People hold onto older flagship phones because they assume premium devices always outperform cheaper ones. Today, we proved that theory wrong. We took the brand new $549 Samsung Galaxy A57 and tested it against the $1,200 Galaxy S24 Ultra. Both phones have a 5,000mAh battery. But the cheaper phone won the drain test by a massive margin.
I am Ameer Hamza, and at Global Tech Press, we love testing the exact scenarios that smartphone brands never talk about on stage.
This Galaxy A57 vs S24 Ultra comparison shows exactly how fast mid tier technology is catching up.
The Battery Drain Test Setup
To make this fair, we set both phones to 50 percent brightness and connected them to the same Wi Fi network.
Both devices feature a 5,000mAh battery. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is running on a two year old Snapdragon chip, while the A57 runs on the brand new Exynos 1680. We ran a continuous loop of 4K YouTube videos, followed by one hour of Genshin Impact, and then continuous web scrolling.
If you own an older flagship, you should read how we finally Galaxy S24 Ultra battery drain fixed to see how updates affect older hardware.
The Shocking Results
The Galaxy S24 Ultra powered down completely at the 8 hour and 12 minute mark.
The Galaxy A57 was still sitting comfortably at 18 percent battery. It continued running for another hour and 45 minutes before finally shutting off. The total screen on time for the cheaper phone was just shy of 10 hours.
In this Galaxy A57 vs S24 Ultra test, the $549 phone embarrassed the former flagship.
Why the Cheaper Phone Won
The secret comes down to display resolution and thermal management.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra pushes pixels to a massive 1440p display, which requires significantly more power. The Galaxy A57 uses a highly optimized 1080p panel that draws far less energy. Combine that with the efficiency of the new Exynos 1680, and the math heavily favors the newer device.
We actually documented the thermal improvements inside the A57 when we confirmed the Galaxy A57 5G has 13 bigger vapor chamber recently.
Does This Mean Flagships Are Useless?
Not at all. The S24 Ultra still takes vastly superior photos and offers S Pen functionality.
But this test proves a vital point about 2026 smartphones. If your only goal is longevity and reliability, spending over a thousand dollars is no longer necessary. The technology trickling down to the $500 bracket is officially outperforming older premium hardware.
If you want to see how this mid tier phone compares to its direct predecessor, check out our Samsung Galaxy A57 5G comparison with A56. Stop overpaying for battery life you can get for half the price.
Written by Ameer Hamza
Tech Analyst and Founder of Global Tech Press. Currently expanding the GTP hardware testing labs and building the next generation of digital tech media.
