The Samsung Galaxy S23 line may have only come to market in February 2023, but that hasn't stopped us looking ahead to what the Samsung Galaxy S24 might bring to the mobile table next year.
Samsung’s latest flagships are three of the best phones money can buy right now (read our Samsung Galaxy S23 review, Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus review and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review to find out why), and early signs suggest that the next few entries in the brand’s popular S series will continue to push boundaries for mobile performance, photography, and battery life.
Naturally, we’re still a while away from the release of the Samsung Galaxy S24 and its siblings, but we’ve nonetheless put together this one-stop-shop guide to all the latest news and rumors about Samsung’s next Galaxy S phones.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Release date
Given that Samsung only fairly recently lifted the lid on its Galaxy S23 line, we’re not expecting to see the brand’s Galaxy S24 smartphones released until 2024. That said, we can make an educated guess as to when these devices might appear.
Samsung debuted its Galaxy S23 phones at Galaxy Unpacked in February, with the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus and S23 Ultra all going on sale from February 17. The Samsung Galaxy S22 range was revealed around the same time a year prior, so we’d expect next year’s Galaxy Unpacked event – which will likely fall in either January or February – to play host to the launch of the Galaxy S24 line.
It’s worth noting that we don’t yet know whether Samsung will again release three Galaxy models in the S24 line – a vanilla S24, an S24 Plus and an S24 Ultra. The company has stuck with a three-pronged release strategy every year since 2020, but The Elec reports that Samsung may be preparing to ditch the Plus variant due to “polarization in the flagship product market” and the “stagnation of the entire smartphone market”. Though we've elsewhere heard that the Plus is still planned.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Price
It goes without saying, but since we don’t even know which phones will definitely be arriving in the Samsung Galaxy S24 line, there’s been no word yet on Galaxy S24 pricing.
Using this year’s Galaxy S23 phones as a marker, though, we can safely assume that the vanilla S24, S24 Plus (which may not be arriving at all) and S24 Ultra will cost at least $799.99 / £849 / AU$1,349, $999.99/ £1,049 / AU$1,649, and $1,199.99 / £1,249 / AU$1,949, respectively.
Samsung Galaxy S24: News and specs
If The Elec’s aforementioned claims about the lack of a Galaxy S24 Plus are to be believed, then you’ll likely have to decide between the Galaxy S24’s 6.1-inch display and the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 6.8-inch screen (that’s assuming these phones adopt the same display sizes as their respective predecessors).
That said, another source has since claimed there will be a Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus, so don't count on that being canceled. In which case there will probably also be a 6.6-inch model in the mix.
Unless Samsung rocks the boat, we’d expect the vanilla model and the S24 Plus to stick with the S23’s 120Hz AMOLED display (2340 x 1080 pixels), with the S24 Ultra sporting the S23 Ultra’s glorious dynamic AMOLED 2X panel (1440 x 3088 pixels), as well as its dynamic refresh rate that can scale between 1Hz and 120Hz. That might top out at 144Hz this time around though.
Intriguingly, the actual look of the phones may be very different to what we’re used to. Samsung recently hired Hubert H. Lee, a former design executive at Mercedes-Benz, to lead its smartphone and smartwatch design department from 2023 and beyond, so the S24 and S24 Ultra may veer away from recent Galaxy S models in terms of aesthetics.
That said, a leak suggests that actually the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus will look identical to their predecessors, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra will only have a slightly tweaked camera layout.
Under the hood, the phones will almost certainly be running Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon chipset, which looks set to be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 come 2024. Every model in the Galaxy S23 line runs on a bespoke version of Qualcomm’s already impressive Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, so the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra are likely to be even more powerful handsets than their predecessors.
Indeed, a recent leak suggests that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be significantly faster than the 8 Gen 2, with the Galaxy-specific version of the chipset set to beat Apple’s upcoming A17 Bionic “on paper.” In other words, the Samsung Galaxy S24 and its larger siblings could be faster than the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro and much-rumored iPhone 15 Ultra (although these speed gains are likely to be negligible).
Snapdragon gen 3 is indeed strongBigger jump compared to last genApparently the main contributor was arm itself, especially X4 & 1,4,3 configi think it's almost confirmed that gen3 for galaxy will beat bionic 17 frequency"on paper"up to 3.7+ghz for mobileMarch 3, 2023
To get more granular, leaker RGcloudS claims that the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will boast a high-performance Cortex-X4 core clocked at 3.7GHz, four low-frequency performance cores and three efficiency-focused cores. For comparison, the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 boasts a 3.2GHz clock speed, meaning its successor looks set to be 15% more powerful.
It's currently unclear whether the Galaxy-specific version of Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be even faster, but 3.7GHz nonetheless marks a sizable increase over the S23's 3.36GHz clock speed.
As for the phone’s cameras, tipster Ice Universe claims that Samsung will replace the S23 Ultra’s telephoto sensor with a “new solution” on the S24 Ultra, while the phone’s main camera “will remain the same.”
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is expected to replace the telephoto sensor and adopt a new solution. I think the main camera will remain the same or be slightly changed.December 28, 2022
More recently, another tweet from RGcloudS suggests the S24 Ultra will adopt a “Gen4 optics” zoom camera design to “significantly improve” the phone’s zoom capabilities.
In practice, that could mean a wider 2.5-2.9 aperture and the possibility of 150x digital zoom on the S24 Ultra, which would offer better low-light performance than its predecessor and trump the latter’s already impressive 100x Space Zoom capabilities.
We've elsewhere heard that these upgrades could mean a variable telephoto camera, which can move between 3x optical zoom and 10x. It's not totally clear whether it would be able to optically zoom to levels between those two (such as 5x) or just to those two levels though. Either way, it would mean only one telephoto lens is needed rather than two.
Disappointingly though the same source has since said that while this feature was planned, it now won't be happening, and that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will have the same cameras as the S23 Ultra, other than "minor improvements" to the 10x zoom lens.
They also add that apparently the standard Galaxy S24 and Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus will have the same 50MP main camera as their predecessors.
That said, another source claims that Samsung will use a 1-inch sensor in the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. This would allow more light in, likely improving low light shots and dynamic range. However, the source doesn't have much of a track record, so we're skeptical.
As for the battery, that might see improvements, with a report claiming that Samsung is working on an electric-vehicle style battery for smartphones. This would use a stacked rather than rolled design, allowing for 10% greater capacity in the same space. Though whether this will be ready in time for the Galaxy S24 is less clear.
Finally, Samsung might swap from Google to Bing for its default search engine on devices, which is sure to please Microsoft and almost no one else. Then again, a more recent report says this won't be happening.
