Samsung is considering a revamp of its flagship smartphone strategy following the Galaxy Note 7 chaos, according to reports originating in the South Korean press.

Rather than offering two flagship families – Galaxy S and Galaxy Note – it may shift to offer a single top-tier line. This comes as it was suggested that the company’s haste in bringing Note 7 to market – in order to trump Apple’s new iPhone – meant that the device did not go through rigorous enough testing.

Indeed, reports this week noted that Samsung had tested Note 7 batteries itself rather than using a third-party partner, which is uncommon among smartphone makers. However, it is far from clear if this impacted the Note 7, because the tests still complied with external standards (and it is not new for Samsung to use its own facilities for the process).

Regardless, a change in strategy would have a significant impact on Samsung, not least because the company currently has two high-end launches, giving it two separate sales boosts. With Galaxy S leading the way in the first half of the year, Galaxy Note then provides a significant boost in the second half, as the earlier device loses some of its lustre.

And Samsung has also effectively differentiated Galaxy S with the stylus-driven Galaxy Note line. While the vendor is pushing some Note software features to the earlier device to bridge the gap caused by the Note 7 withdrawal, the stylus and large screen combination does split the lines.