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Galaxy S22 Ultra on track for 11 million units sold, making it the most popular Note in years

Samsung has been in a bit of a smartphone slump over the past few years, but it seems the company is on track for a big improvement this year. According to a projection, Samsung is on track to hit around 11 million Galaxy S22 Ultra sales this year, making it the most popular Galaxy Note device in at least five years.

According to known tipster Ice Universe on Weibo, Samsung’s projected annual sales for the Galaxy S22 Ultra will be around 10.9 million units.

By comparison to the past few years, it’s quite the jump in popularity. Over the past five years, Samsung topped out with the Galaxy Note 8, which sold just over 10 million units during its first year. Ice details that the Note 9 totaled 9.6 million, with the Note 10 series dropping down a bit further to 9.5 million. It was 2020’s Galaxy Note 20 series, though, that proved to be a low point with just 7.5 million units sold. Pushing back the clock even further, Samsung sold over 50 million Galaxy Note devices between 2011 and 2013, primarily made up of the Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy Note 3.

Looking at the raw numbers alone, it’s pretty impressive to see Samsung getting back to its 2017 totals, especially when you consider the circumstances around it.

The smartphone landscape has changed dramatically in the past few years, with the industry as a whole seeing slips in growth, and in fact on track to drop by over 7% this year according to some analysts. Samsung’s Galaxy Note form factor, famed for its big display and S Pen, is also seeing much more competition from devices without a stylus, but with similarly large displays.

Of course, there’s certainly quite a few reasons why Samsung is seeing big demand for the Galaxy S22 Ultra this year. For one, Samsung skipped a generation by waiting to release an S Pen-equipped device until early 2022, instead of the usual late-2021 release date most fans of the series would have been expecting. The pent-up demand surely attributed to the better sales.

Fair pricing for the Galaxy S22 Ultra was also surely a contributing factor. 2020’s Galaxy Note 20 Ultra was released for nearly $1,400 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the many economic factors that resulted.

And beyond that, Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra also proved to be a hit among early buyers and reviewers.

In our own review of the S22 Ultra, we said:

The Galaxy S22 Ultra is, until further notice, the best premium Android phone you can buy. On the whole, it provides the best experience for the most people, with satisfying and usable software, pretty solid cameras, and excellent battery life compared to other options. The $1,199 price tag is also well within the range of sanity, with Samsung’s killer trade-in deals and the inevitable discounts offering many the option to pay much less for this device. 

This year’s Ultra is not as obvious a winner as its predecessor, despite it still being the go-to for a no-compromise phone.

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