Samsung Galaxy S26 Pro vs Galaxy S24: Two generations apart

Samsung is about to change the S-series lineup once again next year, introducing the first “Pro” model in the form of the Galaxy S26 Pro. This move is probably necessitated by the main competition (Apple and Google) having “Pro” devices in their lineup, but the potential death of the vanilla entry model still feels a bit strange.Even at this early stage (Galaxy S devices normally launch around January-February), we have a pretty good idea of what the Galaxy S26 will look like and what specs this new phone will have. Send your letters of gratitude to the rumor mill.

Getting out a Pro model poses a couple of questions. What would make the Galaxy S26 good enough for the new moniker? And how would it compare to the previous base models from the same series? Today, we’re focusing on the Galaxy S26 Pro vs the Galaxy S24, as this two-year gap is still one of the most common upgrade periods when it comes to smartphones.

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Thanks to the leaked renders from a couple of days ago, we know what the Galaxy S26 Pro will look like, and it’s not a huge change. There’s a new camera aisle, which reminds us of the pill-shaped camera bump of Xperia phones.

In comparison, the Galaxy S24 features separate cutouts for its three cameras, and it’s a classy and clean design. The S24 is also a bit more compact thanks to the smaller screen, and it might be lighter as well, but we still don’t know the exact weight of the Galaxy S26 Pro.

*rumored

The building blocks of the Galaxy S26 Pro are expected to be metal and glass, namely aluminum and some form of Gorilla Glass. The Galaxy S24 comes equipped with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on its front and back. We might get some kind of antireflective coating, though, as it’s time to trickle down the technology and slap it on non-Ultra Galaxy models.We still don’t have any information on the color palette of the Galaxy S26 Pro, other than the deep blue hue we saw on the renders. The Galaxy S24 available colors are as follows: Onyx Black, Marble Grey, Cobalt Violet, Amber Yellow, Jade Green, Sandstone Orange, and Sapphire Blue.

In terms of display size and technology, the Galaxy S26 Pro is expected to feature a slightly bigger 6.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, and even though we don’t know the exact resolution and pixel density, chances are the new phone will follow in the footsteps of the previous models. The brightness figures might be a bit higher, but we’ll have to see and, most importantly, test the new phone in our lab.

Speaking of testing, the Galaxy S25 managed to output 1345 nits at 100% APL, pretty impressive. The S24 features an FHD+ screen with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels and a pixel density of around 416 PPI.

There’s some good news and some bad news, depending on where in the world you live and whether or not you like Exynos chipsets. The Galaxy S26 Pro is expected to launch with an Exynos 2600 chipset in International markets, and the new and mighty Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in China and the US.  

Geekbench scores of the new Qualcomm silicon are already out there, showing blazing fast performance. The single-core score of the chip lies around 3800 points, while the multi-core performance is at the impressive 12400 points.

In comparison, the Galaxy S24 features the two-year-old Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (in the US, Canada, and China) and the Exynos 2400 internationally. The Qualcomm score of the S24 is around 2400 points in single-core and around 7000 points in multi-core performance, so we’re talking about a big jump, almost two times bigger on the new Galaxy S26 Pro.

*rumored

In terms of RAM, the new model will expand the memory to 16GB from the 8GB on the S24. The on board storage configurations are expected to remain the same (although there are some rumors about Samsung dropping the 128GB version).

Given the Galaxy S26 Pro is expected to launch in late January 2026, the operating system on board will be Android 16 with Samsung’s OneUI 8 on top. The Galaxy S24 launched with Android 14 and OneUI 6 back in 2024, but the phone has been brought to Android 16 with the recent updates. There are still five years of support left for the S24, and the Galaxy S26 Pro is expected to receive major Android versions all the way up to 2033.

After sticking with the same camera system in the past two generations, Samsung is gearing up for an update. The Galaxy S26 Pro is expected to bring a brand-new ultrawide camera to the table, and it will be a 50MP snapper – a big upgrade over the 12MP found on the Galaxy S24 (and on the S25 as well).

The main camera will most likely remain the same—it’s a 50MP wide-angle camera with an aperture of f/1.8 and a 1/1.56″ sensor size. Samsung thought about removing the dedicated telephoto, but it seems that the 10MP 3X zoom camera will be present on the Galaxy S26 Pro, which is a good thing—thumbs up for that.

*rumored

There’s a slight battery upgrade coming to the Galaxy S26 Pro. It’s nothing radical, just 300 mAh on top of the 4,000 mAh battery that the past two generations have. We don’t think Samsung is ready to incorporate silicon-carbon tech in the Galaxy lineup just yet, and while other flagships now offer 7,300 mAh batteries (the OnePlus 15), the Galaxy S series is lagging behind.

The Galaxy S24 managed a battery life estimate of 6h 37m, which put it at 85th place among phones tested in the past 2 years. That’s a disappointing result, and many people find the battery life of the vanilla S-series phones a bit underwhelming. We’ll have to see if 300 mAh makes a significant difference.

*rumored

These two phones are two years apart, but even at this early stage we can clearly see that the upgrades are not that huge. The latest chipset will make an appearance on the Galaxy S26 Pro, and it will be fast, no doubt about it, and there will be a new ultrawide camera, coupled with a slightly larger battery. But that seems to be it.

Should you upgrade then if you’re still rocking the Galaxy S24? Well, probably not, as there are five years left in that model, and the real-life difference won’t be that huge, we reckon. Of course, we need to test the Galaxy S26 Pro in our lab and give you all the nerdy data before passing on a final verdict, but as it stands now, there’s not a lot of “pro” to this new phone.