At the absolute earliest, we're five months away from the Samsung Galaxy S24 launch. Yet, one leaker is so confident about Samsung's plans for next year's flagships, they're already posting specs for the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Normally, we'd be more skeptical about leaked specs posted this far ahead of time — a lot can change between now and early 2024 when the Galaxy S24 is likely to debut. But the leaker, Yogesh Brar, has a pretty good track record when it comes to unannounced Samsung details. And the posted specs for the Galaxy S24 Ultra match a lot of what we've been hearing from earlier rumors about the high-end Samsung flagship.
Brar's tweet tackles three areas — the camera, the silicon and the battery size and charging speed expected for the Galaxy S24 Ultra. And like we said, there's no real surprises here if you've been following early Galaxy S24 rumors.
Samsung Galaxy S24 UltraRear Cam: 200MP + 12MP (UW) + 50MP (tele) + 10MP (periscope)Selfie: 12MPBattery: 5,000mAh, 45W chargingSoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 / Exynos 2400August 16, 2023
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra cameras
The leaked camera specs are probably the most encouraging. While Brar isn't expecting changes from the 200MP main lens that was a highlight of this year's Galaxy S23 Ultra release and the 12MP ultrawide camera appears to be the same, the telephoto lens setup could see a big improvement.
Specifically, Brar expects a 50MP telephoto camera to replace one of the 10MP zoom lenses that adorned the Galaxy S23 Ultra. The other 10MP zoom lens is sticking around, giving the Galaxy S24 four rear lenses and apparently the chances of taking much more detailed close-ups with its new camera.
The 50MP shooter is widely believed to be replacing the 10MP lens with a 3x zoom, retaining that zoom capability. (That's according to leaker Ice Universe, who previously posted about Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra camera plans.) The remaining 10MP shooter would deliver a 10x zoom using a periscope-style setup.
We're intrigued by the reported camera changes to the Galaxy S24 Ultra in light of rumors about the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which we should see arrive in the next month. Apple's premium phone is expected to adopt a periscope-style zoom lens of its own, with an improved 6x zoom to better compete with Samsung's camera phones. If the upgraded telephoto lens rumor proves to be true for the Galaxy S24 Ultra, it sounds like Samsung's not waiting around to see just how substantial the iPhone 15 Pro Max's improved zoom capabilities are.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra system-on-chip
We're less thrilled about the rumored change to the Galaxy S24 Ultra's potential chipset. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is listed as you might expect, and that's certainly encouraging, but Brar also points to an Exynos 2400 system-on-chip for the phone. Presumably, that means Samsung is going back to offering some phones with Qualcomm chips and some with its own Exynos silicon.
That was how Samsung handled things prior to the Galaxy S23 launch, but this year's phones featured the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset no matter where the phones were sold. That turned out to be a wise move on Samsung's part. Not only did the chipset deliver optimized performance, but it also helped the S23 models exhibit better battery life compared to their predecessor
The switch back to a split chip approach is concerning for other reasons. Typically, Exynos-powered Samsung flagships haven't performed as well as the models running on Snapdragon silicon, meaning markets where the Exynos phone goes on sale might get diminished experience. In the past, Exynos has been used for phones sold outside of the U.S. and South Korea.
The remaining leaked specs — a 5,000 mAh and 45W charging speeds — would match what the Galaxy S23 Ultra offers. That's not necessarily a bad thing in terms of battery size, as the Galaxy S23 Ultra exhibited some of the best phone battery life we've seen in devices we tested this year.
Expect a lot more to be revealed about the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the rest of the S24 lineup in the many months between now and the next Unpacked event.
