Android 15 launched in September last year. Despite the Pixels unusually releasing without the new OS in tow, they got it about a month after its launch. In fact, before the end of 2024, essentially every major manufacturer that takes itself seriously had released its variant of Android 15. Oh, with one notable exception.
You’ve guessed it: Samsung. It took Samsung until the end of the year before it started pushing out its beta for users with S24 devices. The S25 devices launched with stable One UI 7 and are the only devices with the new OS. Unfortunately, it looks like they’ll continue to be that way, as Samsung still has another beta in store for the S24 family.
There’s a Fourth One UI 7 Beta in the Pipeline for the Galaxy S24 Series
Fun fact: Did you know that March will mark an entire six months since Android 15 had its source code released, giving OEMs the opportunity to start working on their own Android 15 builds? It’s true! And in those six months, Samsung has failed pretty miserably in delivering its own Android 15 build, One UI 7, to its users. Sure, toward the end of last year, they pushed a beta for the S24 lineup, but the people crave the stable version.
There have been three betas in total for the Galaxy S24 phones, and it was when the S25 series launched on January 22nd that we saw the stable version of One UI 7 for the first time. That should be the sign for older Galaxy phones to start getting stable One UI 7, right? Wrong.
According to Ice Universe, Samsung still plans to release yet another beta for the Galaxy S24 family, which is naturally next in line for the stable release of One UI 7. Unfortunately, if another beta is still in the works, then a stable release shouldn’t be expected any time soon. The tipster said as much: “…the official version is still a long way off.”
When Might the Stable One UI 7 Release Arrive for the Galaxy S24?
If there’s still another beta coming up, and that beta isn’t even here yet, then it seems that we can write off February entirely. The purpose of a beta is to test the build and make sure there are no major bugs or issues. That requires time, so don’t expect the stable version to be finalized in the same month. My best bet would be some point in mid-March, which, for the biggest Android OEM in the world, is too late.
Android 16 Is Launching Earlier Than Usual; Older Samsung Flagships Could Be Way Behind
I have a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, and I expect to get the stable One UI 7 update at some point. However, as Samsung is still contending with the S24 series and its update, it makes it clear how far off my device could potentially be from getting its respective update. That’s likely the boat that the other eligible Samsung flagships, bar the S24, are in.
What makes the situation interesting is that Android 16 is going to be launching ahead of schedule this year—towards the end of H1 2025, to be exact. While I don’t think Samsung will be so slow that Android 16 will launch before it, I do think the OEM will be slow enough for its older flagships that they might see only two months between their stable One UI 7 updates and the newest Android version. That’d be a bad look.
