The only reason I upgrade my phone is if the hardware degrades or the software can’t support my needs. If there’s no big improvement in performance or features, it’s not worth upgrading. That’s the case with the Samsung Galaxy S24.
In the past few years, Samsung has steadily improved its Galaxy S series, and the S24 is among the best phones it has manufactured. It does bring some appreciated upgrades like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, better AI features, and improvements in software with One UI 6.1 and seven years of upgrades.
Look closer and you’ll find that the overall experience is quite similar to the previous generation. If you plan to upgrade from a previous Galaxy phone, or you’re a newcomer, you’re probably wondering if it’s worth the switch or you should wait for the S25. Here’s your answer.
Same design, slightly sharper performance
A comparison between the Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S24 tells you all you need to know. Between the one year jump to the newer phone’s release, Samsung has made a couple changes, and that’s answering objectively. In truth, Samsung has been playing it safe with their phone designs lately. From the Galaxy S23 to the S24, the differences haven’t been groundbreaking.
When the S24 came out, it was nearly identical to the S23. Both share a triple-camera setup on the back. But the Galaxy S24 has flat sides, unlike the S23 with curved sides. The display is 0.1-inches taller, if you care for more screen space to fit a few extra lines of text and content.
There’s the battery that’s a little bigger by 100mAh, and the wireless charging speed that’s been slightly improved, especially on the Ultra version. Perhaps, the main difference is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip (or Exynos 2400 if you’re on international shores), which made the phone faster.
But that’s something you expect every year. It’s tradition for Qualcomm to release a new chip, and Samsung gobbles it up into their flagship devices.
Related: What’s The Difference Between the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 FE?
A brighter screen and AI magic
Another subtle change in the display is the adoption of a Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide (LTPO) AMOLED screen, although the display size remains the same.
LTPO is a type of display technology that allows the screen to adjust its refresh rate based on what’s happening on the screen. It’s paired with 2,600 nits of peak brightness over the S23’s 1,750 nits, and the 1Hz-120Hz adaptive refresh rate over the former 48Hz-120Hz.
If you’re doing something on your phone that doesn’t require much motion, the refresh rate is supposed to drop to save battery life. But it doesn’t seem to go all the way down to 1Hz in practical use. Like the S23, the S24’s display actually drops to around 24Hz.
Samsung went on to tweak the lenses on the S24, so that they supposedly give better zoom quality and less noise at high magnifications. Still, photo quality isn’t actually better than on the S23’s. It’s just softer and supposedly more realistic.
Galaxy AI picks up where it falls short , especially in the zoom aspect. For example, even though the camera hardware can only do 3x optical zoom, the AI makes it possible to create a 10x zoom.
At first, the AI features on the S24 series were impressive. It was exciting to see how Circle to Search and other smart tools brought a futuristic feel to how you search and do other tasks.
Now, Google is rolling it out, along with select other features, to more devices. There’s really no need to envy the S24 anymore. What once felt exclusive is now becoming more common, which takes away some of the appeal.
Get the Galaxy S24 with Black Friday discounts
These are the things we should be grateful for, plus seven years of operating system support. Yet somehow, it’s almost as if you were buying an iPhone. Samsung wants you to hold on to the phone for a while, much like how iPhones get updates for years with very subtle changes to anything else.
It’s possible that the upcoming Galaxy S25 may bring some improvements. But leaks already show that it’s basically a repackaged version of the S24 Ultra. Unless you’re waiting for something revolutionary like solar charging or a 10,000mAh battery in a slim body, there’s not a huge reason to wait. But who knows? Samsung may surprise us.
If you need a phone now, the S24 or S24 Ultra will serve you well. You don’t want to wait any longer with the black Friday deals swarming everywhere. You could save you a lot of money, making it a good opportunity to get the $800 high-end phone at a much lower price.
