Samsung is having an identity crisis

Yesterday, a report out of South Korea dropped a bombshell for Samsung’s Galaxy S26 lineup. According to the report, Samsung has canceled its upcoming Galaxy S26 Edge and will release the Galaxy S26 Plus instead. The Edge was supposed to replace the Plus in next year’s Galaxy S family, but those plans are now apparently scrapped.

On the surface, it can be easy to write off the Galaxy S26 Edge’s cancellation as a random, one-off flop from Samsung. However, I think it’s an indicator of a larger overall problem within the company, and it’s a problem that Samsung needs to address soon.

Why did Samsung create the Galaxy S25 Edge? If you ask TM Roh, Samsung’s President and Head of Mobile, he’ll say it was to “not only mark a breakthrough for its category,” but also to “accelerate important innovation across the mobile industry.”

It’s possible that Samsung was genuinely passionate about making a slim smartphone and truly wanted to create the Galaxy S25 Edge. But there’s a more cynical way to look at the Edge, and it’s the one that I think is more likely: Samsung wanted to beat Apple.

Rumors of the iPhone Air had been circulating for over a year before its release. We didn’t know it would be called the iPhone Air (initial rumors called it the iPhone 17 Slim), but the rumor cycle was adamant that Apple was creating an ultra-thin iPhone. And Samsung, being Samsung, likely wanted to release its own thin phone before Apple did — hence the Galaxy S25 Edge.

As impractical as the iPhone Air may be, it’s easy to understand why Apple created it. If you view the engineering of the iPhone Air as a sort of test for the inevitable iPhone Fold, it makes a lot of sense. The Air’s super-thin frame and component housing, all tucked under the camera plateau, translate perfectly to what we may see in a folding iPhone. The iPhone Air allows Apple to see how those ideas work in the real world before it commits to them with a foldable.

None of that applies to Samsung and the Galaxy S25 Edge. Samsung didn’t rethink the internal layout of the Edge like Apple did for the Air. And, more importantly, Samsung already makes folding phones! If the purpose of the Galaxy S25 Edge wasn’t to advance Samsung’s foldable work, then what really was the point other than to imitate and one-up Apple?

Coming to that conclusion on its own may seem like a stretch, but not when you look at the Galaxy S25 Edge within the context of Samsung’s other product releases over the last year.

Two years after Apple released the Apple Watch Ultra, Samsung debuted the Galaxy Watch Ultra — its own rugged, sports-centric smartwatch with an action button and bright orange watch band to boot. The Galaxy Buds 3 ditched Samsung’s previous, largely unique earbud design to be one of the most blatant AirPods copycats we’ve ever seen. Samsung introduced a titanium design for its Galaxy S Ultra phones only after Apple did so with the iPhone, and Samsung’s Moohan XR headset is very much a clone of the Apple Vision Pro.

It’s true that every company takes inspiration from its competitors, but the extent to which Samsung has been copying Apple has been on another level. And because that mimicry has become Samsung’s biggest focus, it’s stripped away any identity Samsung once had.

This is all the more frustrating because, as Samsung itself has shown us over the years, it’s capable of being far more innovative and interesting than it currently is.

This is the same company that pioneered folding phones and made them mainstream in the United States. Samsung’s Galaxy Note lineup spurred the “phablet” trend and made large smartphone displays the norm. The Galaxy S III and Galaxy S8 were some of the most impactful Android phones of their time.

Samsung has proven time and again over the years that, when it really tries, it can create some of the very best gadgets around  — products that push the envelope and give Samsung a powerful identity of creativity and innovation.

But that’s not the same Samsung that’s hellbent on mimicking Apple at every chance it gets. Samsung is still releasing competent, well-made devices, but they feel like reactions to a competitor rather than products that are trying to stand out on their own. And the more Samsung does this, the more it becomes a shell of its former self. More importantly, while Samsung’s overall sales numbers have continued to look good, the failure of the Galaxy S25 Edge and its impact on the Galaxy S26 Edge show that this copycat strategy isn’t sustainable.

The solution to this? Samsung needs to figure out who it is. If it’s content with being an Apple imitator, then it should brace for more fumbles like the S25 Edge and S26 Edge. But if Samsung wants to get back on track and make a name for itself again, it needs to regain the identity it lost.

I want to see Samsung succeed and be the company it once was. But that won’t happen unless significant changes are made, and I’m not sure if the current Samsung we have is up to that challenge.