Samsung has officially announced the new Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S24 Ultra phones at its annual Galaxy Unpacked event on 17 January.
The Galaxy S24 series is now available to pre-order, ahead of an official release date of 31 January. The three new smartphones start from £799, £999 and £1,249, respectively – that actually makes the base models a little cheaper than last year’s Galaxy S23 devices.
Anyone who pre-orders before 31 January will also get double the storage for free, meaning you can upgrade from 256GB to 512GB, or from 512GB to 1TB, at no extra cost. Samsung is also throwing in a free Galaxy Watch 6, worth £289, with every pre-order made before 25 January.
Below you’ll find the best pre-order deals as well as our early impressions of the devices. Our full review will arrive soon.
Where to pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S24
Best Samsung Galaxy S24 pre-order deals
Everyone who pre-orders the Samsung Galaxy S24, S24 Plus or S24 Ultra will get double the storage for free. That means you’ll be able to grab the 1TB version of the Galaxy S24 Ultra for the price of the 512GB version, for example.
Samsung is also offering a generous trade-in bonus on existing Galaxy handsets for anyone who pre-orders before 30 January, giving customers an additional discount on top of the trade-in price of their old phone.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: £53.99 per month, £99 up front, Idmobile.co.uk
Here’s the best deal we’ve found on the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Get a 10GB data contract from iD Mobile and you’ll pay a total of around £1,400 over 24 months. That works out to roughly £6 per month for the airtime portion of the contract. The plan comes with an extra £125 discount on an eligible trade-in, a year of Disney+ and a free Galaxy Watch 6.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: £68 per month, £40 up front, Vodafone.co.uk
Vodafone’s Galaxy S24 deal gives you half-price airtime for the first six months of your contract – from month seven onwards, your payments will increase from £53 to £71 per month for unlimited data. That averages out to £68 per month over 36 months, though, after 24 months, you’ll have the option to switch to a different tariff, or upgrade. Trade-in your phone with Vodafone and you can save £14 a month on your new handset. Samsung’s offer of double the storage and a free Galaxy Watch 6 can be redeemed through Vodafone’s plan, too.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus: £50.19 per month, £30 up front, O2.co.uk
O2 is offering the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus with 30GB of data for £50.19 per month after paying £30 up front. O2 ‘plus plans’ are a little pricier than plain contracts but come with up to six months of Apple Music, Samsung’s free smartwatch, a Disney+ subscription and the option to swap to a new phone every three months.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: £63.67 per month, £30 up front, EE.co.uk
EE’s Galaxy S24 Ultra plans come with your choice of an ‘inclusive extra’, such as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Netflix, TNT Sports or Apple Music, all worth up to £20 per month. Bundled with a 5GB data plan, Samsung’s new phone costs £63.67 per month.
Samsung Galaxy S24 specs
Trying to wrap your head around the differences between the S24, S24 Plus and S24 Ultra? Here are the official specifications from Samsung.
Samsung Galaxy S24 | Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus | Samsung Galaxy 24 Ultra | |
Display | 6.2in FHD+, 120Hz | 6.7in FHD+, 120Hz | 6.8in QHD+, 120Hz |
Dimensions | 70.6mm x 147mm x 7.6mm | 75.9mm x 158.5mm x 7.7mm | 79mm x 162.3mm x 8.6mm |
Weight | 128g | 197g | 233g |
Selfie camera | 12MP | 12MP | 12MP |
Ultra-wide camera | 12MP | 12MP | 12MP |
Wide camera | 50MP | 50MP | 200MP |
Telephoto | 10MP | 10MP | 50MP + 10MP |
Optical zoom | 3x | 3x | 5x and 3x |
Memory | 8GB | 12GB | 12GB |
Storage | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB | 256GB, 512GB | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
Battery | 4,000mAh | 4,900mAh | 5,000mAh |
S-Pen stylus | No | No | Yes |
Samsung Galaxy S24 early review
On top of the usual spec upgrades, the headline improvement to this year’s Samsung Galaxy S24 series is a range of new artificial intelligence-powered features. Advanced photo editing tools enable users to move or erase people and objects, by using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to fill in gaps, and to instantly remaster photos with additional detail, depth of focus effects and more.
The design of the phones remains roughly the same for 2024, but the S24 Ultra gets a refresh with a new flat display, thinner bezels, a satin matte finish and a stylish titanium frame.
All three phones will run at a smooth scrolling 120Hz again this year, but now the baseline S24 and S24 Plus can drop down to a 1Hz refresh rate – previously something only the Ultra could do – meaning improvements to battery life and power efficiency.
The camera on the Ultra benefits from a larger sensor, which offsets the reduced optical zoom range. The camera software is where the real improvements can be found, with Samsung using its new AI smarts to produce richer and more detailed photography.
Better night sight processing means videos look more vivid and crisper in low light conditions and when zoomed in, while AI features such as ‘erase reflections’ and ‘erase shadows’ promise more professional photography results at the push of a button.
Samsung is also bringing its AI to bear on transcription and notetaking. Audio recorded at meetings can discern between dozens of different speakers and the resulting minutes can be automatically formatted into headers and bullet points, or summarised by Samsung’s on-board AI, for easy reference.
The S24 series also introduces ‘live translate’ – a feature embedded into the phone app that can translate between 13 different languages in real-time, between two callers.
Samsung Galaxy S24 release date and price
The Samsung Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S24 Ultra all launch in stores and online on 31 January, with pre-orders available from 17 January.
The S24 and S24 Plus are available in onyx black, marble grey, cobalt violet and amber yellow. The S24 Ultra is available in titanium grey, titanium black and titanium yellow. Additional colours are available exclusively from Samsung’s online store.
Here’s a full breakdown of the pricing of the new S24 series, with the double storage pre-order bonus included.
- Galaxy S24: £799, Samsung.com
- Galaxy S24 Plus: £999, Samsung.com
- Galaxy S24 Ultra (512GB): £1,249, Samsung.com
- Galaxy S24 Ultra (1TB): £1,349, Samsung.com
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