Galaxy: The alpha smartphone

The first gen Galaxy S or the 'GTI9000' reference version featured a 1 GHz ARM "Hummingbird" processor, a PowerVR graphics processor, 8 or 16 GB of internal flash memory, a 4 in (10 cm) 480×800 pixel Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, Wi-Fi connectivity, a 5- megapixel primary camera and a 0.3-megapixel secondary frontfacing camera. Derivative models of the series included localised cellular radios or changes to button layouts, keyboards, screens, cameras or the Android OS.

At the time of its release, the Galaxy S included the fastest graphical processing of any smartphone, was the thinnest smartphone at 9.9mm and was the first Android phone to be certified for DivX HD. It was the Galaxy S II, though, that led Samsung to truly break out in the US and later to the entire world.

The Galaxy S II was released under that name on three out of four major wireless carriers, which had meant that Samsung could start powerful marketing campaigns around the phone. And then, a year later, once the Galaxy S III came out as the "anti-iPhone," available by the same name on every carrier, Samsung's place in the sun was cemented. Unlike its competitor Apple back in the day, Samsung still sells a broad range of smartphones in different shapes, sizes and operating systems. Along with Android, Samsung has kept its toe in the Windows Phone with releases like the Samsung Ativ Odyssey for Verizon Wireless, and is developing its own smartphone OS, Tizen.

If we look back through the history of Samsung's smartphones, we can see the seeds of Galaxy’s success as far back as 2008, when the company started stabbing at the idea of branded, full-touch smartphone interfaces in the Instinct and Omnia.

Those phones were held back by their underlying operating systems, though. The Instinct used a custom, cobbled-together Java OS that couldn't provide the responsiveness and extensibility we expect from a modern smartphone. The Omnia tried to graft touch-friendly widgets onto Windows Mobile, an old operating system designed for days when everyone used a stylus with their smartphone. And then, S IV and S V came. While, S IV did put up a good fight against the new entrants, S V escaped the battlefield. The poor show of the S V left the once anointed brand in shambles. It’s year five now, and what we have today is the S6.

There is something unique though. Everything has changed for Samsung. But then, What does the ‘S’ stand for? It is not an ‘S’, in their world it means hope. It has done something very different with this year’s fl a g s h i p.

The company that has long held on to the belief that it can produce top-tier hardware using plastics as the core component of device industrial design has switched to an all metal and glass enclosure. The big question about making the design, the central selling point of the Galaxy S6, is whether or not it can turn things around for Samsung’s smartphone division, and help it resume growth and reclaim its position of absolute global device dominance. There’s no question, in our minds, that what Samsung has done vastly improves upon its existing track record of hardware look and feel, but ultimately the market will have the final say.

But that might dictate whether or not Samsung will take more risks in the future, instead of sticking to the kind of conservative approach that has been the hallmark of Samsung’s Galaxy flagships over the course of time. We’ll have to wait and see. .