Over the past two years, Samsung’s strategy has been to refine the design of its smartphones and bring a consistent look across all price points. The result is Galaxy A devices in 2023 and 2024 that look very similar to their high-end Galaxy S siblings. By 2025, that strategy will change.
Recent leaks suggest that Samsung is redesigning the Galaxy A series this year. Gone are the S-rings for the cameras, and in their place Samsung will reintroduce the camera island concept. for Galaxy A36 And Galaxy A56. In my opinion, this change in strategy has its ups and downs.
A single design language for different price categories is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, this can give more weight and credibility to inexpensive phones. On the other hand, this may be perceived as making the premium line cheaper.
To put it bluntly, some Galaxy S buyers would prefer not to have their phones mistaken for a mid-range Galaxy A device. And I think Samsung made this design decision for 2025 precisely to draw a clearer line between price tiers like this was before, with an emphasis on Galaxy S25 support.
However, the unified design strategy employed over the past two years may have allowed Samsung to focus on improving other aspects of the mid-range Galaxy A series. By the way, since Samsung adopted a unified design in 2023, the Galaxy A3x and A5x have grown unexpectedly. They are better designed and often borrow technology from more expensive devices. Let’s hope this trend continues into 2025, regardless of the camera redesign.
To be subjective, I think the camera rings look better than the camera island shown in the leaked renders and photos of the Galaxy A36 and A56. Not everyone will agree, but that’s my two cents. The actual phones may change my mind when they hit store shelves, but for now I’m still skeptical.
From a Galaxy A user’s perspective, I don’t think it’s particularly exciting to ditch the flagship design element of the current era, i.e. the camera ring, in favor of the legacy design that was prominently featured on the Galaxy Note 10 back in 2019. And this comes from a former Galaxy Note 10 user.
Again, we can at least agree that the camera island on 2025 mid-range phones looks more refined and relatively modern compared to 2019’s. And considering it’s been a few years since Samsung introduced camera rings, this could be an interesting change of pace, at least for some people.
New Samsung customers who may be unfamiliar with the company’s design history may find the 2025 mid-range phones more exciting and refreshing. Be that as it may, low-end phones will once again have their own identity, separate from high-end devices. This can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.
However, as a Samsung fan who has closely followed everything that happens at Samsung, especially in the last half century, I can’t help but feel that we will eventually end up exactly where we were a few years ago, and I don’t find this the thought is very comforting. It looks like regression.
As a flagship phone user, I should be happy as this change in design strategy is clearly aimed at premium flagship buyers. But I have to wonder if Galaxy A fans will get any benefit from what I consider to be a step back.
Let’s hope the Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A56 hold their own once they become official. Perhaps they will look better in person, as is usually the case with phones. And more importantly, they boast enough improvements in all other important aspects that I won’t care about the camera island design in the end.