The brand new display glass had me enamored, and the brand new AI options had me intrigued. I used to be coming off a long run expertise with the ROG Cellphone 8 Professional and wasn’t trying again to grabbing the nice ol’ iPhone. Nah, time to dive again into the S Pen goodness!
By now, you recognize what the Galaxy S24 Extremely is — it’s an enormous telephone with a 6.8-inch AMOLED display, a superpowered Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, an S Pen on the within, slight digital camera upgrades from final 12 months, and a titanium… eh, coating of the body.
Our authentic overview of the Galaxy S24 Extremely focuses on measurements, digital camera exams, benchmarks, and comparisons. However right here… right here, we might be speaking about the way it performs as an precise day-to-day smartphone, organizer, social media instrument, digital camera, leisure machine.
I don’t care that it’s made with titanium
However I like the form
Notably good (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)
Samsung was fast to coat its premium flagship in titanium, not lengthy after Apple launched the titanium-clad iPhone 15 Professional. It’s a skinny movie of the premium steel on prime of the nice previous traditional aluminum body. It does change the texture of the telephone by a bit, however contemplating its back and front are all glass, I wouldn’t say it makes an enormous distinction. Does it add bodily endurance? Possibly a bit, I wouldn’t take a look at it, although.
However that design — Samsung obtained it proper with the Galaxy S23 Extremely, and solely improved upon it since. Right here’s what I imply — the Galaxy Word 20 Extremely, the S21 Extremely, and the S22 Extremely have been all wonderful telephones, proper? I ended up not utilizing any one in every of them due to their delicate sides and slippery again. They simply felt uncomfortable to carry, particularly when wanting to make use of the S Pen. And sure, I rock a telephone both bare or with a skinny case on.
The Galaxy S23 Extremely, with its barely flattened sides and sharp corners, is fairly straightforward to carry. And I’ll be sincere, I’ve had some shut calls when taking it out of my pocket. Nevertheless it supplies loads of grip. And the absolutely flat show has me noting with an S Pen once more — ahh, I missed that.
The display remains to be superior
Half AMOLED, half Gorilla Armor (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)
The brand new Gorilla Glass Armor on the Galaxy S24 Extremely shocked us with its ultra-low reflectivity. It additionally makes the show panel shine higher, even when viewing it in broad daylight. It was a putting impact, instantly seen as quickly as we obtained it on the workplace.
Now, after the honeymoon interval is over, I can reaffirm that — yeah — it’s a small change on paper that does nonetheless ship each day. And I nonetheless love taking a look at that display.
There was a slight difficulty at launch — in the event you activated the Eye Consolation Protect function within the Settings, the S24 Extremely’s colours would get a bit too uninteresting. Samsung admitted that it wants some tuning and, at current, it appears to be mounted. There’s an additional toggle inside the Eye Consolation Protect if you wish to get the washed-out impact, which removes aggressive colours.
Nonetheless, I personally use it with Eye Consolation on and Adaptive Shade Tone on. The telephone adjusts its white steadiness dynamically all through the day, and I’m all the time greeted by heat colours.
And whereas on the subject of the show — the under-screen fingerprint panel is extraordinarily quick. It solely requires a faucet to learn your finger, no want to carry it even. And it really works by means of small particles or moisture, in the event you occur to have one thing in your arms (although, holding it’s a higher possibility in these moments).
The audio is considerably letting me down
Honk, honk (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)
Samsung telephone audio system are nicely above common, however not fairly among the many greatest. The Galaxy S24 Extremely does have a decent quantity of bass, however some musical data is lacking within the mids, and there are some harsh greater mids.
It’s OK. It’s not a Bluetooth speaker. Having simply used the ROG Cellphone 8 Professional prior, I did instantly miss the three.5 mm headphone jack. Sure, I exploit “archaic” tech, however not often complain concerning the jack since… nicely, at this level it is a misplaced combat.
I have to spherical this off by addressing the EQ inside the superior Sound Settings of Samsung telephones. Brief story — don’t use it. Barely longer clarification — in the event you increase a frequency with this EQ specifically, it doesn’t actually increase that. As a substitute, it lowers your general quantity, leaving that frequency intact.
Not precisely on this 1-to-1 method, however there’s undoubtedly one thing funky happening with this EQ, with the way it interacts with compression and ranges. If it’s essential to use it for the audio system, attempt to use the EQ to take away frequencies earlier than fascinated by including. In case you are utilizing it for a pair of headphones — it’s possible you’ll simply destroy their EQ curve, I’d depart it alone. Or, of the headphones in query have their very own app with sound profiles — use that.
It’s a performer, and I’m not even pushing it
Enhancing fast movies, making thumbnails, taking notes — I like working with the Galaxy S24 Extremely. It’s snappy, and it has a function set that makes it simpler for me. I notably like the flexibility to faucet and maintain a topic on a photograph to have it cropped out, then reserve it as a .PNG with a clear background for additional edits (admittedly, this function was launched on the iPhone, and that’s the place I realized to make use of it) — put that in Canva, and I’m able to make a YouTube thumbnail.
For the reason that Galaxy S24 Extremely landed in my arms, it has been in Mild Efficiency Profile mode. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 inside already works laborious sufficient, and pushes the pixels by means of clean animations nicely sufficient. I turned it on to see if I’ll see successful in efficiency, and I didn’t. However the assurance that I could get barely extra battery life out of it, and have it run cooler, felt like a superb tradeoff.
However the battery nonetheless isn’t that nice
The Galaxy S24 Extremely can nonetheless take me by means of a day, I’m not often frightened that I have to discover a energy outlet. That mentioned, I discover myself hitting the below-20% ranges extra typically than I did with the ROG Cellphone, or the iPhone earlier than that.The charging speeds are additionally not super-fast, and I can really feel it. I admit, I’ve been spoiled from reviewing telephones that pull in 70-ish % in about half an hour on the wire. However, usually, I can see how a poweruser can really feel a bit restricted by the battery life on supply right here.
Galaxy AI is right here
And no one cares
AI is an enormous buzzword not too long ago — similar as Machine Studying. What does it imply in sensible phrases? Effectively, the Galaxy S24 Extremely obtained a few social gathering tips.
The Web Browser’s means to summarize lengthy articles is absolutely spectacular and likewise helpful. The Recorder’s transcripts and summarization additionally work reasonably nicely for lengthy, lengthy conferences.
I dive deeper with the present Galaxy AI options — and their usefulness — in a devoted video:
Let’s speak concerning the digital camera
Why did I depart the digital camera for final? I don’t know, perhaps as a result of we already comprehend it’s nice.
Effectively… great-ish.
The Galaxy S24 Extremely had sufficient chops to make it by means of our PhoneArena Digital camera Benchmark with flying colours. And it gave us superb samples on our preliminary run by means of the overview.
Since then, I made it a degree to make use of that digital camera. I went to MWC with it, documenting the product demos with my Galaxy.
Our personal Rad Slavov did the identical — together with his iPhone 15 Professional. And, sorry to say, within the flashy-but-poorly-lit, typically chaotic and barely predictable situations of a showfloor… the iPhone 15 Professional held it collectively extra typically than the Galaxy S24 Extremely did.
The most effective instance I’ve of that is our footage from the Nothing Cellphone (2a) presentation. For the reason that gadget was behind a glass panel, and its Glyph Interface was continually blinking, the Galaxy’s HDR algorithms obtained… confused. I used to be getting an excessive amount of distinction, an excessive amount of oversharpening, or an excessive amount of blur and noise. General, we weren’t anticipating a miracle — however we needed to push the telephones so far as we may. We ended up utilizing the iPhone images for our Nothing Cellphone (2a) announcement article.
Discover how the processing did not know precisely which HDR frames to sew
Now, let me be clear. That’s a freak take a look at. In my day-to-day life, I nonetheless really feel absolutely assured capturing memorabilia with the Galaxy S24 Extremely. And I find yourself with good images with virtually each shutter press. I even use the S24 Extremely as a foundation of comparability when I’m taking a look at one other telephone digital camera’s output. I’ve come to seek out it reliant and predictable for my day-to-day. And, as talked about — I really feel fully comfy and completely satisfied utilizing it for my aspect initiatives. To redeem myself for the aforementioned horrible instance, listed here are some images I’m completely pleased with:
Must you purchase the Galaxy S24 Extremely?
l’ S22 Extremely nonetheless trying sharp (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)
In case you are taking a look at it proper now, cash burning a gap in your pocket, with an previous telephone crashing once more on the desk. Positive, the Galaxy S24 Extremely provides you with wings.
Nonetheless, whereas it’s nicer than the Galaxy S23 Extremely, I wouldn’t say you need to rush an improve. Neither can be in a rush to chuck a Galaxy S22 Extremely within the recycle bin. Samsung’s flagships have simply turn out to be that stable. However hey — good cause to sit up for the Galaxy S25 Extremely subsequent 12 months!
