The Galaxy S24 gets seven years of updates, $1,300 Titanium “Ultra” model

Samsung has unveiled its new flagship telephones for 2024: the Galaxy S24, S24+, and S24 Ultra.  Considering Samsung’s often conservative year-to-year adjustments, there are so much of variations this 12 months.

The S24 Ultra now has a titanium physique, identical to the iPhone 15. It additionally has a “totally flat show,” ending years of Android’s bizarre curved OLED panel gimmick that solely served to distort the perimeters of the show. Samsung says the brand new Ultra design has “42 p.c slimmer bezels” and a entrance hole-punch digital camera cutout that’s “11 p.c smaller” than these on the S23 Ultra. The relaxation of the design seems to be like Ultra fashions of previous years, with rounded edges and a flat high and backside. The backside nonetheless homes an S-Pen for handwriting and drawing.

All that titanium will price you. The S24 Ultra is $100 greater than final 12 months, coming to an eye-popping $1,300. An iPhone 15 Pro Max is $1,200, and a Pixel 8 Pro is $1,000, in order that’s a tricky promote.

The smaller S24+ and S24 fashions are aluminum and have a brand new design with a flat, steel band that goes across the telephone’s perimeter, making the units look so much like an iPhone 4 or 15. Both fashions have slimmer bezels and 120 Hz shows; Samsung says all of the S23 shows can hit a peak brightness of 2600 nits in daylight mode. The S24 and S24+ costs are the identical as final 12 months: $800 for the S24 and $1,000 for the S24+.

Another large announcement is that Samsung is matching Google’s new replace plan and providing “seven years of safety updates and seven generations of OS upgrades.” Previously, it gave 4 years of updates. Apple would not have a proper replace coverage, however with the iPhone X not too long ago lasting from iOS 11 to iOS 16, Samsung can now credibly say the S24 provides extra main OS updates than a typical iPhone. (Let’s not carry up the velocity of these OS updates, although, which might nonetheless take months.)

Google introduced seven years of updates for the Pixel 8, however because the maker of Android and with its personal “Tensor” SoC, Google’s help system exists exterior of the same old Android ecosystem that almost all OEMs must take care of. Samsung has by some means gotten Qualcomm to decide to seven years of replace help, which seems like a sea change within the trade. Previously, Qualcomm was very proof against lengthy chip life cycles, with Fairphone desperately sourcing an “industrial” Qualcomm chip simply to get 5 years of help from the corporate in 2023. This change is what the Android ecosystem has wanted for years, and we hope this degree of help shall be open to all firms sooner or later.

In the US, the Galaxy line is getting a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Last 12 months, Samsung and Qualcomm signed a sweetheart deal to make the S23 line solely use Snapdragon chips worldwide and with that got here an unique up-clocked “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy” chip. This 12 months Qualcomm is not the unique chip supplier, however the “For Galaxy” branding is again, in keeping with this Qualcomm press launch, so this has the “Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy”. We have no onerous knowledge on what precisely the distinction is, however the Qualcomm press launch guarantees a “30 p.c sooner GPU” than final 12 months, whereas the conventional Gen 3 web site says the GPU is “25 p.c sooner.” Exynos chips get an AMD Radeon GPU, so Qualcomm pumping up the GPU to compete is smart.

And talking of Exynos chips, they’re again! The S24 chip gets a Snapdragon chip within the US, whereas internationally, some fashions will return to Samsung Exynos chips (particularly the Exynos 2400). Samsung solely tells the US press about US specs, however an earlier SamMoble report claims that “the Exynos 2400 will energy the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ in just about each nation apart from the US, Canada, Korea, China, and Japan.” Note that these are the 2 smaller fashions. If you are out there for an Ultra, the positioning says there isn’t any Exynos Ultra model—they’re all Snapdragons. Qualcomm’s press launch backs this up, saying Snapdragon powers “[the] Galaxy S24 Ultra globally and Galaxy S24 Plus and S24 in choose areas.”