The Samsung Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Ultra will literally be here before you know it, if you believe some rumors about Samsung's plans for next year's flagships.

It is often assumed that the latest Galaxy S phones will be released in the spring, but in recent years that release date has been moving earlier and earlier. Maybe it's because Samsung wants to start the New Year off with a bang, or because it wants us to forget about the latest iPhone, or maybe it's both, but it's hard not to notice that Samsung's first big smartphone release of the year is coming out a little earlier. And the Galaxy S24 seems to continue that trend.

Below is what we know so far about the potential launch date of the Galaxy S24, derived from both rumors and what Samsung has done with past phone launches.

It used to be very easy to time the Galaxy S launch: just look at the calendar where Mobile World Congress is held and assume that Samsung will hold a press event during the global smartphone trade show. 2014 to 2018. to 2018, Samsung has announced a new Galaxy phone at four of the five MWCs held during that period, with the only exception being the announcement of the Galaxy S8 in 2017.

However, starting with the 2019 Galaxy S10 announcement, Samsung began to accelerate the timing of its phone announcements. In most cases, that meant a February launch event, but once the Galaxy S made an even earlier debut: in 2021, Samsung held a Galaxy Unpacked event for the Galaxy S21 on January 14, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Let us remember that this was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More recently, the Galaxy S23 lineup debuted at an in-person event in San Francisco on February 1. This is the second earliest we have seen a Samsung flagship.

Actual release dates (when Samsung phones start hitting retail shelves) have also been mixed: the slowest Galaxy flagship to ship to date was the Galaxy S8, which reached users on April 21, 2017, almost a month after Samsung's launch event. It was almost a month after Samsung's launch event.

In recent years, Samsung has narrowed the gap between when its phones are announced and when they ship. Earlier this year, the Galaxy S23 was released on February 17, a little over two weeks after the Galaxy Unpacked event.

It is clear that Samsung has stopped treating the Galaxy S as a spring release, and rumors strongly suggest that this will continue with the release of the Galaxy S24. The Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Plus join the standard flagship models, with three models expected to be released in early 2024.

Just how early: in September, a leaker named Revegnus claimed on Twitter that the Galaxy S24 release is "expected to be about a month earlier" than the Galaxy S23. That would mean a January release. More recently, Revegnus updated its timetable with a more specific release date for the Galaxy S24 (mid to late January).

Twitter leakers are not alone in predicting a January release for the Galaxy S24 series; an October Seoul Economic Daily report also predicted an early 2024 launch, with the accompanying Galaxy Unpacked event to be held in San Francisco The accompanying Galaxy Unpacked event is likely to be held in San Francisco.

A January 2024 Galaxy S24 launch would certainly be in line with Samsung's recent strategy of moving up the Galaxy S release. Nevertheless, some months are less significant for cell phone events than others.

CES 2024 will begin on Tuesday, January 9 and run throughout the rest of the week. Unless Samsung is planning an Unpacked event to kill itself with a tech trade show, you would think Samsung would look elsewhere on the calendar.

The following week will be Martin Luther King Jr. That date falls on Monday, January 15, and while we cannot rule out the possibility that Samsung will hold Unpacked on the following Tuesday or Wednesday, it is not difficult to imagine that Samsung does not want to lose a day of preparation time for the event due to the holiday.

This means that the earliest Samsung could hold a Galaxy Unpacked event to introduce the S24 series would be the week of January 22. Assuming a two to three week gap before the phones actually ship, the Galaxy S24 will ship in early February, making it the earliest release since the Galaxy S21.

Of course, this is all speculation based on a few rumors. In the coming months, we are likely to receive more information about the release date of the Galaxy S24, which will help us further pin down when these smartphones we expect from Samsung will be released.