Samsung needs to give us a reason to care about new phones every year

It’s not my pleasure to say this, but if it is Rumors about the Galaxy S25 series True, these phones look very boring. That would be fineHowever, Samsung is asking us all to get very excited about it by hosting There was a big and loud launch event. I think it’s time for Samsung – and frankly the industry as a whole – to look in the mirror and ask: Do we really need this?

I’m not saying that Samsung or any other tech company should throw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall and cram some questionably useful stuff into their phones just for the sake of it. This doesn’t help anyone. It’s just getting on stage and announcing it these Phones are very different and new phones should be a really special occasion. And this was true! But now, it’s just something we do every year that’s very similar to the thing we did last year.

In this special season of mobile innovation, devices are no longer as important as they used to be. Take the iPhone 16; The launch event focused so much on the software features that Apple called it “Glowed Up.” But when the phones shipped, these software features weren’t ready, and all we really had was one new button. Did we need all this hype?

Google has been on a slightly different path ever since I repaired the Pixel series of phones A few years ago. It’s still being researched how to make a chipset that doesn’t do that Turn your phone into a hand warmer If you are doing a lot of things or how to make the camera bump move sideways. It feels like a lot of that has been settled Pixel 9 seriesbut until this launch event it was largely about the software features and the many methods that Gemini now uses in its phones.

Samsung isn’t alone here, but I think it’s fair to say that the Galaxy series in particular is in a stagnant phase. The S-series phones looked and behaved essentially the same way past A few YearsAnd all signs point to incredibly minor updates to the S25 series. Even the company’s foldable phones have changed little over the past two years. Apple didn’t give us much with the iPhone 16, but in… least There was this new button.

There is one ray of hope on the horizon: thin phones. Rumors indicate so Samsung may offer one of these in UnpackedAnd it seems that Apple may be preparing for the launch iPhone 17 thin Later this year. Is a phone that is a few millimeters thinner? I don’t know, but it’s going to look very different from last year’s phone, which is more than I can say for many phones I’ve tested in 2024. Samsung’s thin phone may not arrive until May, so it looks like we’ll get a teaser tomorrow at best.

So here’s what I think: Let’s go back S years. Remember the iPhone S phones? When Apple showed minor spec bumps but called it the iPhone 6S instead of the iPhone 6? Let’s do it again! Let us have big, flashy announcements, but not every year. Let’s save it for the big moments when the technology is ready and looks or behaves radically different. Give us a reason to get excited, because the same old hype is getting a little old.