2023 could be the last time you get excited by Samsung’s Galaxy S lineup

Most Samsung fans love the Galaxy S series, but it may come a time when the iconic lineup will take a back seat to foldable phones. That time might come by the end of 2023 after Samsung lifts the veil off the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Samsung Display has worked on foldable display technology for about a decade. Samsung Electronics has been improving the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip lineups for the past few years to bring the foldable concept into the mainstream. There's a lot at stake, and the company expects foldable phone shipments to continue rising year-on-year.

Inevitably, given Samsung's focus on the foldable market, there may come a time when the Galaxy S lineup will no longer be the company's true flagship. And that time might come by the end of 2023.

The Galaxy S23 series might be the last meaningful addition to the S line

Samsung will have to improve some things about its foldable phones before the spotlight moves from the Galaxy S line to the Galaxy Z. First, Samsung will probably need to treat the Galaxy Z Flip as a proper flagship and give it features like DeX. Second, Samsung will want to add better, higher-resolution cameras to its foldable phones. And third, Samsung will have to improve the foldable display to have less of a crease, which the company is reportedly already doing in advance of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 release next year.

As of now, Samsung is the only OEM that treats its foldable phones like real members of its smartphone family, unlike other companies that view their foldables as gimmicks. Even business customers are starting to fall in love with the foldable form factor, which is a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, as no OEM wants to lose its enterprise clients. So if there's one brand that will make foldable phones replace the Galaxy S in the spotlight, that brand is undoubtedly Samsung.

The tech giant shipped 14 million foldable phones in the first three quarters of 2022, and that's nothing to sneeze at. The company expects to ship 26 million next year. And after the improved Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5 go live in late 2023, these foldable phones might get enough attention to replace the Galaxy S series at the top of the food chain in 2024 onward. In the end, it's not a matter of whether or not this will happen; it's a matter of when. And the end of 2023 could mark the beginning of that transition.

The Galaxy S23 might be the last, truly meaningful addition to the S line before Samsung starts treating the S series less as its pinnacle of mobile technology and more as a secondary smartphone series meant to ease the transition to foldable phones over time. With that in mind, we hope that the Galaxy S23 series will be a blast and that the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 will truly demonstrate that Samsung is ready to tip the scales in favor of foldable phones.