Samsung's obsession with Apple is getting out of hand

If there’s one constant you can rely on in the mobile tech space, it’s that Android brands will always copy Apple. Whether it’s Android phones that mimic the iPhone or Android skins that try to imitate iOS, Apple’s influence on the Android landscape is undeniable.

While some Android brands are restrained in their mimicry, Samsung is not. Over the last couple of years, Samsung has shown an unwavering desire to work in Apple’s shadow rather than chart its own unique path.

And it’s getting out of hand.

Anything Apple can do, Samsung can do too

One of the latest and best examples of this occurred just this week. A report from South Korea claims that Samsung is once again testing variable aperture technology for its smartphone cameras — something we haven’t seen in a Samsung phone since 2019.

Samsung pioneered variable-aperture cameras on Android phones years ago, debuting the tech on the Galaxy S9 series and again on the Galaxy S10 before discontinuing it. It was a monumental achievement for its time, and since then, other brands such as Xiaomi, HUAWEI, and HONOR have continued to carry the variable-aperture torch.

Now, after years of ignoring variable camera aperture, Samsung is suddenly interested in it again. But why? It’s almost certainly because of Apple.

Reports strongly suggest that the iPhone 18 Pro will be the first iPhone to feature a variable-aperture camera. Coincidentally, a few months after this news broke, we learn that Samsung is reportedly following suit — despite not wanting anything to do with variable-aperture cameras for seven years.

On the one hand, I’d be happy to see a new Samsung phone with a variable-aperture camera. The benefits of the tech are many, and after years of stagnant camera hardware (especially in the Galaxy S series), this could be exactly what Samsung needs. The issue is that Samsung should be experimenting with and releasing new hardware on its own schedule, not on one dictated by its biggest competitor.

It would be different if this were a one-off, but this is just the latest in a series of product decisions from Samsung that clearly exist only because of Apple.

Samsung’s upcoming software update, One UI 8.5, is littered with iOS 26-like details — including navigation buttons, system apps, and search bars that look like they were ripped straight from Apple. Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset is virtually indistinguishable from the Apple Vision Pro. The Galaxy S25 Edge was launched after more than a year of reports about Apple working on an ultra-thin iPhone. And if we go back to 2024, products like the Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Buds 3 feel like they wouldn’t exist without the Apple Watch Ultra and AirPods as inspirations.

What’s frustrating is that, simultaneously, products like the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip are evidence that Samsung can still be one of the more innovative Android brands around. Just last month, the Galaxy Z TriFold became the first tri-folding foldable to launch in the US. These products are born from Samsung’s own ingenuity rather than whatever Apple is doing.

And yet, while that innovation still exists within Samsung, so much of the rest of the company’s product portfolio is beholden to whatever Apple’s next big thing is.

There’s a reason why Samsung does this

But why is this? Why does a company that’s clearly capable of bigger and better things devote so much time and resources to being so reactionary? Because that’s what shoppers want.

The last couple of years have arguably been among the worst for Samsung in terms of unoriginal hardware upgrades and Apple-inspired products. The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s biggest claim to fame was its titanium design — something Samsung just so happened to concoct after Apple did it first with the iPhone 15 Pro. One of the Galaxy S25’s most notable features, the Now Bar, is Apple’s Live Activities feature by a different name.

Despite this, these last two Galaxy S releases were huge for Samsung. The Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S25 series both broke sales records in the respective years they were released. People are buying what Samsung is selling, and they’re doing so in droves.

Samsung knows this strategy works, and so long as it continues to do so, the company has little reason to abandon it. While I understand all of this from a business perspective, as an Android fan, that doesn’t make Samsung’s trajectory any easier to watch.

We know Samsung is capable of better

Samsung got to where it is today because of its willingness to constantly push the needle and try new things. The original Galaxy Note is the reason why modern smartphones are as big as they are. The entire foldable market is as mainstream as it is because of Samsung. Not every risk the company takes pays off, but when one does, we continue to feel its impact for years to come.

Samsung hasn’t completely lost this part of its identity, but it really does feel like we’re getting closer and closer to that point. Devices like the TriFold are great, but Samsung needs original ideas throughout its entire product portfolio, not just with niche $2,900 foldables.

The Galaxy S26 series almost certainly won’t change this, and if the variable-aperture reports are true, the S27 series probably won’t either. But eventually, that change needs to happen. Samsung will have to shake off its obsession with Apple at some point, because that strategy will eventually stop working. I just hope Samsung realizes that before it’s too late.