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Samsung is a current titan of the tech world, manufacturing everything from memory chips to OLED TVs. However, you could argue that the Korean giant is best known for its Galaxy smartphones. Samsung makes phones for nearly every type of user, and its One UI interface is updated with new features regularly. But while Galaxy phones have matured a lot in the past decade, the company's history of smartphones is not without its missteps.

With the brand always having a reputation for experimentation, like the Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Note Edge, there are bound to be some problems. Some of these problems come from questionable engineering choices, while others are a result of over-ambition. Whatever the case may be, there are certainly a lot of phones from Samsung that did not fare too well, for various reasons. From early experiments that tried to do too much to underpowered budget devices, these are the worst Samsung phones of all time.

Before the music streaming services of today, it was important for phones in the late 2000s to also serve as good music players. MP3 players were starting to go out of fashion after the launch of the iPhone, and every phone manufacturer was racing to create a phone that could handle calls, music, and photography, eliminating the hassle of carrying three separate gadgets. The UpStage was an ambitious attempt at this, but it was not without its flaws.

Samsung's UpStage had two sides: one featuring a large display with a square touchpad for music controls, and the reverse side with a traditional T9 keypad and a secondary, smaller screen. This sounds like a good idea, as the music player side gave you a big screen for album artwork and easy playback controls. But if you wanted to search for a track, you had to flip the UpStage and use the keyboard on the other side. You also had to press a button to activate the opposite side, so the overall flipping motion wasn't as seamless as you might think.

Battery life wasn't great either, as the UpStage only delivered 2.5 hours of talk time. The 1.3MP camera was also subpar, as it lacked a flash, had poor colors, and images were a bit blurry. Finally, the UpStage came with a 64MB microSD card, which simply isn't enough storage for a music-focused phone.

There are plenty of budget phones that deliver exceptional value these days, but that wasn't always the case back in 2016. The Samsung Galaxy J2 2016 was a follow-up to the original J2 from 2015, and while it had a vibrant 5-inch AMOLED display and respectable battery life, the phone had too many compromises. Perhaps the most egregious of these was the lack of an ambient light sensor, meaning you had to control brightness manually instead of relying on auto-brightness.

The phone also lacked NFC, haptic feedback on the capacitive touch buttons, and even a noise-canceling microphone. As if that's not bad enough, the 1.5GHz processor and 1.5GB of RAM translated to terrible performance. Samsung was using outdated internals here, which is why you'd experience lag simply moving through the UI, and graphically intense games were simply out of the question.

In comparison, the Moto G4 Play launched at a similar price to the J2, but it had better performance, NFC, and better battery life. It's also worth mentioning that the Motorola could record 1080p video, while the J2 was limited to 720p.

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2016 started strong for Samsung with both the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge high-end phones receiving rave reviews. The Galaxy Note 7 also received positive reviews, thanks to its great display, and capable cameras. Unfortunately, these reviews served no purpose when several users reported that the Note 7 was catching fire. This was due to a manufacturing defect, causing the battery to overheat, short-circuit, and combust. According to the BBC, Samsung recalled 2.5 million of the devices sold, and eventually permanently stopped production and sale of the devices entirely.

Needless to say, this tarnished Samsung's reputation at the time. Imagine spending around $850 on a flagship Android phone, only to have it endanger you by catching fire. Buying a Samsung Galaxy Note was a safe bet for many at the time, but the Note 7 shattered that idea completely.

It's been a decade since, but those images of the scorched phones and the subsequent ban by the FAA — which made it impossible to bring the device on an airplane — remain a significant stain on Samsung's history. Subsequently, the Galaxy Note 8 featured a smaller battery than both the Galaxy S8+ and the Note 7. By that point, Samsung obviously did not want to take any more risks.

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While the Samsung Galaxy Fold wasn't as big a disaster as the Galaxy Note 7, it was far from a successful launch. Some review units broke in just a single day, after some form of debris got under the crease of the folding display, causing the screen to die. After multiple publications reported similar issues, Samsung itself admitted that the foldable screen wasn't durable. It then delayed the launch of the Galaxy Fold to September to fix the issues before releasing the phone to the public.

Keep in mind that this was Samsung's first foldable, so there was a long list of issues apart from the obvious reliability problem. With some units, there was also an uneven refresh rate problem across the inner 7.3-inch display. Furthermore, the crease was also very noticeable and distracting, especially if you compare it to today's foldables. This original Fold also featured a prominent notch on the corner of its folding screen, which was obtrusive when watching videos.

To top it all off, the phone launched with this many issues for a whopping $2,000. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 also had that high price tag, but it doesn't have any of the issues that were present in Samsung's first foldable. Being an early adopter has its benefits, but the original Galaxy Fold was a tough pill to swallow for most people.

Back in 2009, Android was still getting its footing, and manufacturers were experimenting to make the young operating system their own. The Samsung Behold II was supposed to be a premium, high-end alternative to the iPhone. While it got a lot of things right, like the vibrant AMOLED display and a good camera for the time, its over-engineered TouchWiz skin let it down a bit.

TouchWiz was a customized version of Android developed by Samsung, and on the Behold II, it did more harm than good. While the Behold II retained some of Android 1.5's original navigation and menu system, certain apps and menus were replaced entirely. This resulted in a mess of inconsistent icons, mismatched menus, and the notorious 3D cube. This navigational cube allowed you to rotate apps like YouTube or the music player, and while it was flashy, it was ultimately clunky and slower than the default Android menu.

The Behold II ($230) was also more expensive than competitors like the HTC myTouch 3G ($180) and Motorola Droid ($200). Overall performance was not that great either, with some of Samsung's custom apps frequently being sluggish. The Motorola Droid was notably much better in terms of snappiness. Worst of all, Samsung originally promised that the Behold II would get the Android 2.0 Eclair update, but it never came around.

Before Samsung fully committed to Android, it tried to make Windows Mobile work on the i900 Omnia. This phone had Samsung's usual TouchWiz spin to it, but the widgets and themes did genuinely improve the experience this time around. Unfortunately, Windows Mobile 6.1 itself wasn't that great; the menus were clunky, and getting to certain apps or actions required too many inputs.

Apple was standardizing the capacitive screen back then, but Samsung stuck with a resistive panel for the Omnia. This required firm, deliberate presses or a stylus to register inputs. But because of the tiny icons and buttons on Windows Mobile, navigation was much more difficult compared to the iPhone. The included stylus was your best bet, but Samsung didn't provide a storage space for it on the phone itself.

To make matters worse, the Omnia lacked a 3.5mm headphone jack, used a proprietary connector for charging, and required you to remove the battery just to swap microSD cards. Ultimately, the Omnia had a great camera and solid battery life for 2008, but lacked in too many areas. When the iPhone 3G arrived with the App Store, the Omnia's clumsy software felt entirely outdated.

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The Samsung Galaxy A80 only launched for select markets in Europe and Asia, which is why it's less well-known. Back in 2019, Samsung wanted to fix the notch problem by adding a motorized pop-up camera to the Galaxy A80. The idea is simple in theory: the camera array slides up and rotates to act as a selfie camera. This eliminates the need for a hole or notch in the display, giving you an immersive bezel-less experience.

Unfortunately, this motorized camera array was too complex for its own good. Some publications reported mechanical issues with their review units, while others pointed out longevity concerns due to how easily dust could get in the way of the mechanical parts. But with so much focus on the cameras, they're bound to be great, right? Unfortunately, no. The camera performed poorly in low-light conditions, and night mode was completely unavailable for selfies. Performance was also sluggish, and the fingerprint sensor was unreliable. 

It also didn't help that the Asus Zenfone 6 offered a better chip, better battery life, a headphone jack, and a lower price. Between more competitors like the OnePlus 7 Pro and the Xiaomi Mi 9 (both of which had better processors), the Galaxy A80 just didn't hold its own that well.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 had strong cameras, the versatile S-Pen, and a top-notch display. However, the undoing of the Note 20 was simply its poor value at the launch price of $1,000. It was very expensive for a phone with a plastic back, and it only had a 60Hz display when competitors like the OnePlus 8 Pro were offering fluid 120Hz panels at the same or lower price. Even Samsung's own Galaxy S20 had a 120Hz refresh rate, while also having a higher resolution.

Battery life was also a bit disappointing, with the Note 20 struggling to get through the day from a single charge at times. The Exynos version was particularly bad, which was always a problem with Samsung's older flagships: the Snapdragon chips performed better including on battery efficiency. The later Galaxy S22 series had a similar problem, so the Exynos issue was not exclusive to the Note 20. 

But even if you got the Snapdragon version of the Note 20, you were leaving a lot on the table. The iPhone 12 Pro shot better videos (even better than the Note 20 Ultra), and the OnePlus 8 Pro had a sharper and more fluid display. You could even argue that, despite the higher price, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra was the better choice because of its higher refresh rate and 108MP camera.

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When looking back at a brand with as much output as Samsung, it's easy to pick on budget phones that simply aged poorly. Instead of taking that route, we wanted to focus on phones that were fundamentally flawed at launch. Whether that was through catastrophic hardware failures, a software skin that ruined the user interface, or a premium price that didn't match the hardware, we wanted to highlight specific instances where Samsung could have done much better.

High-profile failures of flagship phones dominate headlines, but we also wanted to highlight entry-level devices and phones that were released to limited markets, as these often fly under the radar. This allowed us to cover a wider range of devices across different budgets, eras, and form factors. Our critiques are backed by technical specs and historical reviews from authoritative outlets like Wired, PCMag, PhoneArena, and CNET.