We wouldn't expect to see the Samsung Galaxy S24 until early next year, but rumors are already popping up for the future flagship phone, which has a high bar to clear thanks to its predecessor.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 series — which includes the Galaxy S23 Plus and Galaxy S23 Ultra — not only features some of the best Samsung phones, but also the best Android phones and best phones overall that we've tested. Still, the Galaxy S24 sounds like it'll improve on these already capable handsets with enhanced performance, better camera hardware and more.
We've rounded up the rumors so far for the Galaxy S24 series below, and we'll keep updating this page as more appear. We've also included the changes we'd like the Galaxy S24 to make from the S23, so if any Samsung engineers are reading, we hope you'll consider our notes.
Samsung Galaxy S24 news (Updated September 25)
- The Galaxy S24 is tipped to launch earlier in what could be Samsung's attempt to steal some thunder from iPhone 15
- The Galaxy S24 Ultra's telephoto camera could get a range downgrade but a resolution upgrade.
- A lot of RAM, but no extra charging speed, could be on the way to the Galaxy S24 series
- The Galaxy S24 Plus' display could get some big updates.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Release date predictions and prices
In all likelihood, the Galaxy S24 series will arrive in January or February of 2024 at a Galaxy Unpacked event. The Galaxy S23 launched on February 1, and a new rumor from @Tech_Reve claims that Samsung may bring the release forward by "around a month" in response to the iPhone 15. That would mean an early January launch event.
It may share the stage with other new Samsung gizmos, like how the Galaxy S23 arrived with the Galaxy Book 3 series this year, but we'd imagine the event would still be focused primarily on the new phones.
Pricing is still a mystery but we'd expect Samsung to keep the phones at their current $799, $999 and $1,199 price points. We hope for this in particular for the U.K. and Australian markets, since the Galaxy S23 was slightly more expensive than the Galaxy S22 at £849/£1,049/£1,249 and AU$1,349/AU$1,649/AU$1,949 respectively.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Design and display
We're presuming Samsung will keep its three-part Galaxy S lineup intact with the Galaxy S24. That would mean the new range would probably consist of a 6.1-inch standard model, a 6.6-inch Galaxy S24 Plus and a 6.8-inch Galaxy S24 Ultra.
It's possible however that the Galaxy S24 Plus will be a touch larger. A 0.05-inch increase may not sound like much, but it could have a big impact on other features too, since a larger display likely means a larger body too.
Leaker Tech_Reve claims that the S24 and S24 Plus will keep the same design as their S23 counterparts. But Samsung has been tweaking the design of its phones slightly each year, which means they may not be identical. What's more, the same source claiming the Galaxy S23 Plus will have a larger screen also thinks the Galaxy S24 Ultra could feature titanium sides, echoing a possible iPhone 15 Pro Max rumor.
We're not sure how the design might evolve for the Galaxy S24 series, but we'd still likely see curved corners and flat sides on the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, with the Galaxy S24 Ultra keeping the spirit of the Galaxy Note alive with curved edges and right-angled corners, plus alleged titanium side rails.
Despite titanium being a heavier metal than the aluminum that Samsung currently uses on its flagship phones, the Galaxy S24 Ultra should be slightly lighter than the Galaxy S23 Ultra, says leaker IceUniverse.
Render artist Technizo Concept has had a go at designing the Galaxy S24 Ultra well in advance of more specific leaks. It resembles the Galaxy S23 Ultra a fair bit, except with a new look for the camera block.
For the displays themselves, we should see AMOLED panels and a 120Hz max refresh rate on all models, but a 48Hz minimum refresh on regular and Plus, while a more efficient 1Hz minimum on the Ultra. However according to Ice Universe, the Galaxy S24 and S24+ could finally get the Ultra treatment and come with LTPO displays, the technology that would enable them to use fully adaptive refresh rates like the Ultra. Meanwhile, we're hearing that the Galaxy S24 Ultra could have an incredibly bright display, potentially as high as 2,800 nits, while the Galaxy S24 Plus could still reach a respectable 2,500 nits.
The Galaxy S24 Plus could also get a bump to a QHD resolution, rather than the Galaxy S23 Plus' FHD resolution. That should make the difference between the Galaxy S24 Plus and the basic Galaxy S24 larger, but the one between the S24 Plus and the Galaxy S24 Ultra considerably smaller.
Samsung could increase screen real estate in another way — multiple leakers tip the Galaxy S24 to feature narrower bezels.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Cameras
There aren't many changes rumored for the standard Galaxy S24 models' cameras yet. The one big rumor that has emerged though claims that we'll see the same 50MP cameras from the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus on the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus. We'd expect the remaining 12MP ultrawide/10MP 3x telephoto/12MP selfie sensors from the S23 models to appear on the equivalent S24 models too, and in fact we've more recently heard that the 12MP selfie camera is indeed sticking around.
We should apparently expect no change from the Galaxy S23 Ultra's 200MP main either, and likely none to the 12MP ultrawide or 12MP selfie cameras. However one rumor claims the Ultra's camera sensor will be 1-inch in size, which would make it one of the largest on the market — and larger than the sensor rumored to be coming to iPhone 15 Pro Max
Something could also be happening to one or both of its 10MP telephoto cameras as part of the Galaxy S24 Ultra upgrade.
The S24 Ultra's telephoto cameras could gain enhanced abilities thanks to a longer zoom, improved optics, a larger sensor and a wider aperture for brighter images, says leaker RGcloudS. That could result in a maximum zoom of up to 150x (currently 100x on the Ultra) and more impressively variable zoom.
A second source backs up the presence of hybrid zoom capable of switching between 3x and 10x optical zoom on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. This would be able to adjust the magnification level of the camera without resorting to cropping pixels, similar to what you get on the Sony Xperia 1 IV.
Whatever changes Samsung ends up making to the Galaxy S24 Ultra, at least one leaker is expecting big things from the telephoto lens. "I have full confidence that the Galaxy S24 Ultra has improved the performance of the 3x camera, which means that the image quality of 3x~10x will bring a significant improvement," IceUniverse tweeted in August, later clarifying that he thinks the boost will come from a new 50MP sensor. Another leaker, Yogesh Brar, expects a 50MP telephoto lens with a 3x zoom to replace the 3X telephoto camera on the S23 Ultra; a second 10MP camera with a 10x zoom would remain. Ice Universe has a different take on this, saying the 50MP camera could be used in a new 5x telephoto camera, with the current 3x telephoto camera staying as it is.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Specs and performance
Not surprisingly, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is tipped to use a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, and we can guess that chipset will also find its way into other Galaxy S24 models as Samsung tends to keep all its flagship phones on the same chips.
According to tech tipster Ice Universe, we can expect the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to offer more power than its predecessor, using a combination of prime, performance and efficiency cores, but still remain just as efficient as the Gen 2. We've had one alleged benchmark appear for this already, showing an increase over the Galaxy S23 but struggling to beat the iPhone 14 Pro or the rumored results of the iPhone 15 Pro.
A separate report says that the Galaxy S24 will get a major graphics boost in the form of a GPU that's as much as 50% faster. This would potentially blow away the iPhone 15 Pro on games and other demanding apps despite the apparent CPU power difference.
It's not clear if the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be used in all Galaxy S24 models as some people believe. Separate reports suggest that Samsung is considering a return to Exynos chipsets for at least some Galaxy S24 models. It's unclear what regions would get which chipset, although it's suggested it could be Europe as used to be the case.
While past Exynos-powered Galaxy S models never lived up to their Snapdragon-powered counterparts, Samsung appears to be working to close that gap. Leaked Geekbench benchmarks indicate the Exynos 2400 posting better multicore results than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and A16 Bionic from Apple.
In a report claiming that Samsung would once again use an optimized version of the Snapdragon chipset as it had with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a leaker claimed that only the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Plus would run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The standard Galaxy S24 would feature an Exynos chipset.
For RAM, it's claimed that the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus will offer 12GB of RAM, instead of the 8GB found in the S23 models. However, it may be that you need to pay up for the more expensive storage variants to get access to the extra RAM. Another leaker has corroborated the RAM increase, while also claiming the S24 Ultra will offer 16GB of RAM.
The same leaker tips the standard Galaxy S24 model to join the Plus and Ultra variants in offering 256GB of storage with the base model. This has been corroborated by other sources, and we hope that claim's true. However we'd like to see leakers with more established track records making that claim before we fully believe it.
Samsung Galaxy S24: Battery life and charging
We've been hearing a few rumors about the Galaxy S24 Ultra and S24 Plus's battery, particularly in terms of a brand new design. Samsung will reportedly used a stacked battery in both phones, which will offer better energy density without increasing in size. According to one report, Samsung could boost its energy density by up to 10%.
Initial rumors claimed that both the 24 Plus and S24 Ultra would retain the same 4,700 mAh and 5,000 mAh as their Galaxy S23 counterparts. However, a report on the bezels surrounding the new phones' displays also contends that the power pack insider the Galaxy S24 Plus could increase to 4,900 mAh.
The new design may also increase the S24 Ultra's charging speed to 65W, up from 45W. But we may not get this after all, as the S24 series has apparently already been certified for use in China, with the documents claiming there will be 25W charging on the base Galaxy S24, and 45W charging on the Plus and Ultra models.
We haven't heard anything about the Galaxy S24, but it stands to reason that we may see the same 3,900 mAh battery for another generation. Whether the charging speed on the S24 and S24 Plus will increase from their current 25W and 45W speeds is still to be revealed.
However, it would be really nice to see faster charging across the board, especially since the iPhone 15 series is finally tipped to offer USB-C.
Samsung Galaxy S24: What we want to see
Faster charging
Samsung's Galaxy S23 models have some of the slowest charging of any new smartphones, even the 45W-compatible models. It's certainly convenient to have the ability to fill your phone up completely in around half an hour, so Samsung could do with taking cues from OnePlus and others to speed up the Galaxy S24's charging rate. Moving to 60W would be a great start.
Price freeze
This one's for the British, Australian and other users who had to pay a bit more for the Galaxy S23 series than they would have for previous Samsung flagships. Keeping the cost of its phones steady for at least another year or two would be most welcome for keeping the best tech within the range of more budgets. It'll also stop Samsung from driving users towards cheaper alternative phones like OnePlus or Google Pixels.
More RAM/storage
The default storage and RAM on the Galaxy S23 is some of the stingiest you'll find on a flagship phone. Even if the default stays that low for price accessibility reasons, the ability to spec more RAM on a standard Galaxy S24 would be good for users who prefer the smaller size but want the extra storage capacity for apps, photos and videos, or the additional RAM for improved app multitasking.
S Pen upgrades
Other than decreasing its latency, Samsung's not done much to update the S Pen stylus that now comes by default with the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Some new tricks, be they more Air Actions or cross-device compatibility like you get with the S Pen Pro, would help add more value to an area that Samsung's rivals have all but neglected on their phones.
Optional One UI
This is perhaps the most unlikely of all, and it's a request that won't be handy for everyone. But for users who want a "purer" Android experience, some method of turning off the One UI-based tweaks to basic Android would go a long way to make Samsung's flagship phones more enthusiast-friendly.
