I’m a big fan of compact smartphones with powerful internals and cameras. However, it’s rare to see such phones these days. Cue the Samsung Galaxy S24, which keeps the tradition alive among other similarly sized phones such as the iPhone 15 and the Google Pixel 8. My first tryst with a compact smartphone was when I purchased the Sony Xperia Z Compact, and what a wonderful phone that was. The Galaxy S24 offers the same chipset and rear camera setup as the Galaxy S24+ but comes in a smaller package that can be used one-handed.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Price in India
Could the Samsung Galaxy S24 be the best compact smartphone of 2024? Let’s find out.
Before we discuss the phone, let’s talk about its pricing. The Galaxy S24’s price in India starts at Rs. 79,999 for the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage variant, whereas if you want 512GB storage, you’ll have to shell out Rs. 89,999. It’s a bit disappointing that Samsung still does not offer a higher RAM variant. So power users will have to settle for 8GB RAM despite shelling out close to Rs. 90,000.
The phone comes in Amber Yellow (the one we’re reviewing), Cobalt Violet, and Onyx Black. If you purchase it from Samsung’s online store, you can also get it in Sapphire Blue and Jade Green. After you’ve purchased the Galaxy S24, you’ll find that there’s not much available in the box. You get the phone, a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, some paperwork, and the SIM ejector tool.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Review: Design
If you own a Galaxy S23, then you can fool your friends into thinking that you have the latest Galaxy S24. In terms of design, there’s hardly any difference between the two. They look and feel the same, and you get the same aluminum glass sandwich. The rear glass panel uses Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The phone feels quite solid in terms of build quality.
It weighs 167 grams, and the flat sides make it easy to grip. The overall compact form factor also makes the Galaxy S24 an amazing device for one-handed use. This time around, the aluminum frame has a slight curvature, so it won’t poke into your hands around the edges and rounded corners. The back panel houses three separate rings for the triple cameras, and there’s also a flash module in a smaller circle placed next to the cameras.
On the front, the display features slim uniform bezels all around and a hole-punch cutout at the top center for the front camera. The display is slightly bigger than last year’s model, but Samsung has managed to keep the dimensions pretty much the same. The Galaxy S24 is also IP68-certified for dust and water resistance. The panel is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2. Apart from a slightly bigger panel and a higher screen-to-body ratio, the Galaxy S24 once again looks very similar to the Galaxy S23.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Review: Specifications and Software
As for specifications, we have something quite interesting under the hood this year. Samsung bravely opted for its silicon, with the Exynos 2400 SoC, which is paired with its Xclipse 940 GPU. After several years of working with Qualcomm silicone, we don’t think it is a good idea. But this is better explained in the performance section of this review. The chipset is paired with up to 8GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
The handset has a dual nano-SIM slot that supports dual 5G standby. It gets a USB Type-C port at the bottom, along with a speaker, microphone, and SIM card slot. Samsung has arranged both power and volume buttons on the left frame of the handset. For communication, the Samsung Galaxy S24 comes with dual-band Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3 with LE, GPS (Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS), and NFC.
Samsung continues to use an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner on its flagship phones, and more companies should do this. The scanner is placed under the display, is easily reachable, super fast, and works flawlessly every time.
You get a 4,000mAh battery on the Samsung Galaxy S24, which is smaller than the competition. However, it is slightly bigger than its predecessor. The phone supports 25W wired fast charging, 15W wireless, and 4.5W reverse charging.
In terms of software, the Samsung Galaxy S24 runs Android 14-based OneUI 6.1 out of the box. Samsung has done a Google and promised seven years of Android OS updates and security patches. Since AI is the new buzzword in the industry, Samsung has also included several useful AI features.
The South Korean manufacturer is calling it Galaxy AI, and it helps you do things such as remove objects from images, create wallpapers, transcribe phone calls, live translate, and more. However, most of the AI features are only free until the end of 2025, and that’s a real bummer.
We tried the new Galaxy AI features, which are the highlight of the new Samsung Galaxy S24 phone lineup, and they work quite well. Some of the features, such as the AI photo editor, reminded us of the AI on the Google Pixel 8 series. The AI photo editor can remove, move, and resize objects and people in a photo. This does require a Samsung account login and an active internet connection.
Another interesting AI feature is Circle to Search with Google, which lets you simply circle anything on the screen and search for it. This feature is also available on the latest Google Pixel phones. The real-time phone translation and the Interpreter mode that gives you a live translation of conversations in text or voice output works only with the Samsung Phone app. We tried this feature, and it worked well. At the moment, Live Translate only works with a select number of languages. The Generative AI wallpapers are also fun, but you can only create a limited number of wallpapers with the inputs available.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Review: Performance
Coming to the phone’s performance, you can expect the Samsung Galaxy S24 to run any task with ease. Yes, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset would’ve performed better, but the Exynos 2400 is no slouch. We ran AnTuTu, Geekbench 6, 3D Mark, and GFXBench benchmarks on the smartphone, and the results were interesting.
On AnTuTu, the Galaxy S24 scored 1,480,582 points, which isn’t bad, but if you’re all about numbers, then this isn’t that great either. For example, the Xiaomi 14 scored 1,973,937 points, the OnePlus 12 managed 1,629,220, and the Vivo X100 Pro powered its way to 2,020,631 points. The same was the case when we compared Geekbench 6 and 3D Mark scores. In GFXBench, the Galaxy S24 managed 119 fps on Manhattan 3.1 and T-Rex tests, which is only a few points lower than the Xiaomi 14’s 121 fps.
Moving to game performance, we were able to play BGMI and Asphalt 9: Legends at the highest settings without any drop in frame rate, even after 30 minutes of gameplay. However, during longer gaming sessions, we did see a small drop in the frame rate as the phone started throttling to keep the temperatures at bay. During shorter gaming sessions, the phone only got warm to the touch. Gaming on the Samsung Galaxy S24 is a fun affair thanks to the excellent display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 240Hz touch sampling rate, the capable chipset, and good sound.
Talking about sound, the hybrid stereo speakers on the Samsung Galaxy S24 are quite good. They offer good separation, are clear, and also have some bass. Call quality is also great on the handset.
Moving on to the display, the Samsung Galaxy S24 has a 6.2-inch LTPO AMOLED 2X panel that offers an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate and 2,600 nits of peak brightness. It offers 50 percent higher brightness and has excellent readability under direct sunlight. There’s also an Extra brightness mode for when you’re outdoors.
The panel offers Vivid and Natural color modes, but there’s also an Adaptive color tone that adjusts colors and white balance based on ambient light conditions. Display viewing angles, contrast, and colors are excellent, and it’s one of the best panels on a compact-sized phone. You’ll love watching videos and playing games on the Galaxy S24.
Overall, we’d say that the Samsung Galaxy S24 offers excellent flagship-level performance. We didn’t face any kind of major heating issues, slowing down, or lag during heavy and regular usage. The 4,000mAh battery also held up quite well and lasted almost 24 hours on most days with some gaming, camera use, watching YouTube, texting, GPS, and calling. The phone took about an hour and 20 minutes to fully charge using a 20W adapter that we had lying around. Samsung should start offering faster charging support on their flagship phones as the 25W wired and 15W wireless charging speeds fall short of the competition.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Review: Cameras
Samsung has been using good camera hardware on its Galaxy S series phones, and they deliver excellent photos and videos, but with the saturation toggle dialed up a notch.
