Comparing the Galaxy S24 and the Galaxy S23 will hopefully give users looking to upgrade their phone to a top-flight Samsung handset a good idea of whether to buy a phone now or hold off on splashing their cash.
With the Samsung Galaxy S24's key features thoroughly leaked already, such as an AI-focused feature set and upgrades to the display, we reckon we have a good idea of what the new phone's strengths are going to be. But perhaps those strengths won't sell you on the new phone, and the tipped lack of upgrades in other areas don't appeal to you either.
In that case, the Galaxy S23 is a good phone you can easily buy this minute, with strong photography, battery and display stats. Even once the Galaxy S24's here, the S23 may still be the right choice for some users since it'll likely share several of the newer phone's features but cost noticeably less.
Below, we pool what we know about the Galaxy S23 and what we've heard about the Galaxy S24 to see what similarities and contrasts we can find. We'll keep this page updated with any new findings too, and of course perform a big revamp once we've reviewed the S24 series, so make sure you check back soon.
Samsung Galaxy S24 vs Galaxy S23: Price and availability
The rumor mill tells us that the Galaxy S24 may arrive in January 2024, perhaps on the 17th at an event in California. If that rumor turns out to be bogus then we expect we'll at least see the new Galaxy by February, as we have done in the past. The appearance of regulatory listings for the S24 is certainly indicative of the phone being almost ready to ship.
Back in the present, the Galaxy S23 has been on sale since February 2023, and starts at $799. We hope that Samsung won't make the Galaxy S24 more expensive, but since the S23 series saw a price increase outside the U.S., the chance of escaping a price hike for another year seems limited. Pricing may ultimately be your deciding factor, especially given how there are deals out there that effectively have the Galaxy S23 for free.
Samsung Galaxy S24 vs Galaxy S23: Design and display
It looks like the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S23 will share the same basic design with a flat display, rounded sides and three cameras embedded separately in the back. Good for brand consistency but not great for telling these phones apart at a distance.
Some changes have been rumored though. The S24 series could come with titanium side rails instead of plain old aluminum, but this may only apply to the Ultra model rather than the basic or Plus models. Speaking of which, the Galaxy S24 Plus model could measure a bit larger than the S23 Plus at 6.65 inches instead of 6.6 inches.
At least the available colors will help split the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S23 apart. The alleged S24 color options will be black, gray, violet or yellow. The S23's basic colors are green, black, cream and lavender.
We're hoping to see big changes to the Galaxy S24's display that'll make it even better than the S23 already is. One tipped improvement is the use of an LTPO display just like the Galaxy S23 Ultra has, allowing the dynamic lowering of the screen's refresh rate for greater power efficiency while keeping the screen at full 120Hz smoothness when needed.
Brightness is another area where Samsung apparently has upgrades in store. One source has claimed that the Galaxy S24 Plus could have a 2,500-nit display, a big leap from the S23, which was rated for 1,750 nits by Samsung (although we measured its peak at 1,448 nits in our own testing).
To top things off, the Galaxy S24 may get narrower bezels around its screen, giving the user more usable display, even if the phone stays the same size as the S23.
Samsung Galaxy S24 vs Galaxy S23: Cameras
Photography upgrades don't seem to have been a priority for Samsung when making the Galaxy S24, as we're hearing the same 50MP main camera and same 12MP selfie camera as the Galaxy S23 will appear on the S24. Maybe there will be upgrades for the 12MP ultrawide or 10MP 3x telephoto camera, but we feel like Samsung will leave these sensors alone, with all the interesting changes seemingly reserved for the Ultra.
That's not to say there will be no camera differences between these two phones. Samsung may have some camera processing changes to bring to the S24 series that will still give it an edge over the S23, even with near- or totally identical hardware.
Despite the lack of hardware upgrades to the camera, Samsung could very well be leaning to artificial intelligence to boost the camera experience with the Galaxy S24. The company has already teased its generative AI model, called Samsung Gauss, which could boost the photo and editing abilities of the Galaxy S24 to the next level.
Samsung Galaxy S24 vs Galaxy S23: Performance
At the heart of the Galaxy S24 series should be a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, or an Exynos 2400 depending on region. It may also come with a generous 256GB of default storage on all models, rather than 128GB on the basic model and 256GB on the Plus and Ultra, as we saw on the S23 series.
The Galaxy S23's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip is focused on power, thanks to Samsung getting a custom version of the regular Gen 2 silicon, with a higher clock speed and more power, for its S23 units around the world. The rumored return to a split between Snapdragon and Exynos chips could mean differences in CPU, GPU or NPU power between regions, making the S24 buying decision trickier for users wanting the best performance.
Rather than raw computing might, the S24 may be tuned for AI-related uses, with Samsung's new Gauss generative AI model likely to be a spotlight feature. We're curious how Samsung will put this to use, although we can perhaps look to Google and the Pixel 8 series for inspiration, as we expect Samsung has done.
Samsung Galaxy S24 vs Galaxy S23: Battery and charging
Both the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus had smaller-than-average battery capacities, but still turned in amazing performances on our custom battery test, beating the competition from Apple and Google. Hopefully the Galaxy S24 series, which will allegedly use a stacked battery design that will mean more milliamp-hours in the same space, will be able to offer even greater performance.
Annoyingly, the Galaxy S24 may see only 25W wired charging for the basic model again, which is slower than any other Android phone you can get for this price. We'd be happy if Samsung introduced the 45W standard, already used on the Galaxy S23 Plus and Galaxy S23 Ultra, to the base S24 for simplicity and convenience's sake.
Samsung Galaxy S24 vs Galaxy S23: Outlook
It’s still just a bit too early to draw any meaningful conclusions, but it’s looking like the Galaxy S24’s big advantages over the S23 could lie in its display quality, battery life and possible performance and AI abilities. All good possible reasons to hold out for the new model to launch instead of buying your phone today.
An apparent lack of changes to the camera or the design could mean the S24 isn’t likely to be worth trading in your S23 for. But even if you’re coming from an older phone, there may not be any good reason to go for the older S23 over the new S24 unless you find a particularly attractive price for Samsung’s outgoing flagship phone.
