Samsung could discontinue the Galaxy Note to focus on foldables

[Shawn Knight]

Editor's take: Opting to discontinue the Note line is a risky proposition. While not a world-beater in terms of sales, it’s no slouch, either. Replacing it with a new and unproven line would be a huge gamble but if Samsung truly believes foldable phones are the future, the Note's second-half flagship slot would certain be an ideal window to try and sell them in.

Samsung’s just-releases Galaxy Note 20 could be the final entry in the long-running series of high-end Android handsets.

According to a recent report from Korean publication The elec, Samsung’s next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S21 (tentative name) will arrive in the first half of next year with a stylus in tow for the first time. The publication claims three models of the handset are under development and that the S Pen will only accompany the most expensive version, codenamed O3.

The elec further said Samsung has already decided on the hardware specifications for the S21, noting that it won’t include a 3D Time of Flight (ToF) sensor.

Bringing the S Pen to the Galaxy S family sets the stage for the possibility that Samsung could discontinue to Note series. Indeed, with foldables currently vying for attention and large-screen smartphones now the norm rather than the exception, it is entirely plausible that Samsung could phase out the Note and make the Galaxy Fold its new second half flagship.

Image credit: Sushiman, AquaSketches

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https://www.techspot.com/news/86485-samsung-may-ditching-galaxy-note-sending-s-pen.html

 

[MaitieS]

Imagine paying 1.5-2k€ for a mobile which only has 2 years of support...
I was never that huge fan of Apple but if I would have to pay the same amount of money I would definitely pick Apple.

 

[Alex Voinica]

Imagine paying 1.5-2k€ for a mobile which only has 2 years of support...

In the event for Note 20 series, Samsung announced 3 years of OS support starting from S10 Series, A51, A71, Note 10, etc. plus the 2 years of security patches.

 

[MaitieS]

In the event for Note 20 series, Samsung announced 3 years of OS support starting from S10 Series, A51, A71, Note 10, etc. plus the 2 years of security patches.

Really? That's actually an amazing news.

 

[Trillionsin]

Can't be bothered to proof read...

By basically sending the S Pen to the S series... essentially making that the new Note series.

Who cares?

 

[m-tec]

My 3 year old £270 Nokia 8 had 2 OS updates and is still getting security updates ?

 

[m-tec]

Imagine paying 1.5-2k€ for a mobile which only has 2 years of support...
I was never that huge fan of Apple but if I would have to pay the same amount of money I would definitely pick Apple.

I can't as I would never pay that for a phone. I'm on my 3rd smartphone and paid £620 for all 3, and they all still work ?

 

[mbrowne5061]

Can't be bothered to proof read...

By basically sending the S Pen to the S series... essentially making that the new Note series.

Who cares?

It will probably be S-series-sized, but that is just speculation on my part. They wouldn't want the S-series to compete with the fold-series in terms of screen real estate.

Imo, the Fold is going to flop unless they can get the screen longevity issues fixed.

 

[Uncle Al]

I think that would be a very bad business decision. If the fold-able is such a big improvement, why not continue to cover the "lower end" of the scale for the extra profit? As the old Yiddish businessman always said "Some money is better than no money" .....

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Doesn’t matter to me, I haven’t spent $2k in every phone and tablet I’ve ever owned combined. My $400 moto z play is doing fine after 4 years

 

[orbital]

Samsung lost its identity a long time ago. Even the Fold is a typical folding phone like Huawei's or any other. What we are getting each year is the same boring design with a few features (audio jack, equal or worse battery life, same inferior audio chip) cut and gradual improvements to the same things every other brand offers - camera, RAM, UFS and eventually CPU - which if you are not in the US is not even true with their inferior Exynos. At higher price.

What for?

My last Samsung phone was a Note 3, which although better than my previous S2 had an irregular backlight problem where the top of the screen was brighter than the lower part - the S2 had significant deviations at bottom left and right. Updates were late and few for both. Even if they now promise better support, most other smartphones out there are offering more or less the same hardware, displays, memory and software so what is really making Samsung different anymore? Yes, they may completely take Huawei's share now but this will be a short-term (institutional) luck. No innovation, no technical lead, same or lower SoT, batteries not keeping up with their claimed capacity and software set-up... And if someone tells me - "look at their top-of-the-market cameras" I'd respond, "well, take a look at Xiaomi's or Oppo's too, at half/70% of Samsung's prices". With Snapdragons, not Exynos's.

I am/have always been for innovation at customer's end, not marketing gimmicks or market share. Samsung has lost this from about the S4/Note 4 series. Foldables are not going to change that, especially the Apple way sending new products with no chargers, headphones, same batteries (and inferior battery boards), not to mention processors, claiming 5G was too expensive to offset otherwise.

Well, tell this to the current competition and the Scandinavian Nokia (not HMD Global) when it still believed it was the one and only. It was... while Innovation and leading the market, not with share but with Value, was still its real in-the-hands-of-the-customers, not marketing, motto. But we all know where it is... now. Where Samsung will be if it keeps walking the same way it's been on for the past 4-5 years.

 

[p51d007]

No thanks! The foldable is just another way to OVERCHARGE people for these $#%& things.
Unless you are into benchmarks, cutting edge games, "style and color", anything over $500 bucks
is too much for something that gets tossed in the trash in a couple years.

 

[21IlluminatiPro]

Please dont stop this series please I beg please