Samsung has been the poster child for the best smartphone innovation for a while now. From launching one of the first foldable phones in the Z Fold to installing an onboard AI chip in the Galaxy S24, the Korean manufacturer has been living on the cutting edge for years and charging rent to other smartphone makers copying off their homework. Simply put, if you want new features, Samsung is usually the way to go.
However, when it comes to smartphone design, the company has been brutally hesitant to stray from its current build. The stoplight-esque camera array, the thin bezels, and the hole punch selfie camera have been around for several generations of Galaxy S-series phones, and given their history of design stagnation, there is little hope for much change in the Galaxy S25. And considering Apple’s plans for later this year, we might see Samsung’s identity overwhelmed by its closest rival come this fall.
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Samsung’s design history
The company knows what they like, and they stick to it
Whether you’re a devout Samsung loyalist or a smartphone design connoisseur, you’ve likely noticed a substantial trend in the Galaxy S-series design history. Namely, over the last few years, Samsung has made virtually no changes to its smartphone lineup regarding the external design. Since the Galaxy S21, which launched in early 2021, it’s been all the same: the camera array features three lenses, justified to the left side of the device; the bezels are thin around the edges with no noticeable chin or forehead; and the selfie camera is the hole-punch style at the phone’s top center.
It’s a design that certainly works, no one is questioning that, and changing something that already works is generally not a good strategy, as per the old saying. Still, in an industry that prides itself on innovation, the identical Samsung flagships over the last few years are starting to grate on the nerves of those fans who want a bit of variety in their devices.
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Unfortunately, there might not be much hope for a big change in the Galaxy S25, given that this isn’t Samsung’s first stretch of similarly designed smartphones in its history. In fact, between the Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy S9, the flagship smartphones didn’t undergo any radical design changes either, featuring a prominent chin and forehead on the front and a singular centered main camera on the back. And with seven years between those phones, we may have to wait a few years before we get anything substantially different from Samsung, and that could be a problem given recent leaks about its main competitor.
Apple’s leaked design looks pretty familiar
And it might downplay Samsung’s identity even further
It’s never too early to get in on the upcoming iPhone rumors, and some have been swirling about the iPhone 16, which could force Samsung’s hand regarding its design choices. As MacRumors reported in February, the iPhone 16 leaked sporting a similar main camera display to recent Galaxy devices, aligning all the lenses along one side of the phone.
The change would make two of the leading smartphones eerily similar, all while ironically demonstrating a willingness on Apple’s part to innovate its design. Sure, it got that new look from Samsung, but its users won’t really see it that way. They’ll see it as a refreshed look, just different enough to keep them interested, and give them a way to show off that they own the most recent iteration of Apple’s smartphone. Meanwhile, it’s impossible to tell the difference between a Galaxy S22 Ultra and a Galaxy S24 Ultra in a crowd, to say nothing of the similarities between the S24 and newer, cheaper A-series phones.
Suffice it to say, this gives Samsung the perfect opportunity to make a change to the Galaxy S-series that better identifies it as one of the world’s most popular smartphones. The camera bar on the Pixel is a great example, making the device almost immediately recognizable out in the wild. Granted, there are only so many design choices for a rectangle that’s been made and remade a thousand times since its invention, but hey, Samsung’s the second leading smartphone manufacturer in the world. If they can’t figure it out, who can?
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