This is a battle of two plus-sized phones, both of which represent a strange concept in flagship smartphone books. Offering a large screen, while cutting a corner or two to save people some money.
It wasn't always like this. Samsung started with the S9+ as a more premium alternative to the regular flagship, but then the Ultra took on this role. Apple also had something similar in the early days, the iPhone 6 Plus started the trend only to be replaced by the Pro Max as the ultimate flagship.
Now these Plus models serve as a bridge between the vanilla flagship in the series and the top-tier offering. And today we're going to pit against each other the iPhone 16 Plus and the Galaxy S24+. Which one offers the best bang for your buck? Read on to find out!
iPhone 16 Plus vs Galaxy S24 Plus differences explained:
iPhone 16 Plus
Galaxy S24 Plus
Similar size and weight
Similar size and weight
Same screen size, but only 60Hz refresh rate
Same 6.7-inch screen but with 1-120Hz dynamic refresh rate
Dual camera, only wide and ultrawide
Triple camera, including a dedicated macro camera
Less memory in the base version (6GB)
More memory in the base version (12GB)
128GB base storage, no microSD card slot
More base storage starting at 256GB
A smaller 4,674 mAh battery
Larger 4,900 mAh battery that will potentially deliver better battery life
They look similar, don't they? (Image by PhoneArena)
Just like with the previous generation, the iPhone 16 Plus and the Galaxy S24 Plus are just larger versions of their respective base models. Both of these also follow the design language of their predecessors, with the iPhone 16 Plus tweaking the camera bump design a bit, going for vertically arranged wide and ultrawide cameras, and the Galaxy S24 Plus using the same separate cutout design for each camera on the back.
As far as materials, size, and weight are concerned, these two are pretty close. They both use glass and aluminum, they weigh almost the same, and the size of the screens on both phones is identical, leading to similar dimensions as well.
Samsung went for a boxier design with flatter sides and back with the S24 series, so now the Galaxy S24 Plus feels more similar in the hand to the iPhone 16 Plus than ever before. When it comes to colors, there are some differences, with the S24 Plus offering a tad more choice and more vibrancy as well.
Finally, it's worth mentioning that the iPhone 16 Plus comes with a dedicated camera shutter button, which Apple calls the Capture Button. The Galaxy S24 Plus lacks such hardware, so if you like camera controls on a button, you might be leaning toward the iPhone 16 Plus already.
The 60Hz refresh rate ruins the show for Apple (Image by PhoneArena)
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
Moving to the displays of both phones, we find something very, very sad. Apple has once again refused to equip its vanilla and Plus models with high refresh rate displays, and we're stuck with 60Hz on the iPhone 16 Plus. And that's a big minus, if you ask us. The Galaxy S24 Plus comes with an OLED screen of the same 6.7-inch size, but it's a LTPO panel and can dynamically switch between 1 and 120Hz.
Looking at the display measurements above, it's plain to see that Apple has managed to pull off the 1-nit minimum display brightness claim, but the iPhone 16 Plus falls short in terms of maximum brightness. The Galaxy S24 Plus is 200 nits brighter and when we factor in the variable refresh rate, we have a clear winner.
Performance and Software
Can the Gen 3 for Galaxy take on the A18?
Graphics scores are pretty close! (Image by PhoneArena)
The iPhone 16 Plus comes equipped with the new Apple A18 chip, which is faster and more energy efficient that its predecessor - the A17 chip. It's a silicon made using 3 nm technology, and for the first time in many years, the gap to the Pro models is not that big. How does this new A18 chip performs compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 though? Furthermore, the Galaxy S24 Plus comes with a slightly overclocked version of the aforementioned 8 Gen 3 chipset, dubbed "for Galaxy," and offers slightly better performance, compared to vanilla version. The benchmarks are in!
Unsurprisingly, Apple managed to maintain its lead in single and multicore CPU performance. The iPhone 16 Plus is a beast (when it comes to synthetic benchmarks that is). That being said, the gap in graphic performance is gone. Not only that but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 scores higher than the A18. The real-life performance of both phones is top-notch, so outside of benchmarks you probably won't notice any difference.
The RAM situation is in favor of the Galaxy S24 Plus, as it comes with 12GB of RAM, but the difference in architecture, ecosystem, and how iOS and Android treat apps make such comparison irrelevant. Some hard numbers will occupy this spot as soon as we test the iPhone 16 Plus.
Now, when it comes to software, things are even more complicated. The Galaxy S24 Plus comes with Galaxy AI onboard, and as we already know, AI is the big thing in smartphone tech nowadays.
The iOS 18.1 update in October brought the long awaited Apple Intelligence to the iPhone 16 lineup, introducing features like notification summaries, enhanced writing tools, and a Clean Up option in Photos. Next, we got iOS 18.2, which added ChatGPT integration, Visual Intelligence, Image Playground, Genmoji, and Image Wand. Siri will also be getting much more engaged, with inter-app integration and supposedly better comprehension skills for requests, powered by Apple's new AI algorithms. But that'll happen in March with iOS 18.3.
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The Galaxy S24 Plus also comes with seven years of major OS updates, while the iPhone 16 Plus offers only five, so even though there's a good gap between these two phones in favor of the iPhone 16 Plus, which is more than 6 months newer, in the end, the Galaxy S24 Plus wins on the longevity front. We do expect the S24 Plus to get whatever Galaxy AI features come out with the upcoming Galaxy S25 series.
Camera
Three is still more than two
The dedicated telephoto camera of the Galaxy is a big Plus (Image by PhoneArena)
The iPhone 16 retains the same dual camera setup as its predecessor. Apple upgraded the main camera sensor of the last generation non-Pro iPhones with a 48MP main camera, capable of taking high resolution 24MP images, and this comes to the iPhone 16 Plus as well.
The ultrawide camera is the same 12MP snapper, although with a faster f/2.2 aperture and 13mm focal length equivalent (on the last model we had f/2.4), so we don't expect huge differences in image quality.
The Galaxy S24 Plus, on the other hand, comes with a triple camera setup on its back, Samsung is sticking to this setup despite rumors that the company might switch to a dual main camera system on its non-Ultra phones.
The main camera is a 50MP sensor under a lens with f/1.8 and a 24mm focal length equivalent. The ultrawide camera is very similar to what the iPhone 16 Plus has. It's a 12MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture, and a pixel size of 1.4 μm. The field of view should be very similar, as this camera has a 13mm focal length as well.
The Galaxy S24 Plus has an ace up its sleeve in the form of a telephoto camera. It's 10MP and capable of doing 3x optical zoom. The iPhone 16 Plus relies on sensor crops to get 2x optical-like zoom, so there is a clear advantage in flexibility and zoom level for the Galaxy S24 Plus.
Main Camera
< iPhone 16 PlusGalaxy S24 Plus >
There's a difference in white balance between the two phones; the iPhone 16 Plus produces much warmer photos with lots of yellow and red tint, while the Galaxy S24 Plus get the colors a bit more neutral. What's also apparent is that the samples from the Galaxy seem brighter sometimes to the point of overexposure, and this also leads to lack of detail and dynamic range.
< iPhone 16 PlusGalaxy S24 Plus >
We can see the same here, the iPhone 16 Plus sample is warmer and it's almost like a cinematic filter has been applied post. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but it looks different to the bright and neutral photo from the Galaxy.
Zoom Quality
< iPhone 16 PlusGalaxy S24 Plus >
When it comes to zoom photos, the Galaxy S24 Plus has a clear advantage thanks to the dedicated 3x telephoto lens and it shows in the samples. There's more detail in the shots and they look much more crisp and clear, while the iPhone 16 Plus samples are soft and even a bit blurry, especially next to the ones made with the Galaxy.
Ultra-wide Camera
< iPhone 16 PlusGalaxy S24 Plus >
The ultrawide samples are the ones that we find the closest in terms of overall quality. Here the difference is limited mainly to the color reproduction, preserving the warmth we saw in previous iPhone 16 Plus samples. As far as details are concerned, here the two phones managed to pull out a very similar level of detail and dynamic range.
Selfies look good on both phones and here once again the post processing algorithms and color settings make the big difference. The Galaxy S24 Plus selfies look brighter and sometimes background light sources tend to be overexposed, while the iPhone 16 Plus preserves the warmer tonality and you get an HDR feel from the photos.
Battery Life and Charging
Capacity is capacity
Win for the Galaxy, unless you're watching videos all day (Image by PhoneArena)
Now, even though the Galaxy S24 Plus has a bigger battery on paper, this doesn't mean that battery life would be better. We've seen this time and again with other iPhone models, the Pro Max being a good example.
The aforementioned Galaxy S24 Plus comes with a 4,900mAh battery, and even though the iPhone 16 Plus battery capacity wasn't disclosed during the “It’s Glowtime” event, subsequent teardowns revealed a 4,674 mAh battery inside the Apple device, which is a 6.6% bump up in capacity compared to the previous model. Will it be enough to challenge the almost 5,000mAh cell inside the Galaxy S24 Plus? Let's find out!
Well, you can't beat physics and capacity is capacity. The Galaxy S24 Plus managed three more hours of web browsing and and hour and a half of gaming. The video streaming result is in favor of the iPhone 16 Plus, as Galaxy devices have proven not that efficient in that particular scenario.
When it comes to charging, the iPhone 16 Plus does nothing to the wired charging speeds, the phone still charges with around 26W and Apple still cites 50% in 35 minutes, and we were able to confirm that claim. What's interesting is that the iPhone 16 series apparently supports faster charging speeds in certain scenarios, like using a power-hungry app while charging. We measured around 38W in these circumstances and it's really interesting why Apple decided not to allow faster charging at all times.
The Galaxy S24 Plus comes with 45W wired charging support and gets from 0 to 100% in a little over an hour, or around 30 minutes faster than the iPhone.
Specs Comparison
Here's a specs comparison between the Apple iPhone 16 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus. For a deep dive, head to our full comparison on PhoneArena.
iPhone 16 Plus
Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus
Size, weight
160.9 x 77.8 x 7.8 mm, 199g
158.5 x 75.9 x 7.7 mm, 197g
Screen
6.7" OLED 60Hz
6.7" Super AMOLED 1-120Hz
Processor
A18 3nm
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy 4nm
RAM, Storage
8/128GB 8/256GB 8/512GB
LPDDR5
12/256GB 12/512GB
LPDDR5
Cameras
48MP main 12MP ultra
12MP front
50MP main 12MP ultra 20MP telephoto
12MP front
Battery
4,674 mAh
4,900 mAh
Charging
USB-C 26W wired MagSafe
USB-C 45W wired 15W wireless
Which one should you buy?
That's a difficult question, as always. The iPhone 16 Plus is a powerhouse with the new A18 chipset and comes with Apple Intelligence onboard (albeit coming in stages). The Galaxy S24 Plus, on the other hand, is a very good competitor, and for many people it is the better choice despite its more expensive price tag of $999.
The iPhone 16 Plus is a little cheaper starting at $899, but also lacks a few features compared to the Galaxy. The things that make the S24 Plus stand out are the extra telephoto camera, the Galaxy AI suite, and the potentially better battery life and charging. Oh, and the screen does 1-120Hz as well. We can't believe that in 2024 we have a flagship phone that runs on 60Hz refresh rate.
So, here a hundred bucks more will get you one more camera and a better screen, and also seven years of support, plus AI features that are ready to use. We think the Galaxy S24 Plus has a slight edge in the end.
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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