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The Samsung Galaxy S23 launched last February, but that didn’t stop our interest in the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra release date, and when it would hit the shelves.
The dust had barely settled on sales of the S23, and it may have been jumping the gun a little, but for those of you who may not have seen much difference between the S23 Ultra vs S22 Ultra, you may have been holding off upgrading last year, instead choosing to wait for what 2024 has in store.
And we wouldn’t blame you! It does seem like the changes are becoming more subtle each year across a number of smartphones, and we see more impactful upgrades when we compare to two generations back – case in point, the S23 Ultra and S21 Ultra.
But the wait to see a Samsung Galaxy 24 Ultra is over, and we can now we pinpoint an exact date for when the S24 series will be available to buy in store and online. We just don’t know an exact time.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra release window speculation
Looking at previous launches and to see if a pattern emerges narrowed down the release window to the earlier part of 2024.
- Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra – announced January 14, 2021, released January 29, 2021
- Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra – announced February 9, 2022, released February 25, 2022
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra – announced February 1, 2023, released February 17, 2023
As we’ve seen in the past, the new line of phones is typically announced at the Samsung Unpacked event, which takes place early in the year, around January or February. The S24 series was originally unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked 2024 event in San Jose, on January 17, which was when the pre order window opened for the Samsung S24 flagships.
The announcement dates and release dates didn’t appear to be set in stone, but they did give us an indication as to when we would expect an S24 Ultra to hit the scene. Based on the previous patterns we predicted that it’s likely there will be a 15 – 16 day window from announcement to release.
We originally predicted, following the S23 series release in 2023, that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra could be announced in early February 2024, and then released mid-February 2024, based on the last two years’ announcement patterns.
And while we were not far off, January 17 2024 saw the announcement of the new S24 line, with an official release date announced as January 31 2024 – aka today.
We didn’t think it was likely that this release date window would shift too much, as many of the big players in the smartphone industry tend to keep things fairly predictable – as you would have seen if you were waiting for the iPhone 15 or Google Pixel 7a, which were set to release in 2023. We expected Samsung to stick to the pattern of announcing and releasing a new line in the early half of 2024 – but we are pleasantly surprised at just how early in the year we got to see the S24 unveiled.
How the next Ultra improves upon the previous iteration will still be best determined after the phone is in the hands of the users, but we did expect to see more improvements to its camera, battery, and even maybe an upgrade to its powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. This speculation was tentatively supported by the alleged Geekbench 5 results leaked by @OreXDA for Exynos 2400 last year, that hinted to a big jump in performance.
Furthermore, our original speculation on improvements to camera performance were tentatively supported in those early days as some possible leaks were surfacing. Rumors were floating around that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra could come with a 1-inch camera sensor, which if true, could see a serious boost to image capture quality. For a full run-down of prices and specs check out our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra hub or find out where to buy Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra if you want to experience the new flagship personally.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra been confirmed yet?
At the time of writing – the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has been announced at the Samsung Unpacked event on January 17. The Samsung will be available to buy in store or online as of today, January 31.
Will the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra be better than the S23 Ultra?
It’s hard to be sure depending on what features you like and dislike about the S23 Ultra, but check out our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra hub to find out about all the changes that have been made to the new flagship.
