Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus – Design and Features

Samsung has changed a few things this go around, with more “Plus” to the Galaxy S24 Plus than in the prior year. The screen size is the biggest outward upgrade, getting a boost to 6.7 inches while slightly increasing the height of the phone. The resolution has also been bumped substantially to 1440 x 3120, though the phone still defaults to running at a reduced resolution for power savings. The new display also gets the 2600-nit peak brightness and 1-120Hz variable refresh rate that are shared among all three phones in the new lineup.

Predictably, visuals look excellent on the Galaxy S24 Plus. Its deep contrast and bright highlights present HDR visuals wonderfully. Things like blaster fire and fiery explosions burst from the screen in Ahsoka, while everyday content like web pages and apps are easy to see in most lighting conditions. Even out in direct sunlight, the screen is plainly visible on bright and dark pages alike, though there’s still a little angling necessary to avoid reflecting the sun.

The display is flanked by stereo speakers, one porting out of the earpiece and one out of the bottom edge of the phone. They’re respectably loud and clear at full volume, just barely enough for listening to a podcast while in the shower, but they’re not extraordinary.

Samsung’s design has grown a bit simple. There’s little boldness to the style, and the flat edges and wide curves of the corners on the chassis make it look all the more like nearly every iPhone released in the last four years. Really, it’s a simple slab with glass on either side, matte aluminum wrapping around the edge, and three cameras sticking up ever so slightly on the back. Even the buttons – color-matched to the frame – blend in with the design. Samsung has a few bolder colors, but that’s all the spice you can get from the design.

The hardware is respectable at least, with tough Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on either side and aluminum sealing up the internals with IP68-level protection that should be good for a dip down to 1.5 meters for half an hour. That’s all pretty standard for flagship smartphones at this point though, and it’s a shame to see Samsung save the Corning Gorilla Armor exclusively for the Galaxy S24 Ultra, offering that phone more structural integrity and better glare reduction.

The USB-C port on the phone continues to allow fast data transfer and supports Samsung’s DeX desktop mode. Sadly, Samsung didn’t upgrade its wireless charging support to the magnet-based Qi 2. The phone also continues to support facial recognition and fingerprint unlocking, which both are snappy.

Beyond this, there’s not much to talk about or upgrades to note for the Galaxy S24 Plus. It’s simple and elegant in that simplicity, but beyond the screen, most of its upgrades are happening deep under the hood at the chip and software level.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus – Software

The Galaxy S24 Plus comes running on Android 14 with Samsung’s OneUI customizations. Everyone has their preferences, but I’ve found and continue to find the flexibility of OneUI sufficient for finding a comfortable setup for the home screen, the app drawer, and the interface overall. I also find the notification shade and quick settings panel more useful and information-dense than Google’s newer default introduced with Android 12.

Samsung followed Google’s lead by announcing 7 years of OS and security updates for the Galaxy S24 family. While it remains to be seen how many new features will be included with those updates, it’s still valuable to have security updates coming down the line for folks who hold onto their phones for the long term. With the Galaxy S24 Plus coming with plenty of powerful hardware for today, there’s little doubt it’ll continue to be a serviceable phone for at least a few years.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus – Gaming and performance

Naturally, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus got upgraded to the latest chip from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and that chip is no slouch. I saw it in action in the OnePlus 12 already, and the Galaxy S24 Plus saw it run ever-so-slightly faster. That is to say, the phone can blitz through everyday operation. Its deep,12GB pool of memory lets it keep a lot of apps ready to jump back to at a moment’s notice. And speedy UFS 4.0 storage can reload apps in a flash. Scrolling through photos, each load quickly, and even a 4K/60FPS video file began to play just about as soon as I clicked on it – no delayed buffer or spinning wheels.

All that speed is ready for gaming, too. Dashing around the countryside in Genshin Impact at max settings, the Galaxy S24 Plus is happy to keep the game running smoothly with what appears to be a consistent 60fps. Samsung’s Game Booster app also has a handy tool that can send wired PD power directly to the chipset while gaming, bypassing the battery and avoiding unwanted heat. After running Genshin Impact for more than 10 minutes, the phone was fairly warm but avoided any scorching hot spots and wasn’t uncomfortable.

With a 4,900mAh battery inside the phone, it’s also boasting considerable uptime. Even taking intermittent advantage of its bright screen, gaming at max settings, and downloading large files, the phone held up easily through the end of the day. With lighter use, I could even comfortably stretch two days and change.

Like Google’s phones, the Galaxy S24 series has some AI features running on it. This offers up capabilities like web page summarization in Samsung’s first-party browser and call translation in the stock phone app. The results vary. The summarization takes a moment to generate and offers some decent snippets, but it can miss some key details. Summarizing my recent review of AOC’s low-cost OLED monitor, it completely left out any mention of sub-pixel issues, for example. The live translation tool works decently in my testing with Japanese and Spanish, but isn’t quite instantaneous and won’t help if you don’t recognize the language of the caller or have the language pack downloaded. It’s also no help if someone calls you on WhatsApp, Messenger, or anything other than the stock phone app.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus – Camera

Samsung’s focus on internal upgrades unfortunately meant the cameras were neglected this year. You won’t see any changes to their physical hardware from last year’s model, so the only differences will be how Samsung is processing them. Fortunately, they’re still a versatile array of cameras.

For reference, here are the cameras the Galaxy S24 Plus packs:

• 50MP Wide, f/1.8, OIS
• 12MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 120-degree FOV
• 10MP telephoto, f/2.4, 3x optical, OIS
• 12MP Selfie, f/2.2

This is a decent array of sensors, and Samsung has them pretty well tuned to produce consistent visuals so you don’t have results that look wildly different when switching from one sensor to another. Neither the ultra-wide nor the telephoto hold up well under close scrutiny, though, as zooming in quickly reveals a softer focus that blurs the finer details even when snapping photos in bright lighting conditions.

The main sensor is what you’d hope for. It captures a wide field of view with lifelike color and fair clarity. It snaps quickly in the dark as well, so you don’t have to rely on an overly long shutter. It’s not quite on the level of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, though, and that’s a shortcoming that repeats for most of the camera system here.

I hate to use the word “good,” but that’s all the cameras here are. There are no magic tricks in store from the 3x optical zoom. It’s not making small text across a long distance suddenly legible, and going much beyond 3x offers a steep drop-off in image quality. The Pixel 8 Pro has it beat in that department, and even though the OnePlus 12 is also only boasting 3x, it managed clearer details at range. And neither the main sensor nor the ultra-wide sensor have an impressive character to them, in contrast to something like the OnePlus 12’s pronounced bokeh in the main sensor. The selfie cam captures clear, bright photos in good lighting conditions, but it’s no miracle worker in dim lighting.

Samsung has some AI editing features, such as the ability to move and resize subjects or erase objects, but much like those I tested on the Google Pixel 8 Pro, they’re not all that useful if you want a quality photo. The weird artifacts they leave behind range from subtle to glaring, but are ever present. And just like with Google’s system, you need to have cloud backups enabled before you can perform these generative edits, except Samsung doesn’t mention that when you’re trying to make them – instead letting you get halfway into the process only to spit out a no-can-do message without explaining what you need to do to fix it.