Samsung Galaxy S24: price, release date, camera, and everything you need to know

The Samsung Galaxy S24 series bring in a trio of new phones to take on the best form Apple and Google. There's the compact Samsung Galaxy S24 (which we'll focus on here), the larger Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus and the fully-loaded Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Regardless of model, those all-important Galaxy AI features persist across all three new entries, as do qualities like color selection. While it may be the S24 Plus that gets the most notable upgrades over its predecessor, the standard S24 still promises to deliver with a new larger display, boasting slimmer bezels and improved brightness, a new chipset and a reworked, hardier design, plus more, and it's out now.

We've fully reviewed the biggest and best new Galaxy phone, as you'll see in our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review; and it's one heck of a smartphone that might be exactly the Android device you want. As for the other phones, you'll find our full verdicts in our Samsung Galaxy S24 review and Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus review. 

Samsung has also now started rolling out the first update for these phones, making them – and in particular their cameras – better than ever.

Samsung's Galaxy S phones consistently land themselves on our shortlist of the best phones, so we've got high hopes for all three new Galaxy S24 devices, so stay tuned to see where they rank.

Samsung Galaxy S24 cheat sheet

• New Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy (US) | Exynos 2400 for Galaxy (RoW) chipset offering more power & power efficiency.
• Larger 6.2-inch display with narrow bezels and smaller front camera punch hole than the Galaxy S23.
• Dynamic refresh rate now spans 1Hz to 120Hz – up from 48Hz to 120Hz on S23.
• A higher peak brightness of 2,600 nits, beating last year’s model.
• New 2x sensor-cropped optical zoom adds greater versatility to rear camera design.
• Seven generations of OS and security updates, matching that of market leader Google.
• Revised design boasts 10% stronger Armor aluminum frame and better ergonomics.
• Larger 4,000mAh battery, up from 3,900mAh on the S23.
• Starts at $799 / £799 / AU$1,399.
• Out now as it shipped on January 31.

Samsung Galaxy S24: specs

Here a Samsung Galaxy S24 specs comparison with all three new devices side by side:

Samsung Galaxy S24: release date and price

• Starts at $799 / £799 / AU$1,399
• Available to buy now

The Samsung Galaxy S24 launched alongside the Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S24 Ultra at a dedicated Galaxy Unpacked event in San Jose, California on January 17. Samsung Galaxy S24 preorders for all three models kicked off on the same day, with the phones going on sale two weeks later on January 31, meaning they're out now.

If you're interested, you can see our best Galaxy S24 deals page for a roundup of the top options.

The Galaxy S24 comes in three storage variants, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB, with Australia skipping the 128GB model available in markets like the US and UK, and instead gaining a higher capacity 512GB model, priced at AU$1,599. The 128GB model sells for $799 / £799 and the 256GB build costs $859 / £859 / AU$1,399. This marks a notable reduction in price year-on-year for the base 128GB S24 in the UK, with its predecessor costing £50 more at launch, at £849.

@techradar

♬ love song (hesitations) (sped up) - Lofuu & Shiloh Dynasty & dprk

Samsung Galaxy S24: design and display

• New One-Mass Design language
• Straighter sides
• 10% stronger Armor Aluminum
• Larger, brighter 6.2-inch display

From a distance, the Galaxy S24 looks like its predecessor, but the newly-named One-Mass design language is most apparent in the new straighter sides this that S24 adopts, along with the fact that frame is no longer glossy, but lightly textured. For their latest phones, it would seem Apple and Samsung have met in the middle design-wise, meaning both phones look much more like one another this generation.

That new frame is also hewn from 'enhanced' Armor Aluminum, which Samsung says is 10% stronger than before. Both the front and back of the phone are clad in Gorilla Glass Victus 2, and the phone retains its IP68 dust and water resistance too.

As for the Samsung Galaxy S24's colors, this year all three devices come in the same quartet of finishes, with the caveat that the names for the Galaxy S24 Ultra color's are preceded by the word 'Titanium', rather than the descriptors the other two phones use. In the case of both the S24 and S24 Plus you can pick the phone up in Onyx Black, Marble Gray, Cobalt Violet or Amber Yellow, while three additional Samsung.com-exclusive options manifest as Sandstone Orange, Sapphire Blue and Jade Green.

Although a little taller, the size and weight of the S24 haven't changed much from that of its predecessor, which is particularly impressive when you consider that the screen has grown to 6.2-inches. Samsung has achieved this, not only by way of that flatter frame but thinner bezels than we've ever seen from the company, and they're now uniform too. Additionally, the punch hole front camera is smaller, making the viewing experience that little more immersive.

Samsung finally figured out how to bring the full 1Hz to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate of the Ultra to the S24 and S24 Plus this generation, making for a more power efficient display (the S23's screen ranged from 48Hz to 120Hz), while peak brightness across the range now hits an impressive 2,600 nits (with a high brightness mode of 1,600 nits). Previously, the S23's screen topped out at 1,750 nits and 1,200 nits, respectively, so expect greater outdoor visibility and improved HDR visuals.

Samsung Galaxy S24: software

• Samsung One UI 6.1 atop Android 14 at launch
• Promised seven generations of OS & security updates
• New 'Galaxy AI' features throughout

One of the first phones to run Samsung's One UI 6.1 user experience, the S24 adopts the familiar software look and feel of its predecessors. However, now there are 'Galaxy AI' branded threads running throughout.

New features like Circle to Search show a tight collaboration with Google that grants users the ability to search anything on-screen after simply long-pressing the home button. Tone Tweak – now built into the Samsung Keyboard – can analyze typed sentences and suggest alternatives, depending on the tone you're trying to strike, while generative wallpapers ensure you can get something new a truly unique on a regular basis, just by relying on the new AI smarts of the S24.

Real-time two-way translation across both written text and spoken word – even in calls – is now a native part of the Galaxy S experience too.

Samsung previously led in the realm of Android updates, until Google crashed its party with the impressive offerings afforded to its latest Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. But with the S24 range, the scales have been balanced, with the company now committing to seven generations of both operating system and security updates; which would carry users up to Android 21 and, presumably, One UI 13.1.

And Samsung has proven quick to update these phones so far, because the first Samsung Galaxy S24 software update rolled out on February 16, adding a slider for the phone's Vivid mode, improving the image quality of photos, and more.

Samsung Galaxy S24: cameras

• 50MP main, 12MP ultra-wide and 10MP 3x telephoto rear cameras
• New 2x optical zoom option
• ProVisual AI Engine
• AI-based Edit Suggestions

The trio of rear cameras (and the front-facing punch hole camera) look, on paper, to comprise the same set of sensors at the same focal lengths as with the previous Galaxy S23. So what's new?

The main buzzword in the S24 photographic arsenal is its 'ProVisual AI Engine', which promises to more intelligently enhance shots by way of noise removal, more vivid and accurate colors and improved quality in low light shooting; all staple areas of improvement that Samsung and pretty much every other phone maker works on with each new generation of phone camera.

Perhaps more impressive than improved gyro-based stabilization and more versatile 2x optical zoom focal length (using sensor cropping), is the suit of new AI editing that comes to the S24's photographic experience.

AI editing suggestions now offer to dress appropriate shots with a portrait effect – even if they weren't taken in portrait mode, generally remaster the qualities of an image's color and contrast or, more practically, intelligently remove reflections in a scene. 

Generative fill adds in pixels where there weren't originally any when, for example, straightening up a skewed shot, and the S24 even lets you move and resize subjects in a scene, promising to seamlessly paint in the space they were moved from; a feature that feels decidedly similar to the Pixel 8 series' Magic Editor.

Smaller tweaks, like being able to view almost any video in your gallery in slow motion by long-pressing during playback (which relies of frame interpolation to offer up to 120fps slow-mo) and – through Samsung's well-established collaborations – allowing for HDR capture and review natively from third-party apps, like Instagram, all sweeten the capture experience on the S24.

Samsung Galaxy S24: Performance & battery

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy or Exynos 2400 for Galaxy chipset
• 8GB RAM (LPDDR5X) on all models
• All storage now UFS 4.0
• 4,000mAh battery w/ 25W wired fast charging

After a brief reprieve where Galaxy S phones came running the same silicon wherever you bought one in the world, the company is up to its old tricks again of splitting the heart of the Galaxy S24 series by region. Stateside, users get Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (but an enhanced 'for Galaxy' variant), while S24 and S24 Plus models in markets outside the US – including the UK and Europe – come with Samsung's own new Exynos 2400 'for Galaxy' (the S24 Ultra gets the 8 Gen 3 globally).

While we can't say for sure how big a disparity there is between these two 3nm chipsets at this stage, previous splits have shown that Qualcomm's chipset usually reigns supreme, with weaker power efficiency and thermal performance holding previous Exynos chips back. That said, Samsung may have finally addressed previous shortcomings with the Exynos 2400 and there's even talk of better battery life from this new chip, by comparison to Snapdragon-toting S24s; something we're eager to test in review.

One range-wide upgrade is the move to faster and more efficient UFS 4.0 storage across all three storage builds of the S24. The Galaxy S23's dirty little secret was that the base 128GB build ran on older and less elegant UFS 3.1 storage; no longer. You also get 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM, whichever variant you opt for.

While charging remains the same for the S24 (25W wired and 15W wireless), Samsung has increased battery capacity to 4,000mAh, narrowing the gap between the standard and Ultra Galaxy S phones to closer than it's ever been.

Samsung Galaxy S24: Outlook

Overall, the Galaxy S24 appears to be an iterative step over its predecessor, at least on paper. But a few design tweaks and more importantly a big dose of practical AI features could make for an impressive phone. 

It may not have the glitz and glamour of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but the standard Galaxy S24 is keenly-priced and well equipped, meaning it may just be a viable contender for a spot on our best phones list.