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Where are Samsung phones designed and made? The answer might surprise you
Samsung has been responsible for some of the best Android phones for years, and the South Korean giant continues to deliver devices that impress and innovate. From reliable flagship powerhouses to affordable daily drivers, there’s something for everyone in Samsung’s lineup. But where are these phones designed and made? In this article, we’ll look at the production process behind Samsung’s phones and how they maintain a single standard of quality across the globe.
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Samsung has design studios and factories across the globe. However, the primary design studio is located in Seoul, Korea, and the central manufacturing hub is in Vietnam.
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Where are Samsung phones designed?
Samsung has design studios worldwide, including in Delhi, Europe, Japan, and Latin America. As the company has continued to grow, they have expanded its bases worldwide. Here are the leading design studios related to Samsung phones and some of their essential contributions.
China
At the heart of the dragon, Samsung Design China started in Shanghai in 2004 and opened a UX lab in Beijing in 2013. The two studios have been designing smartphones, home appliance products, computers, wearable smart devices, and more.
Some critical works from Samsung China have been the Galaxy A8S product design and staple applications like Samsung Wallet and Samsung Smart Manager.
Delhi
Founded in 2008, Samsung Design Delhi focuses on locally inspired applications. One of their most recent achievements has been the design of an Indian-specific keyboard based on the phonetic principles of the Indian language scripts, making the typing experience as easy as writing.
As for the phones themselves, the Delhi team designs the Galaxy M and F series and the now-retired Galaxy J2 and J7 Max.
Seoul
The Seoul Design office is the starting line for Samsung and the drawing board for all electronic blueprints. People in strategy, product, UX, graphics, and engineering design come together here to ensure a systematic identity for Samsung products.
As the central hub, product, CMF, Graphic, UI, and GUI designers from Seoul have a hand in the conception of nearly every phone from Samsung. It all starts here.
Europe
Located in London, the European Design studio opened in 2000 and expanded to Milan in 2005. Aside from just focusing on a range of products, the European team also plays a crucial role in researching trends and future forecasts. That’s a fancy way of saying they predict and follow social and cultural norms to integrate as design elements.
One mobile highlight of Samsung Design Europe was their research on the Galaxy Fold Series. It may have taken a few iterations, but we thought they pretty much perfected the form factor with the Galaxy Z Fold 5.
Where are Samsung phones made?
Most people would probably say China if you asked someone to guess where Samsung phones are made. After all, the country is the global manufacturing hub, producing the bulk of smartphone OEMs and iPhones for Apple.
It may surprise you that no Samsung phone is made in China. The company closed its last factory in the People’s Republic in 2019 due to a shrinking market share. Nowadays, most Samsung phones are made in Vietnam. But they do have a few other vital factories around the globe. Let’s take a look at them all.
Vietnam
The majority of Samsung’s global phone supply comes from Vietnam. Samsung’s manufacturing facility is located in Vietnam’s Thai Nguyen province, where six factories churn out well over 100 million smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices annually.
According to Samsung’s statistics, nearly half of their smartphones and tablets are produced in Vietnam and exported to 128 countries. One Vietnamese outlet stated that between 2008 and 2018, “Samsung increased its total investment in Vietnam from US$670 million to over US$17.3 billion.”
If you live in North America or Europe, odds are your Samsung phone was made in Vietnam.
India
India is home to Samsung’s single giant mobile factory. It rivals the production capacity of Vietnam’s six factories, making it one of the largest mobile-phone manufacturing units in the world. But all of it primarily serves the Indian market because, well, there are a lot of people in India.
Given the import taxes in the country, Samsung set up shop locally to compete against its rivals on price. That strategy has paid off as a lucrative market for Samsung, manufacturing all the Galaxy M and Galaxy A series phones here.
South Korea
As you might expect, Samsung has manufacturing facilities in its home country, South Korea. However, smartphone production is less than 10% of Samsung’s global shipments. Instead, the South Korean factory mainly serves the local market and makes components sourced from sister companies.
Brazil
Your Samsung phone was likely made in Brazil if you live in Latin America. Samsung has been assembling phones in Brazil since 1999 and has a local workforce of around 6,000 employees. The local tax laws allow Samsung to sell its phones to all the neighboring countries affordably.
Indonesia
Perhaps the most recent addition to Samsungs manufacturing force is its Indonesian factory. Launched in 2015, they produce roughly 800,000 units annually for the local market. Given its success so far, Samsung will likely invest more here in the future.
FAQs
No, ZTE phones are not made by Samsung. ZTE is a partially state-owned Chinese technology company that specializes in telecommunication.
No, LG and Samsung are separate companies that make their electronics.
No, Samsung phones are not made in China. Samsung closed its last remaining Chinese factory in 2019 and now makes the most of its phones in Vietnam.
Samsung has been making phones in Vietnam since 2008, but 2020 saw a larger shift to the country in response to the pandemic.
Samsung is not a Chinese or a Japanese company. Samsung was founded in and is based in South Korea.