Reviewing EVERY Samsung Galaxy S Ever!

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down Samsung Galaxy S one of the most

popular names in the world of

smartphones and has been for years

interestingly it's kind of a long name

you might be wondering where Galaxy s

comes from and if you think you already

know what you're thinking is probably

wrong apparently Galaxy comes from a

wine often enjoyed by highlevel Samsung

Executives and then they proceeded to

name like 20,000 phones after it now

here's the thing Samsung will try

anything that's kind of their thing like

this is something I've known about them

for a long time from reviewing their

phones but just from researching for

this video like they have a ton of

phones in every single imaginable price

bracket or feature set or spec sheet

here you can even try to guess these

they've had a Samsung Galaxy F series

what do you think the F stands for

stands for fun then there's the Galaxy Z

series Z for zero and Galaxy m is you'd

think midrange but it actually stands

for Millennial and then Galaxy a that's

some of their most popular affordable

smartphones so naturally it stands for

Alpha there's galaxy W for Wonder Galaxy

R for Royal the list goes on but then

the flagship that's lived at the top of

their lineup is the Samsung Galaxy S and

S stands for super smart yeah super

smart anyway the first ever Samsung

Galaxy S comes out in 2010 just to set

the scene like this is 3 years after the

first ever iPhones come out so the

iPhone 4 is about to come out this is a

couple months after the Nexus 1 gets

unveiled Blackberry is quicking in their

boots like the entire smartphone

industry if you want to call it that is

totally in a reshuffling things are up

for for grabs and it's still very much

in its infancy too the second most

popular phone selling by volume looks

like this it's a Nokia 3720 classic and

so Samsung launches the first ever

Galaxy S super smart into the world with

over two dozen variations this is going

to be a bit of a theme here you know it

a pretty basic phone big touchcreen on

the front some capacitive buttons a

plastic removable back a single camera

today we have Samsung Galaxy s24 and

it's Ultra refined tightly packed

supercomputer in the palm of your hands

with high resolution cameras and

displays powerful processors AI features

like just a ton of optimizations that

have stacked up over the years to get to

this point so today I've got every

single Samsung Galaxy S that has ever

been released they're all in front of me

actually it's every main Galaxy S

variant from the S1 to the s24

everything in between and I'm going to

review them all and some of them I've

reviewed before and others are like the

first time I've ever gotten them working

on camera but either way it'll be fun to

go back and go through this is the story

of how we got to where we are today and

where it started so buckle up we're

going to Jump Right In also stay tuned

for the graphs at the end like usual

they're super fun so Samsung Galaxy S

this is the first one summer 2010 and

yeah it does clearly look old with the

classic four capactive buttons at the

bottom Android .1 and it's a micro USB

port at the top next to the headphone

jack but I feel like right off the bat

you can see Samsung differentiating

itself here first of all this is a

reasonable display this is a 4-in screen

and it's a Samsung made AMOLED display

so that's a huge deal back in these days

you could see a meaningful difference in

battery life just if you set a wallpaper

with a bunch of black in it because the

pixels didn't have to light up on the

OLED and that was A New Concept back

then it's also only a 1500 mAh battery

so every bit of savings you can get

means a lot also of course this was back

in the day when you could just pop the

back off any phone and just take the

battery out swap it out at any moment

have two batteries if you want to swap

them in and out real quick while the

others are charging we will witness the

death of this feature during this video

but then using this phone now like okay

it feels slow obviously but it's not

really in the laggy or unresponsive way

it's just slow like there's a lot of

solid waiting for anything to happen

especially heavier stuff like the web

browser or opening the camera you just

have to slow down a little bit give it a

second even though this launched with

what at the time was the fastest

Graphics processing of any smartphone

thanks to a Samsung made chip inside oh

and speaking of cameras it launched with

a single 5 megapixel camera on the back

which was capable of shooting actually

720p video right out the box it asks for

a memory card to do a lot of things like

shooting videos because it only comes

with two or 4 gigs of storage out the

box but there's a Micro SD card

expandable storage slot in the back of

the phone so you can go right up to 32

gigs right off the bat so I never used

one of these phones but my favorite

thing about it now is it it's kind of

got the modern shape already it has like

kind of flat sides and a flat back there

is no camera bump uh there is a small

bump in the plastic actually over the

rear-facing speaker because it was

common to put your phone down on a table

or something and without that bump it

would block the speaker and so that bump

literally is just to keep the speaker

open so you can always hear your sound

now you remember how I was saying

Samsung will kind of just try anything

that's been true since the first one

like this first ever Galaxy S launched

with like I said over a dozen variants

and so you might recognize this one as

the Samsung Galaxy S Stratosphere and

you can tell because this is the one

with a little Verizon stamp on its

forehead here but you might have had the

Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant that's what it

would be called if you got the variant

that was made for T-Mobile or the

Samsung Galaxy S Epic 4G which is what

they call the one that launched on

Sprint now in hindsight honestly it

feels like this was Samsung's way of

just getting around carrier exclusives

cuz they basically just made a slightly

different version of this phone for

every carrier in America with a little

bit of a different design and a little

bit of different features only Samsung

only Samsung little did they know this

would be the beginning of a whole empire

so the sequel the first sequel is a

Samsung Galaxy S2 second gen can teach

you a lot so right away a couple things

this phone is no notably bigger and

noticeably sleeker than the first Galaxy

S and these were back in the days where

the percentage increases year-over-year

with some of the stuff they did was

crazy on paper like this went from a 1

GHz chip to a 1.2 GHz dual cord chip so

that's just more than double the

processing power it also went from a 4in

screen to a 4.3in screen it goes from a

5 megapixel 720p camera to an 8 megap

camera on the back shooting 1080p it

doubled the ram up to a gbyte it bumped

up to a 1,650 mAh battery and the amount

of Base storage I guess you would say

ouled from 2 gigs all the way up to 16

and it did all that in a phone that got

thinner and it also added NFC so it

added pieces and now this is an 8 and2

mm phone so this is one of the thinnest

phones in the world at the time that it

came out now the starting price also did

go up a lot from $3.99 to $5.49 but this

phone did launch into a relative success

this sold like 3 million units in the

first 2 months this

was definitely the first one to show up

on my radar I never owned one of these

phones but I definitely saw it and

thought about it but then this next one

the Galaxy S3 in 2012 this is the first

Samsung Galaxy S that I actually owned

and I remember loving this thing I

remember it well too the jump up and

size again was very real so it's all the

way up to a 4.8 in phone now which

believe it or not like this is starting

to push the limits of what people

considered an appropriate phone size cuz

I remember around this time there were a

lot of phones that that were hitting

exactly 4.65 in like that was a popular

phone screen size for the big phones at

the time and anything near 5 in kind of

felt like weird like a tablet size and

here's Samsung's flagship pushing 4.8 in

of screen and then the four capacitor

buttons down at the front are now just

three buttons the search button's gone

so it's a home button that's a physical

button with back button on the right and

menu on the left and this is also the

first time we got a voice assistant on

the phone and they called it SVO

clever I know this is a a pretty direct

response to we just got Siri announced

on the iPhone the year before but you

know S Voice s for Samsung they also use

S for a bunch of other stuff S Notes so

Samsung voice S Voice Now S Voice wasn't

good but then again neither were any of

the other voice assistants that were

coming out so this is mostly just people

poking around asking it to do things

random facts just weather things like

that what turned out to be much more

significant with this phone is just this

super sleek design the whole thing is

shaped like a thin Pebble that you could

probably skip across a lake it's

inspired by Nature the whole OS leaned

into that it had a ton of water droplet

sounds everywhere the lock screen went

from swipe to unlock to dragging your

finger through this water like it was a

pretty strong theme for them but I

remember using this phone and reviewing

it this is back in college for me I

loved it it was also received very well

and the combo of like being super slim

and fast and having a huge OLED and S

Voice had it starting to get touted like

the iPhone killer um but I think more

interestingly they thought this phone

was big enough to Warrant an S3 Mini cuz

this is a 4.8 in screen like I said kind

of giant and so they came out with the

one with a 4in display Galaxy S3 Mini at

the same time cuz of course they did but

the next year we got Samsung Galaxy S4

which was the beginning of a lot of

things what do I feel like the fourth

generation of any major new product is

like the defining one this is this one's

no exception now of course they're still

making gigantic leaps on paper with

specs cuz these little pocket computers

are getting more and more capable of

everything they do so it goes from a 4.8

in 720p screen to being one of the first

phones with a 5 in 1080P screen in the

age of a bunch of new retina displays

that are aiming for the best pixel

density then they also had variance all

the way up from 1.4 to 1.9 GHz dual core

processors it again doubled the Ram from

1 to 2 gb and that single back camera

went from 8 megapixels to 13 megapixels

so this is the first time you could take

1080p videos from the camera on the

Galaxy S and then watch them on the

1080p screen on the front of the Galaxy

S pretty sick this also goes from a

2,000 mAh battery to a 2600 mAh battery

still removable uh a 30% increase is

pretty crazy but again they just keep

aiming for one day of battery life

that's been a theme since this long ago

like yes these things get more and more

powerful every year and they're doing

more and more stuff but as long as I can

hit one day of battery life they seem

cool with that now if you want more

proof of Samsung just trying a ton of

things this phone had a ton of random

features some of them actually are kind

of interesting cuz they feel like the

the AI features of back in this day so

like this is the phone that tried head

tracking smart scrolling so when you're

reading something you can tilt your head

forward and backward to scroll through

the page it's just insane it had smart

rotation so this is actually cool if you

have auto rotate on but you're looking

at the screen while reading something

and then turn sideways it won't rotate

the screen it'll keep it right side up

Smart Pause is fun you're watching a

video you look away from the screen

it'll automatically pause you look back

it'll play again so there's lots of

stuff like this some of it sticks some

of it doesn't fine but this was also

partially used to justify another

increase in price for this phone so S4

at launch I don't know if you remember

this it launched at

$650 this is also the first time Samsung

made an active version of the phone so

another variant so Galaxy S4 Galaxy S4

Active so this added IP67 certification

and a more rugged design it was a TFT

LCD display instead of AMOLED and it

traded some other small downgrades for

like physical buttons and a slightly

thicker phone with some flaps to cover

the ports I'll tell you what was not

really a major hit though this was one

of the first major incidents of a

Samsung phone battery swelling Catching

Fire and burning up on someone now it

didn't go happen to a ton of people it

wasn't enough to become a major Trend

but it's something to sort of remember

for the future foreshadowing now by the

time we get to Galaxy S5 Samsung is

starting to hit their stride I think

with the Galaxy S another huge battery

bump now it's up to 2800 milliamp hours

and another huge screen bump all the way

up to 5.1 in diagonally and across the

board this is uh I think fully Flagship

in every dimens mention it's a it's a

2.7 GHz processor on some variants all

right 2 to 3 gigs of RAM up to 32 gigs

of storage and it's a 16 megapixel

camera that now shoots 4K video also the

bottom left button has gone from a menu

button to a multitasking button to match

the three primary buttons needed to

operate Android but also says a lot

about what it's capable of but then of

course alongside all that is the

absolute classic Samsung just trying

things and I think the Telltale sign for

this stuff like is when you see them try

it for one generation just to throw it

at the wall and see what sticks and then

it's gone the next year like they added

this little sensor back here next to the

camera flash on the back that's a heart

rate sensor so you could measure your

heart rate plugs into S Health that

didn't last very long they also added

this weird texture for the first time to

this plastic back that you know made it

a little softer yes but also totally

made it look like a Band-Aid plus it

even came in this flesh color that also

didn't stick around long they also added

a fingerprint reader to the home button

fun fact back in these days you actually

had to swipe your whole finger across

the home button to get it read of course

fingerprint readers have stuck around

but it doesn't have to be swiped anymore

so that's improved significantly and you

can see this weird port at the bottom

here the Galaxy S5 has a sort of a

double Port basically it could be used

as just normal micro USB for charging

but if you wanted full USB 3.0 data

speeds there was a special like

double-ended cable you could plug in to

use all the pins and get that kind of

weird that didn't stick around long

either also there was a a flap on the

bottom of all these phones for water

resistance and they were super easy to

fall off and this one also fell off

naturally they also released both an

active and a separate sport version of

this phone alongside the regular Galaxy

S5 of course they did so Samsung Galaxy

S6 came out in 2015 but truthfully this

was the beginning of a new era for

Samsung phones you can look at it and

see it this this is when they entered

the modern age for better for worse so

this phone was the first one with a

fully glass back instead of plastic

which yes made it their first non-

removable back ke all the outrage in the

comments of every YouTube video at the

time but it also added uh wireless

charging and they dropped these metal

rails and metal buttons on the sides

that felt way more solid than all the

plastic we were working with on all the

flagships that came before it and this

phone is Sleek like footprint wise it's

literally the same size as an iPhone 15

Pro from today but turn it sideways and

it's one of the slimmest phones ever

thanks to having a 2550 mAh battery yes

that's actually smaller than the

previous year now this is a recipe to

make enthusiasts particularly mad when

you go backwards it's not great so they

heard that this went from a 2800 to a

2500 milliamp battery and it's not

removable anymore and it also no longer

has the micro SD card for expansion of

your storage and on top of that you also

went from that weird USB 3.0 thing down

technically to USB 2.0 but aside from

that this still did feel like their

first really modern piece of Hardware

this is also the first time we're

getting a

1440p AMOLED display it's crazy sharp

already we haven't seen a higher

resolution since then and it's also the

first Galaxy S Flagship with Optical

image stabilization in the primary

camera so this is a really big camera

upgrade and it was the first Galaxy S

Flagship to use 64-bit processing I do

remember there was a lot of positive

reception around this phone obviously

from being well put together in metal

and glass now and having good features

and just generally being the same price

as the previous year I just feel like

there was one thing holding it back

especially Among Us critical reviewers

from being the obvious best Android

phone available at that time and her

name was TouchWiz see around this time

there were also some other big

Enthusiast Android options like Nexus 6p

and 5x which were stock Android and then

there was HT C1 M9 just down the street

with their own HTC software LG G4 was

out with their own software it's like

every Android device scen at this time

when it comes out it's like what are the

specs what are the features what's the

design and then what is the Android skin

that you have to deal with to get it now

Touchwiz has gotten better over time

it's you know a little less bloop nature

sounds but it's still absolutely a skin

on top of Android rather than super

integrated into Android itself which can

make performance feel a little slow it

can slow down how quickly updates come

to this phone over time because they've

got to go through Samsung but it gives

you a bunch of extra features in return

So at the time if you go back if you

watch my videos around the phones at

this time I always preferred like stock

Android OEM just straight from Google

it's always the fastest updates and it

just felt the cleanest and most coherent

where Samsung TouchWiz just had this

this colorful cartoony look to it this

feel to it it was a little cluttered but

it it had the features it had What

mattered anyway with S6 they also tried

a little thing called the S6 Edge and

Edge Plus because there was this war

being fought at the time every time you

saw a keynote with a new smartphone

announcement they always mentioned

screen to body ratios and so every

Flagship if they can improve the best

number they would always brag about the

screen to body ratio how thin their

bezels are and the best phones at the

time were hovering around 70%

meaning 70% of the front of the device

is screen and the bigger that number the

cooler the phone looks so this S6 Edge

thing came along and it's another bit of

Samsung Innovation just trying some

stuff but they literally bend the OLED

display right over to the edges of the

phone and use curved glass to make it

look like the display is like bleeding

right over the edges of the device hence

the edge name obviously there's still a

bezel but it kind of worked it looked

really cool uh this actually came at

first from when when they originally

tried it in the Galaxy Note which they

had it on one side of the screen which

is some like software tickers they

literally put like a stock ticker on the

side of the phone they would try

anything to see if it worked and when it

did they put it on both halves and now

it's on the Galaxy S and it felt like

the flagship thing so this phone got up

to a 76% screen to body ratio with the

S6 Edge Plus this is starting to feel

like the top of a flagship lineup now

Galaxy S7 was a kind of an incremental

year in between you know holding it now

you can tell they didn't really feel the

need to change too much like it's the

same size same screens and resolutions

same storage sizes up to 128 gigs and

they actually brought back expandable

storage by popular demand so I guess you

can talk Samsung into some stuff and you

still can't take the back off this thing

but they went ahead and added a Micro SD

card slot on the SIM card tray which is

clever but what I feel like they really

realized this year is two things one wow

you can really shove a lot of batteries

in these things and two The Edge is the

flagship people love the edge people

just love the screen melting over the

sides things so they're going to do a

lot more of it so the regular S7 was

great but the S7 Edge had a 3,000 mAh

battery and the S7 Edge Plus had a 3600

mAh battery and then the S7 active had a

4,000 milliamp battery but for reference

this is also the same year that the

Galaxy Note 7 came out so you may recall

the issues that plague the phone and its

3500 mAh battery the exact issue the

reason why the note 7s started blowing

up and having dangerous battery problems

was specifically a design issue using a

thin separator between two electrodes in

a battery it was just damaged way too

easily where wild reactions would occur

when that damage happened for as many

gates as we've had for smartphones like

Ben gate whatever this has to be the

greatest PR disaster in the history of

smart phones like I think by a long way

like people this got banned on planes

like people would just ask do you have a

Samsung phone like I don't think you

want to take that on the plane it was

literally recalled worldwide they took

all of them back they couldn't sell it

anymore it's a big issue and honestly a

lot of tech companies would never

recover from that but Samsung at this

point was established enough they were

big enough they were trying enough new

things that they could weather that

storm which is impressive then Samsung

Galaxy S8 this is one of my favorite

phones they added a lot of things to

this phone now still classic Samsung

thrown an absolute metric ton of stuff

at the wall to see what sticks now I

definitely didn't love all the stuff

that they tried but I love that they

were trying stuff and they tried so many

things that these phones just feel a

world apart so first of all there was an

S8 and an S8 plus and both have fully

curved Edge displays so Samsung's

realized that this Advantage is received

really really well and they can just

keep touting their massive screen to

body ratios plus they've refined their

EDG screen apps feature it's subtle it's

out of the way but it's useful for those

who want to take advantage of it then

they also tried this new pressure

sensitive layer underneath the display

right around the home button so the

display can always respond to pressures

in this area no matter where you are

even while the screen is off now this is

also as you may have guessed right

around the time that Apple was trying 3D

touch or Force touch in the iPhone and

both of these didn't last very long but

they tried and they also tried a

slightly taller narrower 18 1 12 by9

aspect ratio which actually did nicely

keep the ever growing screen size to be

pretty reachable uh since they've also

gone from capacitive buttons below the

screen to all onscreen buttons so now

talk about screen to body ratio like we

are really cooking they also switched to

USBC for the first time sick easy win

people are asking for that last year

anyway but then with that they also

tried this thing called Dex which is

like if you plug that USBC Port into a

computer computer monitor you get this

whole computer UI which just uses the

phone as like a trackpad and then you

might have noticed the extra button here

on the left hand side so fun fact for

the entire history of every single

Samsung Galaxy S so far they have always

had power button on the right hand side

volume rocker on the left hand side and

that's still true here but they've added

a button underneath the volume

rocker and yeah that's that's the Bixby

button so Bixby is the new voice

assistant replacing SVO on Samsung

phones and Samsung really leaned in hard

with this one so not only did it get a

dedicated button to activate it all the

time but the camera also now has Bixby

Vision which is kind of like a an

awkwardly specific competitor to Google

lens and this is Samsung really leaning

into the whole AI assistant thing for