Samsung continues its global dominance in the smartphone market, leading with 22.3 percent market share in Q3 2017. After last year’s Galaxy Note 7 disaster, the road was a tough one for Samsung, at least in the flagship department. Gaining customers trust after the massive Note 7 fiasco seemed like an improbable task for the South Korean giant, but 2017 turned out to be a really impressive year for Samsung smartphones.
The South Korean tech giant came out with their first “bezel-less” 18:9 display smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and it also launched its first-ever dual-camera smartphone, the Galaxy Note 8 this year. There are some setbacks for the company, especially losing the ground in India to Chinese brand Xiaomi.
Looking at Samsung’s Year in Review 2017, we have come across some of the best smartphones from the company:
Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+
The Galaxy Note 7 was a flagship smartphone, which took the entire smartphone industry by shock. Samsung has to impress the audience with the Galaxy S8 duo. Keeping that in mind, Samsung pushed the launch date to March 29, took its time, and pulled the wraps off both the devices at a special event in New York.
With the introduction of new edge-to-edge bezel-less 18:9 display, the Galaxy S8 duo became the beacon of bezel-less display trend in the smartphone market, and even Apple ended adopting the new change in the Apple iPhone X.
The Galaxy S8 also turned out to be the first smartphone to be powered by the 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. This was, however, limited to the US markets as Samsung’s own Exynos 8895 powered international variants of the device. Samsung’s digital assistant Bixby too found its first home in the S8 but users had to wait months until the assistant actually started working.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
Samsung is riding on the success of the Galaxy S8 and S8+, and it entered the second half of 2017 with massive sales on its flagship smartphones. But most of the tech community still looking for an successor to the Galaxy Note 7. Rumours cited that the company is killing the Note lineup, but Samsung did not choose that way, and instead launched the Galaxy Note 8- its first dual camera smartphone.
Samsung’s disastrous Note 7 was pulled from the sale, but Note 8 turned out to be a spectacular success for the brand. The Galaxy Note 8 borrows many of its design features from S8 but for the first time in Samsung smartphone history, packs a dual-camera configuration. The device brought two 12MP sensors onboard - a wide angle and telephoto lens which improved its imaging prowess with Portrait Mode and 2x optical zoom.
The Note 8 also packs in hefty 6GB RAM while processor remains same as the Galaxy S8 flagship. Samsung also brought an enhanced S-Pen support for the Note 8. Both the Note 8 and S-Pen come with the IP68 dust and water resistance.
Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro and Gear Sport
Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 8 in mid-August, and the next announcements from the company were at the IFA 2017.
Samsung unveiled two new wearables aimed at fitness enthusiasts at its IFA Conference in Berlin. The Gear Fit2 Pro and Gear Sport house a 1GHz dual-core processor along with 4GB of memory. Both devices run TizenOS with features such as auto activity detection which turns out be great option to recognise activities such as walking, running or cycling among others. The wearable is also rated water resistant to 5ATM and carry MIL-STD-810G military grade certification.
Samsung Gear IconX
Following in footsteps of Apple, Samsung came with their own truly wireless earbuds. The Gear IconX is a pair of cord-free wireless earbuds, and also pack in integrated heart rate sensors. The earbuds also come with the capability of storing up to 1000 songs and can be used as a standalone MP3 player. Each earbud comes with 3.5GB of usable storage space and supports audio formats such as MP3, MP4, AAC, WAV, WMA. With 45mAh battery in each earbud, they provide at least 2 hours of playback time, but the Gear IconX starts for a steep price of Rs. 13,490.
Samsung Galaxy A-Series, J-Series
While Samsung's flagship smartphones grabbed the attention from the crowd, the Samsung Galaxy A-series and J-series didn't make the headline as they did in the past few years.
Samsung brought in new changes to its mid-range and budget phone portfolio with updated A-series, J-series and C-series smartphones. Super AMOLED displays, octa-core processors and compelling imaging performance made Samsung’s 2017 lineup of mid-range phones quite competitive.
The updated Samsung mid-range devices include: Samsung Galaxy A5 2017, Galaxy A7 2017, Galaxy C7 Pro, Galaxy C9 Pro, Galaxy J5 Pro, Galaxy J7+, Galaxy J7 Nxt, Galaxy C8, Galaxy J7 Max, and Galaxy J7 Pro.
Shares the Number 1 Smartphone Brand Place in India with Xiaomi
One of the huge setbacks for Samsung in 2017 is losing its top spot to Xiaomi. Although Samsung is now tied up with Xiaomi for the No.1 smartphone brand position in India, the latter will surely dethrone it in the quarter ending December 31, 2017. Ever since Nokia lost its place in the Indian market back in 2011, Samsung stood as the top smartphone brand in India.
There are multiple innovations from Samsung this year. Earlier in 2017, at the CES event, Samsung won 34 innovation awards. At the same event, Samsung introduced its QLED TV lineup, which the company also launched in India at a whopping price.
Samsung has had a successful run in 2017, and 2018 could be an even better one for the brand. In January 2018, Samsung might launch the Galaxy A8 and A8+, followed by the Galaxy S9 and S9+ at the MWC 2018 event in February.
