Samsung will supposedly ditch Galaxy S moniker to introduce the Galaxy X

It’s always a bit jarring when a major manufacturer slides away from their conventional naming schemes for something new. We felt this way for all of HTC’s flip-flopping over the years, and the thought of the LG G7 being non-existent had us clutching our blankies for nighttime security.

And now, perhaps the longest-tenured and most significant series in the game — the Samsung Galaxy S lineup — could be getting a shakeup of its own. The word from South Korean sources is that Samsung won’t call their 2019 flagship the Galaxy S10, but instead will see the light of day as the Galaxy X.

This is interesting for a couple of different reasons:

1. This is obviously beneficial from a marketing standpoint, with Apple positioning the “iPhone X” as something futuristic (even though it’s every bit as contemporary as anything else out there today). Of course, Samsung has to be careful not to stir up accusations of copycatting with this move, but they’ve gotten pretty good at thwarting that noise over the years.
2. On a less superficial level, this would clash with the belief that the “Samsung Galaxy X” will be the name of the company’s forthcoming foldable smartphone. They’ll have plenty of time to come up with a new name for that one, though, considering it’s not slated to arrive until 2019. (Or, get this: maybe they’re the same phones. Huh? HUH???! Yeah, we won’t bet on it either, but it’d sure be nice.)

Samsung supposedly wants to make this move to avoid awkward naming schemes down the line. Through now, the numbers in the phone names have mostly been single-syllable affairs with the exception of the double trouble baked into the word “seven.” Start adding more syllables and, well, it starts to feel like a bit of a mouthful. Samsung Galaxy “Eleven” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, nor might it look particularly flattering in marketing copy.

We’re not sure where Samsung plans to go after “X,” but they still have the Samsung Galaxy S9 to worry about and we imagine all their focus is squarely on launching that later this month.