The budget smartphone market has a new contender that’s turning heads—the itel S24. With its eye-catching design and intriguing features, this device promises to deliver more than its price tag suggests. From the moment I unboxed it, the S24 impressed with its vibrant color-changing capabilities, reminiscent of last year’s standout S23.
This year, itel takes things a step further with a refined design and upgraded internals. But does it live up to the hype? Let’s dive into the detailed review of the itel S24 to find out if it truly redefines the budget smartphone experience.
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Design and Build Quality
The design hasn’t changed much from the S23. We still get a circular camera module, but this time the module is much bigger and there’s a gold ring around it. We also get some itel branding, except this time it says “designed by itel” in small text and “Super” in bold. This year, the phone comes in three colors: black, blue, and, of course, white. They all look good in their own way, but if you want the color-changing effect, you would have to go with the white one.
Ports and buttons are also the same as on the S23. We have the side-mounted fingerprint sensor on the right, which works fine, and the volume buttons just above it. There’s also the headphone jack, the microphone, and the Type-C port, all at the bottom.
Fun fact: Even though the headphone jack is present, the S24’s box does not include wired earphones, which were included with the S23. Thankfully, that’s the only thing they removed because we still get all the other accessories—a phone case, a charging adapter, and a charging cable.
On the S24, there’s a speaker grill at the bottom and another at the top, giving us dual speakers for the first time in an itel S Series device. To the left of the phone, there’s the SIM and SD card tray. It’s a regular dual-SIM tray that can hold two SIM cards and one SD card.
Display
Earlier, I mentioned giving the best design award to the S23. Some people disagreed, arguing that the S23 shouldn’t have won because of its ugly V-shaped notch. With the S24, itel listened. The S24 comes with a hole-punch cutout, finally. The bezels, though, are still huge, especially the chin, but at least the top of the phone looks much better now.
Aside from the notch, I don’t think the display has changed. This is still a 720p, 90Hz LCD display, which, for its price category, is okay. I’ve heard some people say they would rather have a 1080p, 60Hz display, but for me, I’d actually prefer a 720p, 60Hz AMOLED display. What about you?
If we focus on what we get with the S24, the display is fine. It’s basically the same as the P55 Plus. For a $100 smartphone, it’s decently sharp and has decent colors. It’s not super vibrant or super detailed, but it’s fine. You can’t really complain.
Performance
One thing people tend to complain about with the itel S Series is the processor choice. For a while, itel has used Unisoc chipsets, which have been fine, but because Unisoc is not a very popular brand, people often ask why they don’t use MediaTek processors. With the S24, they did use a MediaTek processor—the Helio G91.
The G91 is a relatively new chipset, released in February 2024. It’s designed for entry-level 4G smartphones and is comparable to the Helio G88 and G85. So, no doubt it’s a step up from the Unisoc processor they used last year. However, it’s not a night-and-day difference. This performs somewhat similarly to the S23. It manages simple tasks decently well. It starts at 4GB of RAM, but I recommend getting at least the 8GB/128GB variant because the more RAM and storage you have, the better your experience will be.
For me, the performance has been okay. As I said, not a night-and-day difference. Apps open quickly, but not instantly. You can multitask and have multiple apps open, but if you leave them open for a while, they might need to restart. For gaming, the S24 did really well when I played Asphalt 9. The gameplay was smooth most of the time, with occasional frame drops. For this price point, you can’t really complain. This isn’t a gaming phone, but it can definitely play games. Performance is all right, but people need to remember that this is an entry-level budget phone, so they should have reasonable expectations.
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Cameras
The S24 comes with a 108MP main camera, a huge jump from the 50MP camera we had last year—more than twice the resolution. While it might not be twice as good, it is definitely better. By default, you’d be taking photos in the regular mode, which is 12MP, but if you want that extra detail, you can switch to the 108MP mode.
Most people shoot in the regular mode, so I did too for my tests. The images came out really nice about seven or eight times out of 10. In some photos, they were spot-on—the color, the details, the skin tone, HDR, everything was spot-on. But sometimes, it didn’t do so well, with occasional oversaturation. Overall, the cameras are pretty good but not consistent.
For video, it can shoot up to 2K at 30fps on both the main and selfie cameras. However, in that mode, you wouldn’t get any form of stabilization. To use Super Steady mode, you would have to switch to 1080p, which is still fine. Under favorable lighting conditions, the cameras perform decently well. But what do you think?
Battery Life
The battery life on the itel S24 is decent. It has a 5000mAh battery that lasts about 12 hours when streaming content and about five to six hours when gaming. For casual users, this would last an entire day, but if you’re a heavy user, you’ll need to charge before the end of the day.
The good news is we have faster charging this time. I believe it was 10W on the itel S23, but now it’s 18W. 18W isn’t crazy fast—it would take about two hours to fully charge—but at least it’s faster. Plus, they include the charger in the box for free.
Conclusion
The itel S24 starts at around $90. However, as mentioned earlier, you should go for at least the 8GB/128GB variant, which would cost you $110. It’s unfortunate that $100 is now the price of a budget phone, but putting that aside, the itel S24 does really well in this budget category.
It has several features that make it stand out, like the 108MP camera, which you don’t often see at this price point. However, the camera still needs to be tweaked to be more consistent. The processor also stands out—it’s not a gaming phone, but it can play games. And then there’s the color-changing feature, which is really interesting.
If you’re looking for a budget phone for your kids or even for yourself, this is definitely one you should consider. That’s my review of the itel S24.
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