Meet two similarly priced compact flagships of completely different worlds – the Galaxy S24 and the iPhone 15. If your budget is around €800 and you want a lightweight flagship smartphone, you will want to learn more about those two.
Table of Contents:
For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the text further down below.
Size comparison
The Galaxy S24 has a clean, no-nonsense design with dual Gorilla Glass Victus 2 panels, an aluminum frame and the usual IP68 ingress protection. We are fond of the clean camera housing of just three simple rings.
The iPhone 15 also has Corning-made Ceramic Shield glass panels and an aluminum frame. The clean design has been the same for several years now. The iPhone 15 is IP68-rated, too, but for up to 6m deep water protection instead of the usual 1.5m.
Both handsets are almost identical in size and weight, with the iPhone 15 being just 4 grams heavier.
Overall, the design is a matter of personal choice, but we can safely say both smartphones have equally impressive build quality.
Display comparison
The Galaxy S24 has a slightly larger display – 6.2″ vs. 6.1″ – but it is of the lower resolution – 416ppi vs 461ppi on the iPhone 15.
The iPhone screen has wider HDR video support – it can play back both HDR10 and Dolby Vision capabilities.
The Galaxy S24 panel offers a 120Hz refresh rate, while the iPhone 15 is still stuck at 60Hz! And worse, its Face ID technology, while pretty convenient, makes for this huge cutout (by today’s standards). Apple did find a way to add some clever functionality around the notch with the Dynamic Island, but it is still an eyesore.
The iPhone 15 has a slightly brighter display – the Apple’s panel offers 806nits of manual and 1,643nits of auto-brightness, while the S24 OLED has 785nits of manual and 1,401nits of auto brightness. Other than that, both phones have a peak brightness of 2,000nits.
Even if the iPhone’s display is brighter and sharper, the Galaxy S24 has a 120Hz panel with a much smaller cutout. There is no doubt about which screen we would pick right away.
Battery life
The Galaxy S24 has a 4,000mAh battery, while the iPhone 15 has a smaller 3,349mAh. And contrary to expectations, the iPhone has a longer battery life.
The Galaxy S24 scored an Active Use Rating of 12:06 h, while the iPhone 15’s rating is 13:20 h. The iPhone is better in all tests except for calls, which is unsurprising as we are used to seeing iPhones post average or below-average call times.
Charging speed
There has been no upgrade in the charging speed on either phone, so don’t expect fierce competition. The Galaxy S24 supports 25W fast charging over the Power Delivery standard, while the iPhone 15 – 20W over USB-PD. This means both devices charge slowly compared to some of their competitors. At least they both support 15W fast wireless charging. The Galaxy S24 also offers reversed wireless charging, which no iPhone offers.
The 25W Samsung charger takes the Galaxy S24 battery (4,000mAh) from 0% to 29% in 15mins, 59% in 30mins and up to 100% in 75mins.
Apple’s 20W Power Adapter recharges the dead iPhone 15 battery (3,349mAh) from 0% to 32% in 15 minutes, 58% in 30 minutes and it takes 110mins for a full charging cycle to complete.
The Galaxy S24 recharges its larger battery faster and offers reverse wireless charging, which is why it wins here.
Speakers test
Both the Galaxy S24 and the iPhone 15 have hybrid stereo speaker setups.
The Galaxy S24 audio output is a bit louder. But the iPhone 15 speakers offer richer sound, deeper bass, and better vocals. The high-frequency range is solid, too, so it is the phone with the better sound quality.
Performance
The Galaxy S24 is powered by the most recent Exynos 2400 chipset by Samsung, while the iPhone 15 runs on the 2022’s A16 Bionic.
Having a newer chip is going to secure the win here for the Galaxy S24, even before we start comparing AI capabilities.
So, regarding multi-core CPU performance and GPU power, the Exynos platform is superior.
Samsung
Galaxy S24
Geekbench 62,177 single-core
Geekbench 66,747 multi-core
3D Mark W.Life14,351
Apple
iPhone 15
Geekbench 62,606 single-core
Geekbench 66,526 multi-core
3D Mark W.Life9,927
The global Galaxy S24 is available in two memory configurations – 8GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB. The iPhone 15 has 6GB of RAM and the storage options go up to 512GB.
As far as throttling is concerned – the iPhone 15 is a bit more stable, with 84% CPU and 51% GPU stability versus 60% CPU and 50% GPU stability for the Galaxy S24.
Samsung promises 7 years of major OS updates for the S24, which certainly looks better than Apple’s unwritten policy of offering its phones 5-6 years of major iOS updates.
The more extended software support means better value preservation overall. However, the big question is how well the hardware in a 7-year Android phone would keep up with the software in terms of performance. Nobody needs an updated phone that may be borderline unusable due to lag, whereas iPhones have already proven usable devices for years after launch without colossal performance degradation. So, for now, we’ll call this one a tie.
Samsung has the upper hand in software thanks to Google’s latest mobile AI features. You can read more about those in our dedicated One UI 6.1 review but the list includes:
Circle to search.
Chat translations.
Generative AI message creation.
Webpage summarization.
Language interpreting for live calls or in-person convos.
Recorded speech transcribing and summarization.
Generative AI wallpapers and edits in the Gallery, such as content-aware fill or object moving and removal.
Camera comparison
The Galaxy S24 has the same camera hardware as the Galaxy S23 – a 50MP OIS primary, a 10MP OIS 3x telephoto, a 12MP ultrawide camera (fixed focus), and a 12MP selfie camera with PDAF. Samsung promises better processing thanks to the improved ISP and the power of AI.
The iPhone 15 has one camera less – it only has a 48MP OIS primary and a 12MP ultrawide. The selfie camera on the iPhone is a 12MP with PDAF.
The iPhone’s primary camera offers 2x lossless zoom and can even shoot in 24MP. We chose 12MP shots for this comparison. The high-quality 2x zoom will not be enough to make up for the omission of a real zoom camera for this comparison, but it may not be a big deal for many people.
The ultrawide cameras on both smartphones produce pleasing photos. They offer an exceptionally wide field of view, great detail, low noise, wide dynamic range and good contrast. We can say that both UW cameras save over-processed photos, even if they are overprocessed differently. The Galaxy’s photo is cleaner, and we think its rendition has the edge here.
We have similar observations for the main cameras. The two phones capture great photos, are detailed and sharp, noise-free, and have a wide dynamic range. The Galaxy camera captures somewhat more natural photos but may not be as processed as the iPhone’s, which is why we like them more. The iPhone offers a more natural color rendition, though.
The 2x lossless zoom delivers identical results across both devices – some solid performance with quite good photos.
Only the Galaxy S24 has a real telephoto camera, which it uses to take photos with 3x optical zoom.
Galaxy S24: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x
iPhone 15: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
Galaxy S24: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x
iPhone 15: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
The Galaxy S24 and the iPhone 15 capture equally great selfies.
Galaxy S24 • iPhone 15
The nighttime photos are good. The ultrawide camera on the Galaxy S24 saves better photos, clean of noise and has a wider dynamic range.
Then we have the main iPhone camera, which offers slightly better photos with more proficient noise reduction and sometimes – wider dynamic range.
The iPhone has no zoom camera, but its 2x zoom photos are quite good nonetheless.
Galaxy S24: 0.6x • 1x • 3x
iPhone 15: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
Video recording quality
The video capturing on both smartphones is great, with various options available. The Galaxy S24 can do 8K videos, something the iPhone can’t do. However, Apple offers a better implementation of its Cinematic mode, which creates a blurred background behind your subject to mimic a professional camera.
The ultrawide camera on the Galaxy S24 shoots better daylight videos with more detail, higher sharpness and more natural rendition. But the iPhone’s main camera beats the Galaxy’s with more natural processing, resolved detail, and natural colors.
The iPhone’s 2x zoomed video is quite nice, even if it doesn’t match the detail, sharpness and field of view of the Galaxy’s 3x zoom.
Galaxy S24: 0.6x • 1x • 3x
iPhone 15: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
Finally, the two cameras save good nighttime videos with the primary camera and their zoomed levels, but the ultrawide camera on the Galaxy S24 captures better video with a lower noise level.
Galaxy S24: 0.6x • 1x • 3x
iPhone 15: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
Verdict
Choosing between the Galaxy S24 and the iPhone 15 is not as easy. We know our readers will consider the lack of a 120Hz display refresh rate as an instant turn-off, but believe it or not, a lot of buyers don’t care about that because they cannot perceive the difference or just don’t care.
The iPhone has never been about the latest technology but the whole package, and the iPhone 15 is an excellent all-around compact smartphone with top-quality design, display, speaker, performance, cameras, and even battery life! The power of iOS cannot be ignored either, as it is one of the reasons many people are getting iPhones.
The Galaxy S24 is also an excellent smartphone, with an arguably cleaner design, more fluid display, more powerful hardware, faster charging, more cameras, and longer software support with plenty of AI tricks. It is easily likable from the get-go.
We cannot ignore the multiple aspects where the Galaxy S24 is simply the better phone – more powerful chipset, an optical zoom cameras, a faster display, and quicker charging. It’s also cheaper in many markets. And for that, it scores an honest win here. But still, the iPhone 15 is not that far behind.
Get the Samsung Galaxy S24 for:
The larger and smoother display with a smaller notch.
The longer call time.
The faster charging.
The reverse wireless charging.
The more powerful chipset with theoretically longer software support.
The telephoto camera.
The 8K@30 and 4K@120 video recording.
Android OS
Get the Apple iPhone 15 for:
The tougher build and better ingress protection.
The higher-resolution display, Dolby Vision.
Face ID security.
The longer battery life.
The better speakers.
The higher-res 24MP photos.
Apple iOS.