Samsung’s compact offering in its flagship Galaxy S24 Series should be the go-to choice for users who want a one-handed usage experience without sacrificing the device’s performance. The ‘compact’ monicker is a bit of a stretch nowadays as even the Galaxy S24 flaunts a big 6.2-inch display and sports dimensions of 147mm x 70.6mm x 7.6mm. But, if you’re looking for a small flagship, this is as good as it gets. The India variant of the Samsung Galaxy S24 carries one key change under the hood. Instead of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC as the Ultra variant, it is equipped with Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2400 chipset. Find out what this difference means for the Samsung Galaxy S24 in our review of the smartphone.
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In This Article
Samsung Galaxy S24 review: Design and Display
Inside the Samsung Galaxy S24 retail package, you get the smartphone, a SIM ejector, a USB Type-C cable, and a quick start guide. The smartphone is available in three colours – Amber Yellow, Cobalt Violet, and Onyx Black. Ordering the device directly from Samsung’s official website unlocks two more colour options – Sapphire Blue and Jade Green.
We used the Amber Yellow colour variant of the Samsung Galaxy S24 for this review. The very light shade of yellow with its pastel aesthetic feels a little boring on a smartphone that costs Rs 80,000. The same can be said about the other shades on offer.
The form factor of the Galaxy S24 remains mostly unchanged from last year’s S23 Series. The vertical layout for the individual camera cutouts is Samsung’s design language for the second year in a row. The flat edges of the aluminium frame lend it an iPhone-like feel. Unlike its ‘Ultra’ counterpart, this titanium-free frame rocks rounded corners and a polished finish.
The left edge of the aluminium frame houses the volume rocker keys and the power button. The SIM card slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port, and primary speaker are positioned at the bottom edge. Up top lie the secondary microphone and speaker. A small punch-hole cutout at the centre of the display contains the selfie camera.
The 6.2-inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X display on the Galaxy S24 is the best in the business. The touch response offered by this 120Hz panel remains unmatched by its Android peers. With a compact form factor, this display is an absolute delight to use. Under direct sunlight, it can push its brightness to a staggering 2,600 nits.
Widevine L1 support means that you can consume high-definition content on this device across all the major streaming platforms. The colours produced on the screen are vivid and punchy and the images are incredibly detailed. We were particularly pleased by the intensity of the display and how quickly it adapted to the surrounding light. The stereo speaker setup does a good job of producing a balanced audio output.
Samsung Galaxy S24 is rated IP68 dust and water resistance. This rating is something we’ve come to expect from most flagships. The smartphone can handle being submerged up to 1.5m for 30 minutes. The front and back panels are protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and can easily absorb light knocks.
Samsung Galaxy S24 review: Performance and Cameras
This year’s Indian variant of the Samsung Galaxy S24 is powered by the company’s in-house Exynos 2400 SoC instead of Qualcomm’s 2024 flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. The latter is only available in the S24 Series sold in the USA, Canada, and China. In India, the S8G3 SoC only powers the Ultra variant of the Galaxy S24 (our review here).
The reputation of Exynos chipset is certainly not on par with their Snapdragon peers, something Samsung’s European users can easily attest to. However, on paper, the Exynos 2400 processor produces impressive results; scoring 2,085 points in the single-core test and 6,572 points in the multi-core test on Geekbench 6. In comparison, the Ultra variant scored 2,165 and 6,416 points respectively.
Benchmark results don’t always tell the full story. We ran a series of tasks on the Galaxy S24 and it handled them with ease. Routine tasks like video calling, photo editing, web browsing, and video recording, presented no problems. Even with multiple apps active in the background, the smartphone did not appear to be slugging even for a moment. When it comes to everyday tasks, the difference between the Exynos 2400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipsets is unnoticeable.
The gaming performance of the Galaxy S24 is excellent, although not on par with the Ultra variant. The smartphone can play games like Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 9 at the highest settings. The vapour chamber does a good job of dissipating the heat and keeping the internal temperature down, but the back panel does tend to warm up after hitting 30-40 minutes of consistent gameplay. The smartphone also heats up while video recording for an extended period of time in outdoor conditions. In both situations, the heating was more noticeable around the camera array. This is something we did not experience in the Ultra variant.
Samsung’s suite of AI tools, dubbed Galaxy AI, has been grabbing a lot of headlines this year after the tech giant unveiled it at the grand ‘Unboxed’ event last month. The good news is that these tools are available across all three Galaxy S24 variants and will be rolled out for last year’s Galaxy S and Z series next month. We’ve discussed these features at length in our review of the S24 Ultra, so do give it a read!
While some features of the Galaxy AI may cater to a niche group of users, the entire package is far from a gimmick. Our favourite of the lot, Generative Photo Editor, lets users move the objects in a picture. The AI tool fills the empty spaces left behind by the displaced objects with relevant imagery that doesn’t seem out of place. You’d think this feature would be a hit or miss, but it is surprising how reliable it is. You can use this feature on downloaded images as well. Also, it needs to be said that the Ultra variant is slightly faster than the regular Galaxy S24 at generative photo editing.
The translation tool in Samsung Keyboard’s ‘Chat Assist’ features lets you auto-translate messages on any chat thread seamlessly. The live translator for cellular voice calls works smoothly too. The smartphone lets you mute the caller’s voice, so you only hear the translated message. There is a small lag despite the live translation, but you get used to it pretty quickly. Perhaps, the only ‘gimmick’ in the entire Galaxy AI suite is the ‘Writing Style’ tool, which lets you change the tone of your texts. It feels quite contrived at the moment, but we hope that is not the case in its future iterations.
Circle to Search and Generative AI Wallpapers are two features that we hope to see on more Android phones this year. The Pixel 8 Series already has the latter and will be getting Circle to Search pretty soon. If you’re familiar with Google Lens’ ‘Search Screen’ feature, then you already know everything about ‘Circle to Search’. The latter just makes the tool more accessible. Instead of summoning Google Assistant, you can simply long-press the home button (or the navigation handle) and search what’s on your screen.
The overall software experience offered by Android 14-based One UI 6 is clean and beautiful. Apart from Netflix and Facebook, there is no bloatware to be found in this device. If you end up buying this smartphone, we highly recommend using Samsung’s Good Lock app for a diverse range of personalisation options. This app isn’t natively installed in the device, you will have to download it from the Galaxy Store. Once installed, you get access to a good library of free and paid themes, along with personalisation options for the Always On Display, lock screen, Samsung Keyboard, navigation bar, and more.
Equipped with a 4,000 mAh battery pack, the Galaxy S24 offers a standard one-day power backup. While the Ultra variant lasts over a day, it has the advantage of accommodating a larger battery pack. During the review period, used the Samsung Galaxy S24 for instant messaging, video calling, browsing social media, emailing, watching videos, and even gaming. The smartphone left us with a respectable 20% charge at the end of each day. The battery performance tends to get better after using the device for a couple of days. On the downside, the peak wired charging speed is limited to 25W, which means it takes over an hour to fully charge the S24.
Moving on, the Galaxy S24’s camera performance is absolutely stellar, despite lacking the Ultra variant’s camera specs. Instead of the 200MP primary shooter found on the S24 Ultra, the S24 gets a 50MP sensor. The 12MP ultrawide and the 10MP 3x telephoto lenses remain the same, but as is tradition, the two lower variants of the Galaxy S Series miss out on the periscope telephoto lens.
In outdoor lighting conditions, the images taken with the 50MP primary shooter are packed with a lot of detail and finely processed to reproduce natural, vivid colours. We were stuck with a bit of an overcast sky this past week, but the S24 remained unfazed by the diffused lighting. We had no complaints about the colour richness and dynamic range in the images. In limited lighting, the Night Mode in the default camera app does a splendid job of brightening the subject, removing the grain, and injecting the appropriate colours in the images. We were particularly pleased with the colour tuning for the night sky.
The 12MP ultrawide camera produces solid images with a colour richness that is on par with the primary shooter. This camera even manages to capture distant reflections with their sharpness relatively intact. Something you can’t say about a lot of ultrawide cameras in this segment. It retains its rock-solid performance in limited lighting as well, where it relies on the Night Mode to smoothen the grain in the images.
The 10MP 3x telephoto lens can be summoned when you need to zoom into far-away objects. The 3x optical zoom is reliable and produces well-composed images with a good amount of detail. Even at 10x digital zoom, we were happy with the way the images were processed and smoothed out. However, you do tend to hit the point of diminishing returns pretty quickly.
The 12MP selfie camera takes good pictures with popping colours. The camera app has some fun filters for you to use in case you don’t want to install a third-party app. This 12MP front-facing camera can record 4K videos at 30/60 fps. The main camera can record impressive 8K videos at 30fps.
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Verdict
As far as compact smartphones go, there is no reason why you should pick anything other than the Samsung Galaxy S24. It rocks one of the best display panels we’ve seen on an Android smartphone and offers a snappy performance across the board. The lack of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC sure hurts a little, but the Exynos 2400 chipset crushes whatever task you throw at it. The difference in performance between the two chipsets is very minute and barely noticeable to the casual eye. At Rs 80,000 the Samsung Galaxy S24 is a very good deal.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Pros
- Stunning display
- Compact form factor
- Galaxy AI
- Good set of cameras
Samsung Galaxy S24: Cons
- Does not have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC
- Limited to 25W wired charging
