More than just the middle child

The “Plus” variant, the middle child, the monkey in the middle; the Samsung Galaxy S24+ sits in a weird spot in the series lineup. It’s neither the most powerful nor the most affordable Galaxy phone, so what is it? I was given the opportunity to review the Galaxy S24+ and find an answer to that question.

This phone is rather important to focus on as opposed to the other models because its killer traits aren’t as obvious. The base S24 is the cheapest model. It’s for people who don’t have the money to spend on a more premium phone but still want the most up-to-date Galaxy S experience. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is the most feature-packed and premium phone in the line-up. It’s for people who want the most that their Galaxy phone can possibly provide them.

But, what about the Galaxy S24+? Who is this phone for? Why should you choose this one over the base S24 or the Ultra? Well, there are several answers to those questions. So, let’s go over them and more in this review.

Galaxy S24+ Review: Build quality

This is an area where I didn’t expect any surprises. Samsung, obviously, reserves the highest standard of build quality for its flagship phones, and the Galaxy S24+ is no exception. The build quality of this phone isn’t only high-quality, but it also illustrates how nuanced Samsung’s phones are when it comes to their builds. I previously reviewed the Galaxy S23 FE (Review), and that is a damn good-feeling phone. It’s hefty and sturdy, and it feels like a precision-built work of craftsmanship; the Galaxy S24+ makes the Galaxy S23 FE feel like a toy.

That might be a bit dramatic. At the very least, it makes the Galaxy S23 FE feel like an actual mid-ranger by comparison. That confounded me because the Galaxy S23 FE is a solid brick of glass and metal. There isn’t a single thing about it that feels cheap. However, the Galaxy S24+ feels like it’s more premium in just about every way.

Picking up this phone, it’s unmistakable that I’m picking up a true-to-form flagship phone. Every centimeter of this handset just feels amazing. It strikes a balance of being decently hefty while remaining svelte; a PERFECT balance. It’s heavy enough to drive home the point that it’s premium, but it’s thin enough to not feel clunky. Every time I pick it up, I feel like I’m holding a phone built with a premium feeling in mind.

Aside from the overall feeling in the hand, there are other important aspects of the build quality that I like. The buttons are nice and clicky, which is something that people often overlook. A set of mushy buttons can impact the feeling a bit. Also, I bent the phone slightly a few times (I didn’t go full zack Nelson, don’t worry) and I didn’t hear any creaks or other sounds.

All in all, Samsung has a track record of making some extremely premium-feeling flagship phones, and the Galaxy S24+ continues that tradition. I knew this before I even picked it up. Opening up the box, I said to myself “This is a $1,000 Samsung phone. Of course, it’s going to be well-built!” Yet… I was still blown away when I first picked it up. I’ve reviewed a ton of phones, and this is probably the best-feeling phone out of all of them.

Galaxy S24+ Review: Design

When it comes to the design, there’s not much for me to say. This is the design that we’ve seen with the Galaxy S23 phones last year. In fact, it seems that the majority of Samsung’s phones have taken this aesthetic. The S FE phones adopted it along with the A-series phones. So, there’s not too much to talk about, at least when it comes to more obvious aspects of the design.

Looking at the Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S24+ side-by-side, it’d be tough to tell the difference. They both have notably rounded corners, and they both have their camera lenses jutting from the body individually.

It’s only when you start nitpicking do you see some notable differences. For starters, and this is something that I love about the design, the frame’s edges of the S24+ are flatter. The Galaxy S23’s frame has a slight bulge to it. It doesn’t feel bad at all, but it feels a little bit weird compared to the Galaxy  S24+’s frame. The frame on the Galaxy S24+ makes the phone feel more sleek and professional in a way. It adds to the overall dense feeling that makes the phone feel more premium than the S23.

One thing that I like about the back glass is that it curves inward ever-so-slightly where it meets the frame. It’s one of those details that adds dimension to the design. The frame itself also curves inward where it meets the glass. Aside from being visually appealing, it also helps you while holding the phone. The subtle curves keep the metal and glass from digging into your hand while you’re holding it. It sits comfortably in my hand. This is something I can’t say about the Galaxy S23 FE.

Bezels

Another thing about the design that stuck out to me is how thin the bezels are. So, I’ve always been the person to say “Who cares about bezels? When you’re watching content or gaming, you’re looking at the screen, not the bezels!” But, in comes Samsung to make me change my tune. The Galaxy S24+ is a pretty large phone, it’s a great feeling seeing a screen that comes so close to completely filling out the full front of the display. The bezels are just a few millimeters thinner than what we got with the Galaxy S23 phones if that, and the viewing experience is more immersive.

So, is the design a massive overhaul for the Galaxy S series? No. But, is it a notable change that makes for a subtly new aesthetic? Still no… However, there are a few differences that let us know that Samsung isn’t copying and pasting the same design from last year.

Galaxy S24+ Review: Display

So, this is an area I’m not sure how to tackle. At the time of writing this review, there have been numerous reports pointing to the Galaxy S24 phones’ screens being washed out compared to the S23 phones. This is something I was able to confirm, as it’s even washed out compared to my Galaxy S23 FE. One thing I noted in my Galaxy S23 FE review was that the screen was punchy, but it fell just a hair short in terms of overall saturation, and it’s still punchier than the Galaxy S24+ display.

A Samsung rep said that this was going to be fixed in an update (implying that it’s a bug), and another rep said that it’s intended behavior (implying that it’s not a bug). So, if there’s any solid update on this story, I’ll update this article to say so.

Brightness

When it comes to the brightness, I have no complaints. Samsung has hooked its flagship phones up with exceptionally bright displays since the Galaxy S22, and they’ve been getting brighter. This year, the company gave the S24+ an eye-watering 2,600 nits of brightness, but the numbers don’t really mean much. The important thing is that I can see this screen perfectly in direct sunlight.

I tested the display brightness in several lighting scenarios, and there wasn’t a moment when I had trouble seeing the screen. The Galaxy S22 Ultra was bright enough with its 1,750 peak brightness. This phone’s display is an impressive 32% brighter.

The auto-brightness feature does a great job of choosing the right brightness for each lighting situation. I never felt the need to adjust it to better match the lighting conditions.

Colors

Now, onto the colors. This is a tough one, as I’m looking at the display colors that aren’t as punchy as they could be.

That being said, I acknowledge that the colors are muted compared to past Galaxy phones. However, that’s just comparing them to other Galaxy phones. In general, the display on this phone is still pretty punchy. For me, it falls into the “Responsibly saturated” category. You’re still getting some nice juicy colors. Red flowers still pop, blue skies still punch, green grass is still lush. The colors are still impactful, but they avoid being cartoonish. They come out more natural.

Imagine seeing Times Square in real life instead of on a punchy OLED panel. You’ll see colorful billboards, lighted signs, neon lights, etc. An OLED panel would accentuate those colors to a great and visually appealing effect. However, in real life, the colors are still vivid and saturated. I feel like this is what this display represents. Viewing this display is like viewing Times Square in real life and seeing how naturally saturated everything is. It’s like looking at the world with a little added juice.

Yes, I said added juice; the colors aren’t 100% true to life. While not as saturated as Samsung’s previous displays, they’ve still got some punch. Honestly, I’d compare the colors to that of the display on the Galaxy Tab S9+. This is an LCD display, but it’s still extremely saturated. Yes, it’s behind the curve a bit, but it’s still amazing.

So, all in all, people are saying the display is dull compared to previous Galaxy phones, and it’s true. However, it’s not like you’re going to be seeing colors from a 2015 LCD display. Unless you’re moving right from another Galaxy phone or if you’re going to be holding your Galaxy S24+ side-by-side with another phone constantly, you’re not going to feel a notable valley.

My wishes

Do I wish that there was more color to the display? Honestly, yes. There are scenes in movies (colorful cartoonish and picturesque movies) that I wished just had a little more umph. Maybe the sky could be a little bluer, maybe a flower could be a bit more yellow. However, it didn’t substantially dampen the experience.

Adjustments

The latest version of One UI comes with a couple of ways for you to adjust the screen to tailor it to your experience. There are a fair number of things that you can tweak, but some of them are rendered ineffective because of the display issue (it could be an issue or intended behavior, but for the sake of the article, I’ll just refer to it as the “display issue”). Diving into the display options, you’ll see the Screen mode options that will let you switch the display between Natural and Vivid. There’s basically no difference between the modes because of the display issue.

Under the modes, you’ll see a bar that allows you to change the color temperature of the display. There are five settings that you can choose between very cool and very warm. Tapping the Advanced Settings option will open a section that will let you dial in the RGB values.

Those are the color options, but the adjustments go further than that. This year around, Samsung gave the “Plus” model a more pixel-packed display. The Galaxy S24+ has a 1440p+ display, which is much sharper than the 1080p+ display on the Galaxy S23+. If you want to crank down the resolution, you can change it to either 1080p+ or 720p+. This makes for less sharp visuals, but the battery will last longer.

When it comes to the refresh rate, this display caps out at 120Hz. However, there’s not a mode that keeps it locked at 120Hz. The only mode that gives you 120Hz is the Adaptive mode. In this mode, the software will bump the refresh rate to the full 120Hz based on your usage. There’s also the Standard mode that will knock the refresh rate down to 60Hz.

Galaxy S24+ Review: Speakers

The display and speaker quality of a phone go hand in hand. No matter how gorgeous the display is, if the speakers are low-quality, then you’re going to have a low-quality media consumption experience. This is why you’ll want your phone to have a nice set of speakers.

Samsung typically puts high-quality speakers in its phones, and that goes double for its flagship handsets. While reviewing the speakers on the Galaxy S24+, I can honestly say that I was not surprised with the results. I’ve used some pretty stellar speakers from Samsung devices, and those were more affordable offerings.

To test this phone’s speakers, I listened to a ton of music from different genres along with games, YouTube videos, and podcasts (this was just general use). Also, I used custom audio examples that were designed to stress test certain aspects of the speakers. I’m judging the speakers based on these seven aspects: Loudness, Distortion, Bass, Treble, Balance, Vocals, and Immersion.

Loudness

You, obviously, want to be able to hear your speakers in loud environments. In terms of raw loudness, I think that these speakers could be louder. At full volume, I could hear the speakers comfortably across my room, and I could also hear them pretty well across the living room. They’re perfect for most indoor scenarios. Taking these speakers outside, however, I started to hear these speakers’ limitations.

Distortion

I feel like the loudness was dampened a bit to cut down on the distortion, and it worked for the most part. Listening to music at full volume, I heard a little bit of distortion, but nothing close to most other phones. I’d give up a little bit of volume for less distortion.

Bass

One of the main things that make a quality pair of smartphone speakers is the bass performance. Since smartphone speakers are smaller, it’s harder for them to produce lower tones. However, there are stand-out phones that do a great job of bringing the bass. The Galaxy S24+ is one of them.

When it comes to producing lower tones, the Galaxy S24+ is one of the best phones I’ve tested. I listened to all kinds of music, watched movies, and played games, and these speakers produced some great low-end audio. The test track I listened to accented the lower instruments like double bass, tubas, bass clarinets, bassoons, and contrabassoons. I could hear the low growl of these instruments along with the grit and texture of their sound.

Treble

The treble is one of the things that companies don’t really focus on sometimes. Having good treble means that the higher tones come through crisp and clear. I think that the Galaxy S24+’s speakers do a good job of producing higher tones, though they could be better. I feel like the sound is definitely geared towards a lower and warmer sound, and the treble does suffer a little bit.

Balance

Being able to produce high and low tones is important, but it’s also important to balance these sounds. This helps them create an immersive sound. You don’t want the bass overpowering the treble or vice versa.

When it comes to overall balance, I think that the sound is pretty balanced with a little bit of emphasis on the low-end. It doesn’t overpower the treble, as I can hear some nice treble as well.

Vocals

You’re likely going to be using these speakers to listen to songs with singers. The voices are very important to the overall sound. There are some phone speakers that fall short in the vocals department, and this means that the singers’ voice just blends in with the rest of the music. The vocals sound beautiful while listening to the Galaxy S24+’s speakers. They project perfectly.

Immersion

Immersion is an obvious one. You want your sound to be full and captivating. I think that overall, the speakers give me some wide and immersive audio. All of the audio coming from the speakers sounds amazing and immersive.

Overall

Samsung pretty much checked all of the boxes when it comes to making a great set of speakers. While just a tad quiet, they produce an absolutely beautiful sound, and I loved using them to consume all sorts of media using them. Honestly, these are some of the best speakers that you can get on a smartphone nowadays.

Galaxy S24+ Review: Performance

Performance is another area where I knew that this phone would excel. It’s a Samsung flagship packing the latest Snapdragon chip, so it’s a no-brainer. I’ve been both testing this phone and using it as my daily driver (I instantly popped my T-Mobile SIM into it). At no point throughout my testing, did I see this phone slow down. Every app opens swiftly with a perfectly smooth animation, I’m able to navigate through every menu fluidly, and using the interface is perfectly smooth.

Everything just functions; from the moment I unlock it to the moment I slip it into my pocket, I feel like I’m using a phone with performance as premium as its hardware.

As for the fingerprint scanner, this phone uses an under-display fingerprint scanner, I have no complaints in that department. It reads my fingerprint perfectly almost 100% of the time.

So, overall, day-to-day performance is perfectly smooth. I did use the phone after it’s been heated up a bit from some intense gaming, and it still didn’t want to slow down.

Benchmarks

As we know, benchmarks are not a definitive measure of a phone’s day-to-day performance. However, just for reference, I’m going to throw a few scores at you in case you keep up with them. At Android Headlines, we have a few tests that we put our phones through.

Firstly, the typical benchmarks. Using Geekbench this phone scored 2235 for the single-core score, a 6778 for the multi-core score, and a 15055 for the GPU score. We also used 3DMark. Using this program, this phone got a Best loop score of 4862, a Lowest loop score of 2547, and a Stability score of 52.4%. As another test of the performance. We tested rendering a short 1-minute video using CapCut. rendering it only took 6.94 seconds.

 

Galaxy S24+ Review: Gaming

Most people who pick up the phone are going to be doing some serious gaming on it. Samsung’s flagship phones are typically made for gaming, and the Galaxy S24+ is no exception. I didn’t expect this phone to have any issues with playing games, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Right off the bat, this game crushes any 2D game that you’ll throw at it. It doesn’t matter how many sprites are on the screen or how many animations are playing. The Galaxy S24+ didn’t hiccup or skip a beat at all. We’re talking about Qualcomm’s most powerful chip on the market with Samsung’s OneUI. Playing 2D games is a breeze.

But what about the big fish? What about games like Genshin Impact, one of the prettiest games on the market now? The story is much the same. I started up the game and was met with a buttery-smooth gameplay experience. I went into the settings and maxed out the graphics. Everything was turned to its highest setting with anti-aliasing and motion blur turned on. Also, I set the peak frame rate to 60FPS. This phone did not skip a beat at all. I ran through the world, battled enemies, glid throughout the land, and had a consistent frame rate.

The same thing went for Honkai Star Rail. This is also a game that’s super pretty, rife with animations, and chock full of effects that would slow down weaker chips. While playing this game, I think I only noticed one dropped frame during an intense attack animation, but that was barely noticeable. The Galaxy S24+ conquered these games without breaking a sweat.

But… I had to heat things up

You can’t call it a gaming review without pushing the phone to its absolute limits. I had to work hard to get this phone to slow down, and I managed to. To do so, I played the games while I had a video playing in PiP mode WHILE screen recording. You can see it in the tweet below.

Really pushing the Galaxy S24+ to its limits.

Testing playing games while watching a video WHILE screen recording. It’s the only way I was able to get it to drop any frames.

Amazing performance throughout with the occasional dropped frames. pic.twitter.com/8PqLURXh7D

— Arthur Lee Brown (@ArthurBrown91) February 2, 2024

In case you’re wondering, yes, the screams of pain that my Galaxy S24+ uttered will haunt my dreams. However, it was for a good cause. It’s to show just how far you have to go to push this phone to its limits. You’re not likely to be playing a game while watching a video and recording it at the same time, so you can rest assured that you’ll get some powerful gaming performance from this phone with standard use.

Galaxy S24+ Review: Heat performance

This is a phone for power users, and power users tend to run their phones into the ground. This causes them to heat up a fair bit. With typical use, this phone remained cool. It wasn’t until I started gaming did I start to feel it heat up. During my review of the Galaxy S23 FE, I noted that it heated up immensely while gaming. It heated up quickly and to a high temperature. It got uncomfortable to hold after just about 20 minutes of gaming.

I’m happy to say that things are different with the Galaxy S24+. Your typical side-scroller won’t heat up the phone, but intense games like Genchin Impact will definitely cause it to heat up faster. Playing this game non-stop, it started to get warm, but it never felt uncomfortable. So, you won’t have any issues with gaming on the Galaxy S24+ for extended periods of time.

Galaxy S24+ Review: Battery

I never really used a modern Samsung phone with a bad battery life. The Galaxy S23 FE gave me some really good battery life, and I was expecting similar results with the Galaxy S24+. However, my expectations were exceeded. The battery life on this phone was exceptional. I used it as my daily driver before I formally stopped and tested the battery, and it didn’t touch the charger often.

During my casual usage, I was able to go a two-day stretch with moderate to light usage. When I cranked my usage up during testing, I still managed to get north of a day of battery life. This included a fair amount of gaming, testing the camera, and watching a bunch of content.

As for the official test, I charged the phone to 100% and streamed an extremely long video. The point was to time how long it took the battery to run dry. Well, it took the video 20 hours and 11 minutes to kill the battery. Compared to other notable flagship phones out now, that’s definitely above average. It’s just short of the iPhone 15 Pro Max which lasted 21 hours and 35 minutes.

Galaxy S24+ Review: Camera

As you can guess, the camera is a pretty major part of this phone’s experience. I tested this camera knowing that it was going to provide a pretty powerful experience, and I was not disappointed; however, there was one area where I was a bit disappointed. I’ll get to that.

Interface

Camera interfaces have pretty much converged on the formula established by Apple years back. If you’re holding it in portrait mode, you’ll see a toolbar at the top of the screen with your settings, flash control, timer, aspect ratio, resolution, Motion Photo toggle, and filters. At the bottom is where you can switch your modes. They’re all on a horizontally scrolling carousel letting you swipe left or right to switch modes.

What’s neat about the interface is that most of the settings you need to set are easily accessible via the camera’s viewfinder. You don’t have to dive into the settings to adjust the resolution, frame rate, or aspect ratio. These are some of the things we’ll want to change on the fly.

Details

I know that the Galaxy S24+ uses a 50MP camera sensor and bins down to 12MP.  Since the mass majority of people will use it in 12MP mode by default, I’ll be judging the details on this mode, and I’ll talk about the 50MP mode in a separate section.

Using the camera, I’m getting some really nice detailed shots. I have plenty of room to zoom into shots before I start to see destructive pixelization. I was actually pretty surprised by how much detail was retained in the shots. I’d take pictures of flowers, and be able to pick out individual grains of dirt. A good example will be the flower below. Zooming in a bit, I can still make out the fine details of the dirt inside of it. That’s just one example.

I’ll take pictures of far-away objects and still be able to capture some decent details on them as well (this is without using the telephoto camera). Looking at the palm trees, I’m still able to make out intricate details in the leaves.

Taking a wider shot like the one of these rocks below, I’m still able to make out some significant details on the leaves between the rocks. I’m able to see the midrib and veins of the leaves along with details on the rocks.

These are just a few examples of how detailed these pictures can get. Overall, I’m quite impressed with the camera’s performance. It also illustrates the importance of proper camera software to complement the hardware. I’ve reviewed mid-range phones with sensors just as large as this one and larger, and their performance just doesn’t compete with the Galaxy S24+’s. It boils down to the harmony between hardware and software.

Exposure/contrast

When it comes to exposure, the camera does a good job of keeping a well-lit picture without dipping into overexposure. While taking images with the most direct sunlight and reflections, there’s a nice amount of highlights to give the images nuance without looking like the sensor is being overloaded. A good example is below.

The camera also did a nice job of brightening up this black wooden post below. It was able to expose it properly without having parts of it getting too noisy from being under-exposed.

I think that the sensor does a great job when it comes to the contrast. Taking pictures where the sunlight is casting harsh shadows, I was able to get great results. I’d say that the camera does raise the shadows just a tad more than I would like. The shadows in the image below were a bit darker in real life.

However, it’s not bad. I still praise the contrast overall.

Colors

This area is where we need to appreciate a little thing called restraint. We all know Samsung as the company that usually delivers more saturated images. This time around, images are still saturated, but they don’t go overboard. I call them “responsibly saturated.” They’re just punchy enough to please the eyes, but they don’t stray into being cartoonish.

A good example would be this image of the pinkish flower. Most camera sensors would produce results that would burn your eyes with how saturated the colors are. However, Samsung was able to keep the saturation on a leash. The color is kept well in line, but there is still a nice burst to make them stand out.

Another good example is the sky in this image. The stop sign is a bit darker, and the color is kept nicely toned down. However, the sky in the background has a nice punchy blue tone to it. It strikes a nice balance that gives the eyes something nice to look at while remaining reasonable.

50MP mode

So, let’s jump into the high-res mode. This will use the full 50MP of the sensor. This is just over quadruple the resolution of the standard mode. While that’s the case, the results aren’t all that much different. Don’t get me wrong, the images are sharper and I’m able to zoom into them more than with the 12MP mode.

However, the difference isn’t all that significant. You have some additional range to zoom and crop the images but don’t expect to zoom into them 100x. You’ll want to shoot in this mode if you want to zoom in just a bit.

However, the camera does a much better job of capturing and retaining more details than other cameras that I’ve reviewed. There are some phones that produce results that don’t look any different from their standard modes; some of them look worse (calling out the Moto Edge+ 2022). So, the high-res mode on the Galaxy S24+ achieves an actual high-resolution image.

Low-light (No night mode)

When it comes to the low-light performance, this is where I was a bit disappointed. I tested the camera with the night mode turned on and without it. Without the mode turned on, the images were understandably darker with more noise. The issue is that, when I take the images, the camera doesn’t seem to do any processing to reduce the noise and brighten the image. I know that the phone is smart enough to do it. However, the results I get are very noisy and dark.

However, this is only for the extremely dark lighting conditions. When I turned the light up just a bit, the results were, of course, better.

When I moved outside, I was able to get some better results thanks to the additional light sources. One thing that got me about this camera was the excellent dynamic range it was able to achieve. There were good details throughout both the highlights and shadows.

Low light (Night mode)

Using the night mode, I was able to get some additional exposure in the images while sacrificing some details. I think that this camera is a decent overall performer in this area, but it definitely falls behind the kind of performance that you’d get from a Pixel phone.

Overall

I think that the camera is an amazing performer. Undoubtedly, you’re going to get a more powerful experience with the Ultra model, but you’re still getting a great experience with this camera. It creates images that are well-exposed, contrasty, responsibly colorful, and full of detail.

Let’s wrap this up

As I said before, the Galaxy S24+ is in a weird spot in the lineup. Being the one in the middle, it’s not the most of anything. It’s not the most powerful, or feature-packed; that’s the Ultra. It’s not the most affordable or pocketable; that’s the base variant. But, let’s not think about it as the meat of this tech sandwich. Let’s think of this phone as an entity all its own.

The Galaxy S24+ is a well-built, nice-looking, and powerful phone with a beautiful display, a powerful camera, some stellar speakers, and great battery life. It’s a powerful phone with powerful AI technology in the software and seven years of software updates. I enjoyed every moment I spent with this phone, and continue to enjoy it. Immediately before this phone, I was rocking a foldable phone that I loved to death. However, the Galaxy S24+ is so good that I swiftly made it my daily driver. In fact, it brought me over to the Galaxy ecosystem. 

This is a device that works so well. It’s more than just the middle child; it’s not the less premium Ultra or the bigger base Galaxy S24. It’s an experience all its own, and this is why I heavily recommend this device.