Samsung has unveiled its highly anticipated Galaxy S24 smartphone lineup, featuring the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra models. The new devices boast impressive upgrades across the board, including larger displays, enhanced durability with titanium frames, major camera improvements enabled by AI, and much more.
Display and Design Upgrades
The star of the show is undoubtedly the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung’s new flagship phone. It sports a giant 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with Quad HD+ resolution and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate for incredibly smooth scrolling and graphics (1). The curved edges are less pronounced than before for improved grip and usability.
Visually, the Galaxy S24 series sticks to an evolutionary design approach. Renders reveal four color options across the lineup – Phantom Black, Cotton Flower (cream), Botanic Green, and Misty Lilac (2). The contour cut camera design introduced with the S23 makes a return as well.
| Model | Display Size | Refresh Rate | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy S24 | 6.1 inches | 48-120Hz | FHD+ |
| Galaxy S24 Plus | 6.6 inches | 48-120Hz | FHD+ |
| Galaxy S24 Ultra | 6.8 inches | 1-120Hz | QHD+ |
Table 1: Comparing displays across Galaxy S24 models
Titanium Frame and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 For Enhanced Durability
In a serious upgrade over the S23 series, all three S24 models will sport a rugged titanium frame for significantly improved durability. According to leaks from noted tipster Roland Quandt, the titanium alloy frame will make the phones up to 56% more resistant to bending and pressure compared to traditional aluminum frames (3).
The displays will also be well protected by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, providing up to 2x better drop resistance compared to Gorilla Glass Victus which shipped with the S23. Samsung looks to be taking durability very seriously with the S24 lineup based on these upgrades.
200MP Camera and AI-Enhancements on Ultra Model
The marquee feature of the Galaxy S24 Ultra is undoubtedly its all-new 200MP wide camera powered by a massive 1-inch sensor. This marks a big step up from the 108MP sensor on the S23 Ultra and puts Samsung back on top in terms of raw megapixel count.
Early image samples show incredible amounts of resolved detail and excellent dynamic range thanks to pixel binning technology. The S24 Ultra combines 16 pixels into one large 2.56 μm pixel, producing 12.5MP photos by default that take full advantage of the detail richness (4).
But pixel binning is just the start – Samsung is banking on AI image processing to take things to the next level with the 200MP camera. The S24 Ultra is tipped to use AI neural networks to specially enhance photos to “functionally 24MP”, 4x higher resolution than the default 12.5MP output (5).
Details are light on exactly how the AI photo enhancement works. But Samsung has made serious investments in AI over the past few years, so expect some impressive results once reviewers can put the cameras through their paces.
Beyond the headline 200MP camera, the S24 Ultra sports a familiar quad camera array:
- 200MP Wide
- 10MP Telephoto (10x optical zoom)
- 10MP Telephoto (3x optical)
- 12MP Ultrawide
The telephoto configuration is unchanged from the S23 Ultra. But rumors suggest the cameras could see software improvements to image processing and zoom performance enabled by AI algorithms trained on millions of photos.
Blazing Fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Speeds
Samsung’s S24 series will be among the first phones powered by Qualcomm’s cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform. Featuring an overclocked prime core clocked at 3.36GHz and improved AI Engine, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 promises up to 40% faster CPU performance and up to 41% quicker graphics rendering versus last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (6).
Storage and memory configurations also get a boost across the lineup:
| Model | RAM | Storage |
|---|---|---|
| Galaxy S24 | 8GB | 128/256GB |
| Galaxy S24 Plus | 8GB | 256/512GB |
| Galaxy S24 Ultra | 12GB | 256/512GB/1TB |
Table 2: Memory and storage options for Galaxy S24 models
With up to 12GB RAM and 1TB built-in storage, the S24 Ultra leads the pack in keeping your apps, games, photos, and videos running smoothly. The base 128GB on the regular S24 looks rather limited in comparison though.
Launch Date Rumors
After several leaks pointed to a mid-January announcement (7), Samsung has now officially confirmed its Galaxy Unpacked event for February 1st 2023. This lines up with the company’s usual early-year flagship phone launch timeline.
Pre-orders should kick off shortly after Unpacked with retail availability around February 17th if Samsung follows previous rollouts. Pricing is still unconfirmed, but leaks suggest similar price points to the S23 series:
- Galaxy S24 – $799
- Galaxy S24 Plus – $999
- Galaxy S24 Ultra – $1,199
With major upgrades across the board to displays, durability, cameras, and internals, the S24 series shapes up to be Samsung’s most exciting flagship launch in years. The Galaxy S24 Ultra in particular looks highly promising, finally leapfrogging the best camera phones from Apple and Google if the rumors hold true. Stay tuned for full reviews and comparisons as soon as the phones are officially available next month!
What’s Next for Samsung?
Looking ahead, rumors suggest Samsung aims to push camera performance even further next year with the launch of the Galaxy S25 Ultra in early 2024. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports Samsung is planning an unprecedented 200MP super wide angle camera for the S25 Ultra (8). That would give the phone three different 200MP sensors covering wide, ultrawide, and telephoto focal lengths for unmatched versatility.
On the software side, the launch invite’s prominent “Galaxy AI” branding has sparked speculation that Samsung’s next-generation Bixby voice assistant could make its debut (9). Bixby has trailed behind Google Assistant and Alexa in adoption so far. If Galaxy AI proves to be a more capable assistant, it could give Samsung another way to differentiate its flagship phones from the Android competition.
To err is human, but AI does it too. Whilst factual data is used in the production of these articles, the content is written entirely by AI. Double check any facts you intend to rely on with another source.
