The Best Samsung Phones of 2024, Tested and Reviewed

The champion portion of being successful the satellite of Android is prime of hardware. Want a telephone with a headphone jack? Sure! Want a gaming telephone with 2 USB-C ports? Why not. Want a telephone that fast-charges successful little than 30 minutes? It exists. So wherefore instrumentality with the stalwart Samsung?

In my acquisition and research, Samsung's smartphones person a way grounds of reliability, and due to the fact that it's a large player, it has a wider web of authorized repair centers than competing Android manufacturers. Yes, I retrieve the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco and adjacent the issues with the first-gen Galaxy Fold, but Samsung present has a lawsuit restitution people adjacent to Apple, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. That said, I haven't work large things astir the company's US lawsuit enactment team.

Still, with its flagship phones, you're often getting top-of-the-line specs and exceptional physique prime with agelong bundle support. I chiefly prime Pixel phones implicit Samsung due to the fact that I similar Google's bundle experience, but determination are plentifulness of radical who similar Samsung's instrumentality connected Android. As always, support an unfastened caput and see each the different options disposable to you. Check retired my Best Android Phones, Best Cheap Phones, and Best iPhones guides for different recommendations.

Sort of. Samsung has launched each of its phones for 2024 successful the US, and that means you tin expect immoderate stellar discounts connected its priciest smartphones. This clip of twelvemonth is large to prime up a discounted Galaxy S24 oregon a Galaxy Z Flip6. However, it's worthy keeping the company's motorboat clip frames successful caput successful lawsuit you only privation the latest and greatest.

• The flagship Galaxy S series usually launches aboriginal successful the twelvemonth during Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, and the upcoming Galaxy S25 scope volition apt get successful January oregon February 2025.
• The fund Galaxy A series typically arrives successful the outpouring (April oregon May).
• The folding Galaxy Z series person ever launched successful the summer, astir July oregon August, during Samsung's 2nd and past Galaxy Unpacked lawsuit of the year.
• The midrange Galaxy FE series is the “Fan Edition,” but this is much oregon little a somewhat cheaper variant of the Galaxy S series. It typically launches successful the fall, astir precocious September oregon October.

Keep these dates successful caput arsenic you shop, due to the fact that you whitethorn privation to clasp disconnected and hold for the caller model, oregon it tin assistance pass you connected erstwhile to expect the champion discounts.

Android phones utilized to person disastrously poor bundle support. Two years aft you bought your $1,000 phone, it would nary longer person bundle updates. Welp. Thankfully, Google began promising longer bundle update cycles to its Pixel phones, which ended up pushing Samsung to lucifer it.

The pursuing Samsung phones volition person seven years of bundle updates from their merchandise date, which includes Android operating strategy updates and monthly information patches. The second support your telephone secure, and caller OS versions tin bring new features to your phone.

• Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, and Galaxy S24 Ultra
• Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6
• Galaxy S24 FE

Most different Samsung phones, similar immoderate successful the Galaxy A bid oregon older flagships, volition person 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of information patches starting from the day of release. You'll find that fund devices are promised 2 OS updates and 4 years of information updates, which is inactive leagues amended than what companies similar Motorola offer. Some of this varies, arsenic Samsung has kept changing its argumentation twelvemonth implicit year, but there's a small much adjuvant accusation here.

To find if your Samsung telephone has a pending update, spell to Settings > Software update > Download and install. It should cheque for immoderate updates and download them, past you'll spot an enactment to instal it. Make definite you backmost up your telephone earlier installing immoderate update. We have a usher here.

Most radical bargain phones straight from their carrier, but if you're speechmaking this guide, I suggest you bargain an unlocked smartphone. When you bargain a bearer phone, it's “locked” to that network. That means if you privation to power carriers, similar determination from Verizon to T-Mobile, you'll person to inquire your bearer to unlock the device, and this tin beryllium a immense headache. (Especially if you're traveling and privation to usage an international SIM card.) Asking a bearer to unlock a telephone usually has a fewer requirements, similar making definite your instrumentality is paid off, oregon waiting for a acceptable play of time. Unlocked phones, connected the different hand, don't person this problem. You're escaped to usage immoderate bearer you want, whenever.

Carriers besides disguise the existent outgo of a smartphone. AT&T whitethorn entice you with a $36 per period outgo for a shiny caller Samsung flagship, erstwhile successful reality, that means you're paying $1,300 connected a smartphone implicit 36 months. Did you truly privation to walk that much? Or volition a cheaper telephone suffice? Also, you're much apt to get bundle updates faster arsenic they travel straight from Samsung, and there's often acold little preinstalled bloatware to woody with.

All to say, bargain unlocked! You tin bargain unlocked Galaxy phones straight from Samsung and astir third-party retailers similar Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.

Samsung has an annoying wont of announcing a clump of chill caller features with its smartphones, past leaving them turned disconnected by default. If you've ne'er fiddled astir with your phone's settings, there's a bully accidental determination are a lot of amusive and adjuvant features you're not using.

This tin see things similar changing the navigation from on-screen buttons to motion navigation, adding the artillery percent icon adjacent to the artillery bar, oregon keeping the always-on show turned connected alternatively of requiring a pat connected the screen. Good quality for you! As I routinely power phones, I drummed up a database of the 21 astir important settings to alteration erstwhile you get a Samsung phone. Read it here. Pro tip: I personally can't basal utilizing Samsung's built-in keyboard, truthful I astir ever alteration it to Google's Gboard instead.

A Samsung telephone sold successful the US is not the aforesaid arsenic a Samsung telephone sold successful the UK. That's due to the fact that Samsung's Galaxy S bid flagship phones person agelong relied connected 2 antithetic processors. Devices sold successful the US and prime markets are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors, whereas different regions person Samsung's homegrown Exynos chipsets.

The spread isn't arsenic wide betwixt these processors anymore, but determination person been issues successful the past. Exynos chips tended to overheat a fewer years ago, though they sometimes connection somewhat amended artillery beingness than their Qualcomm counterparts. It adjacent greatly impacted camera prime excessively arsenic the spot handles the representation processing. Again, nary of this is as large of an contented arsenic it utilized to be, but it's worthy keeping successful caput arsenic you shop.

With the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung launched “Galaxy AI," a enactment of artificial quality features, galore of which are powered by Google's Gemini ample connection models. These alteration astute features that whitethorn beryllium adjuvant time to day, similar real-time translations during telephone calls, real-time transcriptions successful Samsung's Voice Recorder app, the quality to summarize agelong paragraphs of substance successful the Samsung Notes app, oregon alteration a sentence's code with the Samsung Keyboard. You tin even marque sketches implicit your photos and person AI make an representation disconnected the sketch.

You tin find galore of these features by heading to Settings > Galaxy AI to toggle them connected oregon off. The pursuing phones person been updated to enactment Galaxy AI, though not each features are disposable connected older models:

• Galaxy S24, Galaxy S23, Galaxy S22, and Galaxy S21 series
• Galaxy S24 FE, Galaxy S23 FE
• Galaxy Z Fold6, Galaxy Fold5, Galaxy Fold4, Galaxy Fold3
• Galaxy Flip6, Galaxy Flip5, Galaxy Flip4, Galaxy Flip3

Samsung's DeX (short for “desktop experience”) launched successful 2017 and it's fundamentally a mode to plug successful your Samsung telephone to an outer show and trigger a desktop mentation of the Android OS, each wholly powered by the phone. You tin find a database of compatible Samsung phones here, and you'll request a monitor, mouse, and keyboard, positive a cable to link the telephone to the monitor. (You tin besides formed DeX to prime screens wirelessly.)

When successful DeX mode, you tin resize Android apps, and person them each unfastened successful abstracted windows. It's a due computing platform, though you astir apt won't privation to usage this arsenic a imperishable laptop replacement oregon thing of the sort. It's large if you're visiting different office, oregon moving retired of a java store oregon airplane (if you person a portable display). We person a full usher to mounting up and utilizing DeX here.

I've been reviewing smartphones for astir a decade, but the precise archetypal smartphone I ever bought was a Samsung Galaxy Captivate, which I got for “free” from my bearer astatine the time. After moving passim college, I had yet saved up capable currency to bargain a Galaxy S3, my archetypal flagship. I've spent years utilizing Samsung phones successful my idiosyncratic life, and past started reviewing them for enactment not excessively agelong after.

With each Samsung smartphone, I ever enactment my idiosyncratic SIM paper wrong and walk arsenic agelong arsenic I tin (usually respective weeks) utilizing the telephone arsenic my own. I bash camera investigating and comparison the results with likewise priced devices, I benchmark show and play graphically demanding games to spot however they fare, I effort retired each the caller features, and adjacent instrumentality calls to marque definite that ol' relation inactive works fine.