Are you happy with the current state of Samsung Galaxy phones? - 9to5Google

This week, Samsung launched its new Galaxy S25 series and, in so many ways, it’s just a slightly newer version of the same thing. From the perspective of someone who’s job is to talk about these devices, it’s getting really boring, yet these devices still continue to sell. So, are you actually happy with these devices?

Samsung is the biggest Android manufacturer in the world, and battles back and forth with Apple to retain its title of the world’s biggest smartphone brand overall. The legacy of Galaxy was built largely on Samsung trying new things. For years, the strategy Samsung seemed to be employing was to just throw ideas at the wall to see what stuck. Sometimes that worked out well, other times no one cared and the feature was scrapped. But regardless, no two Samsung phones were the same.

Fast forward to today, and the opposite is true.

Case in point is to look at the Galaxy S23, S24, and the latest Galaxy S25. These phones are literally identical from a hardware perspective. The same core design plus or minus a camera ring, the same core specs, and the same prices too. Literally nothing of substance has changed. The Ultra has seen it’s welcome changes and a handful of genuine steps forward (back link to gorilla armor), but the company’s flagship series just feels stale. Unless you care about AI – and let’s all be honest, no one is really making their purchase solely for AI features – Samsung just hasn’t made any substantial changes.

It’s a jarring change of pace when you compare it to Samsung’s history.

But it works. Samsung keeps selling phones. That’s despite falling way behind on cameras. Despite not having introduced any notable hardware features – outside of foldables – in the past 5+ years. And despite everyone else still actually finding ways to innovate. It’s something I really struggle with when I review these phones. From my point of view, there’s no reason anyone should be spending $1,300 on a Galaxy S Ultra when they can get 99% of that experience for hundreds of dollars less from the latest Google Pixel or OnePlus release. Buyers certainly won’t lose much outside of the S Pen, and they’ll even gain things like better cameras or various hardware and software improvements.

As alluded to earlier, one of the exceptions to all of this is Samsung’s work in foldables.

The company quite literally brought that entire form factor to life, leaving everyone else to catch up. That was an exciting time to watch Samsung. But, merely a few years later, it feels like Samsung has already fallen into the same monotonous patterns as it’s slab smartphones. The Galaxy Z Fold series in particular is laughably far behind most of its competitors, especially the ones coming soon, but somehow Samsung is demanding more money than ever for its foldables. And Samsung knows it’s failing here, because it readily admitted it’s struggling to find new customers. If phones that literally fold in half can’t revive Samsung’s ability to think outside of the box, what will?

All of that said, my question for you is this: Are you actually happy with the current state of Samsung Galaxy phones? Do you own one? Why did you buy it? Will you upgrade to a newer model in the future?

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