This is the Samsung Galaxy S24, and I will start by saying that I was not initially planning to do a video for this since the highlight of the S24 series has always been the plus or the Ultra, and after using it for a month as my daily smartphone, I honestly was not prepared for this.
First off, for context, the variant that I have been using is the base 8GB of RAM with 256GB of storage, which currently starts at RM4,099 here in Malaysia or about USD856 and the color that I went with is the Amber Yellow, oh and this variant is the Exynos 2400 chipset, so is that a problem, let’s find out shall we?
Design
So, design-wise, the curves and angles of the phone all look and feel great in hand; it is indeed a super refreshing feeling holding a smaller size phone that fits nicely in the pocket, and I found myself taking out the phone to take a quick photo way faster than a bigger sized phone.
And while it’s not a feature, I love how the phone can stand on its own! Yes, the great little things in life, haha
The lovely thing is that it has Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which is surely one of the most durable smartphones for such a compact phone, too, and a matte finish at the back feels premium, and does not attract any fingerprints at all. And yes, like its elder sibling, it is IP68-rated, too.
And while almost nobody talks about it, I love how there is no sort of a camera bump or “island” surrounding the lenses, where it’s just the camera lenses, bam, and that’s it! Which does give a very clean, minimalist look to the phone.
So yes, the S24 not only looks cool but feels good in the hands, and this alone is why I love the phone; if you haven’t held it, go to your nearest store and try it; you’ll love it.
Display
So the 6.2-inch Dynamic 2X AMOLED display is slightly larger than last year’s model and has a smooth 120Hz scrolling that adapts to what you’re doing.
So if you are just reading something or just casually browsing on your feed, the refresh rate will adjust to as low as possible, hence saving battery, and if you are scrolling fast like a TikTok king or queen, then it will adjust the refresh rate accordingly.
The Vivid and Natural mode bug is still here; where in case you didn’t know that it’s a current “issue,” you won’t see a significant difference when changing between the two.
Now, before you judge the phone just based on that, let me ask you this: how often do you change these modes on your phone anyway? For me, the screen looks fantastic out of the box already, and I have been using Samsung phones for more than a decade and have NEVER touched this setting since the phone has one of the best smartphone displays in the market today.
Then, the fully flat display is something that needs to be highlighted not only from a video consumption point of view but also from just using the phone as a phone, especially with the slimmer bezels.
There is this sort of confidence using the phone in one hand; navigating at all of the edges was great, from swiping down to the notification menu or doing any gesture style controls for navigation, since I have switched my menu system to that instead of the virtual menu ever since Samsung introduced that many, many years ago.
The display was still nice and visible even when I was out in bright daylight, taking up to 8k video, with barely any warmth to the phone, and more on the thermal performance later on.
The fingerprint sensor is also worth shouting about because I have never had a single missed unlock ever, and this is also due to the smaller size of the phone once again, so it is in a more natural position.
Cameras
As for the cameras, here is where I feel that the camera’s quality could be the deciding factor for you to consider getting the phone, and even though you are getting a 50MP instead of the massive 200MP camera on the Ultra, I personally feel that the image quality was still extremely amazing.
High Megapixel Mode
So the High Megapixel Mode has five focal lengths, where it essentially crops it from the 50 MP mode, and this would be useful if you want to get the best amount of pixels in every shot; however, keep in mind that you are getting an average of 9 to 16MB per photo for the main lens so use it wisely.
Ultrawide
The ultrawide lenses look amazing, with fantastic dynamic range and no barrel distortion at the sides. They are still one of the best ultrawide lenses on the market today.
Main
And the overall image quality of the main lenses was flawless as seen in these images over here.
Zoom
The optical zoom lenses are up to 3x since there is a dedicated 10MP camera for that.
As for the digital zoom, when it goes beyond the 20x zoom, it locks into the subject way better using the camera’s AI integration, something that only Samsung phones do brilliantly compared to other smartphones.
And the overall image quality was decent during bright daylight, of course.
Portrait Mode
Then, the Portrait Mode has three levels from 1x to 3x.
For objects, it was great to separate between the subject and the background. For more complicated objects, the edge detection can sometimes be a little miss, but the 3x portrait mode seemed to work best from a focal length and edge detection point of view.
But the portrait mode for humans is overall better when it comes to getting the portrait look.
And one thing I have noticed is that the 2x Portrait Mode seems to focus on the background by default compared to the 1x or 3x, so keep in mind that you will need to touch the subject to focus to ensure that this doesn’t happen to you, where you ended up focus at the background instead of the subject, so hopefully a software update could fix that.
Selfie Mode
Selfie shots were superb, as expected, whether or not it’s the regular selfie or the portrait selfie, with impressive dynamic range and the best skin tones as well.
Night Mode (High Megapixel, Ultrawide & Main)
Using the 50MP mode at night won’t bring a huge difference in terms of the overall image quality, so I would recommend just sticking to the night mode instead, where ultrawide lenses did a very good job over here as well.
But of course, since the main lens has a bigger sensor, you will get overall nicer results when using the main lenses.
Night Portrait Mode
Then the portrait mode at night really looked flawless, to my surprise, both for humans and objects as well.
But has a similar focus quirk on the 2x zoom, but once you lock into the focus, it performs exceptionally well.
And while the 2x zoom images looked great, you will start to see a little noise when you switch to 3x zoom images.
Night Selfie Mode
Another surprise was the night selfie mode, where not only the regular and portrait mode did an amazing job too and while there is a Night Mode for this selfie mode, I personally dont prefer the images over here since it has a little of an HDR effect, that brings out a little of different look to my white shirt and my skin tones too.
Video Rear
[Sample video footages available on my YouTube video]
A lovely treat on the S24 is the 8k 30 fps recording, which is great not only from the quality perspective but it is also at the “right” frame rate of 30 fps instead of some other smartphones, which goes to only up to 24 fps
Image Stabilization is heavily improved too, which means that not only do you get a very high-quality video but very stable footages as well,l and knowing that the fact that this small-sized phone is an 8k beast, it really shows the capabilities of the phone as you will be getting some great results at night as well.
And, of course, the 4k video footage for the ultrawide lenses, the main lens, was amazing during the day and at night, and while you can go up to 12x zoom on this 4k mode but, you will see some noise at this high digital zoom, so the max I would recommend to get the best quality is 10x instead.
Oh, speaking of Zoom, there is a little hack whereby if you want to record at a higher zoom level on 8k, you use the 8k and then zoom to what level of shots that you want, but what you can do is to start with 4k at 3x zoom and then switch the resolution at 8k, yes, you are welcome!
Video Front
Then, as for front cameras, during the day, it was amazing, with amazing stabilization, and the same can be said for the front video recording at night as well.
Performance
Performance is key; in short, the Exynos chipset DID NOT disappoint at all; just like how I said in my review of the S23 FE, I don’t get the hate that the chipset gets because, honestly, I had ZERO issues when I was using that phone and even so now with this new Exynos 2400 on the S24.
So there are three main areas where this chipset really showed its capabilities. First is the image processing, as you saw in the photos and videos earlier, so enough said about that.
Number 2 is the thermal performance because the phone stayed cool all the way, whether it was multi-tasking or opening several apps and navigating between them, but where it only became just a bit warm when I was shooting at 8k 30 fps, and that is also because the temperature and the hot sun when I was taking those shots.
Then, the final place where the phone shined was in its gaming performance. I’ve tested Genshin Impact (medium graphics, 60fps, motion blur on) and there was no lag or stutters just a tiny bit of warmth just a little near the camera bump area, during a long gameplay and that’s it
So, is there a problem with the Exynos 2400 chipset? Absolutely NOT, my friend.
Battery
On to the battery, The phone’s 25W fast charging and wireless charging are still in here since the rear is a matte frosted glass, so once again, there is no compromise on that.
Now, I was very skeptical about the 4,000mAh, as that might not be enough to last the day, but the good news is that it did, where I got a total of 7 hours plus when I was at 15% battery with dark mode turned on with heavy gaming and lots of video consuming too
And for longevity purposes, it’s nice that there is a Battery Protection menu to ensure that you never overcharge the phone; I have left mine at Adaptive during my one month’s usage, but when I am traveling, I switch it to basic to get the best amount of battery life possible.
Software
Software-wise, it’s rocking the new One UI 6.1 on top of Android 14, bringing you all the latest features with a promise of long-term support for up to 7 years.
One UI 6.1 is still hands down my favorite Android skin, so I genuinely loved that experience during my one month of use.
And since Samsung DeX is supported here, hence you are getting an even smaller super portable, and versatile device to bring around everywhere.
Conclusion
To wrap up, the Galaxy S24 is a solid choice for anyone looking for a compact, feature-packed flagship smartphone. Give it a bit for the price to settle, and it might be your next phone since it is small yet mighty and because not everybody needs or can afford the Ultra.
But if you are wondering about the Ultra? Check out my in-depth review of that over here: https://youtu.be/VuhS3Pfe9tY
