Samsung's Galaxy S4 Universe

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Samsung's phones, tablets, cameras, and HDTVs all work together. See how the Galaxy S4 will crown a connected crop of Galaxies, and why you might want to buy more than one.

If Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S4 smartphone is going to be a success, it won't just be because of the phone; it'll be because of the universe.

Samsung isn't just churning out generic Android devices. Over the past two years, the company has been working hard to sew proprietary features and services into its various Android-powered gadgets, so if you buy one Samsung device, you're more likely to buy several.

In the U.S., the Galaxy name goes back to 2010's Galaxy S line, which wasn't ever actually sold as the Galaxy S by any major wireless carrier. (Rather, it took names like the Captivate and the Vibrant.) The first Samsung gadget actually sold under the Galaxy name here was the Galaxy Tab, a 7-inch Android tablet in 2010. Since then, Samsung has rolled out more than 50 Galaxy products here in the U.S., including phones, tablets, media players, and a camera.

So what makes a Galaxy? Samsung's TouchWiz interface is the first level of convergence. Samsung long ago redesigned the standard Android icons with its own touches, added a bunch of its own widgets and utility apps, and more recently threw in features like panning and zooming by physically tilting the phone. If you're used to TouchWiz, the idea goes, you'll be more comfortable with other Samsung devices and feel a little disoriented by, say, HTC's Sense environment or stock Android.

Media and app stores make up the next level. Many Samsung products come with Samsung's music, video, and game stores, as well as the Samsung Apps store (which sometimes offers otherwise-paid apps for free) and the S Suggest tool on your device is another way to find apps. Yes, these all compete with Google's and Amazon's more popular stores in a very crowded Android marketplace, but Samsung hopes that by loading them onto devices by default, they'll lock you in.

Finally, some Samsung Galaxies have exclusive sharing features when they're used with each other. Tap two Galaxy S IIIs together and you can share files between them with a feature called S Beam. Get a bunch of these phones in a room and you can use Share Shot, which automatically duplicates photos you take on all of your friends' phones. We should expect these kinds of exclusive features to really multiply on the forthcoming Galaxy S IV.

Take a look at the slideshow to sail through the universe of Samsung Galaxy devices.

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Samsung Galaxy Player
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Samsung Galaxy Player

Samsung Galaxy Player
One of the less successful tributaries of the Galaxy river, the Galaxy Player was supposed to be Samsung's answer to the iPod touch. Available in various screen sizes including 3.6-inch and 4.2-inch, it's a Galaxy smartphone without the phone. The Galaxy Player has a few neat tricks: It works as a Bluetooth earpiece for a simpler phone and as a remote viewfinder for a Samsung camera, for instance. But with a limited audience and the lack of aggressive marketing that the Galaxy phones have received, they haven't quite caught on.
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