Handsets

This GIF wonderfully illustrates the evolution of Samsung’s Galaxy S line

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Samsung Galaxy S evolution

(Click image to play GIF)

It’s hard to believe that original Samsung Galaxy S was announced all the way back in March of 2010 without an LED flash or even 1080p video recording. Since then, the device has slowly evolved every year, eventually reaching the 6th iteration, the premium Samsung Galaxy S6 we see today.

The folks at GadgetLove are at it again, compiling every Galaxy S6 iteration into a single, mighty morphing GIF. Mesmerizing, isn’t it? While Samsung has largely kept to the same “Galaxy S” design language throughout the years, sometimes it’s easy to forget how far we’ve come since 2010. One thing the GIF doesn’t show? How Samsung ditched the removable battery and SD card slot in the Galaxy S6.

Check out our original Samsung Galaxy S review right here. Anyone out there own every Galaxy iteration?

[Interactive version: GADGETLOVE]

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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54 Comments

  1. boy they just LOVE those buttons next to that hideous home button, dont they?

    1. Ohhhhh boy, a frinkin button!!!

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      1. howard sterns penis!

        1. Heh, wha?

          1. howard stern reference =)

  2. Lol looks way cooler than iPhone evolution gif

  3. Awesome.Just Awesome.

  4. My first smartphone was a Samsung Captivate. I still have it.

    1. My first Android device was the Epic Touch 4G. Had iPhones before that.

    2. Yeah, mine was a Captivate, too. The smartphone that came without GPS. Well…basically… ;-)

      1. Haha. Yes. I tried so hard to get the GPS to work. Probably the main reason why I didn’t go with another Samsung. I ended up switching to Version and getting a Droid Razr

    3. Have mine too, and it saw a lot of use, running every version of Android from Eclair through KitKat (CyanogenMod), until it died a couple months ago from flash failure (limited write cycles used up).

      GPS wasn’t too bad on CM.

  5. “The Samsung Galaxy S is dominated by two main hardware powerhouses: the 1GHz Hummingbird processor and GPU and the 4-inch, 800×480 WVGA Super AMOLED touchscreen.”

    -Kevin Krause, (2010)

    1. sure have come full circle with the processors, huh? I wonder what will be next. I love the Exynos benchmarks I’ve read. Just makes you wonder how long it will take for Snapdragon to be irrelevant.

      1. I hear you on that brotha.. I was owner of the Phone with the first 1ghz Processor, the HTC HD2 W/ Snapdragon Gen 1..(I still have it).

        And now Phones are coming out with 2.9GHZ Processors!!! Snapdragon 810s and 815s!!!!

        Yeah, can’t wait until I check out the S6 in real life..

        1. me either to be honest. I give Sammy crap, but I give them a lot of credit for the phones they just came out with. Its VERY hard to find wiggle room when it comes to doggin them. Does the case look like an iPhone? who cares. The phones are beautiful. The specs are crazy. Its like they really listened this time around and cranked out something awesome. Hope they really stick to their processors and get them more efficient in their future phones, because i’d be VERY considerate when it comes to picking a Sammy phone as my next device. I’m drooling over the Note 5 and I dont even know what they are going to release!

          1. You’re another one, so I’m repeating my post above for you –

            Something is up with Disqus and it’s been auto-moderating your comments for no good reason whatsoever.

            It’s not us – I’ve been restoring them as I find them.

            Chat with me via private conversation in the forums if you notice it hitting you some more.

            http://androidforums.com/members/earlymon.152728/

            Cheers.

            PS – I noticed the name change – whatever is causing the problem, it’s not that.

          2. Thought I did something wrong or someone did not like a post so they started flagging all of my posts. Changed my name to bypass that theory. I responded to Chris Chavez on another article and those were all removed or pending OK from the moderator. Thought you hated me :(

          3. Absolutely not!

            I promise – it obviously wasn’t you and it definitely wasn’t an action taken by any human here (you see me listed as a member of the “Phandroid Team” but you know I’m a pain in the neck and write no articles – I’m on point as the Disqus mod and try to keep spammers at bay and tossing the occasional troll (like – 3 in three years ok) – so they hung that title on me). Anyway – point being, I’m the guy that knows how to drill into Disqus records and I still can’t figure how you got flagged – but when I find it, I’m going to sort it out, I promise you.

            Your comments are welcome here and you don’t have to agree or disagree with anyone. :)

          4. Anyway – I’ve escalated this up the line, something is just broken ok.

        2. I owned the very first ever Droid. The day it came out. I still have it in a drawer next to me.

          I saw and held and used the S6 Edge (I saw both but blew off the regular) in real life today at Best Buy. Nice phone. Smaller than I expected. Zero lag. Pretty nice. Not so sure i like looking at those curved edges – it is a little odd/distorted to the eye – I kept wanting to turn the phone to see around the edge – as it is not a second screen like the Note, just a curved screen. Can only use 1 side and can only activate it near the top of the phone (a very small faint whitish line indicates where to thumb swipe to get the Edge to pop out). A limited number of things can be done with the Edge.. contacts and notifications and a clock/weather, etc. But no app launching for example. It felt nice, felt solid. Accidentally hitting and activating the edge function is not going to be a real issue since you can only activate it with about a 1/2 section of the edge. You can download different edge notification widget functions (Yahoo, Sports, Twitter, News, Samsung propaganda, etc.). So I hope that gets expanded as I use none of them but time/weather.

          I mentioned elsewhere, you can go read, in the HTC M9 thread, about the fact the 32gb they had in the store only had 15gb free (!) and it is a basic stripped down (minimal apps, music, messages, songs, no vids, no photos, etc.). So we have yet to see what the System is eating on a retail model. Some think maybe the Samsung Retail Demp app… but I am not so sure that can account for say 10gb of the System.

          1. Something is up with Disqus and it’s been auto-moderating your comments for no good reason whatsoever.

            It’s not us – I’ve been restoring them as I find them.

            Chat with me via private conversation in the forums if you notice it hitting you some more.

            http://androidforums.com/members/earlymon.152728/

            Cheers.

        3. I don’t think the HD2 was the first. I think it was a phone by Toshiba.

    2. 5 years now *really* seems like an eternity in mobile device timelines.

  6. “All the US versions have 4 navigation buttons. It’s the international versions of the Galaxy S that have the weird middle button.”

    Commentor, Aaron Meyer, 2010

    Who knew back then, that the weird little button would later become the Key trademark of the Galaxy S Line..simply cool.

  7. Still have original 2010 Galaxy S running CM11 and serving as IP phone and SMS over WIFI.

    1. Woah…what? Explain that one more time…. IP phone ?

      1. GrooveIP + Wifi Connection -> IP phone

        1. Correct or alternatively Hangouts plus Hangouts Dialer. Groove IP has better integration with default dialer but you have to find the older 1.4.8 version before they made it incompatible with Google Voice but the older version might not work with Lollipop.

          1. Or you could just use Skype and wifi on it.

  8. They all like like iPhones to me

    1. – Apple

    2. Knew someone would say that. Apple didn’t invent the rectangle with rounded corners and a single button in the middle on the bottom.

    3. The original iPhone reminds me of the LG Prada

  9. I still own the OG Galaxy S Vibrant (T-Mobile model) somewhere in my closet.

  10. Meh. Only my like 4th replacement in the span of a year back then. Haha.

    1. I wanted to love that phone so bad. I felt like the only guy with a sweet phone and NO GPS. Still, the phone was awesome. I developed crazy Odin/root/flash skills with that wildflower. I even did the FFC mod with it using the ver 2 international camera module. However, never again did I get a Samsung after that.

      1. Same here man. I’ve avoided Samsung like the plague.

  11. I still have my Vibrant and my Galaxy S3! Only my Note 3 is sadly gone, but now I have the Note 4!

  12. Having owned all 5 Galaxy S to date, I’d rank them: GS2 (Sprint E4GT), GS5, GS3, GS4, GS1 (Sprint Epic).

    1. Why is the GS4 worse than the GS3 in your book, and what made the GS2 better than the 5, 3, and 4?

      1. Battery life on the GS3 alone is enough reason to pick it over the GS4. The GS2 is my pick as the best because of how easy it was to root, how supported it was by the root community, and that it provided some of the best battery life of all 5 Galaxy S phones. The GS5 also had pretty good battery life.

        Now remember, the GS2 I referenced is the one I owned. The Sprint Epic 4G Touch. A few reviewers labeled it as the best GS2 variant.

        1. Yep same one I had (for the GS2). After that I was all about Nexus devices till Nvidia made their Shield tablet to replace my N7 2012 (even though I know we’re talking about phones). Still holding onto my N5 till I find something good enough to replace it IMO

  13. Samsung Galaxy Epic. What a piece of shit.

  14. Hey Phandroid, maybe your Android app should support playing the animated GIFs you post. Or am I missing something?

    1. I’ll take this up with Steve. Thanks.

  15. Ive had the:

    -S1
    -S3
    -Note 3

    Wife has had the:

    -S1
    -S2
    -S3
    -Note 3

    shes a little more spoiled.

  16. You should have included the Galaxy. I still have mine.

  17. My first smartphone was the Galaxy S, then up to the S3 (amazing device for 2012) and now i’ve got the Note 4 the best phone ever (well until the S6 edge). Funny thing is my phone get passed down to my parents so my dad has my old S (still works perfectly) and my mum has my S3 (again still works like a champ). People criticize Samsung for quality but i’ve never had any issues, over 4 year old phone still going strong.

  18. Brings back some great memories (and some frustration too).
    The galaxy S was my first Android phone coming from a Samsung omni with Windows Mobile. The galaxy was an amazing piece of technology compared to the omnia and an awesome alternative to iPhone (except for the touchwiz lag)

  19. Where is Richard yarrel? He probably owned them all

  20. A still picture of the S2 would’ve saved time.

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