Samsung Galaxy S24 Review: Compact Powerhouse

Launched in late January this year, the Samsung Galaxy S24 is the base model in the flagship S24 series by the South Korean tech giant. It fills the compact flagship segment in the smartphone market and still packs a lot of power and features in its more practical size.

You get the phone, a sim ejector tool, and a Type-C to Type-C charging cable inside the box.

DESIGN

The S24 comes in a compact and small design with an aluminium frame with flat edges and a matte finish, making it feel more elegant in this amber-yellow colour variant. The matte finish extends to the back and is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2 as the display. You’ll notice that the chassis is slightly taller and narrow which I’ve loved. It also sports an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint reader.

The front sports thinner bezels and a fantastic and lovely 6.2-inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED screen with 1Hz-120Hz variable refresh rate, 2600 nits brightness with 1080 by 2340 pixel resolution. This is the best flagship display as it’s bright, crisp, sharp and vivid with colours that pop, and deep rich blacks.

The stereo speakers also sound nice to complete your multimedia experience.

That high brightness means you won’t be squinting your eyes when you’re outdoors. The high refresh rate is handy for smooth animations and smooth transitions between the interface elements, gaming and scrolling social media feeds.

PERFORMANCE

For our market, we get the Exynos 2400 chipset powering the S24 coupled with 8GB onboard RAM and 128GB storage. You also get 8GB of virtual RAM. The phone boots Android 14 and OneUI 6.1.

This combination is still pretty powerful and there’s no stutter when gaming, switching between apps when multitasking, and completing daily tasks like checking email, checking social media, and taking photos and videos.

Games like Call of Duty mobile play well at medium graphics and you can play multiple times while the phone keeps its cool.

OneUI 6.1 is a pretty straightforward interface. The phone is scheduled to get up to 7 years of software support which includes Android OS upgrades and the monthly security patches.

Like the rest of the S24 series, you get Galaxy AI, the company’s AI-powered tools including Live Translate (Call Assist) and Interpreter, Chat Assist, Note Assist, Transcript Assist, Generative Edit and Suggestions(AI-focused editing tricks), AI-powered camera features like SuperHDR, upgraded Nightography, Instant Slow-Mo and Video Stabilization – all accessible by Instagram and Snapchat in-app cameras, AI Wallpapers(with a Galaxy AI icon watermark), and Circle to Search.

My favourite feature that I have been using a lot is the Circle to Search feature. I have been using it to look for recipes after circling a delicious-looking meal on my Instagram feed. I have had fun with the instant slow-mo feature that lets you see how any video you have recorded will look in slow motion. Tapping on the pencil icon below the clip you save the video.

Edit Suggestions has been welcome too as the phone shows you suggested edits for that photo such as improving brightness, and colours, removing shadows or reflections and adding background blur.

Another feature is the generative edit which allows you to move, erase or resize objects in photos. This allows you to make photo edits while on the go without needing extra apps for that.

Chat assist on the Samsung keyboard has been really helpful as it analyzes a message to change its tone to be more casual or professional.

CAMERAS

The S24 has a 50MP main camera, 10MP telephoto with 3X optical zoom, 12MP ultrawide and a 12MP selfie camera. The primary camera and the telephoto have OIS support. The rear camera can shoot up to 8K video while the front shoots 4K video.

The photos look great minus the overly saturated tone of previous models, the telephoto lens and the ultrawide deliver just as good keeping the same colours. The selfie camera is great with its portraits even in low light.

Overall, the photos and videos are sharp, colourful, well detailed even in challenging lighting scenarios.

This is a powerful photography beast in a compact form factor.

BATTERY

Powering the phone is a 4000mAh battery which is 100mAh bigger than the S23 battery. The adpative refresh rate of the phone, the more efficient Exynos and the relatively larger capacity means the phone can pull a day of mixed use which is phenomenal.

When it comes to charging, you get 25W wired charging, 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging. 15 minutes will get to 30%, 30 minutes to 60% and in an hour and fifteen minutes to full charge.

VERDICT

The S24 has a refined, premium and more polished design which makes the phone feel nice in the hand. You also get a vibrant and excellent screen. It’s a compact powerhouse with the top-tier hardware and software including Galaxy AI packed inside and the battery life is impressive too. All these features make it a superb phone worth purchasing.