Samsung to Kill the Galaxy Note next year OR have a Galaxy S Phone with an S-Pen

[EJMB]

 

----------------------------------------------

Given that multiple websites have been reaffirming this for probably a very long time plus the fact that the differences between the two lines (Galaxy S and Galaxy Note) have been becoming almost miniscule (except of course for the S-Pen and the refinement of the Note compared to the S for that year among others). It seems like it might be the end of the era where the Galaxy Note is the flagship that Samsung parades every August as it plans to have the Galaxy S21/S30 with an S-Pen.

NB: videos of this topic are already up on youtube with Android Central posting similar thoughts with mine (but I think no one has posted here yet.)

 

Quote

 "The code name for the S21 series is ‘Unbound.’ There will be three models in the series __ their current project names are M1, N2 and O3. 

O3 will be the highest tier among the three and this model will have the S Pen,..."

출처 : THE ELEC, Korea Electronics Industry Media(http://thelec.net)

 

I find this interesting but more so concerned (android user who admires the Note line, currently with a Note 10 Plus but Exynos ) as it raises a few possible scenarios as to how this might play out (and it might depend on the sales of their foldables this year and in the months to come).
Scenario 1:
Feb: Galaxy S line (with the Ultra model having an S-Pen)
Aug: Galaxy Note line as usual
>this is very unlikely but let's include it

Scenario 2:
Feb: Galaxy S line (with the Ultra having an S-Pen); RIP Note possibly
Aug: Foldables
>highly unlikely given the brand recognition of the Note

Scenario 3:
Feb: Galaxy S line (with the Ultra being the Galaxy Note of that year)
Aug: Foldables
>the most likely for now but it will be concerning as the Note is typically the refined phone for any given year

Scenario 4:
Feb: rebranding into just the Galaxy Note series; RIP S line OR they rebrand their "glass sandwich" phones entirely so RIP S and Note line
Aug: Foldables

Scenario 5:
Feb: Galaxy S-line (no S-pen) + Galaxy Z Flip 2 or 3 -> targeted to mainstream users
Aug: Galaxy Note Line + Galaxy Z Fold 3 -> targeted to more productivity oriented users
>similar to this year but we'll see

What do you guys think? If you were Samsung, how would you do it? Honestly curious as I've always envisioned the Note to be the "everything including the kitchen sink" kind of phone but it's sorta lost its identity over the recent years (especially last year and this year but the Note 20 Ultra looks damn good though).
 

 

Sources

http://www.thelec.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=1414
https://tech.hindustantimes.com/mobile/news/samsung-galaxy-s21-ultra-may-support-s-pen-in-future-note-series-might-be-killed-71598336489924.html
https://www.t3.com/news/galaxy-s21-will-include-s-pen-samsung-to-scrap-galaxy-note-range-entirely

[BigDamn]

Samsung killed the Note line when they removed the headphone jack and other features, shifting the Note from a no comprises powerhouse to a status symbol. Basically once the Note went mainstream it died. I'll miss my Note4 and Note8, but I've moved on now.

[Doobeedoo]

I was expecting this to happen one day. 

[GreatnessRD]

I'm still rocking a Note8 and will until it decides to sleep permanently. Sucks that Samsung is moving on from the Note lineup. But as always, ALL good thing eventually come to an end. 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

5 minutes ago, GreatnessRD said:

I'm still rocking a Note8 and will until it decides to sleep permanently. Sucks that Samsung is moving on from the Note lineup. But as always, ALL good thing eventually come to an end. 

i'm still rocking the s7 edge until they find a way to remove that hole punch 

[suits]

Didn't the Note 20 sell really well especially considering everything going on? Seems like it would be a mistake to cancel the Note line after this year. 

[EJMB]

1 hour ago, BigDamn said:

Samsung killed the Note line when they removed the headphone jack and other features, shifting the Note from a no comprises powerhouse to a status symbol. Basically once the Note went mainstream it died. I'll miss my Note4 and Note8, but I've moved on now.

I rocked the Note 3 a few years back and it definitely felt different when you compared it to the rest of the phones out there.

Now? I honestly miss the "no compromises" quality it had.

Wish they brought back the headphone jack, used some bezel to produce true stereo speakers and a front facing camera that isn't a notch/hole-punch as well as remove the curved display (curved glass is fine along the edge but not the screen )

But you might be right, we all may have to move on.

[EJMB]

32 minutes ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

i'm still rocking the s7 edge until they find a way to remove that hole punch 

I sorta heard that you might have to wait until 2022 for the under-display cameras on their flagships at the earliest. 

[EJMB]

51 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

I was expecting this to happen one day. 

It would suck to be honest if they did kill it.

[BigDamn]

9 minutes ago, EJMB said:

I rocked the Note 3 a few years back and it definitely felt different when you compared it to the rest of the phones out there.

Now? I honestly miss the "no compromises" quality it had.

Wish they brought back the headphone jack, used some bezel to produce true stereo speakers and a front facing camera that isn't a notch/hole-punch as well as remove the curved display (curved glass is fine along the edge but not the screen )

But you might be right, we all may have to move on.

The cost was another factor for me, especially with the Note 20. $1000 for the base Note 20 (basically a S series phone) and $1400 for the Note 20 Ultra (more like an actual Note) is insane. I switched from the Note8 to a Pixel 4a, and to be honest I'm really happy with it. Do I miss the premium build quality and large screen? Yes. But I sure as hell don't miss the price tag.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

20 minutes ago, EJMB said:

I sorta heard that you might have to wait until 2022 for the under-display cameras on their flagships at the earliest. 

yeah, my phone can handle 2 more years i think.  

[EJMB]

1 hour ago, suits said:

Didn't the Note 20 sell really well especially considering everything going on? Seems like it would be a mistake to cancel the Note line after this year. 

I don't think there are sales figures yet so we'll see.

But yeah, I think it would be a mistake as well.

[EJMB]

40 minutes ago, BigDamn said:

The cost was another factor for me, especially with the Note 20. $1000 for the base Note 20 (basically a S series phone) and $1400 for the Note 20 Ultra (more like an actual Note) is insane. I switched from the Note8 to a Pixel 4a, and to be honest I'm really happy with it. Do I miss the premium build quality and large screen? Yes. But I sure as hell don't miss the price tag.

I agree, as I am overpaying for an Exynos version here; their regular Notes used to just hover around $1000 or less but the prices are getting way out of hand for what you are getting.

I would like to believe that if they bought like 3-5% of ARM and/or AMD to reduce licensing fees (unless their foundry could make way better in-house chips) AND stopped paying for excessive advertisments while not making too many models of phones per year....they could reduce these prices back down to reasonable levels.

 

Currently, considering getting a Pixel 4a as well...no slowdowns or whatnot when you use it?

[BigDamn]

2 hours ago, EJMB said:

Currently, considering getting a Pixel 4a as well...no slowdowns or whatnot when you use it?

Yeah the 4a feels just as snappy, if not snappier, than my Note8. In benchmarks they score roughly the same, and they have the same amount of RAM. Given that this uses a much more optimized version of Android, I don't see why I can't get at least 3 years out of it.

[EJMB]

16 hours ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

yeah, my phone can handle 2 more years i think.  

I think it would really be worth the wait
No stutters when it comes to daily use though?

[LAwLz]

I've never really liked the Note series to begin with, so I wouldn't miss if it disappeared.

The last couple of generations of Note devices have just been slight tweaks and refinements of the S series released ~6 months earlier. In the past 6 months could make a big deal, but for the last couple of years it has basically been "yeah we raised the frequency of the CPU 200Mhz".

So the Notes have been in this strange place where they are just slightly better than the S devices released 6 months earlier, but at a much higher price. But they are not anywhere near as good as the actual generational shift that takes place when the next S devices gets released ~6 months later. It just feels like the Note line has been Samsung dumping the spare parts from current gen S devices to make room for the next gen S devices.

[Bombastinator]

The only thing that might concern me is the s-pen.  I don’t really care what the phone is called.  The thing I wonder is how important the pen is?  I suspect it’s a lot like good PIM software.  There’s not a ton of people who use it, but the people that do need it BAD.  My suspicion is that the people who are pen users need the pen more than they need  Samsung and will go wherever they can find one. That’s not Apple right now of course, but it could be. 

[EJMB]

3 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I've never really liked the Note series to begin with, so I wouldn't miss if it disappeared.

The last couple of generations of Note devices have just been slight tweaks and refinements of the S series released ~6 months earlier. In the past 6 months could make a big deal, but for the last couple of years it has basically been "yeah we raised the frequency of the CPU 200Mhz".

So the Notes have been in this strange place where they are just slightly better than the S devices released 6 months earlier, but at a much higher price. But they are not anywhere near as good as the actual generational shift that takes place when the next S devices gets released ~6 months later. It just feels like the Note line has been Samsung dumping the spare parts from current gen S devices to make room for the next gen S devices.

I think that's mostly come about because of the Note 7 fiasco (very unfortunate) which forced Samsung to really make the next phone after that (the S8+) have the generational leap (compared to the S7) that we used to see between Notes making the Note almost be like an S with an S-Pen.
After that, other possible reasons could include that major Android competitors also released 2 sets of flagships every year (OnePlus and Huawei being the big ones and so Samsung has to release a flagship with a comparable SoC) AND that Qualcomm announces/unveils their next flagship SoC at the end of each year which will be used for next year's flagships (that being during the time of the S line) and no new SoC during the middle of the year (just the + versions).
If only Samsung could make their in-house SoC be better than that of Qualcomm's...maybe we wouldn't have that lack of a generational leap I guess but I'm no expert for sure.

[EJMB]

4 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

The only thing that might concern me is the s-pen.  I don’t really care what the phone is called.  The thing I wonder is how important the pen is?  I suspect it’s a lot like good PIM software.  There’s not a ton of people who use it, but the people that do need it BAD.  My suspicion is that the people who are pen users need the pen more than they need  Samsung and will go wherever they can find one. That’s not Apple right now of course, but it could be. 

The Note line is such a distinct naming line that I don't think they should veer away from it but maybe a rebranding is in order. 

If Samsung could make phones that wouldn't suffer a smaller battery size (i.e. S10 5G vs Note 10 Plus and S20 Ultra vs Note 20 Ultra; maybe solid state batteries will solve this) and loss of certain features (i.e. headphone jack like in the S10 line vs the Note 10 line) as compared to their S counterparts (assuming they continue both at all) while including an S-Pen.....I think it's a great tool to have. You may not need it always but it's there when you do and for those who use it everyday, it's still the only one from a major company (I understand that Infinix has a phone with a stylus) that's found within the phone itself and works great.

But honestly, only time will tell what they'll truly do and how it will all play out.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

5 hours ago, EJMB said:

I think it would really be worth the wait
No stutters when it comes to daily use though?

none that i can notice of, but it does come to a halt during a play store app update, other than that, after the oreo update it received, it runs smoother than it did when i got the phone, i replaced the battery late last year, i even get a days worth of battery even with youtube splitscreen/reddit, so i'm good for the next 2 years unless any apps stop supporting it like whatsapp or something but considering whatsapp still supports Kitkat on my S3, it shouldn't really be a problem for the next 2 years. S7 edge was the device they removed touchwiz so its smooth, it got its last major security update in Feb of 2020, i doubt it will get anymore though. they supported it for 4 years, longest for any device. 

https://www.sammobile.com/2019/04/01/galaxy-s7-quarterly-security-updates

 

and like a month later 
 

 

[EJMB]

41 minutes ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

none that i can notice of, but it does come to a halt during a play store app update, other than that, after the oreo update it received, it runs smoother than it did when i got the phone, i replaced the battery late last year, i even get a days worth of battery even with youtube splitscreen/reddit, so i'm good for the next 2 years unless any apps stop supporting it like whatsapp or something but considering whatsapp still supports Kitkat on my S3, it shouldn't really be a problem for the next 2 years. S7 edge was the device they removed touchwiz so its smooth, it got its last major security update in Feb of 2020, i doubt it will get anymore though. they supported it for 4 years, longest for any device. 

https://www.sammobile.com/2019/04/01/galaxy-s7-quarterly-security-updates

 

and like a month later 
 

 

That sounds awesome to be honest, with the 4 year support and all as well as the fact that it's still running smoothly on your part.

No problem with burn-in or such as well?

 

Hoping Samsung could be more consistent with updates in the future with all their devices though.

 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

16 minutes ago, EJMB said:

That sounds awesome to be honest, with the 4 year support and all as well as the fact that it's still running smoothly on your part.

No problem with burn-in or such as well?

 

Hoping Samsung could be more consistent with updates in the future with all their devices though.

 

i never run the brightness super high always have set it to auto and have been running on powersaving mode since day 1 so it runs on FHD rather than 1440p, so no burn ins. i do consciously set change my backgrounds once every 6 months to something low brightness scenery and the lockscreen is always something night sky oriented BG.   

[EJMB]

11 hours ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

i never run the brightness super high always have set it to auto and have been running on powersaving mode since day 1 so it runs on FHD rather than 1440p, so no burn ins. i do consciously set change my backgrounds once every 6 months to something low brightness scenery and the lockscreen is always something night sky oriented BG.   

Those are some good habits to prolong the lifespan of smartphones (given that the screen is the main interaction interface), I actually think they should make a Techquickie video about this (habits such as yours) seeing as phones are getting way too expensive (flagships are becoming an investment rather than an impulse buy)  and are dare I say a necessity in our current society for multiple reasons. (communication, work, etc.)
I never understood why people really champion the point of having 1440p resolutions (and high-refresh rate with it) on screens of mobile devices like that; I'm sure everyone notices (including you as well of course) that the difference between 1080p and 1440p on small screens like that is so miniscule that it might not be worth it at times to use 1440p.
Will be excited for you when you change your phone in a few years! 

[dizmo]

I wouldn't say that it's likely to happen just because there's a few sites spouting off the same info; it's pretty common that one site leaks something and the rest just join on the bandwagon. That said, I could see this happening. Samsung is moving to expand their portfolio of foldables, and I could see that really taking the position in the spotlight, especially once they make a model with SPen support.

 

As for your scenarios:
 

Scenario 1: Unlikely. There's no need to have so many similar models with the SPen.

Scenario 2: I see this being the most likely course of action. Perhaps not next year, but the year following. They'll have the regular phones, with the top model having the SPen in the beginning of the year, and then the foldables in the latter half, one also having an SPen. The Note line isn't that recognizable, and frankly, foldables will replace that with ease.

Scenario 3: How is this any different than #2?

Scenario 4: I don't understand what you're trying to say here. Why on earth would they get rid of the S line?

Scenario 5: Perhaps, but I think it would make more sense to release all the foldables at once.

 

I don't think the Note has really lost it's identity; it still has the SPen. It's pretty much what makes it different.

 

On 9/2/2020 at 6:37 AM, BigDamn said:

Samsung killed the Note line when they removed the headphone jack and other features, shifting the Note from a no comprises powerhouse to a status symbol. Basically once the Note went mainstream it died. I'll miss my Note4 and Note8, but I've moved on now.

Haha, I couldn't disagree more. It might have killed it off for you, but there's still loads of people that use it without issue. I'd say it's even less of an issue, since business users (its target audience) are less likely to complain about not being able to watch videos or listen to music. Plus, at the higher price, someone affording one of these can easily shell out a little for some wireless headphones.

On 9/2/2020 at 7:11 AM, suits said:

Didn't the Note 20 sell really well especially considering everything going on? Seems like it would be a mistake to cancel the Note line after this year. 

It had a 50%+ increase in sales in the UK. So, pretty substantial.

On 9/2/2020 at 7:38 AM, EJMB said:

I rocked the Note 3 a few years back and it definitely felt different when you compared it to the rest of the phones out there.

Now? I honestly miss the "no compromises" quality it had.

Wish they brought back the headphone jack, used some bezel to produce true stereo speakers and a front facing camera that isn't a notch/hole-punch as well as remove the curved display (curved glass is fine along the edge but not the screen )

But you might be right, we all may have to move on.

I couldn't disagree more. I love the note, and the Note5 has been my favorite phone so far. However, adding stereo speakers at the cost of a larger chin and forehead isn't appealing at all; the phone is already on the upper limits of what makes sense. The hole punch is the best they can do right now, under display tech simply isn't ready for mainstream when this phone was finalized. I like the curved screen, but each to their own on that one; perhaps you had one of their off years where it was a little too pronounced. Personally if I'm going to listen to music I'd rather use something smaller that has better sound qualities

On 9/2/2020 at 8:30 AM, EJMB said:

I agree, as I am overpaying for an Exynos version here; their regular Notes used to just hover around $1000 or less but the prices are getting way out of hand for what you are getting.

I would like to believe that if they bought like 3-5% of ARM and/or AMD to reduce licensing fees (unless their foundry could make way better in-house chips) AND stopped paying for excessive advertisments while not making too many models of phones per year....they could reduce these prices back down to reasonable levels.

 

Currently, considering getting a Pixel 4a as well...no slowdowns or whatnot when you use it?

I don't think you can really argue price when their sales are better than last years Notes. Clearly there's a market, and people are more than fine paying that much for a top tier device. I don't think making fewer devices means they'll lower prices. Look at Apple. They only make what, 4? Their prices are just as high. Advertising is one of the main reasons they have the market share they do, they'd be foolish to not push it.

17 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I've never really liked the Note series to begin with, so I wouldn't miss if it disappeared.

The last couple of generations of Note devices have just been slight tweaks and refinements of the S series released ~6 months earlier. In the past 6 months could make a big deal, but for the last couple of years it has basically been "yeah we raised the frequency of the CPU 200Mhz".

So the Notes have been in this strange place where they are just slightly better than the S devices released 6 months earlier, but at a much higher price. But they are not anywhere near as good as the actual generational shift that takes place when the next S devices gets released ~6 months later. It just feels like the Note line has been Samsung dumping the spare parts from current gen S devices to make room for the next gen S devices.

It's not really that much more than the devices before it. Look at the S20 Ultra; it was more expensive than the Note20 Ultra at launch.

If you don't use the pen, I could see how you could think that. If you used the pen, you'd see it in a totally different light.

The camera systems, for example, are much more refined on the Note compared to the S line up.

16 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

The only thing that might concern me is the s-pen.  I don’t really care what the phone is called.  The thing I wonder is how important the pen is?  I suspect it’s a lot like good PIM software.  There’s not a ton of people who use it, but the people that do need it BAD.  My suspicion is that the people who are pen users need the pen more than they need  Samsung and will go wherever they can find one. That’s not Apple right now of course, but it could be. 

That's the thing though. There's no where else to go for pen support. Other companies have tried (LG, for example) however their implementations were nothing compared to the Samsung devices.

13 hours ago, EJMB said:

The Note line is such a distinct naming line that I don't think they should veer away from it but maybe a rebranding is in order. 

If Samsung could make phones that wouldn't suffer a smaller battery size (i.e. S10 5G vs Note 10 Plus and S20 Ultra vs Note 20 Ultra; maybe solid state batteries will solve this) and loss of certain features (i.e. headphone jack like in the S10 line vs the Note 10 line) as compared to their S counterparts (assuming they continue both at all) while including an S-Pen.....I think it's a great tool to have. You may not need it always but it's there when you do and for those who use it everyday, it's still the only one from a major company (I understand that Infinix has a phone with a stylus) that's found within the phone itself and works great.

But honestly, only time will tell what they'll truly do and how it will all play out.

They can't just cram more battery into the Note. It's kind of reached the upper limit of what they can do without making it fatter and possibly throwing off the phones balance in the process. The battery life currently is in an odd place. The high refresh screens are killing it (though this has to do a lot with poor software optimization on Samsung's part), and they've moved to a massive display. I think next year we'll see significant advances on this front, both through a better SoC and better software management.

 

Really, though, fast charging can counter a lot of those issues. I used to dismiss its usefulness, but as we're approaching 60w chargers being the norm in higher end phones the fact that it could take only 10 or 15 minutes to top off a device really does negate needing a larger battery for 95% of people. The other 5% can just take a battery bank with them, or buy a phone that has the insane battery life they require.

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I wouldn't say that it's likely to happen just because there's a few sites spouting off the same info; it's pretty common that one site leaks something and the rest just join on the bandwagon. That said, I could see this happening. Samsung is moving to expand their portfolio of foldables, and I could see that really taking the position in the spotlight, especially once they make a model with SPen support.

 

As for your scenarios:
 

Scenario 1: Unlikely. There's no need to have so many similar models with the SPen.

Scenario 2: I see this being the most likely course of action. Perhaps not next year, but the year following. They'll have the regular phones, with the top model having the SPen in the beginning of the year, and then the foldables in the latter half, one also having an SPen. The Note line isn't that recognizable, and frankly, foldables will replace that with ease.

Scenario 3: How is this any different than #2?

Scenario 4: I don't understand what you're trying to say here. Why on earth would they get rid of the S line?

Scenario 5: Perhaps, but I think it would make more sense to release all the foldables at once.

 

I don't think the Note has really lost it's identity; it still has the SPen. It's pretty much what makes it different.

 

Haha, I couldn't disagree more. It might have killed it off for you, but there's still loads of people that use it without issue. I'd say it's even less of an issue, since business users (its target audience) are less likely to complain about not being able to watch videos or listen to music. Plus, at the higher price, someone affording one of these can easily shell out a little for some wireless headphones.

It had a 50%+ increase in sales in the UK. So, pretty substantial.

I couldn't disagree more. I love the note, and the Note5 has been my favorite phone so far. However, adding stereo speakers at the cost of a larger chin and forehead isn't appealing at all; the phone is already on the upper limits of what makes sense. The hole punch is the best they can do right now, under display tech simply isn't ready for mainstream when this phone was finalized. I like the curved screen, but each to their own on that one; perhaps you had one of their off years where it was a little too pronounced. Personally if I'm going to listen to music I'd rather use something smaller that has better sound qualities

I don't think you can really argue price when their sales are better than last years Notes. Clearly there's a market, and people are more than fine paying that much for a top tier device. I don't think making fewer devices means they'll lower prices. Look at Apple. They only make what, 4? Their prices are just as high. Advertising is one of the main reasons they have the market share they do, they'd be foolish to not push it.

It's not really that much more than the devices before it. Look at the S20 Ultra; it was more expensive than the Note20 Ultra at launch.

If you don't use the pen, I could see how you could think that. If you used the pen, you'd see it in a totally different light.

The camera systems, for example, are much more refined on the Note compared to the S line up.

That's the thing though. There's no where else to go for pen support. Other companies have tried (LG, for example) however their implementations were nothing compared to the Samsung devices.

They can't just cram more battery into the Note. It's kind of reached the upper limit of what they can do without making it fatter and possibly throwing off the phones balance in the process. The battery life currently is in an odd place. The high refresh screens are killing it (though this has to do a lot with poor software optimization on Samsung's part), and they've moved to a massive display. I think next year we'll see significant advances on this front, both through a better SoC and better software management.

 

Really, though, fast charging can counter a lot of those issues. I used to dismiss its usefulness, but as we're approaching 60w chargers being the norm in higher end phones the fact that it could take only 10 or 15 minutes to top off a device really does negate needing a larger battery for 95% of people. The other 5% can just take a battery bank with them, or buy a phone that has the insane battery life they require.

There’s one place to go but it’s not a phone. The iPad Pro. If they kill the pen some high end Samsung business is going to go to Apple. They’ll buy an iPad Pro to get the iPencil, and maybe buy an iPhone or an iWatch to go along with it to make phone calls.  They won’t like it much, but if you NEED a particular feature you need it.