Samsung Galaxy S24+: A Year Later

The tech world is all about the “latest and greatest”, the shiny new devices that occupy our pockets. They come equipped with the best specs, the most powerful hardware, and the most advanced software, so there’s a reason why they garner so much attention. Out with the old, in with the new, right? Not quite. The Galaxy S25 series of phones just launched, so I decided to take a look at the Galaxy S24+ again.

It’s been about a year since Samsung launched this phone, and it blew me away when I first used it. Now that a year has passed, how does it hold up? Is it still worth picking up today? Is the Galaxy S25 so much better that the Galaxy S24+ is better left in the past? More importantly, will you be better off picking up a Galaxy S24+ and saving your money?

When I got the Galaxy S24+ last year to review, I instantly made it my daily driver, and it was only dethroned by the Vivo X Fold3. However, I popped my SIM back into the Galaxy S24+ and used it exclusively as my daily driver for a month. In fact, it’s still my daily driver while writing this.

How the hardware has held up

No device is immune to standard wear and tear. I will admit that, throughout the year, the Galaxy S24+ has been in and out of a case. Regardless, it’s spent plenty of time outside of the case while I used it. It’s been in my pocket, in bags, on my bed, on my desk, in boxes, and in other places. Though all of that, it’s held up pretty much perfectly fine. I’m not just saying that.

I looked the phone up and down and scrutinized every inch of it, and I couldn’t find any major scratches or blemishes. As much as I’d like to flatter myself as an amazing smartphone owner, the credit goes to Samsung for building such a high-quality device. Maybe there’s the occasional micro-scratch on the screen, but I really have to search them out to find them.

As for the back, the only blemishes I found were tiny spots where the case made direct contact with the back glass. These are the spots where the case rubbed against the phone when being put on or taken off. Other than that, there are some other small spots on the frame that you’d need to sniff out.

Everything else about the phone’s hardware held up well. There aren’t many moving parts on a phone, so there’s not much to look at. The volume and power buttons are just as sturdy and clicky as when the phone arrived at my doorstep. The glass over the cameras is as good as new, as well.

Could I present this phone to someone as new? I’d say that if I present this phone to 100 people, about 70% of them won’t notice that it’s been used. That’s not a massive achievement for a flagship phone, especially one from Samsung. However, I’ve used some well-made devices that started to show more signs of wear and tear than the Galaxy S24+. I feel like I’d need to use this phone for another year for it to show the same signs of wear and tear that I see on some other phones after just one year.

Display

It might seem odd that I’m adding a section about the display. How much can a display deteriorate over the course of a year? However, I’m talking about the quality of the display. I reviewed many devices, and I’ve seen some displays that can give the Galaxy S24+’s display a run for its money. In particular, I’ve used devices like the Tecno Camon 30 Premier, Poco F6 Pro, Xiaomi 14T, and Vivo X Fold3, as I mentioned. The first two of those devices came THIS close to knocking the Galaxy S24+ out of my hands.

These phones in particular have the best displays out of the phones I reviewed in 2024. The top spot goes to the Vivo X Fold3, it’s not just because its display can transform. Its display, along with the Tecno’s and Poco’s, is just so high-quality in every way. That’s not to say that I didn’t run into some other phones with amazing screens.

After a year of amazing phone displays, I still hold the Galaxy S24+’s screen as one of my favorites. There are those phones with displays so good that I have this “Woah” moment when I power them on even months after owning them. It’s like I fall in love with the display all over again. That happens to me even a year after using this phone.

I’ve used the phone on and off even while using the X Fold3, but there were long stretches of time when I didn’t use it. Then, when I turn it back on, I’d have that “Woah” moment. Hell, I’d have those moments after just putting the phone down for a few hours.

The same thing goes for the brightness. I’ve used some phones with some pretty spectacular brightness. Pretty much all of the phones that I reviewed last year had amazing outdoor readability, but I think that the main devices that stick out were the Poco F6 Pro, Vivo X Fold3, and (you guessed it) Galaxy S24+.

Still, after a year of spectacular displays that came out, the Galaxy S24+’s display managed to keep one of the top spots on my list. It survived the competition and managed to surprise me, even to this day.

Speakers

Just like with the Galaxy S24+’s display, I also have one of those “Woah” moments when I’d listen to the speakers. Having heard some other phones, I don’t think that many other devices were able to go toe-to-toe with the Galaxy S24+. It’s a toss-up between this phone and the Vivo X Fold3.

All in all, I have to say that I have the same comments on these speakers as I had while reviewing the phone. They’re great! They’re amazing! Samsung put a high-quality pair of speakers in the Galaxy S24+. They’re not only detailed, but they’re wide and encompassing. I hear a warm and spacious sound coming from these speakers. They deliver a cinematic experience.

I expected nothing less from them. The thing that set these speakers apart from most other phones that I reviewed is the fact that the Galaxy’s speakers are so well-balanced, and this is something that I came to appreciate over the year. I’ve reviewed other phones with speakers that have some good qualities, but where they’re great in some areas, they’re sub-par in others.

So, going back to the Galaxy S24+, I was struck by the all-around great sound they produce. That’s not to say that they’re perfect. I still think that they are a bit quiet. Most of the time when I’m using this phone, I typically have the volume within two levels from the top. Barring that, I still praise these speakers for their overall quality.

Camera

When it comes to the camera, the Galaxy S24+ wasn’t exactly dealing with the best hardware on the market. That honor belongs to the Galaxy S24 Ultra. That phone gained all of the fancy hardware and AI features. Be that as it may, Samsung didn’t exactly fit the Galaxy S24+ with sub-par hardware.

When I reviewed this phone, I was seriously impressed with its camera’s performance. Just like with the speaker performance, the camera performance is so well-balanced. It’s as good as what you’d expect from a $1,000 phone. The images that it produces are beautiful. They’re contrasty, colorful, bright, detailed, and overall high-quality.

Ostensibly, the camera performance has gotten better, as this phone has gotten a year’s worth of updates. Revisiting my older shots and taking new ones, again, there was that “Woah” moment. I was reminded of the sense of dramaticism that this phone’s camera produces. Not a sense of drama in that it makes each shot super contrasty. Rather, the phone applies just the right amount of color saturation, warmth, contrast, and bokeh to the picture to turn it into a scene. Most shots look like what you get when a professional photographer takes the perfect shot and edits to enhance the scene’s most beautiful aspects. It gives each scene that over-the-top and artistic flair.

The other aspects like video, zoom, and low-light all hold up as well. I’d say that the only phone I’ve reviewed to compete with the Galaxy S24+ is the Vivo X Fold3. The Galaxy S24+ camera isn’t the best camera of the year, but it’s still one of the best that you can buy. Much more than a camera to “get the job done”, it’s a true flagship shooter. In fact, after using so many other cameras in the year, I’ve come to appreciate this camera even more.

The Xiaomi 14T, along with the Vivo, offered some tough competition for the Galaxy S24+, but I had to ask myself, “What made the Galaxy S24+’s camera better in the first place?” Looking back at this camera, I rediscovered why I loved this camera so much.

Battery

In the last couple of sections, it wouldn’t have made much sense to talk about the Galaxy S24+ in a vacuum. Again, camera, display, and speaker technologies haven’t jumped so much in a year that it made this phone an obvious dinosaur. I had to compare it to other devices that came out over the course of the year.

However, battery life is something that can change dramatically year over year. It’s one of the things that I worried the most about. After one year of usage, my Pixel 6’s battery was pretty piss-poor. So, I didn’t know what to expect from the Galaxy S24+’s battery after a year. At the time of reviewing it, it had the best battery life of any phone that I reviewed, and it took a while until I found a phone that actually beat it.

Honestly, I didn’t feel a dramatic difference in battery longevity using this phone now compared to when I first started using it. There was still a difference. I felt that I was running for the charger a bit sooner than when it was fresh out of the box. When I first got it, I’d get pretty close to the two-day mark, and I’d use the phone moderately. This means watching some videos, a bit of gaming, a dash of social media browsing, and other stuff.

My usage habits haven’t changed too much over the year, and I can still get north of a day and a half, but I see the 5% battery warning a bit sooner than before. It’s important to know that, both now and before, I use the battery protection feature that limits the charging to 80%. When I used the Galaxy S24+ the first time I used it with the power save mode on constantly. However, when revisiting the phone, I turned that off.

The battery life didn’t deteriorate with this phone like I expected. Honestly, it’s still reliable. I can charge it up and take it out for the day without any worries. This isn’t only a good thing, but it’s a testament to how Samsung’s battery technology has improved over the years. The company used to be ridiculed for how quickly its batteries would degrade. The Galaxy S24+ is still an all-day phone.

Performance

Aside from the battery, the performance is another area that can take a hit after a year. I’ve revisited phones after a year only to find that their performance has tanked. I wasn’t super worried about the Galaxy S24+’s performance when I was placing my SIM card back into it. It wasn’t like I was dealing with a mid-range phone running a weaker MediaTek chip. Also, Samsung knows how to optimize its phones’ performance. That’s what I was thinking anyway.

After using this phone over the course of this month, one thing hit me, there was no difference. The Galaxy S24+ performed just as smoothly and fluidly as the day I first used it. It’s not like I saw the occasional stutter or hiccup. I picked up the phone and started using it exactly how I did when I was reviewing it. I didn’t feel any sort of difference in my usage.

Everything from unlocking the phone to navigating the interface to using apps to playing games runs perfectly smoothly! I was able to pick the Galaxy S24+ up and start using it without skipping a beat. It was a powerful performance then, and it has powerful performance now.

Like fine wine

This pretty much sums up my whole experience reusing the Galaxy S24+. I picked it back up to see how it aged…. and it didn’t. It didn’t age at all. I expected to see some sort of difference, some sort of battle scars, so to speak. However, there were none.

This is not a one-year-old phone, at least not in my eyes. I can give it to anyone, call it new, and they won’t be able to tell.

I feel like this is an important analysis to make, as the Galaxy S25 just came out. Did Samsung move heaven and earth to make this new iteration better? Did the company bring any compelling innovations that can’t trickle down to the Galaxy S24 phones? The answer is an earth-shattering NO. On paper, the Galaxy S25 is stronger. So, it performs tasks with some percentage of a speed boost. Maybe you open YouTube .002 seconds faster.

However, if you own the Galaxy S24, are strapped for cash, or wondering if the Galaxy S25 is worth it, then this is something to consider. I gave the Galaxy S24+ a 5-star review back when it was new, and I’m sure that I’d give it the same score a year later. This phone has withstood the test of time much better than I expected. There’s still a ton of life left in this phone, so don’t overlook it.