Samsung calling a vertical camera layout a ‘core identity’ is branding dressed up as vision. No one outside Samsung HQ was asking for the S25 camera block to become a vertical strip, and the reviews immediately called out the practical problems before Samsung could finish the press release. Calling something a ‘core identity’ after a design decision flops is just retroactive dignity.

What’s wrong with it?

On the base iPhone, Apple went from a diagonal layout to a vertical one because the Vision Pro was a thing and they wanted the cameras side by side. So for creating stereogram images and videos, they were ready, but Samsung has been ready for years. (IIRC Samsung had a VR kit at one point, but I haven’t heard anything about it lately. But in any case, to not be able to create content for a new platform, even if a rival (and also a customer, let us not forget) controls it, is not a good look.

I think the worse one is the Pixel since its cameras are horizontal, so when shooting horizontally, the cameras are one above the other. You can’t do stereogram images and videos with one. And maybe Android users don’t care about this. As an Apple guy, I don’t care about this. I have no intention to ever drop $3500 on a VR headset that effectively does nothing but mirror my screens. Apple is already pretty bad at mirroring Mac (/Book) and iPhone screens to Apple TV, to the point where mirroring them to my HiSense TV which runs Android TV has less latency! (The TV runs Android TV, but it includes AirPlay for some reason, and that part of the setting looks like Apple designed it.)

My question for any phone with cameras stops at “do they take good pictures?”. IMO, Samsung tends to over-soften in post-production, whereas Apple over-sharpens. They both need to lay off the AI a bit. They both also take awesome pictures in ideal conditions.

If they mean the cameras being in the corner where you’re likely to hit it, I’d say that’s a skill issue — wherever your camera lenses are, one tends to adapt.