Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22: How Samsung’s flagship phone changed in just 2 years

A Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22 comparison can help you decide if it's time to upgrade to a new phone. After all, it's been two years since the S22's release, which used to be about the time most people started considering a new handset.

Of course, we're holding on to smartphones for longer stretches these days — the average is around three years depending on who's doing the counting. And if you've got a Galaxy S22, you have what is still a very capable smartphone with a powerful chipset and very good cameras. You can easily expect to get another year's use out of your phone if the latest Samsung flagships don't convince you to upgrade.

Samsung is hoping you will decide to splash out for its new phone, with the Galaxy AI features on board the Galaxy S24 being the primary motivator for a change in phones. But Samsung's flagship lineup has evolved in other ways, too, with design changes and new hardware that promise to improve performance and battery life from what the Galaxy S22 already delivers.

Now that we've had a chance to test Samsung's new phone for our Galaxy S24 review, we can properly compare the latest handset to its older counterpart. In this Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22 face-off, you can find out just exactly what improvements an upgrade can bring about.

Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22: Specs

Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22: Price

The Galaxy S24 starts at $799, which is the same price the Galaxy S22 debuted at two years earlier. (You can find a lower price through Galaxy S24 deals.) Keeping the same price as an earlier model may not seem like that big a deal, but it's more than the Galaxy S24 Ultra can claim after Samsung raised its price by $100 over its predecessor.

Over the years, the Galaxy S22's price has dropped, first by $100 when the Galaxy S23 came out in 2023. These days, you can find an unlocked version of the phone for less than $500 — an appropriate discount given that you would be paying for older hardware.

Winner: Draw

Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22: Design

Though only two years have passed between the release of the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S24, the appearance of the two phones feels like night and day. The S22 came out in the era when Samsung still used a raised area to set apart its rear cameras from the back of the phone. These days, the camera lenses on the Galaxy S24 poke out seamlessly from the handset's back panel. While I like the contour cut design Samsung used two years ago, I find the S24's look to be cleaner and more seamless.

The Galaxy S22 marked a switch to aluminum and glass for the entry-level Galaxy S flagship, a trend that the Galaxy S24 continues. The newer model uses the more durable Gorilla Glass Victus 2 as opposed to Gorilla Glass Victus Plus for the S22. Still, we'd suggest one of the best Galaxy S24 cases to keep your phone looking sharp should you end up upgrading.

Colors haven't evolved all that much over the years, with the Galaxy S24 coming in black, gray, violet and yellow options, along with three exclusive colors only available through Samsung (blue, green and orange, to be specific). That compares to black, white, green, rose gold and purple for the Galaxy S22.

Winner: Galaxy S24

Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22: Display

Samsung shrunk the bezels around the Galaxy S24's display, which has made more screen space available on that model. The S24 features a 6.2-inch panel, compared to 6.1 inches on the Galaxy S22, even though both phones are about the same size. (The S24 is fractionally taller and wider, though you'd need microscopic vision to notice the difference.)

The more significant change has been to the brightness of the respective displays. When the Galaxy S22 debuted, it boasted a peak brightness of 1,300 nits. The Galaxy S24 ups that to 2,600 nits, and our testing reflects the improvement. Using a light meter, we registered 1,416 nits of brightness on the S24's screen, compared to 1,191 nits with the S22.

The Galaxy S24's screen is slightly more colorful than the panel on the Galaxy S22, with colors just about as accurate on both displays. A noteworthy improvement for the Galaxy S24 is that the refresh rate for the newer phone's display has a wider range. Like the S22's screen, the S24 panel can ramp up to 120Hz for smoother scrolling and more immersive gaming. But it can also slow down to 1Hz when activity is static, preserving battery life; the S22 can only drop to 48Hz.

Winner: Galaxy S24

Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22: Cameras

Samsung made some major changes to the Galaxy S22 camera setup two years ago, replacing the 12MP sensor used for the main camera with a 50MP version. The sensor was larger, too, to let in more light and improve the quality of photos in less favorable lighting conditions. The telephoto lens saw an improvement, too, as the Galaxy S22 traded a hybrid zoom for a 3x optical zoom.

Since then, Samsung has kept the hardware changes to a minimum, as the Galaxy S24 uses the same 50MP/12MP/10MP setup for its main, ultrawide and telephoto cameras. (The front camera changed with the Galaxy S23 to become a 12MP shooter instead of the 10MP front camera on the S22.) Instead, Samsung has focused on changes to its photo-processing algorithms as a way to improve image quality.

The Galaxy S24 tends to produce darker, richer colors in my experience, and you can see that in this photo of some tulips and oranges. The oranges look the same in either photo, but the tulip petals are a much deeper shade of red in the Galaxy S24, making for a more striking shot. It also helps that the S24 keeps things in sharper focus as some of the petals on the left side of the image look a little less defined.

We see that same issue with shot composition in this image of some waffles topped with fruit. The lighting's not ideal, as there's some sunlight streaming in from the right side of the photo. The Galaxy S24 managed to keep the shot in balance, while a little over-exposure has crept into the S22 photo. See how washed out the coffee pot looks in the background of the S22's effort. Once again, sharper focus is on display in the S24 shot, as the S22 leaves some of the bananas looking fuzzy around the edges.

I think the ultrawide cameras perform similarly, even if the S24 continues to favor darker colors. Here, the S22's lighter hand works to its advantage, as some of the more colorful houseboats pop out of the scene, and the water has a more mirror-like quality. I do think the iceplant in the foreground of the photo looks a little better with the S24's darker, richer coloring.

The Galaxy S22 continues to hold its own in this portrait shot, as the lighter colors make the statue stand out from the background. The Galaxy S24 also lets too much a shadow creep over the statue's face — a problem that might not have popped up had I been photographing a live subject. That said, I do prefer the background blur of the Galaxy S24 photo, which indicates the improvements made to Samsung's photo processing algorithms over the years.

The Galaxy S24 really outperforms its predecessor in the dark — surprising since the Nightography concept was first introduced with the Galaxy S22. Nevertheless, the S22 photo of two skeletons in an unlit basement is less focused when captured by the Galaxy S22. The S24 keeps the colors looking even, and you can make out more details in the background.

It's an even sharper contrast when I zoomed in by 3x — something the Galaxy S24 is able to handle with aplomb thanks to the camera phone's Pro Visual Engine. Its photo is a little dark, but it looks more natural as opposed to the artificial cast the Galaxy S22 uses to lighten the scene.

I don't think the Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22 camera differences are all that substantial, but the S24 does edge the S22 out in terms of image quality. You could get by with the S22's cameras, but you'll get better overall shots with the newer phone.

Winner: Galaxy S24

Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22: Performance

You always expect to see some performance improvement when comparing new phones with their predecessors, thanks to changes made to the system-on-chip powering the latest device. That's especially true of the Galaxy S24, which benefits from the advances Qualcomm made to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 silicon. The new chipset is a much better performer than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that's featured with the Galaxy S22. (Note that this applies to the North American releases of both phones; like the Galaxy S22, the Galaxy S24 uses an Exynos chipset for models released in other parts of the world.)

The Galaxy S24's single and multicore scores on Geekbench 6 are 2,235 and 6,922, respectively. Those are improvements of 35% and 87% over the Galaxy S22's results on those same tests. The Galaxy S24 also handles graphics much better, posting a result of 120.4 frames per second in 3DMark's Wild Life Unlimited benchmark. That's about double the 60-fps result of the Galaxy S22.

Improvements were more modest in our real-world test, in which we used Adobe Premiere Rush to transcode a video. Still, the Galaxy S24 handled the task faster, taking 41 seconds to the S22's 47-second time. In other words, the gain in performance over the past two years should be something you notice when using the Galaxy S24.

Winner: Galaxy S24

Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22: Battery life and charging

The improved Snapdragon chipset doesn't just help boost performance on the Galaxy S24 — it also helps the newer phone last longer.

For all its strengths, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was not known for its power efficiency, and the battery test results of the Galaxy S22 reflected that. When we had that phone surf the web over cellular, it ran out of power after 7 hours and 51 minutes, which was a little more than 2 hours shorter than the average phone's result. 

It is safe to say the Galaxy S24 improves upon that result. The new phone lasted 13 hours and 28 minutes or around 5.5 hours longer than the S22. Yes, the S24 has a bigger battery at 4,000 mAh to the 3,700 mAh power pack inside the Galaxy S22. But that only explains some of the improvement — the rest goes to the better power management features Qualcomm has added to its silicon.

Both the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S24 charge at the same 25W speed when using a wired connection. But you'll be turning to a charger far less often with the Galaxy S24, as it's earned a spot on our best phone battery life list.

Winner: Galaxy S24

Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22: Software

We've talked about the significant improvements to battery life and overall performance over the last two years. But it may be the software capabilities of these two phones that are the most different.

On paper, that shouldn't be the case, as the Galaxy S22 is now running Android 14, which came preinstalled on the Galaxy S24. But the S24 has something the S22 doesn't — AI-powered features that simplify a lot of common smartphone tasks.

If you want to search for something on the Galaxy S24, all you have to do is circle an image of it, and a Google results window will pop up in your current app. You can also have AI auto-format your notes, summarize your audio recordings and even help you move around objects in photos you're editing. None of these capabilities are available to the Galaxy S22, and they're not likely to appear via software update.

Speaking of updates, the Galaxy S22 made waves by extending support to four years of Android updates with an extra year of security support. At the time, that was the best support available to an Android device, but that's child's play to the Galaxy S24. Samsung's new phone will receive software and security support for the next seven years, so you'll be able to hold on to this device for as long as you want.

Winner: Galaxy S24

Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22: Verdict

No one would really expect the Galaxy S22 to top the Galaxy S24 in any category. You'd expect there to be improvements over the course of two years, and in that respect, the Galaxy S24 does not disappoint. It's the size of the gap between the two phones that raises eyebrows.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 vs. Galaxy S22 camera comparisons are probably the closest when we stack these two phones up against one another, with the S24 enjoying a slight edge. It's the other areas where Samsung's new phone is clearly the better option — by leaps and by bounds when it comes to battery life and performance, thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. And the Galaxy AI features make any software comparison a no-contest.

I'm a big believer in going as long as possible between phone upgrades. But it's very clear that switching from a Galaxy S22 to an S24 will be a big improvement in several key areas. You just get a better experience overall with the latest Samsung flagship.

More from Tom's Guide

• Samsung Galaxy S23 just tipped to get this Galaxy S24 AI feature
• The Galaxy S24 is the first truly great Samsung flagship I've tested
• Which Galaxy should you get? S24 vs. S24 Plus vs. S24 Ultra