Expected release date and feature wishlist

Update: November 30, 2023 (04:54 PM ET): We have updated the Samsung Galaxy S24 series rumor hub with leaked info related to the amount of RAM in the devices.

Original article: Every year, smartphone fans look forward to Samsung’s latest flagship Android phones. In 2023, those flagships were in the Galaxy S23 series. Next year, however, we expect to see the Samsung Galaxy S24 series. We know it’s months away, but rumors surrounding these phones are already ramping up!

Below, you’ll find all the latest credible rumors surrounding the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus, and Galaxy S24 Ultra. We’ve also included a wishlist, which comprises things we hope to see but don’t have any evidence for yet.

Will there be a Samsung Galaxy S24?

Although nothing is ever certain in the tech world, the likelihood of Samsung launching a Galaxy S24 series is incredibly high. The company has released Samsung Galaxy S phones every single year for the past 13 years. We see no reason why it would stop now.

Of course, Samsung has thrown us curveballs before. In 2020, for example, it switched up the naming strategy for the phones by jumping from the Galaxy S10 straight to the Galaxy S20. The company did this so the name of the phones would line up with the year in which they were launched. However, we don’t have any evidence to suggest Samsung has a change to its naming strategy on the way. As such, we fully expect to see a Galaxy S24 launch in 2024.

• Galaxy S21 launch: January 29, 2021
• Galaxy S22 launch: February 25, 2022
• Galaxy S23 launch: February 1, 2023

Over the past few years, Samsung has launched a new Galaxy S series in the first or second month of the year. You have to go back all the way to the Galaxy S8 to find a launch that didn’t happen in January or February (the Galaxy S8 launched in March 2017). With that in mind, our money is on Samsung launching the Galaxy S24 series within the first few weeks of 2024.

Ice Universe was one of the first to offer a rumor about the release date, suggesting it could launch on January 18 next year. This was further supported by a report claiming that Samsung’s manufacturing partners plan to begin mass production a month earlier than usual.

A report from SBS Biz, on the other hand, claims the launch could happen on January 17. It looks like the outlet may be right on the money, as The Elec reports that Samsung is readying for a January 17 launch for the Galaxy S24 lineup. The November 20 report states that pre-orders could start on January 17, and buyers would probably receive the phones sometime between January 26 and January 30. General sales for the Galaxy S24 series could reportedly begin on January 30.

In the past, Samsung used major tech events to launch its Galaxy S phones, most notably at Mobile World Congress. However, the company has moved away from this and recently created its own events catered explicitly to a Galaxy S launch. We expect the company to do the same thing in 2024. In other words, expect a flashy Samsung-specific launch event with hundreds of people in attendance in some major city.

What features could the Galaxy S24 series have?

As always, rumors about unreleased phones should be viewed skeptically. However, there are certainly a few notable rumors we’ve heard so far, and we can always make some educated guesses based on things Samsung has done in the past.

Ever since the Galaxy S20 series, there have been three models in each Galaxy S family: a standard model, a Plus variant, and the mighty Ultra model. We expect Samsung to continue with this formula in 2024. There will almost certainly be a Samsung Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus, and Galaxy S24 Ultra.

However, there has been a rumor floating around that Samsung could skip the Galaxy S24 Plus. This rumor originated with a relatively unknown leaker and has been shot down by other, more prominent leakers. It doesn’t sound too far-fetched, considering the Plus model is usually the weakest seller in the series. For now, though, we think Samsung will stick with its tried-and-true system of launching three Galaxy S24 devices.

We saw the first renders of the Galaxy S24 Ultra quite early this year. On September 29, 2023, reliable leaker OnLeaks posted some Galaxy S24 Ultra renders in partnership with SmartPrix.

At first glance, it looks like the Galaxy S24 Ultra will look very similar to the Galaxy S23 Ultra. However, there’s one huge change: the display is flat, or at least flatter. It’s a bit difficult to be totally conclusive from these renders, but it looks like Samsung has either removed the curved edges entirely or made them so subtle that they’re barely noticeable.

Sonny Dickson has shared images of dummy units of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and the unit looks quite boxy and sharp.

Unknown X user David Martin posted images purportedly showing a real Galaxy S24 Ultra model. The images largely line up with OnLeaks renders, suggesting a flat display and some sharp edges. We’d take this leak with an entire bag of salt, though, given that the source is an unknown social media user.

Another change that could be coming involves the frame. Samsung used an aluminum frame for the Galaxy S23, but that may not be the case for the Galaxy S24. According to tipster Revegnus, all three models will adopt a titanium frame. This would no doubt be a response to the iPhone 15 Pro models using titanium frames.

A report from The Elec, however, claims the titanium frame will be reserved for the Ultra. But depending on the reception, the titanium frame could find its way to other models in the future.

The dimensions of the device have also shifted slightly. At 162.3 x 79 x 8.7mm, it is a tad shorter than the Galaxy S23 Ultra but also a bit wider. Allegedly, thanks to the rumored titanium frame, the phone could also be 1g lighter than the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which would mean 233g.

It doesn’t look like Samsung will change things up too much in 2024 when it comes to the vanilla model. Renders of the standard Galaxy S24 were leaked by tipster OnLeaks and SmartPrix, showing a Samsung phone similar to the Galaxy S23 with flatter, polished edges. The rear camera cutouts, flat panel, and center-mounted punch-hole also scream the same design language Samsung used on its 2023 Galaxy S series flagships.

We haven’t seen renders yet, but the Galaxy S24 leak gives us the impression that the Galaxy S24 Plus will also look similar to its current counterpart. As mentioned earlier, all three models could end up with a titanium frame.

Sonny Dickson has shared images of dummy units of the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus, and the phones look like they borrowed the design of the iPhone 14 Pro.

We can see the flat side and sharp edges quite clearly in the dummy units. On the iPhone 14 Pro, this type of design gave a solid feeling to the phone but was also criticized for being unergonomic, especially on the larger iPhone 14 Pro Max.

With only about two months to go before the expected launch of these phones, we have a pretty good idea of what to expect. That being said, you should always take rumors with a grain of salt. Regardless, here’s what we’ve heard.

Exynos or Snapdragon processors?

In 2023, Samsung did something it hadn’t done in a long, long time: it released all Galaxy S23 devices with the same chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Previously, there were two types of Galaxy S phones: a Qualcomm Snapdragon model and a Samsung Exynos model. Snapdragon models would usually hit the United States, South Korea, and Singapore, while the rest of the world would see Exynos models. This sounds like it wouldn’t be a big deal, except that Snapdragon models were universally superior to Exynos models.

In 2024, will Samsung stick with this strategy? We hope it will, but evidence suggests it won’t. Initially, we expected Samsung to release all Galaxy S24 models globally with Snapdragon processors. Then, we heard a rumor saying that the vanilla Galaxy S24 would get an Exynos processor globally, but the Plus and Ultra models would have Snapdragon regardless of location.

Another rumor suggests that Samsung might go back to how things were — mostly. According to the Korean outlet The Elec, Samsung could launch the Galaxy S24 series with Exynos processors in all areas except for the US. The only exception would be the Ultra model, which would be all-Snapdragon everywhere.

Thanks to a comment from Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, we now know that the split will happen. The CEO stated during an earnings call that it would have the “majority share” of the Galaxy S24. Unfortunately, there was no clarification on how the split would work.

On October 6, 2023, Samsung officially unveiled the Exynos 2400 chipset. This will undoubtedly be the processor we see in at least some Galaxy S24 phones.

Other Galaxy S24 specs

The 2024 renders we’ve seen show phones that don’t look much different from their 2023 counterparts, but they could jump up to 13th-generation (M13) high-performance OLED panels. These panels are thinner and more power-efficient than the M12 screen on the iPhone 15. Tipster Ice Universe posted apparent S24 Ultra display specs in August. It’s believed that the screen will have the same resolution and aspect ratio but be significantly brighter (2,500 nits versus the S23 Ultra’s 1,750 nits).

A rumor from SamMobile also suggests the S24 series will get M13 OLED panels and 2,500 nits of brightness. The outlet’s rumor also claims these displays may have LTPO for variable refresh rate, and the S24 Plus could be upgraded to QHD+ resolution.

As for other specs of the phones, we don’t see Samsung changing things up significantly. You can go ahead and expect all three Galaxy S24 phones to have the same or better specs as their Galaxy S23 counterparts. One area that might get an upgrade is memory and storage. One rumor from Ice Universe suggests the Galaxy S24 could have 8GB of RAM, while the Galaxy S24 Plus and S24 Ultra could have 8GB or 12GB of RAM, depending on the storage configuration. While this would be the same as last year for the base and Ultra models, the Plus model having a 12GB option would be new.

Meanwhile, Revegnus claimed on X in August that the S24 Ultra could be available with up to 2TB of storage. By contrast, the S23 Ultra tops out at 1TB. However, the leaker also suggested that the base Ultra model could only have 128GB of storage. This would be a major downgrade over the S23 Ultra, which shipped with 256GB of storage at the minimum.

In August, we heard about rumored battery capacities of the three phones. Allegedly, the Galaxy S24 could get a nice increase to a 4,000mAh cell. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 Plus could have the biggest battery of any Plus model at 4,900mAh. Unfortunately, the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s battery would be the same as all other Ultras at 5,000mAh.

However, a rumor that came out in July from RGcloudS on Twitter suggested the S24 Ultra (and possibly the S24 Plus) could get a stacked battery. RGcloudS also claimed the phone(s) could have a charging speed of 65W. But China’s 3C certification website lists the Plus and the Ultra as having 45W charging. The base model will also retain the same charging speed as its predecessor, which comes out to 25W.

So far, the biggest changes we have heard that could possibly come to the Galaxy S24 series surround the cameras. The wildest rumor says that the Galaxy S24 Ultra could upgrade one of its two telephoto lenses, specifically the 3x optical lens. The rumor states that this would then become a 5x lens. However, tipster Revegnus disputed this rumor in June, saying the 3x camera will stay, and the only changes will be an improvement to the 10x sensor.

Leaker Ice Universe has claimed on X that the Galaxy S24 Ultra will swap out the 10MP 10x periscope camera for a 50MP 5x telephoto camera. The tipster asserts that this is a 1/2.52-inch sensor with tiny, 0.7-micron pixels.

We’ve also heard early rumors that the 10x periscope camera could be upgraded to a variable “folded” lens. Theoretically, this lens could deliver lossless zoom at any level from 5x to 10x. Ice Universe also claimed that Samsung will stick with a 10MP 3x telephoto camera for short-range zoom.

Meanwhile, a prominent leaker suggests Samsung has some big upgrades in store for the Galaxy S24 series when it comes to the camera software. Yogesh Brar says these changes will be “massive,” although he wasn’t specific on what those changes might be. Whatever happens, expect them to challenge to be the best camera phones as usual.

One of those massive software upgrades could be the ISOCELL Zoom Anyplace feature Samsung announced in late October. The tech giant claims the feature can simultaneously capture close-ups and full-sized video while using AI to track subjects and stabilize shots. This feature is made specifically for the company’s 200MP sensor.

Prominent outlet GalaxyClub claimed on July 21 that the S24 series will retain the 12MP selfie camera seen on the Galaxy S23 range. The outlet also asserted that Samsung wants to keep the punch-hole cutout as small as possible, suggesting that we shouldn’t expect a larger sensor, either. So the company will need to improve image quality via the processor and software.

Other features

The previously mentioned improved display may be used for Ultra HDR, according to a rumor from Ice Universe. Samsung is allegedly working on bringing support for HDR on all three models of the Galaxy S24.

SamMobile also claims Samsung wants the S24 series to be the “smartest AI smartphones ever.” According to the publication’s unnamed sources, the company may achieve this by taking features from ChatGPT and Google Bard to give users the ability to “create content and stories.” Samsung may also create its own in-house text-to-image AI tool for the phones and enhance Bixby with generative AI to make it smarter and more human-like.

In October, tipster Revegnus claimed that Samsung is considering a subscription service for the Galaxy S24’s AI tools. This would require users to pay to use the Galaxy S24’s arguably key feature.

Revegnus also leaked that Samsung, Qualcomm, and AMD are jointly developing “FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR)” software for Galaxy phones. This technology is similar to NVIDIA’s DLSS in that it uses upscaling and frame generation techniques to boost framerates in supported games. However, unlike DLSS, FSR doesn’t use AI to accomplish these tricks. It’s possible we could see this technology implemented in the S24 series.

Most recently, in November, a rumor appeared suggesting there could be an option for a lock screen shortcut to Instagram. Currently, lock screen shortcuts are mostly reserved for system apps, so this would be a bit of an anomaly.

• Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, S21 Ultra: $799, $999, $1,199
• Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, S22 Ultra: $799, $999, $1,199
• Galaxy S23, S23 Plus, S23 Ultra: $799, $999, $1,199

As you can see from the list above, Samsung hasn’t altered its Galaxy S pricing strategy in the United States for three straight years. However, the same can’t be said for the rest of the world. In fact, this year, the Galaxy S23 series jumped in price in many prominent places, including the UK and most of Europe.

As such, we can only assume price jumps are in the cards for the United States soon. How much of a jump is a mystery, as is whether or not all three models would see an increase or just the Ultra variant.

Of course, we could be pleasantly surprised and see Samsung stick with the same pricing it’s used for the past three cycles. We’ll have a better idea of this as we get closer to 2024 and determine whether or not the Galaxy S23 remains a better buy.

As with most devices, the answer to this question depends on your situation. Based on the leaks and rumors, it sounds like the Galaxy S24 series will have some notable improvements over the previous generation. But will those improvements be enough to justify ditching your current phone for this phone?

If you have a Galaxy S23, it’d probably be better to stick with the phone you have. But if you have a phone older than that, it may be worth it to consider picking this handset up. However, if you need a phone right now, there are plenty of solid alternatives like the just-launched Pixel 8 ($699 at Amazon), the beefier Pixel 8 Pro ($999 at Amazon), or the iPhone 15 Pro Max ($1199 at Amazon).

Samsung Galaxy S24 series: What we want to see

Samsung always brings something new to its latest smartphones. However, sometimes it updates things we don’t care about or doesn’t update the things we want to see fixed. Below, you’ll find three things we hope to see with the Galaxy S24 series. We don’t have any evidence to support these things coming or not, but our hopes are high.

In the United States, the OnePlus 11 charges at a blazing 80W. That’s fast enough to charge from zero to full in under 30 minutes.

We don’t expect Samsung to reach those heights when it comes to charging speeds on the Galaxy S24 series, unfortunately. Despite Samsung’s good work with the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 45W charging, the regular Galaxy S23 is still stuck at 25W. With this in mind, we hope to see some advancements from Samsung in this regard.

Historically, Samsung has been on the slower end when it comes to rolling out increased charging speeds. It’s possible this could be lingering unease related to the debacle surrounding the Galaxy Note 7 series (that phone was at risk of exploding due to faulty batteries). We can’t blame the company for being conservative in response to that, but competitors are really slaying the market when it comes to charging, and Samsung can’t stay stagnant for long.

Thankfully, an early rumor suggests we could see faster charging speeds on the Ultra and possibly the Plus model. This would be nice, but we’d like to see faster speeds on all devices, if possible.

Our friends in Europe and the United Kingdom certainly got some sticker shock this year when Galaxy S23 pricing landed. In Denmark, the top-of-the-line Galaxy S23 Ultra saw a price jump of 3,300 Krone, which is around $480. That’s a significant increase.

In 2024, we hope Samsung can keep this going. The company could get away with increasing the price of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, especially if it significantly improves the camera, as has been rumored. But we hope the base model, the Galaxy S24, stays the same price. That $799 price is the perfect sweet spot for value, and we’d hate for consumers to lose that.