Let the battle of the compact flagships commence! Phones have generally been getting bigger and bigger for a while now. Proper compact flagships are bigger.
Phones have generally been getting bigger and bigger for a while now. Proper compact flagships are bigger now than they have ever been.
Today, we are looking at Google’s current Pixel 9 compared directly to the vanilla Samsung Galaxy S24. Both phones are compact by today’s standards and don’t cut back on any of the respective flagship features of their family. The Pixel 9 is the more expensive of the two devices, currently retailing for around € 750 for a base model, compared to about € 650 for a base Galaxy S24.Table of Contents:
For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the following text.Size comparison
As mentioned, both phones are considered compact flagships by modern standards. While they are pretty similar in their footprint, the Galaxy S24 is still smaller. It is shorter, narrower and thinner. Despite that, the difference in the display diagonal between the two phones isn’t that major – 6.2 inches on the S24 vs. 6.3 inches on the Pixel 9. Granted, with slightly different aspect ratios, but even so, the S24 arguably makes better use of the space, with noticeably thinner display bezels than the Pixel 9.
The most noticeable physical difference between the two phones is probably weight. The Galaxy S24 tips the scale at 167 grams, while the Pixel 9 is just shy of 200 grams. That said, the Pixel 9 packs a notably bigger 4,700 mAh battery, compared to the 4,000 mAh pack of Galaxy S24. So, we can’t exactly criticize the Pixel 9 too much for being heavier.
Design-wise, the two phones are actually surprisingly similar, rocking what we would describe as a « non-offensive » modern styling. Nicely rounded metal frames, glass backs and fronts, the usual. In our opinion, the camera island on the Pixel 9 is a bit more polarizing. It sticks out quite a bit from the rest of the phone’s body if nothing else.
Regarding materials, since we mentioned these briefly, the two phones are constructed quite similarly with an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 sheets on the front and back. Samsung has some lofty claims regarding its particular aluminum, but that’s neither here nor there. Both phones have excellent IP68 ingress protection.
Since this is as good a time as any, let’s briefly compare the overall connectivity of the two phones as well. Both have pretty stacked location services, including dual-band GPS support. Both phones also offer tri-band Wi-Fi, though the Pixel 9 supports the more modern Wi-Fi 7 standard, while the S24 is stuck on Wi-Fi 6e. Both phones also offer Bluetooth 5.3 with LE support and have NFC. Both phones also have fairly capable USB ports backed up by USB 3.2 Gen 1 connectivity (5 Gbps max), and even though it is not well documented on the Pixel 9, both phones also support Display Port video output. That said, Samsung has its superior dedicated DeX desktop environment.Display comparison
As already mentioned, the Pixel 9 has a slightly larger display of the two, though not by a lot. You are looking at a 6.3-inch diagonal at a 20:9 aspect ratio on the Pixel 9 and a 6.2-inch diagonal at a 19.5:9 aspect ratio on the S24.
Both panels also have very similar resolutions at FullHD+ and, hence, are similarly sharp in pixel density. Both panels also support a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate. That said, there is a small but potentially big difference in terms of efficiency here, namely that the Galaxy S24 uses LTPO tech for more dynamic refresh rate switching, which is lacking on the Pixel 9.
Both phones advertise very similar display brightness figures. However, our standardized testing discovered that the Pixel 9 Pro has a significant brightness advantage over the Galaxy S24. It manages to go as high as 2,232 nits, while the Galaxy S24 tops out at around 1,401 nits.
