Samsung makes some of the world's best and most versatile high-end phones. The company's Galaxy S and Galaxy Z lineup of phones offers consistent cameras, top-grade screens, extremely versatile software, and long-term software updates. But that doesn't mean the South Korean firm doesn't have room to improve.
Over the past few years, Samsung has not brought many significant hardware improvements to its high-end phones. It has now started to lag behind many Chinese rivals and even Apple in some areas. And here are the improvements that we think Samsung should bring to its future high-end phones.
Higher-resolution ultrawide and telephoto cameras
Samsung upgraded the primary camera to a 200MP sensor with the Galaxy S23 Ultra. However, the ultrawide camera resolution has remained 12MP since the Galaxy S20, while the 10MP telephoto camera was introduced with the Galaxy S21 more than two years ago. In comparison, several Chinese firms have started using 32MP, 48MP, 50MP, or 64MP telephoto and ultrawide cameras on their high-end phones.
A bigger, higher-resolution sensor can extract more details from the telephoto and ultrawide cameras. Although Samsung has been the best in zoom performance, at least with its Ultra models, it is losing its edge over other phones. And it would be ideal for Samsung to upgrade its ultrawide and telephoto cameras to 48MP (or better) resolution. Samsung's own ISOCELL GM5, GN3, GN5, and JN1 would be good sensors for ultrawide and telephoto camera upgrades. They all have high resolution, a decent sensor size, and the ability to record 4K videos.
A continuous optical zoom lens for the telephoto camera would give Samsung the upper hand over its competitors. But this upgrade might not come next year. We also want Samsung to bring the ability to actively switch between its rear cameras while recording 4K 60fps videos. This would be helpful for creators and people who frequently record videos. Currently, this ability is limited to 4K 30fps videos.
Solve motion blur issues with fast-moving subjects
Samsung phones are notorious for capturing blurred images of moving subjects. This issue is more visible while capturing images of kids or pets in indoor or low-light conditions. This happens because Samsung keeps the camera's shutter open too long to reduce noise and uses multi-frame capture to improve dynamic range. However, that introduces motion blur when moving subjects are in the frame. While the company offered the option to mitigate the motion blur issue with the Camera Assistant app, it has still not been solved completely.
Many people capture their memories with kids and pets, and it would leave a bad taste in their mouth if a Samsung phone captures a lousy image or misses a precious moment. People shouldn't have to deal with an additional app, and Samsung should bring a more permanent solution.
Faster wired charging
After the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, Samsung is treading carefully with features related to the battery. Over the past few years, the company has stuck to 45W fast charging in their highest-end phones and 25W in other phones. To add to the insult, Samsung's 45W fast charging isn't much faster than 25W fast charging, even if the wattage numbers are almost double the 25W figure.
Other firms offer at least 65W fast charging on their high-end phones. Some brands have even started offering as much as 240W fast charging on their flagship devices, offering rapid charging capabilities to users. Samsung should bring at least 65W fast charging to its phones or improve its 45W fast charging to be even faster. It would be great if future high-end Samsung phones could fully charge in 30-40 minutes.
Improved thermal design
Keeping aside Exynos-related issues, Samsung phones have struggled with maintaining high performance under sustained loads. Even the phones with Snapdragon chips don't usually perform up to their full potential compared to similarly-specced phones from other brands. This may boil down to inadequate heat dissipation or cooling systems inside Samsung phones.
Samsung improved this bit with the Galaxy S23 series by using larger cooling systems for the processor, but more needs to be done on that front. Improving the cooling mechanism indirectly also improves the battery life in mobile devices, and we all know how crucial long battery life is to almost all users. Hence, Samsung needs to solve this issue.
Samsung should also look at solving green/pink line issues on the screens that start appearing a year or more after using the phone. It remains to be seen how many of these improvements Samsung will bring with the Galaxy S24 series next year or wait till the Galaxy S25, which is rumored to be its dream phone. Charging speed and blurred images is what people have been complaining about most about Samsung's recent high-end smartphones.
The South Korean firm should aim to solve at least two of the shortcomings we've discussed to show that it cares about user feedback and is moving in the right direction.
