If you’re reading these words, you probably typed “Samsung Galaxy S24 vs Google Pixel 8” into Google. In which case, you’re in the right place. And if you’re torn between Samsung’s 2024 superphone and Google’s current handset, we don’t blame you. With slick designs, powerful innards, and plenty of top-notch camera hardware on offer, it’s a tricky decision to make.
That’s why we’ve summarised their specs, pros, and cons, in our head-to-head comparison below. Once you’ve read through it all, you should have a better idea of which handset is best for you. Or maybe you’ll have decided that something fancier like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the way to go instead. Either way, let’s dive in.
Read more: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra hands-on review
Price & release date
The Samsung Galaxy S24 release date is 31 January, while the Google Pixel 8 has been out since October 12 2023. At the time of writing, the 128GB Galaxy S24 can be bought for £799 in the UK, and you can even snap up the 256GB version on offer for the same price (normally £849). In the US, you can buy the 128GB model for $800, and if you’re quick, you can take advantage of an early bird offer and grab the 256GB version of the Galaxy S24 for $800 too (normally $860). The Pixel 8 can be snapped up on Amazon for as little as £520 for the Rose version (or $549 on sale directly from Google), though other colour variants may cost a little more. The 256GB model is £759 on Amazon, but can be found on offer as well, while you can grab it for $609 directly from Google.
Given that the Galaxy S24 is the newer of the two handsets, it’s no surprise to see that it costs a l[little more than its Pixel rival. If you’re quick enough to snap it up on offer though, the price difference isn’t too bad, considering.
Design & display: Business in the front, party in the back
From the front, both handsets look strikingly similar, with pleasantly rounded corners and a central selfie cam cutout at the top of each screen. The S24 has gone for a cleaner iPhone-like look with its flat edges, and the rear is where the difference between the two handsets becomes very apparent.
The Galaxy S24 sticks to Samsung’s vertical camera lens setup, while The Pixel 8 opts for its more divisive horizontal bar. It’s all down to personal preference (we like both), but we imagine that more people will be drawn to the Galaxy S24’s safer, more minimalistic design. Both the Galaxy S24 and Pixel 8 are slathered in Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for increased durability, along with the benefit of IP68 water and dust resistance, which is always welcome. Samsung has also waxed lyrical about the Galaxy S24’s new ‘armor aluminium 2 frame’, which apparently offers improved drop and scratch resistance. Time will tell how it fares in the real world.
On the business end, they both feature 6.2in AMOLED displays, with the Pixel 8’s 1080 x 2400 resolution ever so slightly edging ahead of the Galaxy S24’s 1080 x 2340 offering. That’s 416 ppi vs 428 ppi, and if you can spot the difference at arm’s length, then congratulations on your eagle-like vision.
As for the rest of the screen specs, the Galaxy S24 is the clear winner. It has a variable refresh rate of 1-120Hz versus the Pixel 8’s 60-120Hz, which should make it more efficient in terms of power usage. It’s brighter too, outshining its Google rival with a peak brightness of 2600 nits versus 2000 nits.
Performance, battery, software: Homegrown power
When you compare two Android flagships, they tend to share the same silicon, normally in the form of a high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. But in this instance, we’ve got two homegrown chips living in each respective handset. In the Pixel 8 corner, we have Google’s own Tensor 3 processor — the company’s third-generation nine-core processor that’s capable of handling the latest games, multitasking, and AI wizardry.
In the US, the Galaxy S24 is rocking the more familiar (not to mention, beastly) Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy CPU, but for UK and the rest of Europe, it’ll instead have Samsung’s own Exynos 3400 for Galaxy chipset under the hood. Historically, Qualcomm’s offerings have bested their Exynos rivals in both power and efficiency, but we’ll have to wait until our full Galaxy S24 review to pass our final judgement. What we can confidently say, is that the chosen processors, combined with 8GB RAM each, should make for an equally snappy, fluid user experience.
On the battery front, the Pixel 8 has a significantly larger 4574mAh battery compared to the S24’s 4000mAh power cell. The Pixel 8 pro also has slightly faster wired and wireless charging speeds (27W/18W versus the Galaxy S24’s 25W/15W). We’ll have to see how much of a difference the Galaxy S24’s Exynos processor and 1-120Hz screen make in terms of battery and optimisation in our final review, but we’ll be pleasantly surprised if it manages to bridge the large capacity gap between the two devices.
In terms of software, Android purists will undoubtedly prefer the pure experience of Android 14 on the Pixel 8, while Samsung’s Android 14 experience has its own One UI 6.1 weaved throughout. Both handsets offer plenty of AI tricks, particularly on the photography front. Speaking of…
Cameras: Triple threat vs double trouble
The Galaxy S24 has a triple camera setup consisting of a 50MP main lens, a 12MP ultrawide, and a 10MP telephoto shooter with 3x optical zoom. This beats the Pixel 8’s double setup of a 50MP main shooter and 12MP ultrawide, on paper at least.
We still can’t determine whether Samsung’s extra hardware truly gives it the edge at this point, but given the Pixel 8’s impressive photography prowess, we don’t think it’ll be an easy fight. Still, there’s no denying the extra hardware versatility that Samsung is bringing to the table here, and it appears that the Galaxy S24 has plenty of weapons in the fight against Google’s AI smarts.
In a similar feature to the one found on the Pixel 8, the Galaxy S24 will also let you remove objects from photos, or even replace them. Swapping out an ugly coffee cup in a portrait shop for a vase of flowers, for example, could potentially be the sort of feature that might prove to be very useful. Again, we’ll have to reserve our final thoughts after we’ve taken the Galaxy S24 for a proper spin. We can pretty confidently say however, that both handsets won’t disappoint those after a premium smartphone photography experience.
Initial verdict
As we’ve mentioned multiple times throughout this comparison, we can’t give our final verdict until we’ve thoroughly reviewed the Galaxy S24. Being the newer handset, it does have a few notable hardware advantages, especially when it comes to the brighter screen, which also has more flexible refresh rates. The extra camera is another pretty big boon on paper as well.
It’s hard to ignore the larger battery capacity of the Pixel 8 though. But if Samsung’s camera can best Google’s, then the Galaxy S24 could very well come out on top. Stay tuned for our full review, and our definitive answer.
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