Evolution of Innovation. A Journey Through the Samsung Galaxy S Series from S1 to S20

Evolution of Innovation. A Journey Through the Samsung Galaxy S Series from S1 to S20

Samsung Galaxy is one of the oldest and most powerful smartphone series since it began and spread more than ten years ago since the release of its first device. Through it, Samsung broke Apple’s monopoly on the smartphone market.

Let us learn in this article about the story of the rise of the Galaxy S series from Samsung, which changed the game's rules in the world of technology and brought the company to first place in the world in the smartphone market.

The first S-series phone appeared in 2010 when Samsung wanted to directly compete with Apple for powerful, integrated, globally-oriented phones. This phone was not the first Samsung device, of course, but it was the first device that competed with the iPhone and ran on the Android system. The device was called the Galaxy S, and it had very good specifications at the time.

• It came with a 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen with saturated colors, on which Samsung developed its technologies in the field of screens, a 5-megapixel rear camera, and a 1-GHz processor.

• It also had a physical button on the front at the bottom of the screen, with touch buttons on its sides to control menus.

• The phone achieved success, and Samsung sold more than 25 million copies within three years. This success prompted the company to work on issuing a newer version, and this was achieved with the Samsung Galaxy S2.

It was announced at the MWC conference in 2011. The Galaxy S2 was the real beginning, as Samsung established its footing in the smartphone market specifically. The device came with a larger screen of 4.3 inches than its predecessor, a better processor whose speed reached 1.2 GHz, and the storage capacity was increased to 16.32 GB.

• The camera was also improved to 8 megapixels, a flash was added, and the NFC feature was added, making it one of the first phones to carry the feature.

• The body of the device was made of plastic, but the workmanship was better than the previous generation. 

• The company was able to sell 3 million units of the device in less than two months and sold 10 million units 5 months after launch.

In 2012, Samsung launched the Galaxy S3, which was a big leap over previous generations in terms of design and the screen, which increased in size to 4.8 inches and was considered a large number at the time, as the processor was updated, camera features were added, and the battery capacity was increased.

Many considered the Galaxy S3 phone to be the best of that year due to the high value and great capabilities it offered, and there was consensus that the S series phones represented the leading category phones for the Android system without competition.

From S1 to S20. The Revolutionary Evolution of Samsung Galaxy S Series

In 2013, Samsung released the Galaxy S4 phone and changed the numbering from Roman numerals to regular numbers. The phone did not provide a major update over the previous generation and only made some improvements to the design, which became more symmetrical.

• The screen, which became 5 inches in size, with routine improvements to the processor, battery, and camera, whose resolution increased to 13. Megapixel.

• But Samsung has worked to add new features to the operating system through its TouchWiz destination, such as smart rotation, the Group Play feature, and the S Health application.

• The device did not achieve the desired success despite its good specifications, so the company sold fewer units than in the previous two years with the S2 and S3 devices.

• In 2014, the Galaxy S5 phone was released with a design very similar to its predecessor, so the phone had the least change in appearance compared to the previous generation.

• Still, the company added the ability to resist water and dust for the first time with the IP67 standard.

• It also added a fingerprint through the home button at the bottom of the screen.

• The company sold 12 million device units three months after its launch.

This was a shock to the company, which expected much more than that, and raised alarm bells at Samsung about the future of this series, especially after the company became the subject of accusations of imitating and copying iPhone devices during this period.

The accusations reached court cases, and with the great success of the competitor iPhone 6, which was released in the same year, Samsung had to move and offer something big in the next generation to revive the series.

This happened with the Galaxy S6 phone, which marked the birth of the series again, as Samsung began to put its innovations into the devices. The company announced two versions of the device, a regular version and an Edge version that comes with a screen with curved edges, and it was a unique innovation in terms of experience.

• The shape of the device has become more attractive and elegant, coinciding with the adoption of glass and metal in making the body instead of plastic.

• Samsung also developed the screen to become a Quad HD resolution and increased its size to 5.1 inches. The processor was also updated and the RAM capacity increased to 3 GB.

• Samsung also added a fast charging feature so that the device can charge in less time than before, with a capacity of 15 watts.

• The device also supports wireless charging thanks to the glass back, and Samsung was one of the first companies to add this feature.

But the company took a step that raised waves of criticism, which was to cancel support for installing an external storage chip. After several months, Samsung announced the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, a large and improved version with a larger 5.7-inch screen with an increase in RAM capacity and battery size.

Samsung Galaxy S Series. A Decade of Innovation from S1 to S20

In 2016, Samsung launched the seventh version of the Galaxy S7 series and its brother, the S7 Edge, which differed from the regular version in terms of size, unlike the previous generation. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge did not differ much from its predecessor in design, but most of the internal specifications were improved.

• The device became water and dust-resistant with the IP68 standard, and the feature of adding an external storage chip was restored.

• The camera was also developed and the quality of low-light photography was raised despite the camera resolution being reduced to 12 megapixels, as the company used a larger lens opening for the camera.

• The Always On Display feature has been added, which allows the screen to permanently display some content when not in use, such as the clock, date, and some notifications.

During this period, the competition between Samsung and Apple reached its peak and Samsung was able to capture a high percentage of the market compared to other companies. It sold more than 50 million copies of the S7 phone during the first year of its launch.

The year 2017 witnessed a revolution in new designs for smartphones in general, which is based on reducing the edges and increasing the percentage of screen capture in the front. Samsung was one of the first to adopt this idea by designing the Infinity Display in the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.

• Many things have changed due to the new design. The screen size has increased significantly, reaching 5.8 inches for the smaller version and 6.2 inches for the larger version.

• The dimensions of the device increased, and both versions came with curved edges.

• The main button and the touch buttons on its sides were eliminated and replaced with virtual software buttons inside the screen to navigate between menus.

• This also led to moving the fingerprint sensor to the back to be next to the camera, but the company is receiving significant criticism due to the strange location of the fingerprint and the difficulty of accessing it.

• The company also introduced its Bixby voice assistant and added its button on the edge of the device. The additions do not end here, as there are other ways to lock the device, which are through the iris reader and facial recognition.

• Samsung also introduced the DEX feature, which allows the phone to be used as a computer when placed on a special Samsung base and connected to a TV screen after the company replaced the micro USB port with a USB Type-C port.

This phone represented a major challenge for the company, especially after the shock that occurred in late 2016 with the Note 7 phones, part of which exploded and were withdrawn from the market and their production canceled, which prompted the company to slightly reduce the battery capacity in the S8 Plus phone compared to the S7 Edge phone.

Because getting up quickly after a fall is an adult thing, Samsung proved its ability to overcome the crisis and the difficult test, and the S8 phone achieved great success, surpassing the S7 phone by 30% when it appeared and shaping the future of smartphone design.

The following year, the company released the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, focusing on correcting the mistakes of the previous generation. The design of the device looked very similar to its predecessor from the front and back. The company responded to the criticism and changed the location of the fingerprint to be below the camera.

• The device now has stereo speakers tuned by AKG, a feature that the company was late to include.

• Dex mode no longer requires a base, and it is enough to connect the phone to the TV to enjoy the experience.

• In terms of the camera, the two versions came with an improved rear camera with a variable lens aperture depending on the lighting.

• A zoom camera was added to the Plus version, and the Super Slow Motion feature was also added.

• The device was excellent and a strong competitor in the market, but it did not achieve the successes of the previous generation, and this is why the company admitted itself by describing sales as slow.

• Many justified this decline because the device did not come with revolutionary ideas and a big leap from its predecessor, especially in light of the remarkable progress of Chinese companies, led by Huawei.

Samsung Galaxy S Series. Charting the Path of Technological Advancement from S1 to S20

In 2019, Samsung took steps forward in the tenth generation of its most famous series. These steps began by issuing four versions of the device for the first time, launching the Galaxy S10 phone, the regular version, the S10 Plus, and a new version called the Galaxy S10e, as well as a special version to support the fifth generation.

• The S10 phones in general witnessed another leap in design, as the edges were reduced further, and the percentage of the screen occupying the interface exceeded 90%.

• Samsung resorted to adopting the design of a hole in the screen to integrate the front camera, which it called Infinity, instead of adopting a cutout or notch as in most phones during the past years. That period.

• This design led to an increase in the size of the screens to reach 6.7 inches, and the leap was not limited to the design only, as the camera was a noticeable improvement over previous generations.

The S10 phone and its bigger brother, the S10 Plus, came with three main lenses after adding the ultra-wide-angle lens to the series, and the Galaxy S10 5G phone came with four Samsung lenses that also abandoned the fingerprint sensor at the back and returned it to the front, integrated into the screen.

• It added a reverse wireless charging feature that allows other devices to be charged via the device's battery and called it PowerShare.

• The S10e phone was a little different from the rest of the devices, as it came with a smaller design and was considered the economical option in the series, through which Samsung revived the flat screens of the S series.

• Since the Galaxy S7, the device does not include a fingerprint sensor under the screen, it has been moved to the side. Phone prices have increased significantly compared to previous generations and have reached $1,000 for the S10 Plus.

• In 2020, a full decade has passed since the release of the first phone from the S family, coinciding with the beginning of the new decade in the third millennium.

• Samsung decided to write a new chapter of brilliance and start the year strong, so a new phone was added to the S10 family under the name Galaxy S10 Lite, which is a medium version that carries. Most of the features of the S10 phones, with some compromises.

• But the most important event at the beginning of the year was the Unpacked conference to announce the new generation of Galaxy S characters, which witnessed the jump to the S20.

• At the conference, the company spoke about the new trend of smartphones and announced three versions of the Galaxy S20, the regular version, the Plus version, and a new version called Ultra.

• Phones broke all previous restrictions and Samsung reached the highest numbers and level of development and technology in new devices, especially in terms of specifications.

The design did not differ much from the previous generation, but the camera witnessed a major shift in terms of resolution, which reached 108 megapixels in the Ultra version, and the approximate capacity of the zoom cameras was doubled to reach thirty times in the S20 and S20 Plus and to 100 times in the Ultra.

• Cameras can also shoot clips at 8K resolution for the first time in the history of phones.

• The screen has also been improved and now supports a frequency of 120 Hz to give the user a smoother experience.

• Samsung has taken the RAM to a completely different level, reaching up to 16 GB in the Ultra version, and all devices now support the fifth-generation network.

• The battery has also been significantly updated, starting from 4,000 mAh in the lowest version up to 5,000 mAh in the ultra, for the first time in this series as well. With fast charging capacity increasing to 45 watts.

• Samsung also canceled the 3.5 mm port for connecting external headphones wired after most companies took this step.

• The shock came at the price of the phone, which started at $1,000 in the smaller version and $1,400 in the Ultra version, which was a record in this series.

Many believe that the Samsung Galaxy S phones represent the integrated package that the user needs in a smartphone. Samsung has always sought to integrate all available technologies within this small device and present them at the highest level without depriving the user of some of them.

• If we take a comprehensive look at the Galaxy S phones, it is difficult to find a device that lacks an important feature in its generation.

• We have become accustomed to the best cameras, the most powerful processors, and the latest technologies in each generation of the series, but Samsung, in turn, has not been spared from criticism regarding the devices of the Galaxy S family.

• It has been accused of imitating Apple for a long time, and its devices continued to suffer from heaviness and slowness due to the Touch Wiz interface, which it abandoned in 2017.

• The company also received great criticism due to limited support for devices through software and security updates, as software support for devices stopped two or three years after their release.

• Critics also began to aim their arrows at the prices of phones, which have risen significantly in recent years, just as happened with iPhone devices.

• Like Apple, Samsung formed a huge fan base that perpetuated the idea of competition between the two companies and took it to another dimension, reaching the point of ridicule.

• However, this competition pushed the two companies to work on providing the best and motivated them to continue research and development at a faster pace than before.

There is no doubt that the Galaxy S series is one of the most successful series that the world of smartphones has ever known, and it had great credit for expanding its market and moving it to a very advanced stage, as we see today. Of course, other devices are released in this series, but they were derivatives of the basic devices and were not highlighted or available in a limited way.