Samsung’s phone lineup is now officially a mess — here’s why

Samsung's phone lineup is now officially a mess — here's why

(Image credit: Samsung)

If I were to ask you how many phones Samsung has released this year, what would your answer exist? There's been the Milky way S21 flagship launch, of course — you lot likely retrieve those. And if y'all really know the ins and outs of new phone rollouts, maybe you lot know the precise corporeality of midrange Galaxy A phones that have appeared under Samsung's custodianship since that start of 2021.

In the U.South. at least, we saw the Galaxy S21, Milky way S21 Plus and Galaxy S21 Ultra in January. More recently, five midrange Milky way A phones led by the Milky way A52 5G have joined the mix. That'due south eight phones through mid-April, and that doesn't fifty-fifty count the Galaxy A72 announced at the terminate of March but non slated to ship in the U.S.

We're as well still waiting for updates to the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip production lines and maybe even a new Galaxy Fe model for either the S or Annotation production lines — or maybe both!

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Friends, that's a lot of phones carrying the Samsung name. And at the adventure of sounding like an Abe Simpson-style crackpot, there are besides many Samsung phones these days, and mayhap the phone maker ought to think well-nigh getting rid of a couple.

Samsung, of grade, is crying all the way to the bank about this "also many phones" conundrum. Samsung has the largest share of the global smartphone market, at 19% for 2020, according to Counterpoint Research. One of the reasons Samsung tin can hold off the likes of Apple and various Chinese phone makers is that the Korean electronics giant releases a lot of phones in a lot of places.

Samsung's strategy these days is to release a phone for every cost point to appeal to as many users every bit possible. We're non yet at the signal where you lot tin go out and buy a Samsung Galaxy Steve or a Samsung Galaxy Flip for Your Cousin You Didn't Even Know Liked Foldable phones, but it does feel that mode sometimes.

We're not yet at the point where you tin go out and purchase a Samsung Milky way Flip for Your Cousin Yous Didn't Even Know Liked Foldable phones, but information technology does feel that way.

There are a couple of dangers to having that many phones on offer, though, and we're starting to come across them materialize with Samsung's lineup. For starters, information technology's getting more difficult to tell similarly named phones apart.

Take our Galaxy S21 vs. Milky way S21 Plus vs. Galaxy S21 Ultra comparison. If yous look at the S21 and S21 Plus, very little separates the two phones, other than the sizes of the screen and battery also equally the materials used for the back of the respective devices. (The S21 uses plastic, while the S21 Plus has a drinking glass back.) The processor, RAM, storage options and camera setup are exactly the same between the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus. And so why pay $200 more for the Plus unless that extra one-half-inch of screen infinite really makes a difference to you?

Similarly, you lot can spend hours of monastic written report looking at the iii of the new Milky way A phones available in the U.Southward. — the Milky way A32 5G, Galaxy A42 5G and Galaxy A52 5G — and you'd find only modest variations hither and there. There's certainly nothing that dramatically separates any of these three phones.

There are practical consequences to having all these phones on hand, also. The Galaxy A72 announced before this year won't be coming to the U.Southward. considering its price would be too close to the Galaxy S20 Fe Samsung introduced to much acclaim terminal year. And of course, we don't fifty-fifty know how long the Galaxy S20 Iron will be effectually for — Samsung reportedly has a Galaxy S21 FE in the works. (At that place'south also been talk of a Galaxy Note xx Fe, simply with S21 FE leaks picking up, that seems like the safer bet.)

That brings us to another potential problem with Samsung's all-phones-for-all-people approach to product evolution. You lot never know when a new Galaxy model is nearly to drop these days. Say what you volition about Apple and its iPhones, but you know when new models are coming. The same thing applies to Google and its phones — a flagship shows upwards in the fall, along with a budget model before in the jump. That gives shoppers confidence as to when they tin can buy a telephone without having to worry about it being instantly topped past new and improved hardware.

Samsung'south release schedule seems to be in flux these days. The company moved up the Milky way S21 launch, releasing those phones in Jan instead of the customary February/March window for Galaxy Southward updates. Rumor has information technology that Samsung'southward big 2nd-one-half phone rollout will move upwards from August to July, as the visitor shows off the Galaxy Z Fold three. A Galaxy Note 21 doesn't appear to be in the mix for this year.

Samsung would likely counter that it's not exactly hurting cheers to all these phones flooding the market and creating the potential for defoliation among coincidental smartphone shoppers. And it'due south difficult to argue with a company that routinely goes toe-to-toe with Apple for the top spot in the global smartphone market. All the same, at some point all these Galaxy Due south and Galaxy A and Galaxy Z models feel like they're going to catch up with the company — peculiarly when it's getting harder to tell the difference between Samsung'south various phones without a scorecard.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom's Guide. He has strong opinions near Apple tree, the Oakland Athletics and erstwhile movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.