Samsung launched its Galaxy S24 series back in January, out of which we have already gone through two of the devices including the base Galaxy S24 and the top-end Galaxy S24 Ultra. It’s fair to say we were quite impressed by both but what about the middle child, the Galaxy S24+? While it got some considerable upgrades over last year’s Galaxy S23+, is it worth its increased price tag of Rs 99,999? Let’s have a look.
Design & Build
The Galaxy S24+ received the same minor refresh which Galaxy S24 got, and that’s a completely flat frame, replacing the slightly curved one we found in previous generations. The aluminium frame accounts not only for a premium feel, but also a better grip. Moreover, it now has a matte finish compared to the glossy one on S23+ which further adds to the already top-notch in-hand feel.
Of course, as it’s a big smartphone, it’s not as easily handled as the smaller Galaxy S24, but that’s not a bad thing by any means. The overall design of the Galaxy S24+ remains similar to its predecessor, and we were impressed by it quite a lot.
The device is IP68 rated, meaning splashes of water and abundant dust should be a piece of cake for the device to withstand. Aside from that, the Cobalt Violet shade of the Galaxy S24+ looks quite unique and stands out compared to the other standard shades (excluding Samsung website-exclusive colours). The type of design used on Galaxy S24+ is now associated with Samsung by default and the handset doesn’t fail to live up to the expectations one would have at this price point.
The Haptics are strong and precise and well integrated with the UI. They could have been better, though, as they still don’t match the strength of OnePlus 12 haptics, but they are acceptable. The stereo speaker setup has great sound quality, with slight bass and a mostly treble-driven sound signature. They do get exceptionally loud, though.
Display
The Galaxy S24+’s display is a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x flat display with a QHD+ Resolution (3120 x 1440 pixels). It supports an adaptive Refresh Rate of up to 120Hz and a touch sampling rate of up to 240Hz. The display also has a max brightness of up to 2600 nits. Aside from the Gorilla Armour with an anti-reflective surface and the overall shape, this display is similar to the one used on the S24 Ultra.
It’s also an upgraded panel over last year’s phone, with a higher resolution as well as a higher brightness. Samsung doesn’t usually disappoint when it comes to displays on its devices and the same goes for Galaxy S24+ as well.
While I did feel the colours were a bit faded for my liking, Samsung fixed it with an update by adding the vividness slider and now it’s back to being the vibrant panel I am used to from the brand. It’s amazingly sharp as well as bright under direct sunlight. The display has an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor underneath which works quite well. It’s snappy and hardly fails to recognise the fingerprint.
The viewing angles remain excellent and the slim evened out bezels on all sides further help for providing an immersive experience. Whatever you may be doing, be it watching movies, playing games or scrolling through Reels, the display on the Galaxy S24+ is one of the best you can get out there.
Performance & Software
The Galaxy S24+ shares some of its specifications with its smaller sibling, the S24. It gets the same Exynos 2400 SoC but with a higher 12GB RAM, which is also more than 8GB we had on Galaxy S23+.
As we mentioned in our Galaxy S24 review, Samsung has finally figured out how to tune Exynos for maximum performance as well as efficiency. In over a month of use, the Galaxy S24+ didn’t slow down once, and maintained the same smoothness it had on day one after unboxing. The RAM Management on the device is handled in an optimum manner where most of my apps, including around 10 apps, remained in memory and it didn’t restart when I opened them after a while.
Daily usage is fluid as well as quick, without any frame drops across the user interface which is an issue we have noticed in the past with Exynos-driven Samsung smartphones.
In addition, I never noticed abnormal heating during my use which has also been an issue with former Samsung devices that came with an Exynos processor. It did heat up while gaming heavily but that actually didn’t affect the performance of the games, including GPU-intensive titles like Call of Duty: Mobile which remained consistent with the frame rate. We would also give credit to the increased size of the cooling vapour chamber which helps keep the thermals in check.
The device runs on One UI 6.1 based on Android 14 and is set to receive updates till Android 21 (if that’s what it’ll be called). While that claim seems quite tall, considering Samsung’s track record, we feel the brand will easily be able to achieve it.
One UI 6.1 has been nothing short of impressive so far. The App closing and opening animations are smoother than ever and don’t have a cartoon-ish effect we see on One UI 6.0. A bunch of AI features have been added in the form of Galaxy AI which also serves as the USP of the S24 series devices. Real-time live call translation, generative AI wallpapers, object repositioning in photos, instant slo-mo in videos and a lot more, all of which work well.
While I do not use all of them on a daily basis, some of them such as simple summaries of webpage text in Samsung Internet app and the ability to change tone of your writing or check for grammatical errors in your text right from the Samsung Keyboard are a couple of the features I use the most. The final results from these features are also impressive, because of which I am compelled to use these features more than others.
Another new feature is the Wallpaper AOD which shows you the lock screen wallpaper on the Always-on display as well. This does drain higher battery than the usual black AOD or no AOD at all but it’s worth it, on the basis of splendid it looks when sitting on a table. However, we don’t know how this would affect the screen in the long term, and we hope we don’t see any reports of screen burn-in issues.
For those who measure performance on the basis of benchmarks, the Exynos 2400 beats the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered Galaxy S23 Ultra from last year, by scoring 2031 points in single-core test and 6290 in multi-core test on Geekbench.
Updates should remain consistent as per the brand’s history with its flagships, and we have received the February 2024 security patch in the same month while the March 2024 patch has also begun rolling out in some regions which is again a good sign.
Connectivity performance in terms of 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC remained optimum.
Battery Life
The Galaxy S24+ has a bigger 4900mAh battery over the 4700mAh cell of its predecessor. It is also just 100mAh smaller than the cell being used in Galaxy S24 Ultra. However, the bigger battery on the S24+ now has to handle a QHD+ display which is also brighter. That doesn’t mean the device hesitates in doing so. Paired with the new Exynos chip, the battery performance of the Galaxy S24+ has been stellar.
With the Wallpaper AOD turned on, which itself is a drainer, paired with regular use including scrolling through social media, web browsing, some amount of calling, video streaming, QHD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, I could get around 6.5 to 7 hours of screen-on time with about 24 hours of use.
If you put further load on it, the screen-on time number can come down to 6 hours but again, the battery on the Samsung Galaxy S24+ has been exceptional. It can easily get you through 2 days if you have a lighter use case scenario.
Charging time has been average, thanks to 45W Fast charging support. The device took about 1 hour to charge from 9% to a full 100%. The handset supports wireless charging too, but that’s so slow that you should reserve it for times when you aren’t in a rush.
Cameras
The Galaxy S24+ includes a 50MP primary wide camera with f/1.8 aperture, multi-directional PDAF and OIS. Then there’s a 10MP telephoto sensor with 3x Optical Zoom support, an f/2.4 aperture, OIS, PDAF and a 12MP ultra-wide sensor with an f/2.2 Aperture and 120-degree FoV. Next, it has a 12MP f/2.2 front-facing camera.
As the Sensors remain the same as the Galaxy S24, so does the performance. The photos maintain their usual sharpness and vividness, with well-controlled colors and exposure levels. Dynamic range remains impressive. While the overall output from this sensor is decent, there’s definitely room for improvement, especially when compared to other flagship models like OnePlus 12, Vivo X100, Xiaomi 14 Ultra and others that are making strides in the same space and are even doing better in some areas.
The ultra-wide angle sensor produces decent shots, maintaining consistent color without any noticeable shift from the primary sensor, and the shades exhibit good contrast. However, EDGE distortion could be improved, and there’s room for enhancing the detailing and sharpness.
The third sensor, which is a telephoto sensor delivers ample details at 2x and 3x zoom levels. The HDR effectively handles colours, resulting in visually pleasing photos. Portrait shots exhibit a natural-looking bokeh with precise edge detection.
The 12MP selfie sensor captures decent skin tones and impressive sharpness. While the bokeh effect may vary, the overall selfie appearance is excellent across a range of lighting conditions.
The main sensor excels in detailing and colour reproduction, effectively handling low-light conditions with no noticeable noise in the photos. The results are promising, and the same positive outcome is observed in shots taken under artificial lighting.
Even with night shots, the camera proves reliable, showing no signs of struggle in such conditions. Activating Night mode noticeably enhances exposure levels and increases the photos’ details to some extent.
