We asked, you told us: Here's what you want from Galaxy S30 series

There’s little doubt Samsung needs to do better with its next Galaxy flagship. While the Samsung Galaxy S20 brought high refresh rates and huge camera sensors, it still fell short of expectations for consumers and the company’s alleged sales forecasts too.

To that end, we’ve wondered what Samsung could do with the Galaxy S30 series to fix these issues, or at least make the device family a more appealing prospect.

We listed eight ideas that we believe would go a long way to improving the Samsung device line but ultimately left it up to you to decide which should make the cut. Here’s what you told us.

What do you want most from the Samsung Galaxy S30 series?

Results

The eight options had a fairly even spread highlighting just how divided your opinions really are. When you weren’t arguing about the name of the next Galaxy, there was one particular request that outweighed the rest: the desire for lower prices.

Of the more than 1,500 votes cast, just under 35% wanted the Samsung Galaxy S30 to cost less than its predecessor. That’s a fair request considering the sticker prices of the Galaxy S20 family. You needed $999 at launch to snap up the cheapest Galaxy S20 compared to $749 for the Galaxy S10e a year earlier.

While we did mention in our original article that we’d only list features Samsung could realistically implement, dropping the prices of its flagship range just doesn’t seem like something the company would do without further sacrificing features or building a budget flagship variant.

On that note, a budget flagship seems to be pretty popular among voters. Just under 17% of users wanted Samsung to build another budget “e” device, in the same vein as the Galaxy S10e. Samsung’s 2019 compact range-topper was a hit, offering users flagship features in a compact body. It’s a combination that’s far too difficult to find within the Android ecosystem in 2020, so it’s unclear why Samsung didn’t offer an S20e. That said, it’s a device that Samsung could bring to market without much risk of failure.

See also: Samsung extends list of devices eligible for three major Android updates

Wishes of a compact flagship only just beat the desire for a headphone jack. 16% of you wanted to see the ubiquitous audio port’s return, a feature that was stripped from the S20 series. Samsung would likely argue that the Galaxy Buds Live and its other wireless audio offerings are more than enough for users, but it’s clear that gamers and audiophiles wouldn’t mind having the option of a jack.

The other five options didn’t seem as popular as the above three, but around a fifth of voters wanted to see Samsung buff its wired charging speeds or design devices with “less glass.” We imagine that the latter request would tie in with lower prices, especially since readers also told us in another poll that the plastic-back Galaxy Note 20 is an absolute no-go at its $999 price point.

Finally, just 3.8% of you wanted Samsung to ditch the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, a feature that has been a sticking point for some users in the past. The introduction of full eSIM support was supported by just 2.2% of you, while the desire for a smaller camera bump saw just under 8% of the total vote.

Discussions in the comments highlighted other features that Samsung should include on the Galaxy S30.

Here’s what you had to say

• D9: Samsung missed the mark this year by not having an S20e for 2020, and they definitely need to correct that mistake by having an S21e next year (2021). Also, it should be pretty obvious to them by now that their prices need to come down by $100-$200 per unit just based on the abysmal sales of the S20 line.
• Greg Lamb: Snapdragon for EVERYONE…….GLOBALLY.
• Marcelo Reis: Bring the IR blaster back!
• Paul: I gotta be the only person alive that doesn’t care 1 bit about a headphone jack. I have used Bluetooth headphones exclusively for years. Why does anyone still want to be physically tethered to their phone?
• CGI911: First off you’re asking to add so much to the Galaxy s30, and at the same time reducing the cost. That doesn’t work. You can not add things like this and at the same time ask for a reduced price.

That’s it for our Samsung Galaxy S30 series poll. Thank you for all the votes and comments on this one. If you have any additional thoughts or features you’d like to see on Samsung’s next flagship line, be sure to drop those in the comments below.