Should you wait for Galaxy S24 or buy Galaxy S23 right now?

Every year, Samsung launches its highest-end smartphone model, the Galaxy S series, in the first quarter. It is one of the most popular Android flagship series, often at the top. You get high-end technology packed with stable software and are ensured of a pleasant experience throughout the life of the devices.

The Galaxy S23 series smartphones launched this year seem to have been a hit, mainly because they addressed almost everything wrong with the Galaxy S22 series devices. Although the last generation didn’t receive very big upgrades on paper, Samsung took care of many things under the hood.

We are looking forward to the Galaxy S24 series, which will be launched by Samsung next year around the same time as mentioned earlier. We are about ten months from the launch, yet there is some information about these devices already.

In this post, we will cover everything that has been leaked, confirmed or is in the rumors about the Galaxy S24 series thus far. We will also let you know if you should upgrade to the Galaxy S24 series or stick to the S23.

You can watch our YouTube video for an early overview of the Galaxy S24 Ultra to decide if it is worth waiting for.

Chipset: Exynos making a comeback?

This is probably the most exciting information about the upcoming generation of flagship smartphones from Samsung. Samsung confirms the development of the Exynos 2400, so we may see it powering the Galaxy S24 series. There will most likely be models equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, too.

The Galaxy S23 series comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which has proved to be a massive upgrade over their last generation chipsets. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be even more powerful and efficient, of course, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will hold strong for a while now. So, you will not need to upgrade if you do not care about raw performance too much.

Returning to the Galaxy S24 series, we may expect some regions only to get Exynos variants, while some may get both Exynos and Snapdragon models. To put it simply, Samsung may go back to its old ways.

https://twitter.com/Tech_Reve/status/1652216406480674816

Exynos 2400 will be a flagship chipset by Samsung, based on Samsung’s 4 nm fabrication process. It will consist of a 10-core CPU compared to the supposedly 8-core CPU of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Along with this, the GPU of the Exynos 2400 will be based on RDNA2 architecture developed by AMD. You can read more about the chipset here.

This is an exciting move by Samsung, to say the least, if they pull it off. Exynos chipsets have been a major letdown in recent years, and even Samsung knows it. They did not even launch an Exynos variant of the Galaxy S23 series. So let us hope Samsung manages to fix Exynos this time finally.

Cameras: No hardware upgrades?

If the above does not interest you, this section may. Samsung may stick to the ISOCELL HP2 imaging sensor for the primary camera on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. It is a new 1/1.3-inch 200 MP sensor, and the Galaxy S23 Ultra comes equipped with it.

Samsung changed the primary sensor of their Ultra flagship phone after three generations with the Galaxy S23 Ultra. So, it does not make much sense to assume they will ditch this new sensor in just one year.

Moving on to the lower models of the Galaxy S24 series, the Base and the Plus, they will also likely feature the 50 MP ISOCELL GN3 sensor used for their predecessors, as leaks suggest.

Speaking of the other sensors, we may see a change in the telephoto cameras. Leakers say there would be only one sensor with variable zoom (3 times to 10 times) instead of two separate 3x and 10x telephoto sensors. We may also see variable aperture on the primary sensor.

https://twitter.com/Tech_Reve/status/1647090013329567744

Reportedly, the Galaxy S24 Ultra’a telephoto camera will be capable of delivering 5x optical zoom. This would replace the 10MP telephoto camera (3x optical zoom lens) on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Lastly, the presence of Laser Auto Focus is not confirmed. Samsung may or may not get rid of it.

The rival companies have moved on to 1-inch imaging sensors over the last year, but Samsung is still stuck with a 1/1.3- inch sensor (primary). However, the Galaxy S24 series may still get major enhancements in the camera performance despite having similar hardware as the last generation, mostly due to software improvements, as leaks suggest.

The Galaxy S24 series / S24 Ultra in particular will get massive camera improvement. This will primarily be achieved through improved software.

Test builds on S23 Ultra are promising so far.

Also Z Flip 5 looks quite good in-person, Samsung has a new foldable bestseller..

— Yogesh Brar (@heyitsyogesh) April 25, 2023

In essence, we will likely not be getting any new camera hardware except for the telephoto sensors on the Ultra model. So, even if you are a hardcore smartphone photography enthusiast, the Galaxy S23 series already has a nice set of cameras. Most of the software upgrades that will come with the Galaxy S24 series will also likely come to the Galaxy S23 series sooner or later. Therefore, you will be better off saving when Samsung upgrades the sensors.

Design and Build Quality

Samsung has adopted a unique design language that makes its flagship phones stand out. Going by the rumors, the Base and the Plus models of the Galaxy S24 series would retain the same design as the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus. However, there is no information regarding the design of the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

https://twitter.com/Tech_Reve/status/1653178175860654081

Speaking of build quality, Samsung may use new materials, effectively reducing the overall weight of devices by a slight margin. At least, this is what the rumors say.

As you can see, if you prefer design while upgrading your phones, there will likely not be much to look for in the Galaxy S24 series.

Battery and Charging

Likely, Samsung will stick to the current solution for charging. That means there would be support for a maximum of 45-watt charging on the Ultra model. As last year, there would likely be support for up to 25-watt charging on the Base and the Plus models. This is very slow compared to other brands that have already moved on to much higher charging speeds, some even going as far as 200 watts.

As for the battery capacity, there is no solid information yet. Samsung could stick to the same configuration as the Galaxy S23 series.

However, we do have some other information. Samsung may use a new battery technology for the Galaxy S24 series, providing longer battery life and better battery health.

This section is up to you to decide. The battery technology may be helpful in the long run, and batteries degrade slightly in a year.

Software

Now, let us talk about the software. The Galaxy S24 series will run One UI 6, based on Android 14. Users will likely get new features, security and privacy enhancements, more fluidity, and some tweaks in the design. However, this is not a reason to upgrade since the only perk here is that the Galaxy S24 series will have one extra year of software support over the Galaxy S23 series.

Miscellaneous

The Galaxy S24 Ultra may get an increased bump in the RAM capacity, with up to 16 GB of RAM. The base Galaxy S24 and the Galaxy S24 Plus will also have 12 GB of RAM, per rumors.

https://twitter.com/Tech_Reve/status/1648185226185818113

The minimum storage capacity will be 256 GB, as per reports. If you do a lot of multitasking, and the current RAM and storage configurations are not enough for you, it would be wise to invest in the Galaxy S24 series.

The displays of all three models in the series will likely be upgraded. The Galaxy S24 Ultra may even come with a screen that refreshes itself at 144Hz. Again, it is up to you if you want these minor changes.

There will, of course, be little perks here and there, too, which we will get to know as the launch of the devices gets closer. But they probably will not affect the user experience as much as the aspects mentioned here.

Our Verdict

Based on this information, the Galaxy S24 series seems to have proper upgrades over the Galaxy S23 series in some regards, while in others, it does not.

So, should you switch to the Galaxy S24 series if you are already using one of the devices from the Galaxy S23 series? If you are looking for state-of-the-art technology, you will have to wait for the upcoming generations since the updates on paper do not seem very substantial. The camera hardware, one of the major selling points of the Galaxy S series devices, is almost the same as the last generation.

However, it is still very early to speculate, and waiting for the devices to launch is advisable before making your final decision.

Lastly, it is essential to note that all of the information in this post is based on leaks and rumors, and there has been no official confirmation from Samsung yet. Hence, these are subject to change, and we might see slight differences in the actual devices.