The Samsung Galaxy S23 family of devices might be lining up to launch a little earlier than expected, with Galaxy Unpacked potentially happening in the first week of February 2023.

It will be an important launch for Samsung, as the brand continues to enjoy market dominance in the smartphone space. Korean news site Chosun is suggesting it's going to happen in the first week of February with an event in San Francisco, with devices available from 17 February 2023.

Samsung used to launch its devices at Mobile World Congress, typically held at the end of February in Barcelona, Spain. In recent years, Samsung has drawn the date forward, giving some strategic advantage: it often has devices on shelves before rivals have even launched. 

That's seen some switch-up in scheduling from the likes of Xiaomi, expected to announce its next device soon - but usually only launching in China, with a global release coming some months later.

The important thing about launching your phone early is that it lays down a marker in the spec race - every subsequent launch is then measured against the earlier announcement. With Samsung expected to pack in a 200-megapixel main camera on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, rivals will quickly be compared and perhaps judged as falling short.

Much of this seems to come down to tactical marketing: if Samsung can get its devices into the minds and then hands of customers earlier, they may never even bother considering any of the alternatives.

The other thing we know about Samsung is that's it's extremely hard to keep a Samsung device secret: we suspect we'll have full leaks of images, specs and everything else within the coming months.

The only surprise we're expecting on launch day will be some of the software features that Samsung will introduce to enhance the Samsung ecosystem experience.