Samsung Galaxy S24+ review: bigger is better

Samsung’s Plus variant is the middle child in the Galaxy S lineup that is most likely to be overlooked. For most people, the Galaxy S24+ is just a Galaxy S24 with a bigger display and battery. Most people will pay more and buy the better Galaxy S24 Ultra. However, that’s not all there is to the Galaxy S24+. Yes, it has most of the same specifications as the Galaxy S24, but bigger is better, which I realized after using the Galaxy S24+ for about a week.

Should you consider the Galaxy S24+ instead of the Galaxy S24 or Galaxy S24 Ultra? Know below.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ price in India

Galaxy S24+ is expensive! It is available in two variants in India: 12GB + 256GB option, which is priced at Rs. 99,999, and the 12GB + 512GB variant, which is priced at Rs. 1,09,999.

The Galaxy S24+ supports 45W fast charging but does not include a charger

As for color options, the Galaxy S24+ is available in Cobalt Violet and Onyx Black, but you can also find the phone in exclusive finishes like Sapphire Blue and Jade Green when buying online. We received the Cobalt Violent option with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

The box contains the phone, some paperwork, a SIM ejector tool, and a USB Type-C to Type-C cable.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ 5G review: Design

In terms of design, it’s basically a bigger Galaxy S24 or Galaxy S23/Galaxy S22. The design hasn’t changed over the years, but you get better and stronger materials. Compared to the Galaxy S23+, the new Galaxy S24+ comes with a stronger Armor 2 aluminum frame. Despite the larger footprint than the standard Galaxy S24, the phone is still comfortable to hold in one hand if you have larger hands. It weighs 197 grams but is about the same thickness as the Galaxy S24 at 7.7 mm. The phone feels premium and can take a beating (I didn’t try).

The Galaxy S24+ has an Armor 2 aluminum frame

You get slim display bezels on the front that are uniform all around, which are now thinner than last year. There is a slit at the top for the speaker/earpiece and an in-display ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. The Galaxy S24+ has the same Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection and IP68 rating found in its smaller brother. On the back, there’s the familiar triple-camera system, with each camera housed in a separate metal ring. The LED flash is next to the three vertically placed sensors but is located below the Galaxy S23+.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ review: Specifications and software

When it comes to specifications the only difference between the Galaxy S24+ and the Galaxy S24 is the larger battery. It is equipped with a 4nm Exynos 2400 SoC, paired with an Xclipse 940 GPU, up to 12GB of RAM (up from 8GB on the Galaxy S23+) and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. The phone does not have expandable storage. For communications, you get the usual set of tri-band Wi-Fi 6E, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 LE, a USB Type-C 3.2 port, and GPS satellite support.

Samsung’s ultrasonic fingerprint reader is also reliable, and I honestly think more smartphone brands should use this technology instead of optical sensors. It’s faster and more accurate, and I’ve never faced any issues with it.

Samsung promises seven years of software updates on the Galaxy S24+

The Galaxy S24+ has a 4,900mAh battery, which is significantly larger than the Galaxy S24’s 4,000mAh cell and slightly larger than the older Galaxy S23+’s 4,700mAh unit. However, the phone still only offers 45W fast charging support and 15W wireless charging, which is the same as last year.

What isn’t the same this year is the promised software support, with Samsung now offering 7 years of Android OS and security updates. The Galaxy S24+ runs Android 14-based One UI 6.1 out of the box. You also get features from the new Galaxy AI Suite, which you can read about in our Galaxy S24 review.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ review: Display

Moving towards performance, the Exynos 2400 SoC on the Galaxy S24+ delivers flagship performance in all scenarios. If you look at the benchmark numbers, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be better for a Galaxy SoC, but you won’t notice any difference in day-to-day usage or gaming. I ran some tests on the Galaxy S24+, and its scores were similar to the Galaxy S24. On AnTuTu, the phone scored 1,457,608 points, and on Geekbench, it achieved a single-core score of 1987 and a multi-core score of 6137. The AnTuTu score was slightly lower than the Galaxy S24 score, but the Geekbench score was higher. This is probably because the Plus model offers a larger area for cooling. The results on GFXBench were similar.

The Galaxy S24+ display offers a peak brightness of 2,600nits

Now, let’s talk about the display, this is where you will find the changes. The Galaxy S24+ comes with a slightly larger 6.7-inch display compared to last year’s Galaxy S23+ (6.6-inch). The display also has thin bezels and is a bright LTPO AMOLED 2x panel with 2,600 nits peak brightness and QHD+ resolution. It continues to offer a 120Hz refresh rate. The display is quite bright and can be easily read outdoors.

The phone has a hybrid dual speaker setup, which is loud and provides good bass. Call quality is also excellent.

Gaming on the Galaxy S24+ is a similar experience to gaming on the smaller S24. All games run at their highest settings, and you won’t notice any lag. All you can see is heat. The phone gets a little warm during prolonged gaming. I also found that the phone heated up quickly while running benchmarking tests.

Phone gets hot while charging and playing games

Moving on to battery performance, the phone managed to last 19 hours and 17 minutes in our HD loop test with the screen resolution set to QHD+. A high resolution screen is a battery thief, but you can get better battery life if you lower the resolution. With regular usage, the phone easily lasted more than a day. However, with heavy usage, the phone needs to be charged at the end of the day. It takes about 1 hour 15 minutes to charge the phone if you use a 45W+ charger and a higher-rated cable. The phone comes with a 3A-rated cable that only supports 25W fast charging. I used a 125W charger for charging testing.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ review: Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy S24+ offers the same camera setup as the smaller Galaxy S24, which we have already reviewed. It features a 50-megapixel primary rear camera with OIS, a 10-megapixel telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom, and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide unit with 120-degree FoV. For selfie, it has a 12-megapixel sensor with auto-focus support.

The Galaxy S24+ takes excellent photos in daylight

Honestly, there is no difference in the photo and video performance of both the phones. However, you will notice slightly less saturation and more contrast compared to last year’s Galaxy S23+. Ultra-wide shots are good, but you still don’t get auto-focus, which leads to some blurry shots, especially in low light. Talking about lowlight, night shots from the primary camera are good. Below are some sample shots to assess the performance of the camera.

Main rear camera samples: Top – daylight; Bottom – low light (tap to enlarge)

Ultra-wide camera samples: Top – daylight shot. bottom – low light

3x telephoto samples: Top – daylight. Bottom – low light (tap to enlarge)

You can also visit our Galaxy S24 review for more camera samples.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ review: Verdict

Before I give my final verdict, let’s talk about the alternatives. The OnePlus 12 (Review) is an excellent option, with a larger screen, slightly better cameras, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, larger battery, and faster charging. It is even cheaper than Galaxy S24+. The Google Pixel 8 Pro (Review) will still offer better camera performance, additional AI features, and the same or better software experience. Then again, the Pixel 8 Pro is also cheaper and has a better telephoto camera. You can also switch to the iPhone 15 Plus, which will offer better battery life and performance despite lacking a telephoto camera. Finally, you can also try the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It will offer better performance, same size display, S-Pen support, bigger battery and better cameras. You can probably get this phone for the same price as the Galaxy S24+.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the Galaxy Plus variant is generally ignored by consumers as it only offers a larger screen and battery compared to the smaller S variant. While this may have been the case for the past few years, the Galaxy S24+ changes things. You now get a better, brighter display, better build quality, 12GB of RAM as standard, and seven years of software updates. It is now closer to the Galaxy S24 Ultra in terms of specifications and hence, if you want to save some money and are not particularly interested in the better cameras offered by the Ultra but want a larger display and battery then it is a better buy. Is.