Samsung is one of the largest consumer electronics companies on the planet, with different arms making almost every gadget you want in your home or pocket.
2020 saw the company launch a variety of new products, including new TVs, next-generation smartphones and a variety of other devices that you may have already purchased this year – or may be considering.
As 2020 is ending, we are taking a look at what we saw from the company over the past year and showing you the biggest announcements made by Samsung.
Expect great news from Samsung in the coming months as well, as we expect the Samsung Galaxy S21 to arrive in early 2021 and we are likely to see a new series of company announcements at CES 2021 as well.
Mobile phones: Samsung Galaxy S20 and more foldable
The best way to sum up Samsung’s year on smartphones is to say that the Samsung Galaxy S20 remains our best smartphone in the world right now. Despite ads like the OnePlus 8 Pro and iPhone 12, Samsung has maintained its crown since it launched its latest Galaxy S series in early 2020.
This series of phones brought 5G to the mainstream Galaxy S series in a bigger way than we had seen before, the design was refined, there were some major improvements to the camera and the company also fully adopted 120 Hz display technology.
It was also the debut of the new Galaxy S Ultra series with the Galaxy S20 Ultra drawing a lot of attention with its 100x zoom camera. We don’t love that smartphone in general, but the rear camera is nevertheless a phenomenal piece of technology.
Then, Samsung launched its second foldable phone format – the Galaxy Z Flip. This shell-shaped device may look like a Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP, but it brought a new way to see foldable phones.
At the end of the year, Samsung launched its Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra with the latter of these two devices receiving more attention. It features a premium design, a powerful 108MP camera and several improvements to the S Pen over the Galaxy Note 10 series.
The Galaxy Note 20 did not impress us much with it boasting a ‘Glasstic’ (which is glass and plastic together) rear and some less than the high end specifications, despite the very high price. If you want a 2020 Galaxy Note phone, we recommend spending more and going for the Note 20 Ultra.
Samsung’s folding journey continued with the Galaxy Z Fold 2 debuting in September with a variety of improvements over its predecessor. In general, it is more robust, and the front screen is much more usable as it has increased in size since the first generation product.
Samsung also brought a new line of devices to the market this year for those who don’t want to spend that much, but want impressive technology. The Galaxy S20 Fan Edition debuted in October with some bold and colorful designs and many of the cutting edge features of the S20 without the super high price tag.
Overall, Samsung had an impressive year in the Galaxy world with some high-end devices remaining in the ranking of the best smartphones, in addition to taking some bold steps in new worlds such as folding space and the introduction of 5G technology.
TV: 8K innovations, but losing space in the budget
In 2020, we needed entertainment at home more than ever – and for most of us, our big screen TV was the place to find it. According to the NPD Group, sales of 65-inch TVs increased by more than 50% over the previous year in the first half of 2020, meaning that companies like Samsung did well in what was otherwise a very busy year. difficult.
To its credit, Samsung is not resting on its laurels here – although it could have cut its R&D budget, the Korean company has struggled to announce a number of new TV technologies, including more recently a consumer-oriented version of The Parede .
As screen sizes get bigger, Samsung is also one of the driving forces behind making them better: it has more 8K TV models than almost any other TV manufacturer and has openly embraced the new HDMI 2.1 specification needed for 4K a 120 Hz or 8K / 60.
And yet, as Samsung drives innovations in cutting edge space more and more, it is losing space in the budget space as TV makers like Vizio, TCL and Hisense enter the market with their own exceptional screens. These companies are doing amazing things, to their credit, but part of the reason for their success is that Samsung has not put as much engineering effort into their Crystal UHD TVs as they have in their QLED line: the former are often cutting-edge LED-LCD TVs illuminated with native 60 Hz refresh rate and basic upscaler.
Without a crystal ball, it’s impossible to say for sure what Samsung will prepare for 2021, but if it’s something like this year, expect even bigger screens, a greater emphasis on 8K resolution and a wider range of HDMI 2.1 compliant TVs that you can pair with the new Xbox Series X and PS5.
Audio: New true wireless, but without Galaxy Home
It’s been a busy year for Samsung’s audio wing, with several releases throughout 2020 and more to come.
In February, the company announced the launch of true Samsung Galaxy Buds wireless headsets; the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus offered better battery life and superior audio quality compared to its predecessors, but failed to really take off due to the lack of active noise cancellation and limited audio codec support.
Then, in August, we had the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live, a pair of real bean-shaped wireless headphones that had been rumored months before its release.
These strange headphones represented a dramatic design change for Samsung and were quite different from all the buttons we had seen before. They also came with the promise of noise cancellation – although their ‘semi-open’ design meant that they couldn’t compete with competitors like the Apple AirPods Pro in that respect.
More recently, we have heard rumors that Samsung is about to launch yet another pair of real wireless headphones. Although we don’t think they will materialize before the end of the year, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro will be released in January 2021 along with the new Galaxy S21 series. Is ‘Pro’ in the name a reference to AirPods Pro and a hint that they can come with active noise cancellation? We’ll have to wait and see.
An audio device that we haven’t seen this year? The long-awaited Samsung Galaxy Home smart speaker. We have been waiting for the launch of rival Google Nest and Amazon Echo for more than two years and, although we have already lost hope at this point, Samsung launched a mini version of the smart speaker in February in South Korea. So far, Samsung Galaxy Home Mini has yet to leave the company’s ground, suggesting that it may have been just a promotional launch. In any case, we are not holding our breath for a Samsung smart speaker in the near future.
Wearables: Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is another triumph
Wearables were not Samsung’s focus in 2020, but it has made some impressive advances in the market by using our best smartwatch for a few months with its newest high-end wristwatches.
This is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 that debuted in August this year, and the new smartwatch brought much of what we love about the Galaxy Watch with some impressive tweaks and design changes.
Instead of changing everything we expect from a smartwatch, he refined the experience with an electrocardiogram, better battery life than its predecessor and more powerful internal components as well.
The Galaxy Watch 3 came out of first place on our list of best smartwatches a few months later, with the introduction of the Apple Watch SE, but for many the Galaxy Watch 3 will be the ultimate smartwatch experience.
In addition, Samsung reintroduced itself to the fitness tracker market in early September. The Samsung Galaxy Fit 2 has a two-week battery and is the company’s last attempt to tackle Fitbit.