Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: a big-phone battle

If you’re after a big Samsung phone without the big price of an Ultra, then a Plus model is for you, and the two best Samsung phones on that front are the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus and the Galaxy S23 Plus.

On the surface, these handsets seem extremely similar, especially as they have near identical designs, but they also have a large number of differences.

So how do the Galaxy S24 Plus and the S23 Plus compare? And is it worth upgrading from the latter to the former? To help you decide that, we’ve looked at the key specs and features of each, along with how we found each of them in our Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus review and our Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus review.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: specs comparison

Before we look closer at the key aspects of each phone, here’s the core specs of each, so you can see at a glance how the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus compares to the older Galaxy S23 Plus.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: price and availability

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus can be had from $999.99 / £999 / AU$1,699. That’s for the base model with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. Or for $1,119.99 / £1,099 / AU$1,899 there’s a model with 512GB of storage and 12GB of RAM.

The older Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus starts at $999.99 / £1,049 / AU$1,649 for 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, and rises to $1,119.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,849 for 512GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.

So the starting prices of these two phones are the same in the US, but the newer model costs £50 less and AU$50 more. The same differences apply for their 512GB models.

There’s little to choose in terms of price then, at least their launch prices. But being over a year old, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus can often be found for less. Both phones are also widely available.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: design and display

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S23 Plus have very similar designs. Both have an aluminum frame and a glass back protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2 (with their screens sporting the same protection), and they have a very similar camera layout, albeit with the flash in slightly different positions.

They also both have a punch-hole camera on the front, and an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. They even weigh the same, at 196g.

However, their dimensions differ a little. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus is 158.5 x 75.9 x 7.7mm, while the Galaxy S23 Plus is 157.8 x 76.2 x 7.6mm. This is a negligible difference though.

A bigger difference comes in their available colors, with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus colors including Onyx Black, Marble Grey, Cobalt Violet, Amber Yellow, Jade Green, Sandstone Orange, and Sapphire Blue, while the S23 Plus is sold in Phantom Black, Cream, Green, Lavender, Graphite, and Lime shades.

There are a few more differences when it comes to their screens, with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus having a 6.7-inch 1440 x 3120 AMOLED screen with 513 pixels per inch, a 1Hz-120Hz variable refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 2,600 nits.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus on the other hand has a 6.6-inch 1080 x 2340 AMOLED screen with 393 pixels per inch, a 48Hz-120Hz variable refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 1,750 nits. So the newer phone’s screen is higher resolution, marginally larger, and can reach a higher peak brightness. It can also scale down to a lower refresh rate, allowing it to conserve power.

In our Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus review, we described its screen as “big, bright, outdoor-friendly and as good as the Galaxy S24 Ultra's,” while of the Galaxy S23 Plus’s display we said it’s “largely unchanged” from the Galaxy S22 series. So the new phone is certainly an upgrade in the display department.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: cameras

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S23 Plus both have a 50MP f/1.8 main camera, a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera (with a 120-degree field of view), and a 10MP f/2.4 telephoto camera (with 3x optical zoom), as well as a 12MP f/2.2 front-facing camera.

So their camera hardware is identical, and while the Galaxy S24 Plus launched with some additional AI features that benefit photography, such as the ability to resize, reposition, and realign objects in photos, these features will soon be coming to the Galaxy S23 Plus too.

The included cameras are at least decent, but by this point they could do with some upgrades, so you might want to look elsewhere if photography is your priority.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: performance and software

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus is the more powerful of these two phones, packing either a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset (in the US) or an Exynos 2400 chipset (in most other places).

While there’s a slight difference in the power of these two chipsets, they’re both among the best available to Android phones, and are more powerful than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus also has more RAM, at 12GB compared to 8GB in the Galaxy S23 Plus.

We described the Galaxy S24 Plus as a “phenomenally powerful phone” in our review, while a year earlier we said the Galaxy S23 Plus “delivers industry-leading performance”. So both are very powerful, but the S24 Plus has the edge.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus will also be updated for longer, with a promise of seven years of Android version updates, compared to four on the Galaxy S23 Plus. Both phones though currently run Android 14, and while the S24 Plus is on a slightly newer version of Samsung’s One UI (complete with some AI features), the Galaxy S24 Plus will be getting updated to this version too.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: battery life

Samsung has boosted the battery capacity for the Galaxy S24 Plus, giving it a 4,900mAh battery in place of the 4,700mAh one in the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus.

In practice, we were impressed with the longevity of both phones, noting in our Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus that the capacity increase “doesn’t result in much (if any) tangible battery life improvement”, but that it’s “still a phenomenally long-lasting phone”.

In practice you should be able to get almost two days of life from either, and they both support 45W wired charging, 15W wireless, and 4.5W reverse wireless.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: verdict

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus has a few key upgrades over the Galaxy S23 Plus. Namely it has a higher resolution and brighter screen, a more powerful chipset, and more RAM. It will also get several more years of Android updates than the S23 Plus.

In most other ways though, these two phones are very similar. Their designs are almost identical, their cameras are the same, and while the S24 Plus has a bigger battery, the actual life of the two phones is comparable.

We’d argue too that for most people the difference in power won’t be that noticeable or needed, leaving the screen as the main reason to choose a Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus over a Galaxy S23 Plus – or as the main reason to upgrade from the latter to the former.

So the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus is a better phone then, but not by all that much, and the Galaxy S23 Plus remains a great handset.

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