Samsung Galaxy S4 history traced in Galaxy S evolution

In June 2009 Samsung's first Android phone was released. The i7500 was also known as the Samsung Galaxy, and had a 3.2-inch display and a 5-megapixel camera.

We gave the Galaxy four stars in our review, but weren't impressed with its boring appearance and lack of multi-touch. When it came out, Apple was already onto its second iPhone, so there was plenty of catching up to do.

One year later though, Samsung had made a lot of progress. The Galaxy S kicked off a new line of high-end smart phones to distinguish Samsung's best efforts from its mid-range mobiles, and blew us away with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display.

That doesn't seem like much by today's standards, but a few years ago it was an absolutely massive screen -- an early indicator of Samsung's lust for bigger and bigger phones.

Fast forward one more year, and it's time to meet the Galaxy S2, which treated phone shoppers to a 4.3-inch screen and a shockingly powerful 1.2GHz dual-core processor. This was the phone that established Samsung as a serious contender to the smart phone crown.

Following the S2 was the oval-shaped Galaxy S3, which impressed with a fresh design and powerful quad-core processor. More importantly though, this mobile cemented Samsung's style -- high-end hardware combined with an overwhelming number of apps and software features.