Samsung has unveiled its 2024 flagship smartphone range with the launch of the Galaxy S24, S24+, and S24 Ultra.

With the devices arriving in stores in South Africa in February, here’s what you should know about the features of the phones and local prices.

The focus on Galaxy AI

Rather than focusing on hardware updates, the launch centered on AI features that are coming to the S24 series — making this a software-centric launch.

Samsung even announced longer software and OS support for owners of the new S24 series. The phones now come with 7 years of security upgrades and 7 generations of OS upgrades. This is an expansion from the previous 4 years of upgrades.

The company also announced AI features such as Note Assist in Samsung Notes, Transcript Assist, Live Translate, and Circle to Search.

Circle to Search allows you to hold in the home button on your device to circle or scribble over an item in a video, image, or website that you want to find out more about. 

While announced at the Samsung event, the Circle to Search feature will not be a Samsung-exclusive and the launch on 31 January will start with the Pixel 8, the Pixel 8 Pro, and the new Samsung Galaxy S24 series.

There are also AI features for images and videos, such as the ability to move an object in a photo and the ability to generate a slow-motion video from a regular recording by generating additional frames.

According to Google, some of these features are a result of a partnership between Google Cloud and Samsung.

“On the new Galaxy S24 series, Samsung’s Notes, Voice Recorder and Keyboard apps will use Gemini Pro to deliver better summarization features,” the company says.

Some image AI will be powered by Google’s Imagen 2. In addition to this, on-device AI will be powered by Google’s Gemini Nano, which is built into the new S24 range.

According to Samsung, “Samsung will be the first Google Cloud partner to deploy Gemini Pro and Imagen 2 on Vertex AI via the cloud to their smartphone devices”.

So while AI is a large part of the identity of Samsung’s new devices, the partnership with Google means that we will likely see similar features result from partnerships between Google and other Android manufacturers.

But these AI features will likely appeal to those who don’t want to wait for other partnerships to manifest. Furthermore, Samsung’s ProVision engine delivers AI to its camera to enhance photos and videos.

But what about the hardware side? What’s new in the Galaxy S24 range?

Galaxy S24 Ultra features

As usual, the Ultra is the headline device for Samsung. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, an update from last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy.

One of the few design changes on the S24 Ultra is the inclusion of a flat display, instead of the usual curved display.

The display also supports a higher peak brightness of 2,600 nits. However, in terms of its size and resolution, it is similar to the S23 Ultra display.

This includes its 6.8-inch size, QHD+ resolution, AMOLED 2X display technology, and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz.

Besides ditching the curved edges, the display is also supposedly more durable thanks to its use of Corning Gorilla Armor

The S24 Ultra is also the first Galaxy phone to include a titanium frame. The introduction of a titanium frame comes after Apple introduced the material to its iPhone 15 Pro devices.

According to Samsung, the titanium frame will improve device durability and longevity.

Another change in the S24 Ultra is the introduction of a 50MP telephoto lens with 5x zoom. This means the loss of the 10x zoom enabled by the S23 Ultra’s 10MP telephoto lens. However, according to Samsung, the new lens can still provide “optical quality zoom” at 10x zoom.

During the launch stream, Samsung explained this as a result of cropping done by the camera.

As the video states: “The Galaxy S24 Ultra captures 50MP images with the new 5x optical zoom lens, then crops the center of the screen to create an impeccable 12MP image with no loss in image quality”.

However, whether this translates to a superior 10x zoom experience remains to be seen by hands-on reviews.

You can see a summary of the S24 Ultra’s specs below:

• Display: 6.8-inch QHD+ curved AMOLED 2X display with 120Hz refresh rate
• Processor: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy
• Main camera: 200MP wide-angle lens + 50MP (5x optical zoom) + 12MP ultra-wide angle lens + 10MP telephoto camera (3x optical zoom)
• Selfie camera: 12MP
• Battery: 5000mAh
• RAM: 12GB
• On-board storage: 256GB / 512GB / 1TB

Galaxy S24 and S24+ features

So what about the other two entries in the S24 series: the standard S24 and S24+?

They will also benefit from AI features and have undergone a few design tweaks. Changes include slightly larger displays and slightly larger batteries, but the phones also will feature Exynos 2400 processors in markets outside the US.

Due to the performance gap seen between previous generations of Snapdragon and Exynos chipsets, customers may not be too pleased to see this change. But again, hands-on tests will be the real decider of whether the new Exynos chipset still lags behind its competition.

While many specs are still the same, the S24+ gets a boost for its display with a new QHD+ resolution (whereas the S23+ has a FHD+ resolution). The S24+ also has more RAM than its predecessor.

You can see a summary of the Galaxy S24 smartphone specs below:

• Display: 6.2-inch FHD+ AMOLED 2X display with 120Hz refresh rate
• Processor: Exynos 2400
• Main camera: 12MP ultrawide lens + 50MP wide lens + 10MP telephoto lens
• Selfie camera: 12MP
• Battery: 4000mAh
• RAM: 8GB
• On-board storage: 128GB / 256GB / 512GB

You can see a summary of the Galaxy S24+ specs below:

• Display: 6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED 2X display with 120Hz refresh rate
• Processor: Exynos 2400
• Main camera: 12MP ultrawide lens + 50MP wide lens + 10MP telephoto lens
• Selfie camera: 12MP
• Battery: 4900mAh
• RAM: 12GB
• On-board storage: 256GB / 512GB

Samsung Galaxy S24 series price in South Africa

So what will South Africans be paying for the new devices?

The Galaxy S24 Ultra has a recommended retail price of R32,499 in South Africa. The S24 will have a price of R22,499, while the S24+ will have a price of R25,999.

The devices arrive in local stores on Friday, 14 February.

To see how this compares to the S23 range, check out my article on the launch of the Galaxy S23 range in South Africa.

_{Image credits: Samsung}