Samsung wants to present us a purpose to care about new telephones yearly

I take no pleasure in saying this, but when the rumors concerning the Galaxy S25 sequence are true, then these telephones look boring as hell. That will be fantastic, besides that Samsung is asking us all to get very enthusiastic about them by internet hosting an enormous, loud launch occasion. And I believe it’s time for Samsung — and truthfully, the business as an entire — to look within the mirror and ask: do we actually want this?

I’m not saying Samsung or another tech firm ought to throw a bunch of spaghetti on the wall and cram some questionably helpful stuff into their telephones only for the sake of it. That helps no person. It’s simply that getting up onstage and declaring that these telephones are essentially totally different and new needs to be a really big day. And that was once true! However now, it’s only a factor we do yearly that feels loads just like the factor we did final yr.

On this specific season of cellular innovation, {hardware} simply isn’t as vital because it as soon as was. Take the iPhone 16; the launch occasion centered a lot on software program options that Apple known as it “Glowed Up.” However when the telephones shipped, these software program options weren’t prepared, and all we actually had was a single new button. Did we want all that fanfare?

Google’s on a barely totally different trajectory because it fully overhauled its Pixel telephone sequence just a few years in the past. It’s nonetheless determining easy methods to make a chipset that doesn’t flip your telephone right into a hand hotter for those who do too many issues or how precisely to make the digital camera bump go sideways. It seems like loads of that has been settled in the Pixel 9 sequence, however even that launch occasion was largely about software program options and the various ways in which Gemini now inhabits its telephones.

Samsung is way from alone right here, however I believe it’s honest to say that the Galaxy sequence is in a very stagnant part. The S-series telephones have principally regarded and behaved the identical for the previous few years, and all indicators level to extremely minor updates for the S25 sequence. Even the corporate’s folding telephones have modified little or no over the previous couple of years. Apple didn’t give us a lot with the iPhone 16, however at least there was that new button.

There’s one hopeful glimmer on the horizon: slim telephones. Rumors point out that Samsung may present one off at Unpacked, and it looks as if Apple is likely to be gearing as much as launch a slim iPhone 17 later this yr. Is a telephone that’s a few millimeters thinner something? I don’t know, however it will feel and look essentially totally different than final yr’s telephone, which is greater than I can say about most of the telephones I examined in 2024. Samsung’s slim telephone won’t arrive till Could, so it appears like we’d get a teaser tomorrow at finest.

So right here’s what I believe: let’s deliver again S years. Bear in mind the S yr iPhones? When Apple supplied minor spec bumps however known as it an iPhone 6S as a substitute of an iPhone 6? Let’s try this once more! Let’s have the massive, flashy bulletins, however not yearly. Let’s save them for the massive moments when the tech is prepared and it appears or behaves essentially otherwise. Give us a purpose to get excited, as a result of the identical previous fanfare is getting a bit of stale.