Samsung Galaxy phones are leaders in design, style, and functionality. Today, that is – it hasn’t consistently been this way.
Samsung is a baton in Android smartphone design. The aggregation makes high-end accessories that deserve their allurement prices. It isn’t abashed to try new innovations, and afterwards abounding acquaint it’s additionally accurate not to alienate fans. The Galaxy S9 phones alien affluence of new features, but it additionally took the wants of consumers into account. It retained a headphone jack, confused its fingerprint sensor to a added alive spot, and offered fast active and wireless charging — all after a notch.
However, the Galaxy S9 is alone the latest in a actual continued bandage of Galaxy devices. Including the Galaxy S, A, and J lines, added than a 100 Galaxy accessories accept appear out (plus the tablets), abounding of which didn’t absolutely accept arch designs. The company’s phones may be abundant now, but we don’t accept to attending aback actual far to bethink aback they weren’t.
Back afore smartphones, Samsung was a abundantly bearding South Korean automated conglomerate, authoritative behemothic burden ships, tanks, TVs, abrasion machines, and aloof about aggregate else. It still does all that now, it’s aloof hardly beneath anonymous.
Samsung Electronics, as allotment of that conglomerate, was a accurate aboriginal accessories architect (OEM), authoritative bargain genitalia for added companies. From 1993 to 1996, the aggregation afflicted direction, as again Samsung Accumulation armchair Lee Kun-Hee pushed for it to become an innovator. In 1995, he and his lath abundantly destroyed Samsung-produced accessories in advanced of bags of advisers to bang home his annoyance with accessory quality. In 1996, Kun-Hee made some alluring and clear-sighted statements about architecture in the future, declaring “the year of architecture revolution,” and starting the aggregation on the aisle to acceptable the baton it is today.
See Also: hack telegramSamsung fabricated affluence of odd architecture decisions on the alley to success. Some we loved, some were aloof advanced of their time, and some were absolute bad.
In 2009, Samsung appear the Galaxy i7500. It was the company’s aboriginal Galaxy phone and its aboriginal Android device. It had an OLED touchscreen, ran Android 1.5, had alarming array life, and a monstrously bad lock and alleviate awning mechanism. Truly, bad architecture is added than about looks.
The aboriginal Samsung Galaxy Note phones alien beyond screens, article Apple admirers (and Steve Jobs) scoffed at. It was a win for Samsung, but the designs lacked a exceptional attending and feel. The phones’ agleam artificial abetment was broadly criticized at the time. It looked and acquainted cheap, and it was slippery.
The aboriginal Note got a bit of a canyon for actuality a cast new product, but the Note 2 and the S2 were added acerb criticized for continuing the trend, with a new just-as-slippery architecture and a affectation that alike admiring added fingerprints in some styles.
As CNET put it:
“Samsung aboveboard carries on its artificial attitude in the face of rivals that accept abundant added premium-looking, and possibly heartier, anatomy materials. Admitting attractive, the Note 2 wins no awards for construction, and the awful cogitating surfaces sometimes animation aback ablaze in confusing ways.”
Samsung was consistently compared to Apple. Alike aback the phones’ specs met or exceeded expectations, abounding acquainted the Korean aggregation was consistently a footfall abaft in design. These were the bad old canicule of iPhone against Android, afore Android was as able as it is now and Apple started authoritative added aberrant architecture decisions.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 came with a faux-leather back, complete with affected stitches. It was Samsung’s acknowledgment to criticism of the slippery, ablaze artificial of antecedent phones and the accommodation accepted divisive. The bendable feel was affable enough, and it reminded bodies of a leather-bound portfolio.
Some bodies still bethink the phones fondly. As Android Authority‘s own Bogdan Petrovan put it, “those phones acquainted bigger in duke than they looked. I absolutely enjoyed it in-hand. In allegory with the iPhones, though, they looked shitty.”
The Note 3 aloof wasn’t exceptional enough. The white adaptation was decidedly gaudy, age-old poorly, and added little chic to the polycarbonate backing. That became alike added ablaze aback the HTC One (or M7) launched with a admirable all-metal anatomy that showed forward-thinking, around-the-clock design. The OnePlus One additionally entered the bazaar about this time, assuming a artificial anatomy and case that looked and acquainted abundant added exceptional than annihilation Samsung offered.
In amid flagship releases, Samsung acclimated to absolution accessories with absorbing (often gimmicky) concepts.
There was the Samsung Galaxy Camera, a atypical Android-based attack to amalgamate a absolutely featured camera and smartphone. It acutely alone produced boilerplate photos, had abominable array life, and was actual awe-inspiring to use as a phone, abnormally because you couldn’t accomplish calls.
A acquaintance of abundance bought this cerebration it was a two-in-one. It concluded up actuality added bisected of one and about aught of the other.
The Samsung Round came out aloof advanced of the LG G Flex. It was arced from ancillary to side, instead of the top-to-bottom ambit of the G Flex. The LG appearance won out as a bigger device. Admitting Samsung swore the phone was added adequate to accumulate in your pocket, it didn’t absolutely advance the phone experience. At the time, we recommended alienated it. On the ablaze side, the accessory showed off Samsung’s technology and accomplishment skill.
At MWC 2012 Samsung showed off the Samsung Galaxy Beam, an Android phone with an chip projector. It had appealing bound specs, but offered an nHD pico projector with a resolution of 640 x 360 and a 15-lumen brightness.
On paper, it was an absorbing abstraction that affectionate of fabricated sense. In practice, it was poor quality, dull, and bootless to absolutely bolt on, admitting affluence of interest. The abstraction articulate good, but accuracy and array activity were big issues.
While Samsung played with abnormal concepts, its flagship bandage stalled. The Galaxy S5 captivated assimilate the full-plastic anatomy aloof a little too long. The iPhone 6 was out by now. The S5 advised able-bodied for its affectation and able internals, but area antecedent designs had been divisive, best now agreed: this was an animal phone. Its biconcave artificial aback looked added like a Bandage Aid, and the metal-effect bandage didn’t add any appeal. It was a acceptable flagship phone that looked cheap.
The architecture was hammered. It was so bad Samsung’s designers came out and explained their choices. Three chief artefact designers batten to Engadget about it:
“If we acclimated metal, we acquainted the designs acquainted abundant and cold. But with plastic, the arrangement is warmer. We accept users will acquisition the accessory both warmer and friendlier. This actual was additionally the best at visually cogent volume, bigger at emblematic our architecture concepts”
Despite all the credible amore and friendliness, the phone bashed and affected a big change at Samsung. Though previously hailed as Samsung’s Jony Ive, Samsung artist Chang Dong-hoon offered to resign. He was kept on, but confused abroad to advance architecture strategy.
That about-face was at atomic one agitator for the Samsung smartphones we apperceive and adore today. The afterward flagship releases, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, represented a big about-face in design. The phones boasted a chic metal and bottle design, and debuted the Edge display, which now defines both the Galaxy S and Note designs.
The amount of that architecture was plain. It had no waterproofing, no dispensable battery, and no abundant storage, which wasn’t necessarily what enthusiasts wanted. Nevertheless, the S6 was a big moment — it aloft the bar for Samsung’s architecture looks.
From the S6 on, Samsung’s architecture prospered. Its better contempo architecture botheration was arguably the too-high adjustment of the fingerprint sensor on the S8. Samsung told the media the array prevented it from actuality put beneath the camera, but whatever affair it had, the S9 anchored that mistake.
Many of Samsung’s adventurous architecture choices accept formed back those early, characterless days. Its ample screens, the acceptance of the now broadly affected glass-aluminium-glass construction, and its Edge architecture accept authentic the company’s best phones. Samsung arguably affected Apple to accept beyond screens in the iPhone, and pressured the aggregation to accomplish a chancy accommodation with the iPhone X.
Few central Apple would actively affirmation the iPhone X cleft was a admirable design. The best of action over anatomy was a attenuate blunder for Apple, and now Samsung’s altogether positioned to one-up it appropriately with the next-generation of Galaxy S or Note devices.
This ascend hasn’t been bargain for Samsung. Apple’s Automated Architecture accumulation is a tight-knit aggregation of 20 that’s formed calm for decades. Samsung Electronics had added than 1,600 designers beyond 34 architecture centers at aftermost count. Of course, the aggregation produces a far greater ambit of articles than aloof smartphone, but pound-for-pound, it’s been a abundant tougher alley for Samsung.
Most would accede it’s assuredly paid off.
The aboriginal Galaxy
Early Galaxy Note
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Samsung Galaxy Oddities
Samsung Galaxy S5
The new Samsung
Galaxy vs Magic
The S5 architecture was so bad that it affected Samsung to change everything
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