The iPhone 14 Plus curse: Galaxy S24 Plus might get scrapped
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A surprising report coming straight from Samsung's homeland, South Korea, has it that the largest Android manufacturer might seriously slim down its flagship lineup next year. According to The Elec, the Galaxy S24 Plus might get scrapped, leaving Samsung with just two traditional flagships, the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Ultra. The move is still not final, as Samsung is reportedly still juggling its options.
This news comes off as a rather surprising developing, which could awkwardly make the upcoming Galaxy S23 Plus the last of its name in Samsung's arsenal. As a reminder, Samsung is announcing the Galaxy S23 series on February 1, with reservations for the Galaxy S23 series already open.
With phone development kicking off roughly a year or more before launch, Samsung has reportedly already started early development of the Galaxy S24 series. Reportedly, the Galaxy S24 is rolling under the DM moniker internally (which reportedly stands for "Diamond"), but The Elec has learned that it only has two sub-projects at the moment, DM1 and DM3.
It doesn't take a lot of imagination to infer that those projects mark the budget Galaxy S24 and the super-premium Galaxy S24 Ultra. Notably missing is the DM2 sub-project, which should have been the code name for the Galaxy S24 Plus, the middle-child of the Galaxy family. Yes, all of this has been mostly implied, so nothing is set in stone, but it makes sense to start writing that eulogy for Galaxy Plus flagships.
There's always the chance that the DM2 sub-project could be added later on or has been omitted due to another reason, or this whole conjecture is just based on unsubstantiated information.
The Plus version of previous Galaxy phones has always sold the worst among the lineup, and while you'd assume that a large yet relatively affordable phone would sell like hot cakes, this hasn't been the case with Samsung's latest wares. Bluntly said, the Galaxy S22 Plus, similarly to its precursors, has mostly failed to match up the sales numbers of the more compact but similarly-spec'd Galaxy S22 and the ultra-premium and lusted over Galaxy S22 Ultra.
This issue isn't isolated to Samsung, as Apple also wrongly assumed that people would swoon over a big and affordable iPhone. The resulting iPhone 14 Plus was launched instead of an even more compact version of the regular iPhone, but counter-intuitively met with lukewarm, lackluster demand and low sales. The significant delay in the release date in comparison with the rest of the iPhone 14 lineup also didn't help the iPhone 14 Plus' case either.
Also consider the inside cannibalization with the South Korean giant's ranks. Samsung's upper mid-range Galaxy A series, namely Galaxy A73 and Galaxy A53, are way more affordable and boast pretty similar features to the Galaxy S22 Plus, all without carrying the "Galaxy S" tax. Weirdly, we can also consider the Galaxy Z Flip 4 another intriguing similarly-size alternative, but with the added novelty of being foldable. The Galaxy S21 FE also stands as another alternative, making it even harder for the Galaxy S22 Plus to thrive in such conditions.
When it comes to Plus devices, we will definitely be seeing a follow-up to the Galaxy S22 Plus in less than a month's time. The Galaxy S23 Plus is coming February 1 with a 6.6-inch 1080p display, 48-120Hz refresh rate and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 glass on top, a fast and efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset in all regions, 4,700mAh battery, 45W wired charging, as well as a 50MP main camera, 10MP telephoto camera, and a 12MP ultra-wide snapper.
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