Quick summary
The Samsung Galaxy S24+ is has been spotted running Android 15.
It's expected that the next major Android upgrade will land with One UI 7, bringing performance enhancements and new features.
When Samsung launched the Galaxy S24 family of devices, it also made an important announcement about software support. That mirrored a move made by Google in October 2023, when it initially announced that it would be supporting new Pixel devices for seven years. Samsung made that commitment for the Galaxy S24 and you could be about to feel the first benefit of that.
Android updates roll around much faster than they used to. We're well into the development of Android 15, with the third beta rolling out, which Google says brings "platform stability". The next stage is final release, which I expect will be aligned with Google's hardware event scheduled for 13 August.
That will see Android 15 get its public release, with Android phone manufacturers scrabbling to update their devices. Sometimes this leads to frustration, but in recent years, Samsung has stepped up and now does a great job updating devices. And it's an updated device that has appeared (via PhoneArena), with a Galaxy S24+ getting benchmarked running Android 15.
Why does this matter? Because Samsung isn't on the list of devices included in the Android 15 Beta, suggesting that this was Samsung testing the build of Android 15 on its own device. It's likely that Android 15 will roll out to Samsung devices with One UI 7 and this result suggests that Samsung is well into the testing for this new software.
One of the interesting details is that the Android 15 Beta tested here scores slightly higher than Android 14, suggesting that when your phone does get updated, it's going to get a performance boost too. That's even more encouraging, when you consider that this is unlikely to be Samsung's final build and more improvements should find their way into the software before launch.
What will Samsung One UI 7 on Android 15 offer?
We know that Android 15 is going to bring with it a range of optimisations across a range of areas, improving performance, boosting security and privacy options. We're yet to see any major headline features which might be announced with the Pixel 9 launch, but as always, it's difficult to know if features coming to Pixel will also land on Samsung phones.
What we're likely to see is wider distribution of features introduced on the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 to other Samsung phones in One UI 7 - if they are compatible. That might mean that the Galaxy S24 has to wait for One UI 7 to benefit from any Galaxy AI enhancements coming to Samsung new folding phones – but by the looks of things, that won't be too long.
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With Android 15 expected to roll out in August, Samsung might use its Developer Conference in October to make the official announcement.
Chris has been writing about consumer tech for over 15 years. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket-lint, he's covered just about every product launched, witnessed the birth of Android, the evolution of 5G, and the drive towards electric cars. You name it and Chris has written about it, driven it or reviewed it. Now working as a freelance technology expert, Chris' experience sees him covering all aspects of smartphones, smart homes and anything else connected. Chris has been published in titles as diverse as Computer Active and Autocar, and regularly appears on BBC News, BBC Radio, Sky, Monocle and Times Radio. He was once even on The Apprentice... but we don't talk about that.
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