Samsung could remove all physical buttons from its Samsung Galaxy S series

Smartphone design has become a little stale lately. No wonder the the Nothing Phone (1) gained so much attention when it launched - the current cookie-cutter style design (i.e. a candy bar slab of glass and metal with a selfie camera cutout) is becoming ever more dated and commonplace.

However, outside of a full edge-to-edge screen (possibly through the implementation of a capable under-display selfie camera), there is little room left for a more modern high-tech design. Or is there?

Apparently, Samsung is pulling an Apple on us and is reportedly preparing to remove a fundamental feature that has come to define modern smartphones. According to a somewhat shaky rumor, the Korean tech giant is working on a Galaxy S smartphone without any form of physical keys whatsoever.

The information was first brought forward in a tweet, and subsequently covered by Sammobile in a dedicated article. According to the leak, the keyless Samsung Galaxy smartphone could come as soon as 2025.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 lineup might be the first smartphone to rely entirely on touchscreen input. Without volume rockers and a power button, the smartphone could also adopt a sleeker, thinner design.

However, there are some real-life concerns to this out of this world design. For example, how would the device be turned on? Additionally, in the not very unlikely event that the device freezes, how would it be turned off or reset?

These are all valid questions that need to be addressed. Touchscreen input is not inherently superior to that from physical keys - they serve different purposes and are simply not mutually interchangeable.

When Apple decided to remove the dedicated Escape key from its MacBooks after the introduction of the TouchBar, there was major backlash from many users. Subsequently, Apple caved in and re-introduced a physical Escape key. Buttons are sometimes simply necessary.