Samsung Galaxy S24 vs Samsung Galaxy S21: Should you upgrade?

The Samsung Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus were announced on January 17, 2024, and are currently available for pre-order. If you plan to get either of these phones, now is a great time to do so, with Samsung’s pre-order offers, including $100 of Samsung store credit, a free storage upgrade, and enhanced trade-in deals. Once the devices go on general sale on January 31, the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus will be priced starting at $799 and $999, respectively.

The standard and Plus model starting prices remain unchanged, with the S21 and S21 Plus launching at $799 and $999, respectively, three years ago. However, the Galaxy S21 series smartphones are no longer on sale, but you can find used and refurbished models from third-party sellers on Amazon and other online stores, with prices around the $500 or $250 mark for a refurbished S21 Plus and standard S21.

The Galaxy S24 isn’t as big of an upgrade over the Galaxy S21 as you’d expect, even though the latter is three years old at this point. Yes, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is a much faster processor, but the Snapdragon 888 is still capable enough. Most other hardware features, from the battery and charging speeds to RAM, storage, and dust and water resistance, remain the same.

The S24 does get a solid camera upgrade, though, with its 50MP primary camera, 10MP telephoto lens, and 12MP ultrawide shooter, and made even better with Galaxy AI’s camera features, which includes Samsung’s take on Magic Editor. But the Galaxy S21, with its 12MP main camera, 64 telephoto lens, and 12MP ultrawide, was one of the best of its time and remains excellent, even if it won’t have all the software bells and whistles of the new smartphones.

It’s on the software side where the majority of the changes are. One UI 6.1, based on Android 14, brings Galaxy AI and interesting features like live translation, transcription services, chat assistance, webpage summarization, and more. Samsung’s software commitment to the Galaxy S24 series is also impressive, with seven years of major OS and security updates. On the other hand, the Galaxy S21 has another year of OS updates and a couple of years of security updates remaining.

Ultimately, unless you want to get your hands on the latest and greatest, or there’s a great trade-in deal, you could hold on to the Galaxy S21 for another year or so.

The story on the Plus side of things is completely different, though. While with previous iterations, the Galaxy S Plus was essentially the standard version with a larger display and battery, the Galaxy S24 Plus is a much better attempt at bridging the gap between the standard S24 and S24 Ultra.

The Galaxy S24 Plus has a higher-resolution QHD+ display, faster 45W wired charging, and 12GB of RAM, compared to the S21 Plus’ FHD+ screen, 25W charging, and 8GB of RAM. That’s aside from the expected upgrades to the processor, better camera system, the slew of new AI-driven software and camera features, and the significant software update commitment.

It’s still okay to hold on to the Galaxy S21 Plus if you’re happy with it. But if you’re looking for a true upgrade, you get one when jumping from the S21 Plus to the Galaxy S24 Plus.