Samsung Galaxy

History

The Samsung Galaxy was launched in June 2009 as Samsung's first Android powered device. At the time, the brand's flagship smartphone was the Samsung Omnia and its successor, powered by Windows Mobile. Omnia had been the second full-touch Samsung device running the TouchWiz user interface (after the Tocco), but the Galaxy had an unmodified Android interface; the TouchWiz UI made its way to the Galaxy series with the Galaxy S. The Galaxy S and its successor Galaxy S II became very successful, eclipsing the company's other lines and operating systems. During the decade, the Galaxy phones "became the company's most-praised products [and] also were among the best-selling smartphones in the world."

Products

Discontinued

Samsung released multiple series of its devices, often overlapping with each other. Some of these series were dropped.

Samsung Galaxy Player

Samsung Galaxy Camera

Samsung Galaxy Camera 2

Samsung Galaxy NX

Samsung Galaxy Beam i8520

Samsung Galaxy Beam i8530

Software

Samsung Galaxy smartphones run the Android operating system under the Google Mobile Services platform, however Samsung and third-parties have bundled various other software in them too. The TouchWiz interface was used until 2017, replaced by Samsung Experience. This was then replaced by One UI in 2019.

The company has created many apps and services under the Galaxy brand specifically for these devices - many of which come preloaded - including the Galaxy Store which provides apps and customizations. Since late 2019, several Microsoft apps like Outlook also come preloaded on Galaxy as a result of a Samsung-Microsoft partnership.

Security

Samsung has been reportedly caught quietly installing an Israeli bloatware application known as AppCloud in its phone lineup in the West Asian and North African regions. This app is known for collecting large amounts of sensitive personal data, without a chance to opt-out or uninstall the app without achieving root access due to it falling under the system app umbrella. This process of gaining root access would trip the Samsung Knox E-fuse and void the warranty in the event this is achieved by use of bootloader unlocking, which has recently become impossible on all Samsung devices running One UI 8 or above, as the code for unlocking the bootloader has been completely stripped from not only the settings app, but also the bootloader itself.

Interoperability

Samsung have made several tools for making various Galaxy devices like phones, tablets and watches, work closer together. Samsung Flow is an app allowing content to be synced with a PC, such as notifications, replying to messages and authenticating from a PC, and sharing content. It was announced in November 2014, released in a preview form in May 2015 with the final release in May 2016. Microsoft's Phone Link has been included on Galaxy smartphones since 2019.

Another feature named Multi Control allows Galaxy smartphones to be controlled with a Galaxy Book keyboard and mouse, and drag and drop file sharing between them. Device Control is another feature in the quick panel that can control SmartThings and other devices.

Samsung Smart Switch, preinstalled on recent Galaxy phones and tablets, copies contacts, messages, photographs, application data and settings from a user's previous device onto a Galaxy one. It takes iOS devices as well as other Android handsets as the source, working over a cable, a direct wireless connection, external storage or an iCloud backup, although applications themselves are not carried across from iOS.

Release history

The following is a table showing the full initial release history of every Galaxy device since 2009.

Regional firmware variants

Region locking and CSC codes

Starting from the Galaxy Note 3, Samsung phones and tablets contained a warning label stating that it would only operate with SIM cards from the region the phone was sold in. A spokesperson clarified the policy, stating that it was intended to prevent grey-market reselling, and that it only applied to the first SIM card inserted. For devices to use a SIM card from other regions, one of the following actions totaling five minutes or longer in length must first be performed with the SIM card from the local region:

Make calls on the phone or watch from the Samsung Phone app

Use the Call and Text on Other Devices feature to make calls

With the launch of the Galaxy S8 series in 2017, that process has changed. Due to the fact that many variants use a Multi-CSC, it will only work with SIM cards from the same CSC group. For example, an AT&T SIM card will not work on cellular-based Galaxy devices sold in Europe and other countries.

Model numbers

Since September 2013, model numbers of devices in the Samsung Galaxy series are in the "SM-ABCDE" format (excluding the Galaxy J SC-02F, Galaxy Centura SCH-S738C, and SGH-N075T), where A is the model series, B is the device class, C is the generation, D is the device type, and E is the country/region that it is made for (if applicable). Prior to September 2013, the model numbers were in the "GT-XXXXX" format; they were also in the "SCH-XXXX", "SGH-XXXX", "SPH-XXXX" and "SHV/SHW-XXXX" formats.

Firmware numbering

The following is a list of known firmware regions.

Over the Horizon

"Over the Horizon" is the trademark sound for Samsung smartphone devices, first introduced in 2011 on the Galaxy S II. It was composed by Joong-sam Yun and appears as music in the music library of most Samsung phones released since 2011. Prior to 2011, "Beyond Samsung" served as Samsung's trademark music track, while "Samsung Tune" was used as the default ringtone. The sound appears as the default ringtone, as well as the sound when the phone turns on or off (a snippet is used), and as a notification sound. While the basic composition of the six-note tune has not changed since its inception, various versions of different genres have been introduced as the product line evolved.

While the first two versions were created in-house at Samsung, later versions were outsourced to external musicians. The sound has been covered by various popular artists who have released their own arrangements and remixes of the song, such as Quincy Jones, Icona Pop, Suga of BTS, and various K-pop artists. In Samsung's U.S. registration of the trademark for the sound, it is described as "the sound of a bell playing a B4 dotted eighth note, a B4 sixteenth note, an F#5 sixteenth note, a B5 sixteenth note, an A#5 eighth note, and an F#5 half note".