Galaxy Note 21 may be dead — here's how Samsung can reinvent the Note

Galaxy Note 21 may exist dead — hither'southward how Samsung can reinvent the Annotation

(Image credit: Epitome Credit: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg)

What future is at that place for the Samsung Galaxy Note range if the Galaxy Note 21 isn't happening this year? Originally, a wild take on the smartphone, mod phones seem to accept adopted pretty much every once-unique feature the phones had.

Even the Due south Pen isn't exclusive to the Galaxy Notation anymore. The Milky way S21 Ultra is compatible with Samsung'southward stylus, and the company just confirmed at MWC that hereafter flagships will get Southward Pen support as well. With all that going on, what good is the Galaxy Note really?

Here's how Samsung could reinvent the original phablet for a new era of mobile computing.

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What the Galaxy Note was

The Samsung Galaxy Note launched back in 2011,in a time when the majority of smartphones were pretty pocket-size devices. For comparison, the original Note had a 5.3-inch screen, while the Galaxy S2, which was released before that aforementioned year, was 4.vii inches. The iPhone 4S'due south screen was simply 3.5 inches in size.

It was the Galaxy Note range that helped popularize the thought of the phablet, and led to telephone screens getting larger as the years progressed. Now the vast majority of flagship phones take screens over half dozen inches in size. The Annotation series also saw the launch of curved Edge; displays, something Samsung still uses to this day. Albeit, not quite as frequently as information technology did just a few years ago.

The Note was also one of the few smartphones to go along using a stylus, long afterwards Apple tree popularized the idea of a touchscreen-only interface. Equally such, a lot of the Galaxy Note's features and software were built effectually the S Pen. Features Included the ability to handwrite digital notes, and draw in a more natural style than using your finger.

As the Galaxy Notation line matured, the South Pen also came with newer features similar air gestures, Bluetooth shutter control and more.

Nevertheless, as years passed the rest of the Galaxy S range caught upwards to the Galaxy Note in terms of size and performance. The S Pen was e'er the i thing the Milky way Notation had going for information technology. Now, that'south non going to be the example going forward.

The Galaxy Annotation as it is should die

Without the S Pen, at that place's no demand for a Milky way Note range equally it stands. If annihilation, Samsung has made its own Notation devices obsolete past assuasive the Milky way S range to take hold of upwardly to the Annotation, with Galaxy Southward Ultra models essentially taking the Note's place in the company's portfolio.

Recollect about it this way. The Galaxy S21 Ultra has a 6.viii-inch brandish, which is fractionally larger than the 6.seven-inch Galaxy Note 20 and fractionally smaller than the Milky way Annotation xx Ultra. From a display size perspective there's little difference between them, though the Notes have a much blockier rectangular design than the smoother curves of the Galaxy Southward.

The S21 Ultra even has South Pen support, and while information technology doesn't accept the same dedicated stylus slot as a Galaxy Notation, it can nearly nonetheless pen-based functions. Information technology tin can be used to write, depict, and annotate, as any expert stylus should be, simply that's about it.

More than advanced features like air gestures and Bluetooth shutter control are still exclusive to the Galaxy Note range right at present. Though Samsung has suggested this may change in the near future.

But despite those few differences, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is notwithstanding very much a Galaxy Note in everything but name.

Apparently, these are non new points. The demise of the Galaxy Note range has been rumored for months. Long earlier Samsung confirmed that the S21 Ultra would indeed have S Pen back up. And the fact that it looks like the foldable Galaxy Fold iii will support the Southward Pen, and rumors of a larger 7.7-inch interior brandish, means the Note range might besides exist dead in the water.

Rumor is that there will be one last Galaxy Annotation phone coming out subsequently this twelvemonth (or early on next twelvemonth) as a kind of "concluding hurrah" for the range. Simply there's a different way, one that doesn't involve Samsung releasing 1 final generic telephone and maxim "that's all, goodbye". In fact, it's an opportunity for Samsung to totally reinvent the Milky way Note, and ensure it still has a place going forward.

A new Galaxy Annotation for a new age

There'south no reason to keep the Galaxy Annotation around as it currently is. Instead Samsung should focus on reinventing the lineup into something that it doesn't already accept. Samsung has been slowly positioning the phone as the 'enterprise device' over the past few years, and at present is the time to go all in.

The Samsung Galaxy Note should be the become-to phone for business users. Dorsum in the solar day that office fell to BlackBerry, but these days it seems as though the iPhone has go the de-facto "work phone."

There's no reason why Samsung can't attempt to merits some of that territory for itself. Afterwards all, it's already tried to practise that with previous Galaxy devices, fifty-fifty going and so far to develop software (DeX) that lets people use their phones as desktop machines when they're at their desk.

The Galaxy Note already has almost a decade of brand awareness to build on, and it'due south naturally fallen out of place in the Samsung portfolio. That would make this the perfect opportunity to exercise something like this.

Samsung could take the Note and stop worrying about having to create something new every yr — that's what the Milky way S and Fold ranges will be for later all. Instead it can focus on developing a phone that's built primarily for business rather than pleasure.

You lot wouldn't necessarily need the latest and best chipsets, just equally long as the hardware information technology did have was good enough. Likewise, there could exist a much bigger emphasis on security, much similar in that location was during Blackberry'south heyday. Samsung could take data security to the next level in terms of protecting sensitive corporate data.

As for the S Pen? Information technology can keep doing what it was always meant for: functions and features that require the fine input you can't really mimic with a finger or a mouse. Note taking, annotations and so on.

The alternative is to just kill of the brand and let information technology fade into obscurity. Which is, frankly, a huge waste.

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Tom is the Tom's Guide's Automotive Editor, which means he can usually exist found knee deep in stats the latest and best electric cars, or checking out some sort of driving gadget. It'south long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo United kingdom, when pretty much everything was on the tabular array. He's unremarkably institute trying to clasp another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining that Ikea won't let him buy the stuff he actually needs online.