The Samsung Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Ultra will be here before you know it — quite literally, if some of the rumors about Samsung's plans for next years flagship are anything to go by.
While the latest Galaxy S phone is often thought of as a spring release, in recent years, that launch has come earlier and earlier. Maybe it's because Samsung wants to start the new year off with a bang or it wants to make people forget about the latest iPhone — or maybe for both of those reasons — but it's hard not to notice that Samsung's first big smartphone launch of the year has been inching forward in the calendar. And the Galaxy S24 sounds like it's going to continue that trend.
Here's what we know so far about a potential Galaxy S24 release date, guided by both rumors and what Samsung's done with past phone launches.
Samsung Galaxy S24 release date: What Samsung's done previously
It used to be pretty easy to time a Galaxy S announcement — just look on a calendar when Mobile World Congress was taking place and assume that Samsung would hold a press event during the global smartphone trade show. From 2014 through 2018, Samsung announced its new Galaxy phone at four of the five MWCs taking place in that span; the lone exception was 2017's Galaxy S8 launch.
Starting with the Galaxy S10 launch in 2019, though, Samsung began moving its phone launches earlier on the calendar. For the most part, that's meant a launch event in February, though on one occasion, the Galaxy S made an even earlier debut. In 2021, Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event for the Galaxy S21 took place on January 14 — keep in mind that was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most recently, the Galaxy S23 lineup made its debut on February 1 at an in-person event in San Francisco. That's the second earliest we've ever seen Samsung's flagship.
Actual release dates — when Samsung's phones start appearing on retail shelves — are also all over the map. The latest a Galaxy flagship has ever shipped was the Galaxy S8, which didn't land in users' hands until April 21, 2017 — nearly a month after Samsung's launch event.
In recent years, Samsung has tightened up the gap between when it announces a phone and when it ships. Earlier this year, the Galaxy S23 became available on February 17, a little more than two weeks after the Galaxy Unpacked event.
Samsung Galaxy S24 release date: What the rumors say
It's clear that Samsung has stopped treating the Galaxy S as a spring release, and rumors strong suggest that's going to continue with the Galaxy S24 release. We're expecting to see three models — the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Plus should join the standard flagship — with a release in early 2024.
Just how early, though? Back in September, a leaker by the name of Revegnus took to Twitter to claim that the Galaxy S24’s release "is expected to be brought forward by about a month" compared to the Galaxy S23. That would put the release squarely in January. More recently, Revegnus updated the time table with a more specific launch window for the Galaxy S24 — mid- to late January.
It's not just one Twitter leaker who expects a January launch for the Galaxy s24 series. A Seoul Economic Daily report from October also predicted an early 2024 release for the phones, with the accompanying Galaxy Unpacked event likely to take place in San Francisco.
Samsung Galaxy S24 release date: What we think
A January 2024 launch for the Galaxy S24 would certainly be keeping with Samsung's recent strategy of moving up its Galaxy S releases. That said, there are certain periods during the month that don't make a lot of sense for a phone event.
CES 2024 is slated to begin on Tuesday, January 9, and run through the rest of the week. Unless Samsung's planning an Unpacked event to conicide with the tech trade show, you'd figure that samsung would look elsewhere on the calendar.
The following week features the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday in the U.S. That falls on Monday, January 15, and while that wouldn't preclude Samsung from scheduling an Unpacked on either the following Tuesday or Wednesday, you'd imagine Samsung would want to avoid losing a day of event prep time to a national holiday.
That suggests the earliest Samsung might hold the Galaxy Unpacked event that will introduce us to the S24 series would be the week of January 22. Assuming a two-to-three week gap between when the phones actually ship, that would put the Galaxy S24 ship date in early February — still the earliest release since the Galaxy S21.
Of course, all that is guesswork based on a few rumors. We expect in the next couple of months to hear even more about the Galaxy S24 release date which will help us further pin down when to expect these anticipated smartphones from Samsung.
