Compact smartphones are rare these days, and if you limit your search to the premium segment only, the choice becomes even more limited. Still, Apple and Samsung have the Apple iPhone 16 and Samsung Galaxy S24 that meet the criteria. One could argue that these phones don’t check all the boxes of a flagship device, but they’re close enough.
Both contenders are relatively cheaper than their more premium siblings, which is a sweet spot for some potential buyers. And finally, the Samsung vs Apple dilemma still remains in some markets, even if the vanilla iPhone 16 doesn’t have a great start as it asks for around €250 more than its direct rival in Europe and the difference evens out in the US. Widespread in.
Table of Contents:
- design
- Display
- battery life
- charge
- speaker test
- Display
- camera
- decision
For starters, you can compare the full specifications or continue straight to our editor’s assessment In the following text.
size comparison
Apple
iPhone 16
147.6 x 71.6 x 7.8 mm
(5.81 x 2.82 x 0.31 inches)
SAMSUNG
Galaxy S24
147.0 x 70.6 x 7.6 mm
(5.79 x 2.78 x 0.3 inches)
Even though the iPhone 16 and Galaxy S24 are made by two completely different companies, you’d be surprised at how many similarities you can find.
Both handsets are very similar size-wise, with the Galaxy S24 having a slight edge over the iPhone 16 as it is slightly narrower, shorter and thinner, while offering a larger display with more screen real estate. In short, you’re getting more display in the same footprint.
The vanilla iPhone 16 and Galaxy S24 also have a similar design language. The side frame and front and rear panels are flat and the camera lenses stick out. The build quality is, for all intents and purposes, comparable. Both devices use Corning-made glass panels for the front and back, which are attached to an aluminum side frame. Both bodies are IP68-rated, although Apple promises resistance to greater depths (1m vs 6m).
display comparison
Apple
iPhone 16
OLED
1179×2556
pixel
460
PPI
SAMSUNG
Galaxy S24
LTPO OLED
120 hz
1080×2340
pixel
416
PPI
The iPhone 16 and Galaxy S24 make no compromises when it comes to display quality. Both panels support the same HDR standards and both can get quite bright. According to our tests, the iPhone has a slight edge with 300 nits more.
However, the S24 wins this round with its 120Hz LTPO OLED. The iPhone 16 display will be set to a less than ideal 60Hz refresh rate in 2024.
battery life
When it comes to battery life, the iPhone 16 is the clear winner here. It dominates the Galaxy S24 on every front, but it’s particularly impressive in the web browsing scenario, where it beats the S24 with almost double the runtime. The iPhone 16 also posts significantly improved video playback and call scores.
It’s quite clear that if you value battery life the most, the iPhone 16 is the right choice here.
charging speed
Apple
iPhone 16
3561 mAh
15 min
33%
30 minute
59%
full
102 minutes
SAMSUNG
Galaxy S24
4000 mAh
15 min
29%
30 minute
59%
full
75 minutes
For the most part the iPhone 16 and Galaxy S24 offer equally fast charging solutions. Or should we say they are just as slow?
In any case, if you look carefully at the total time required to charge the device, the S24 beats the iPhone 16 by about 20 minutes. We’d say it’s sensibly faster.
However, the charging curve in the first 15 to 30 minutes is almost similar as both the devices will give you back around 60% charge in 30 minutes.
speaker test
The iPhone 16 and Galaxy S24 offer equally loud stereo speakers, but the iPhone 16 has the upper hand in terms of quality. It is quite clear that Apple’s phones have a warmer and deeper sound due to the well-pronounced bass. Even the voices are not suppressed.
The Galaxy’s speakers, on the other hand, lack lows and sound flat.
Display
The iPhone 16 runs on Apple’s A18 chip, while the Galaxy S24 gets the Exynos 2400. Apple’s new chip comes in non-Pro versions this year and promises substantial increases in performance, efficiency, and AI capabilities. Historically, Apple’s silicon offers better performance than its Android counterparts, but the 10-core Exynos 2400 also packs a punch. It also uses GPUs co-developed with AMD.
Apple
iPhone 16
3nm
128gb 8gb ram
base configuration
SAMSUNG
Galaxy S24
4nm
128gb 8gb ram
base configuration
Both handsets disappoint in terms of base storage. The S24 and iPhone 16 start at 8GB/128GB and go up to 8GB/512GB.
One small thing to keep in mind – the iPhone 16 has NVMe storage, while the S24 is based on UFS 3.1 for its base 128GB variant and UFS 4.0 for all others. In both cases, the S24 is slower than the iPhone 16. Not that storage speed is very important anyway.
benchmark performance
Apple
iPhone 16
geekbench 6
7,929
3d mark
3,997
SAMSUNG
Galaxy S24
geekbench 6
6,747
3d mark
4,183
One would expect the iPhone 16 to be an objectively more powerful device. And this is true for the most part. It trails the Galaxy S24 by 17% in the multi-core scenario of Geekbench 6, a pure CPU-bound benchmark test, while in GPU-heavy workloads like 3DMark Wildlife Extreme, it trails the S24 by 5%. Not a huge difference, but notable.
camera comparison
Both the iPhone 16 and Samsung Galaxy S24 have equally capable main cameras, each using a 48MP sensor. Where they differ more is in their telephoto and ultrawide setups. The Galaxy S24 is equipped with a 3x telephoto camera, giving it a slight edge in optical zoom range compared to the iPhone 16, which lacks a dedicated telephoto lens.
On the ultrawide front, both devices offer high-resolution performance, but the iPhone’s ultrawide has the added benefit of autofocus, a feature the Galaxy S24 lacks, which allows the iPhone to handle close-up shots more efficiently .
Selfie camera capabilities are also well-matched, with both phones having 12MP sensors and similar focal lengths, making them competitive for front-facing photos and video calls.
image quality
To be completely honest, there isn’t much competition here. The iPhone 16 produces better-looking pictures day and night with its main and ultrawide cameras. Photos at night look cleaner, more detailed, clear and with less noise if any.
iPhone 16: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
Galaxy S24: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x
The 2x crop zoom photos on the iPhone are so much better that it’s not unreasonable to think that a 3x crop from the iPhone will look better than a 3x telephoto still from the S24.
iPhone 16: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
Galaxy S24: 0.6x • 1x • 3x
Perhaps the only advantage the Galaxy S24 has is processing. Samsung’s phones generally produce more pleasing colors, even with the newer, more natural processing on the S24 series. iPhone photos are flattering.
video quality
The same applies for videos. The iPhone 16 clips are much better. They are faster, cleaner and resolve more detail.
Below we have some framegrabs of videos taken by the two phones at each focal length to make it easier to compare them with each other.
iPhone 16 video screengrab: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 1x
Galaxy S24 video screengrabs: 0.6x • 1x • 3x • 1x
decision
For the most part, the iPhone 16 is the better device. It lasts longer away from the charger; Its display is bright (though it doesn’t have high-refresh-rate support); It has better sounding speakers; It generally has a more powerful SoC, and offers a better camera experience overall.
The Galaxy S24’s smooth display, slightly faster charging, 3x optical zoom cam and low price are its only advantages. Your likely preference for Android may also help tip the scale, but if you’re one of those rare users who isn’t married to any ecosystem and has a disposable budget, the iPhone 16 is for you. The obvious choice.
- Bright display.
- As good a speaker as he is.
- The more powerful the CPU.
- Generally better camera experience.
- iOS ecosystem.
Get the Apple iPhone 16 for:
| 128gb 8gb ram | €866.00 |
£799.00 |
| 256GB 8GB RAM | €983.00 |
£899.00 |
| Show all prices | ||
- Smooth display.
- Slightly faster charging.
- Low price tag.
- Android ecosystem.
Get the Samsung Galaxy S24 for:
| 128gb 8gb ram | €649.00 |
£455.00 |
| 256GB 8GB RAM | €719.90 |
£605.00 |
| Show all prices | ||
