A little bit of Samsung makes every phone better

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite review
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite review (Image credit: Apoorva Bhardwaj / Android Central)

Happy Saturday, Android fans. I hope everyone is being safe and healthy and looking at a gorgeous Samsung display reading things on the internet while dreaming of one day being able to go outside again. And chances are that you're doing just that, even if the back of your phone doesn't say Samsung on it.

Samsung makes a whole heck of a lot of phones every year. For a while now, Samsung has been one of the top three smartphone manufacturers, with a lot of time spent at the top spot. But Samsung doesn't have to make phones for it to be a driving force in the mobile space (and the laptop space and the tablet space and the smart home space) because almost every phone has plenty of Samsung parts inside.

The headline part here is always going to be the display. Pick a flagship phone and you'll probably find a Samsung Super-AMOLED display on its front face — even if you picked an Apple iPhone. That's because Samsung is the absolute, undisputed leader in small form-factor OLED panels when it comes to quality. LG may hold that title when talking 40-inches or bigger, but you instantly notice an OLED screen that wasn't made by Samsung if you are into phones and have looked at a lot of them. A fact that Pixel 2 XL owners remember all too well.

Galaxy S20 Plus

Source: Android Central (Image credit: Source: Android Central)

But that's not where it stops. Samsung also makes the best memory and memory controller — a piece and its associated software that makes memory actually work — money can buy. Memory is as important to how much you'll love a phone as the display is; you need it to function properly every time and be super fast while doing it. Your phone — yes, even if it's an iPhone — uses Samsung memory. Probably both kinds of memory, the RAM kind, and the storage kind!

Samsung parts are in all sorts of small electronics because they are the best.

If we step away from phones you still see Samsung everywhere. The same Samsung parts you find soldered to circuit boards inside a phone can also be found on things like a Raspberry Pi and other brands of small connected "things" use Samsung Exynos processors, too.

Samsung makes the best computer flash storage, too, so you find it in Chromebooks and Macbook Airs. Samsung makes the best Solid-State Drives so the hard drive in your computer is probably made by Samsung. You may even use a Samsung monitor, because they do a pretty good job at building those, too.

A lot of people don't know this and think Samsung is just a company that makes phones or televisions or washing machines. But Samsung is also one of the world's largest component suppliers and the company makes plenty of money through its various component divisions.

Samsung Evo+ SSD

Source: Android Central (Image credit: Source: Android Central)

Samsung isn't alone here. LG is similar and makes more than appliances or phones (the battery in your Samsung phone could have been made by LG). Oppo is one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers and makes disc players, cameras, and more under its own name or as white-label products for other companies. But nobody seems to have captured most of the mobile component market the way Samsung has because it does two things so well phone makers just don't want to use a competing product.

You may not know who makes the parts inside your phone but you would know if they weren't very good.

Those two things are what I mentioned earlier — the display and the memory. Both are so good that even Apple, a company known for extremely tight spending to maximize the profit margin on every iPhone it sells, just buys them instead of sourcing parts from several manufacturers. Apple fine-tunes an iPhone display to its own liking, but it needs a high-quality panel to start with. The highest quality comes from Samsung.

Of course, this shows in Samsung's own phones, too. Once you dig through the internet rabble over software and updates and every other bit of drama that surrounds Android, you find one point everyone can agree on — Samsung phones use the best hardware money can buy and have the best displays of any phone on the market.

Even if you aren't interested in buying the next big Samsung phone, the phone you buy will be filled with plenty of Samsung parts. And you'll appreciate those parts even if you didn't know they came from Samsung because they help make your phone better.

Jerry Hildenbrand
Senior Editor — Google Ecosystem

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.

14 Comments
  • They're one of very few companies (maybe the only company) that could actually build a phone on their own.
  • No one makes better displays. They have been the reigning champion for many years. Many OEM'S use their display technology!
  • Reading this on my Pixel 2XL screen made by LG. Not a fan of Samsung phones but I know and respect as Jerry pointed out they are the undisputed king of making AMOLED screens for the longest time and probably will be. And, even flash storage which I heard but wasn't too aware if they really were or not.
  • There's actually a really interesting video by Cold Fusion about Samsung. I love my galaxy's and have some complaints but I am glad they have their hand in everything.
  • Yeah he has a really good informative videos.
  • It's all good, unless it's an Exynos, or a fingerprint reader that can't read, or until Samsung leverages their supply chain to intentionally screw competitors. It's been a while since that last one, and I don't think they would do it today, but it happened.
  • Even my fridge is an old Samsung. But I much prefer their micro SD cards over SanDisk.
  • As long as it doesn't have Samsung software I'm happy. The hardware can be 100% Samsung
  • They make one of the best lithium ion batteries for PEVs as well! LG is the other top dog battery maker.
  • Not a fan of in-screen fingerprint readers. Half the time they don't work for me. So I mostly use facelock or pin. Other than that, they are the KING of everything else. No other company can say that. Unless it's Apple of course lol.
  • Totally agree Apple is the undisputed king!
  • Best for the video editing https://gbapps.info/kinemaster-diamond-apk/
  • Google should make Samsung design their phones. Bring back the Nexus line of phones? Wishful thinking, yep!
  • I don't like Samsung phones but that's another discussion for another day, but there's no denying that Samsung makes great hardware, whether it's their phones or RAM except their Exynos processors.