• The only hiccups were the new AI features.

Don’t be fooled by the Galaxy S24’s tiny size; it contains the same powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy CPU as the Galaxy S24 Ultra. It’s even slightly overclocked compared to the same chipset in competitors’ phones, such as the OnePlus 12, so it’ll outperform any other Android and any non-Pro iPhone 15.

What can you accomplish with that performance? You can play games like Call of Duty Mobile at their maximum settings and still achieve 60fps. You may use Adobe Lightroom to see your photo modifications in real time as you move the sliders. You can use Samsung DeX to open many windows on your display at once. This phone is quite powerful.

The only big delay I noticed was when I used the new Google and Galaxy AI functions. Holding down the home button to activate Google’s circle to search takes a few seconds. In fact, I wasn’t sure if the function was working at first because I wasn’t patient enough to wait for it to load.

Using Samsung Galaxy AI functions resulted in a similar delay. When I asked the keyboard to rewrite my text messages, there was a lengthy pause. When I recorded a voice using the Voice Recorder, it could not transcribe on the fly like my Pixel 8, and there was a lengthier delay when I requested a summary.

It’s really bad that Samsung has a performance leader that can outperform a comparable iPhone, but the new AI features are the only thing holding it back. The AI features are a mix of cloud services and on-device processing, so it’s unclear if software updates would speed things up. There are bottlenecks in both.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra outperforms the Galaxy S24, most likely due to the more RAM on board. The Galaxy S24 comes with only 8GB of RAM, whereas the S24 Ultra has 12GB. In fact, it was difficult to tell the difference until I held the phones side by side, at which point I saw the S24 Ultra completed several activities somewhat faster. I had no issues regarding the Galaxy S24’s performance, as it could still launch many apps at once and handle gaming at the maximum graphics settings.

Buy it if...

• No-nonsense, sturdy, grippy, compact design. The new matte finish looks great.
• Even better durability than last year with a V2 aluminum frame and still Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and IP68.
• Outstanding OLED screen, slightly bigger and even brighter than last year.
• Great battery life from a slightly bigger battery than last year.
• Awesome stereo speakers.
• Top-notch performance.
• Solid photo and video quality across the board with a camera carried forward from last year.
• Exciting One UI is now infused with plenty of AI; DeX support, and great connectivity options.

Don't buy it if…

• Hardware fragmentation has returned, with some areas receiving Snapdragon 8 Generation 3 and Exynos 2400 CPUs.
• 128GB of storage uses UFS 3.1 rather than UFS 4.0.
• Still no UltraWideBand (UWB) support.
• There is no 10-bit color depth capability for the screen.
• Under load, both the CPU and GPU actively cut down their performance.
• Charging is still limited to 25W, and there is no charger in the packaging.

FULL SPECIFICATION