How to Preorder Samsung’s Galaxy S24, and Which Model to Buy
Looking to upgrade to Samsung’s newest Android smartphone? You can choose from the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, or Galaxy S24 Ultra. These handsets share many of the same specs but also have a few specific features that make each one stand out. So which Galaxy S24 model should you buy? We break it all down to help you choose.
Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.
What’s New in All 3 Phones
The Galaxy S24 lineup doesn’t add dramatically new hardware features over last year’s Galaxy S23 range. Let’s start with the specs all three phones share. They’re all powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. The AMOLED display on ’em supports a 120-Hz screen refresh rate, each with the capability to lower that down to 1 Hz to save battery life if not much is happening on the screen. These screens can all also hit up to 2,600 nits in peak brightness, making them some of the brightest smartphone displays around.
These smartphones have the usual slate of features like an IP68 water resistance rating, 5G connectivity, and wireless charging. (The emerging Qi2 wireless charging tech is not supported on the new Galaxies, but the current Qi standard is.) Samsung is promising seven years of operating system upgrades and security updates, matching Google’s Pixel 8 series. There are also a handful of new smart software AI features available across all three handsets, and we talk about them in greater detail right here. OK, now let’s go over how they are different.
The Galaxy S24 is best suited for lovers of smaller phones. Technically, it’s a tad bigger than last year’s S23 with its 6.2-inch screen, but the phone’s dimensions aren’t all that different. Samsung shaved down the bezels on the screen to make this possible. The S24 is the only model that starts with 8 GB of RAM—the rest have more—which is plenty enough for most smartphone tasks. It still only comes with 128 GB of internal storage, buy you can upgrade that to 256 GB. Since it’s the smallest, it has the lowest battery capacity at 4,000 mAh, which might leave you struggling to get through a full day if you’re a heavy user. It’s protected by extra-tough Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back and has an aluminum frame which makes it durable.
The Galaxy S24 and S24+ are more alike than the Galaxy S24 Ultra, so everything above rings true, except the S24+ has a larger 6.7-inch display. Get this if you don’t care for the Ultra but still want the large screen. A bigger size also means a bigger battery, so it has a 4,900-mAh cell. This one starts with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage, which is upgradeable to 512 GB. The cameras are the same as the standard S24: a 50-megapixel main camera is joined by a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10-megapixel telephoto offering 3X optical zoom. There’s a 12-megapixel selfie camera on the front.
The 6.8-inch Galaxy S24 Ultra is the biggest of the lot, and it ditches aluminum for titanium, which is a more durable material. The titanium skeleton is supposed to make it more lightweight too, but you won’t find much weight savings here over last year’s S23 Ultra. Also unique is the cover glass, which is made from Corning’s new Gorilla Armor, which the company says is its most scratch-resistant material to date. We’ll see. There’s a 5,000-mAh battery cell to match its size. It’s still the only model out of the lineup that comes with a built-in S Pen stylus, which is accessible from the bottom edge of the phone. Like the S24+, it has 12 GB of RAM and starts with 256 GB of storage, but you can upgrade the storage to 1 TB if you need that much space. As for the cameras, it shares a similar 12-megapixel ultrawide and 3X optical zoom camera, but the primary sensor is a 200-megapixel camera, and there’s an additional 50-megapixel 5X optical zoom camera. This used to be a 10X zoom camera on its predecessor, so you’re losing out on the S23’s superior zoom capability here, but 5X zoom is likely more useful than 10X zoom in most situations.
There are other great phones. Phones are unnecessarily expensive these days, and Samsung is pushing prices toward the high end. You don’t need to spend anywhere near $800 to get a great smartphone. Check out our Best Android Phones and Best Cheap Phones guides for additional recommendations at prices that are much easier to stomach.
Should you upgrade? If you have the Galaxy S23 or Galaxy S22, there’s no reason to upgrade. You folks with a Galaxy S21 are most likely fine too, unless you’re having issues with your battery or your screeen and can’t get it fixed….
Read More: How to Preorder Samsung’s Galaxy S24, and Which Model to Buy