Again within the day, yearly telephone upgrades had been fairly widespread. These days, nonetheless, telephones might be prohibitively costly if you cannot discover the proper deal, and it is simply flat-out unreasonable to pay full value usually.
So, is the brand new $1,300 Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely a telephone price upgrading to? The reply completely is dependent upon what you are upgrading from. Galaxy S23 Extremely customers ought to follow what they have except there’s an issue. All the brand new AI options of the Galaxy S24 Extremely are coming to the Galaxy S23 Extremely within the One UI 6.1 replace, and it is unlikely the digicam modifications on the S24 Extremely will probably be price your time.
However, for those who’re coming from an older Samsung Galaxy telephone, there are a ton of superb Galaxy S24 offers and trade-in provides that can get you upgraded to probably the most premium telephone Samsung makes. On high of that, Samsung’s new seven-year software program replace assure means the Galaxy S24 Extremely will feel and appear new for a really very long time, together with new software program options and different upgrades that occur alongside the best way.
Whereas I am nonetheless testing the S24 Extremely in preparation for a full evaluation, there are little doubt a few of you who’re already questioning if it is price upgrading to the machine. Hopefully, this could assist for those who’re contemplating hitting that preorder button.
Why it’s best to improve to the Galaxy S24 Extremely
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In case you’ve by no means used certainly one of Samsung’s Galaxy S Extremely telephones, you are in for a deal with. Samsung mixed its Galaxy S and Galaxy Be aware strains just a few years again and now packs an S Pen into the physique of the Galaxy S24 Extremely for straightforward note-taking skills.
To make that even higher, the show on the Galaxy S24 Extremely is flat for the primary time since Samsung mixed these telephone strains. Beforehand, Samsung curved the glass on the left and proper edges, which made the telephone look fancy, but it surely made note-taking on the sides tougher than it wanted to be.
The curved glass additionally meant that discovering an excellent display protector was robust. My very own Galaxy S23 Extremely bought a damaged display as a result of it fell and landed proper on the sting between the place the display protector and case might hold the glass secure. That should not occur with the S24 Extremely, thank heaven.
All of Samsung’s new AI options can be found on each Galaxy S24 mannequin, however a lot of them, like Circle to Search, are greatest used on the S24 Extremely due to the S Pen. Utilizing the S Pen is way extra correct than a finger, and it makes enhancing textual content considerably simpler.
Other than the S Pen, you are going to love the brand new digicam array on the again of the Galaxy S24 Extremely. Samsung modified issues up this yr and is together with a brand new 50MP 5x zoom digicam rather than the previous 10MP 10x zoom digicam. Whereas this feels like a downgrade at first, Samsung mentioned most of its customers by no means zoomed past 10x within the first place.
By making this variation, Samsung has ensured “optical high quality” from any picture taken between 1x and 10x zoom. We have nonetheless bought to check this new digicam for ourselves, however on paper, the change makes a variety of sense for any consumer who would not care about zooming past 10x.
In case your telephone is greater than two years previous, it makes a variety of sense to commerce it in for the Galaxy S24 Extremely and get a very stable improve. Firms like AT&T and Verizon offers you $1,000 off the S24 Extremely whenever you commerce in any previous Galaxy telephone. The older, the higher since most of those telephones cannot be resold for wherever close to that sort of cash.
Why you should not improve to the Galaxy S24 Extremely
As I mentioned earlier than, there’s nearly no motive a Galaxy S23 Extremely proprietor ought to hassle spending the cash to improve this yr. There merely aren’t sufficient modifications to warrant the additional cash — particularly because the Extremely technically has a $100 value enhance this yr, as the most affordable mannequin now prices $1,300.
All Galaxy S23 homeowners will obtain all the brand new Galaxy AI options within the S24 sequence with the One UI 6.1 replace, so there isn’t any new software program characteristic to truly improve for.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processor contained in the S24 sequence is nice and provides a 25% efficiency enhance over the processor within the Galaxy S23 sequence, but it surely’s not going to impress anybody coming from these telephones.
Positive, video games like Battle Thunder Cellular and Enviornment Breakout help fancy new ray-tracing options, however they don’t seem to be price spending a lot of cash on. You would be a lot better off spending the money on a PS5 with ray-tracing capabilities, as a substitute.
And whereas that processor is technically barely extra battery environment friendly — 5%, to be actual — Samsung did not enhance the battery dimension or enhance the charging speeds on this telephone, so you will not see a distinction there. There’s additionally no Qi2 help on the Galaxy S24 Extremely, so wi-fi charging can also be the identical expertise.
Samsung has improved the technical facets of all of the Galaxy S24 shows, however the firm continues to be avoiding making any modifications to its flicker frequency for PWM-sensitive people. In the meantime, corporations like OnePlus, Motorola, Honor, and others have been making big strides in introducing new eye well being options to maintain customers feeling good for the lengthy haul.
In brief, Galaxy S23 homeowners ought to maintain on for at the least one other yr earlier than making the improve. In the meantime, everybody else simply wants to think about if the value is smart, particularly given the rise.
If you wish to be taught much more, take a look at my Samsung Galaxy S24 hands-on, and be looking out for my upcoming evaluation.
The S Pen is mightier
The Galaxy S24 Extremely is Samsung’s newest premium flagship, providing a brand new 200MP digicam system, a brighter show, sooner chipset, and a bunch of latest AI options. There’s a lot to love concerning the S24 Extremely, and it is positively one it’s best to think about making your subsequent telephone.
