Samsung Galaxy S24 vs iPhone 15: Which flagship phone will win?

Samsung Galaxy S24 vs iPhone 15: Which flagship phone will win?

Samsung's Galaxy S24 will take on the iPhone 15 at an event in San Jose next month.

Many of you are probably already firmly on Team Android or Team iOS, but if you are OS agnostic, which device is best for you? Here we compare the two devices based on the latest Galaxy S24 rumors and the iPhone 15's fully revealed specifications.

Note that if money were no object, you would probably want to compare the Samsung Galaxy S24 vs iPhone 15 Pro Max instead.

Apple's iPhone 15 starts at $799 for the 128GB version, rising to $899 for the 256GB model and reaching $1,099 if you need 512GB of storage.

Pricing for the Galaxy S24 is currently unknown, but Samsung has started at $799 for its last three Galaxy S devices, and it would be surprising if it felt the need to outprice Apple this time.

If correct, that would mean paying $859 for twice the storage; the 512GB model could reach four figures, but nothing compares to the S23 variant with that much capacity.

Samsung's Galaxy S24 is expected to rival the iPhone 15 with its OLED, but without the Galaxy S23's FHD+ resolution upfront, it is likely to edge Apple in terms of pixels per inch (PPI).

Assuming a slightly larger 6.2-inch screen with the same 2,340 x 1,080 resolution, this would equate to 416 PPI. The iPhone 15, on the other hand, has a 6.1" panel with a resolution of 2,556 x 1,179 and a PPI score of 460.

In other words, Apple wins. Not so fast: the iPhone 15 sticks to a 60Hz refresh rate, leaving the ProMotion display to the more expensive Pro series. The Samsung Galaxy S24's 120Hz panel should feel smooth enough to offset the slight difference in resolution.

Camera performance is more than raw specs, but the Samsung Galaxy S24 should also have an edge over Apple in the photography field.

The leak points to no hardware upgrade for Samsung's triple camera array. That means we are expecting a 50MP main sensor, supported by a 12MP ultra-wide lens and a 10MP 3x telephoto lens for long-distance shooting.

The iPhone 15, on the other hand, has only two lenses: a 48MP wide sensor and a 12MP ultra-wide lens. There is no dedicated telephoto lens, but the 48MP one can crop the frame to take 2x optical quality shots.

In terms of performance, the recent trend is probably an easy win for Apple. However, now that non-Pro iPhones are using last year's chipset, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will essentially be fighting a year-old hardware in the iPhone 15 vs. Galaxy S24 battle.

So while the A17 Pro still appears to have the edge over Qualcomm, the A16 Bionic in the regular iPhone 15 is likely to lose this time, no matter what the leaked benchmarks say. However, the waters are somewhat murky because the S24 is said to feature Samsung's own Exynos 2400 chipset in some regions.

Frankly, it is unlikely that we will see much difference between the two, as differences tend to show up more clearly in dedicated benchmarks than in everyday use.

What could make a difference is Samsung's decision to employ artificial intelligence in the S24 series. Samsung already boasts AI's ability to translate calls in real time, and it appears to be just the tip of the iceberg, with the potential to change photo editing and search as well.

Both models are likely to be among the best smartphones you can buy in 2024. And while Samsung may have the technological edge in some key areas, your choice is more likely to come down to personal preference than anything else; some people prefer iOS over Android, and vice versa.

The wild card, though, is artificial intelligence. If Samsung can successfully incorporate AI, it could be genuinely transformative. We will know more when the S24 is launched in January 2024.

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