There was no shortage of surprises out of Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event, where the company introduced its new Galaxy S24 lineup to the world. So far, they’re shaping out to be some of the best phones out there — setting the tone for all other flagship releases in 2024. We knew a lot about the Galaxy S24 thanks to the numerous leaks leading up to the event, but there were still things we were expecting that weren’t revealed.
Samsung used its event to show people the power of artificial intelligence in its phones, like how the new Circle to Search feature makes it super convenient to surf for stuff on the devices. There’s also all the AI-assisted sorcery around photo editing with the Galaxy S24 series. And finally, the Galaxy Ring’s teaser at the tail end of the event gives us something to look forward to for later in the year.
But despite all of the announcements, there were still some missing pieces we were hoping to see. Here’s all the Galaxy S24 rumors that didn't happen at Galaxy Unpacked.
144Hz display refresh rate
Very early in the rumor cycle, the Galaxy S24 Ultra was tipped to get a display upgrade with a faster 144Hz refresh rate. That would’ve boosted mobile gaming on the Galaxy S24 Ultra to put it on par with the experience found on some of the best gaming laptops. This would have improved latency ever so slightly, but it ended up not happening. Instead, the Galaxy S24 Ultra features the same adaptive 1-120Hz refresh rate as before.
Which markets are getting Exynos 2400
There was a ton of focus around gaming performance, AI features, and a new cooling system in place with the Galaxy S24 series. However, Samsung didn’t detail the processor in them during Galaxy Unpacked. Even the company’s own infographics shown near the end of the announcement don’t reveal the processors.
We know that the Galaxy S24 Ultra, regardless of the market, is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. For the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, however, it wasn’t clear what markets will end up getting the Exynos 2400. It’s not a problem for the U.S. versions of the phones because they’ll remain Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but it would’ve been nice for Samsung to at least acknowledge what markets could get the the Exynos 2400 and how it will handle all the new AI-powered experiences.
Stacked batteries
The concept of phones implementing stacked batteries isn’t new. In fact, there were rumors that Apple was going to use them with the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max — and we also heard about rumors of it coming to the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Stacked batteries would have allowed for more active materials, resulting in longer battery life for the phone. Due to the increased power efficiency of the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, it may be the main reason why this rumor didn’t end up happening. Additionally, a stacked battery design would have increased the weight of the phone significantly.
Faster charging speeds
One of the biggest expectations around the Galaxy S24 series was for Samsung to boost the charging speeds of its phones. Instead, they remain at 45W wired and 15W wireless charging across all three models. That’s not terrible considering how Samsung rates the S24 Ultra to 65% battery capacity with 30 minutes of charging. But compared to the 80W wired charging speed of the OnePlus 12, Samsung could’ve boosted it by a little — at the very least to distance them from their predecessors.
Variable telephoto camera
Arguably on our wish list of what to get with the Galaxy S24 Ultra, there was a rumor that Samsung was going to adopt a variable telephoto camera with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. It’s not really new considering it first appeared on the Sony Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III back in 2021, but it was tipped that the S24 Ultra would ditch its two separate telephoto cameras and use a variable one instead. One leaker indicated it would be a single 3-10x variable telephoto lens, but Samsung went the usual route of keeping them separate and banking on AI to enhance their performance.
