Rumor claims Samsung plans to merge the brands

Sep 16, 2019 07:40 GMT  ·  By

Samsung is reportedly looking into a new long-term plan that would streamline its flagship offering, helping to create a super-flagship that would include the best in the Galaxy S and Note series.

Basically, what Samsung might be planning to do is merge the Galaxy S and Note brands into one single series that would make more sense going forward, especially as the two already share the same hardware and feature lineup.

While the Galaxy S brand could absorb the Note, noted tipster Evan Blass says this isn’t just a typical rebranding.

“Samsung is said to be debating future Galaxy branding, including eliminating the distinction between the S and Note lines. Could manifest in different ways, possibly with a “Galaxy One” in lieu of an S11,” he posted recently.

“Expanding on this a bit, apparently what’s under discussion is more than just a branding realignment. Since S and Note features overlap so closely, one possibility is to simply fuse them into a single first-half handset, essentially an S-series with an S-Pen.”

Samsung Galaxy S Note edition

This isn’t the first time we hear about Samsung merging the two brands, and previous speculation on this indicated the South Koreans wanted the Note to become just another version of the Galaxy S. According to this plan, Samsung would have launched a Galaxy S with an S Pen, possibly branded as Note edition, but featuring the same hardware as the other models in the lineup.

Blass explains that should this idea be embraced, Samsung could replace the typical fall launch, which currently brings us new Note models every year, with the Galaxy Fold, the company’s very first foldable device.

This means Samsung would still have two different flagship launch events, one in the first quarter of each year for the Galaxy S, with a Note model included, and a second one in the fall for the new-generation Galaxy Fold.

For now, no decision has been made in this regard, so it remains to be seen if the upcoming Galaxy S11 due in February will be the first to come with a Note variant from the very beginning.