How does everyone feel about Samsung phones?
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Previously on Lemmy: Sony
Past Discussions:
I thought we should restart the brand discussion with something more popular to give this community relaunch a bit more oomph. So, Samsung it is.
I've never really used a Samsung phone much before, despite them being so popular in the States. Have friends who used them, they usually look nice and high quality, and the Galaxy S Active are the only high-end phones I know that doesn't shatter when you look at them wrong without a case, so, props to Samsung.
There are may reasons I don't like Samsung phones: Hardware fuse disabling Knox on bootloader unlock, Exynos vs Snapdragon models, the mandatory Bixby button, the Galaxy Note 7 that really blew up. To me, Samsung phones are trying so hard to go against what makes Android good, which is the customizability to do whatever you wanted. Android is everything; Samsung is just Samsung.
Personally, I think Samsung is only worth buying at the very high end for the Galaxy S series. I've heard that A series have gotten better, but there always seems to be better choices from Moto/Pixel/Chinese brands on Amazon that it's not worth considering their low tier offering.
What should we do next week? I'm thinking Microsoft, just to make fun of them for the very idea of making a Surface Duo 2.
FAQ:
Hardware great, software garbage. They really want to be like Apple but aren't even half as competent (which is more an insult to Samsung than praise to Apple). It comes bloated with all kind of garbage alot of which you can't uninstall (like Facebook). They have their own app store next to the Google Store which is annoying. It has no reason to be there other than distributing their shitty apps that I don't want in the first place.
I currently have an S21 and can't wait to have the spare income to replace it.
Facebook does not come on their unlocked phones. I've set up my S8 and S23, as well as Note 9 and Note 22 for family and none of them came with bloatware aside from Samsung's apps. However I got a used Galaxy tablet on AT&T and it had so much crap on it. At least it's removable using ADB.
It does however include meta services, meta app manager, and meta app installer which you have to either disable after enabling view of system apps or use adb to remove it.
Fun fact, the Meta installer is a system app so it can quietly install (also system) stuff without your knowledge.
Also, having seen what extensive spying a regular Facebook app does (when it's a non-system app!) I wouldn't touch a Samsung phone without root with a ten foot pole.
Bold of them to assume people who buy expensive Android phones still use Facebook in 2023.
I bought a Samsung phone years ago and had to return it. I remember feeling really conflicted when I decided to return it. Hardware wise it was the best there was at the time and the phone itself looked beautiful. On paper it was a monster. Yet it dropped frames like crazy and stuttered doing the most basic tasks. I just couldn't justify spending that much money for a mediocre experience. Such a pity.
It's okay. Not bad, not great. Gonna get a Google phone with a headphone jack on it. Don't really need my phone for anything other than basic tasks.
Samsung phones have great hardware, but all the Samsung bloatware ruins the phone. Good if you can get one with only stock android
The only good thing about Samsung's software is Dex which unfortunately has no decent replacement.
Samsung has great hardware but my OG galaxy S2 was peak Samsung for me. I still love their build quality but I don't like curved screens, lack of sd slots and 3.5mm jack and so on. Neither do I want all the Samsung social etc. apps.
If Samsung made a clean phone like the pixel with their build quality, that would be a game changer.
It would be interesting for the users but it would also undermine Samsung's position in their war with Google.
The reason Samsung duplicates all the apps etc. is so that they keep Google at arm's length. Google controls their manufacturers with tightly controlled deals for the Android trademark and access to the Play Store and Services Framework. By duplicating those and the app ecosystem, Samsung is saying "we won't be so easy to get rid of".
Granted, Samsung is also the largest Android manufacturer, so all out war would probably mean the fracture of the entire Android landscape.
I've once read a comparison between the income percentage that Android represents for Samsung and Google respectively and I seem to recall it would damage Google more than Samsung. But it was years ago so that might have changed, and also the Google side analysis involved guesswork about the impact on their ad and data collection business.
I don't mind the phone/contacts/dialer etc. They seem pretty functional most of the time. I hate my phone being loaded with AR Emoji, Samsung sync and a bunch of other stuff that should either be opt in or allowed to be uninstalled.
What pisses me off even more is that despite all this junk, they can't be arsed to develop a proper audio player or Equalizer.
Whatever their position is, I paid more than a reasonable amount of money for this phone and I should be able to use it how I want to. I appreciate the fact that I can install graphene or calyxos on my pixel 5a and resign the bootloader while you can't touch a single thing without tripping Knox on my note 9.
Woah... i learned something new today
That's the spirit.
Samsung social eh? Maybe they should just make their own Lemmy instance. That'd be pretty cool.
Lol, from my limited amount of reading, Samsung seems to be a company that unduly tries to influence the SK government, much more so that Google/Apple in the US. So I have no clue how this will shape up.
P.S The actual app is called Samsung Members or something.
I don't have much to add to the conversation, but I watched this video and I thought it was a pretty good summary of the history of Samsung and SK.
https://youtu.be/oL0umpPPe-8
Samsung phones are the worst android phones you can buy, except for all the others.
As frustrating as Samsung is, I always find myself going back to them. Displays, build quality, cameras, performance, storage capacity, speakers, software features (Dex!), they're just ahead of the curve across the board.
The only legitimate advantage of Chinese phones is the super fast charging, but I'm in the better safe than sorry camp on that one.
I've had the Fold 3 and now Fold 4, and I really don't see myself getting anything other than a Fold 6 down the line, unless something major changes.
Those sliding/expandable screen models looked pretty slick. I hope by the time they get to the Fold 6 it'll just be an expandable stick phone rather than actually folding.
Mixed opinions.
Things I like about Samsung:
Things I dislike:
It just seems like every brand does the make fun of Apple then doing the exact thing they did thing.
Samsung smartwatches don't work if you have an iPhone. That's like... wtf? BTW I got an S23 and a Galaxy Watch. Love them but... come on Samsung, what the heck!
As someone who exclusively used Samsung flagships as their daily driver (GS2 > Note 4 > Note 8 > Note 20 Ultra), I was a Samsung absolutist and fanboy. But their decisions since the N20U has been frustrating, and has had me eyeing other brands for the first time.
To start about what I love about them: fantastic hardware with solid software. I don't mind their excessive features, because they become so useful, Android/Google adds them to stock 2-3 years later. So it's like a decent beta test for some awesome utilities, like saying "smile" to take a photo with the camera when you can't reach the shutter button. I think several phones now offer this.
What has me eyeing something else for my next phone: shitting on their hardcore power users and greedily taking away options. The removal of the SD card (critical for my usage), the dilution of their features across different models (base, plus, ultra), removing the magstripe, etc. are all anti-consumer with NO benefit to their customers. Even if your typical customer doesn't use a specific feature, it strips the option away from those who do, and it's not like the savings go towards the consumer. If not for these decisions (among other, smaller infractions), I wouldn't be contemplating other brands.
I'm going to jump to Samsung's defense here as I think your anti-consumer belief is misguided:
Each to their own but these are just my views based on 11 years in the mobile phone retail business.
I respectfully disagree, and I know this is a hot button topic. But isn't the fact that it IS a controversial topic that has trawled for 3+ years on various tech forums not evidence that it's a popular enough feature(s) to warrant consideration?
SD Card: If companies are so afraid of liability, they could simply have an initial warning dialogue about potential hardware failures. Why cripple a portion of your userbase because of the fault of others? I know it's anecdotal, but I have used 9 SD cards across various devices (including my current N20U and Tab S8 Ultra) without ever encountering an issue. I also back up my data as is proper data management. And just as the car company in your example would say to the idiot who filled it up with the wrong gas, they would refer them to the user manual (warning dialogue in this case), and dust their hands of the matter. And let's be honest, this is just a blatant cash grab to force customers to buy the larger storage sizes.
Mag-Stripe: There are still more shops that don't have the standard contactless payment where I live than there are that do. And I'm in Southern CA. Big box stores are not an issue, but the mom and pop shops that I frequent don't have it set up. I'm sure this is an issue that will eventually be solved, but it's just frustrating that the option was taken away from us.
Dilution of Features: Samsung already makes a huge range of phones. From $120 semi-disposable ones to $2K Folds. The consumer is confused enough. From A series, J, S, M, Fold, and Flip, every price is covered. And yet, what's the flagship (mainstream) phone? The S23U? For $1400, you get an extra camera compared to the S23+. You get a larger screen - which used to be the Note's job - plus another camera from the base 23. That $400-600 difference adds up to 1 camera (plus some sensors) and a larger screen and battery. Point being, the reason why I gravitated to the Note series before was because of all the jammed packed features in a single phone. I didn't have to decide if I wanted to feel FOMO for saving $400 and losing an extra camera. What I paid was what I got, and I knew I got the most bang for my buck.
I know this is controversial, but this is the hill I'm dying on. Samsung's reputation was built on "everything but the kitchen sink" when they were competing with LG, HTC, etc. Now? They're a naming convention from Pro and Pro Max away from another lawsuit with Apple. Who, by the way, brought SD cards back onto their flagship laptop series!
Re. the Mag-Stripe. Bare in mind the US is <10% of the market for the Samsung phones. And then you'd need to break down of the Samsung phones sold in North America - how many of those were S-series vs. the others which don't support the mag-stripe. Even if 50-50, that's now <5% of phones which have mag-stripe support in a country that uses it. Then rough guess of 20% of users actually pay by phone? You're now <1%. A small pale blue dot in the vast cosmic arena...
SD cards - there's also the point of user data security. Data stored on an SD card can't be easily guarenteed safe by Knox. Yes, you can encrypt it, but remove that SD card and the card itself can't protect the data from brute forcing encyption keys.
Wasn't Samsung holding ~30% share in the US? I was trying to find more concrete numbers, but Google isn't Google anymore. What I could find says that North America is their #1 revenue producing region, which leads me to believe that the majority of their revenue is coming from their S series. This is conjecture, but absent more public data, it's what logically makes sense to me. And since the US is the major market to not be on universal contactless payment systems, I would assume would benefit it's customers the most.
SD Card - The consumer has about as much control as trusting their data to cloud storages or even at-home NAS or hard drive set ups. They could get robbed, or they could have another daily data breach somewhere. Safety with your SD card contains similar risks. And like you said in your other response to another user, Samsung already mines your data, Knox or not. So why not include an SD card, so that people can save $200 on storage teirs (corporate greed aside)? If the hacker really wants my SD card data anyways, they'll get to indulge in my vast library of audiobooks, podcasts, music, movies, and files that would make absolutely no sense to them, even if they were corporate spies. So congrats to them. Pictures and videos would be painful to let them peruse, but that could be said about any stolen phone or data breach.
You misunderstood. The US is <10% of Samsung phone sales globally (I found retail sales online for their handset sales per country) . And they will know the stats of which of those phones ever used the magstripe feature. An educated guess of <1% of global users activating the mag stripe feature is a feature they can afford to cut, especially if it saves on cost.
As for the SD cards, I've never over the 10+ years of using smartphones have had data lost on an SD card (and I've used some cheap and sketchy SD cards). The one exception is a Samsung SD card that after being retired from the phone, reformatted and sitting in a drawer for a year refused to being recognized on my PC when I checked my old cards to see what's what and who's where.
I'd rather trash my replaceable SD card with writes from the camera, downloads, streaming cache etc than the non-replaceable eMMC memory. It's cheaper and less environmentally damaging to replace a failed 30€ SD card than to replace the whole phone (or the motherboard) because of the failed eMMC.
These days I use high-endurance SD cards that are designed to be used in eg dash cams, action cameras etc under constant writes and should be really safe for storage in a phone. And all my photos/videos are synced to my NAS via Syncthing in realtime, anyway (over Tailscale VPN or Syncthing relays).
The other issues with SD card is security. Your data isn't safely tucked away, controlled by Knox if it's on a SD card which can be removed. And 'letting the user choose' just means that there needs to be configuration and extra options in firmware, which leads to backdoors and workarounds and a higher chance of comprimsed user data. (When they're not just stealing it off your device and selling it anyway...).
There's nothing preventing encryption being done to a SD card so there's no reason the SD card could encrypt files on it so it's only readable through the phone or after putting in the password. Like how Samsung lets you export encrypted a back up of your apps with appdata to a SD card connected through USB C with their Smart Switch app, which is needed now since they don't back up 3rd party apps to the cloud anymore. https://www.xda-developers.com/samsung-cloud-third-party-app-data/
Also, most people want SD card so they can just offload pictures, videos, and music as opposed to running apps off it. The cons don't seem like cons for me.
It's not people are forced to use a SD card so this stuff seems more like devil's advocate.
Asus Zenfone 10 looks quite feature complete before the break, maybe you should consider it.
It doesn't have a SD card slot, unfortunately. At the moment, only Sony Xperia still carries it on the flagship level, so I'm eyeing that one for now. Fortunately, my N20U is still going strong, so I'll see what the field looks like when I upgrade. I guess whichever OEM decides to include a $0.50 piece of hardware will probably get my $1K+.
Still loving my N20U. Not feeling any huge urge to upgrade; we'll see if lack of new versions of Android changes my mind
Flagship has no headphone jack or even micro SD card. Absolute joke.
If they had those I would strongly consider buying. I was an LG person until they stopped making phones.
I hear you. I was using a OnePlus6 until a couple of years ago when changes at my mobile provider requires that I change. Ended up getting an LG Velvet that I'm still using.
I have never used a Samsung phone either, though it's looking more and more likely that one of them will be my next phone.
Just curious, why in the modern day do you need an SD card?
If phones can come up to a TB nowadays and USBCs have insane transfer speeds I can't really find a reason why you'd need more.
Far cheaper to buy a microsd than a bigger capacity phone, and if you get the base model and run out of storage theres no way to upgrade.
First, price. The Samsung Galaxy Ultra is $1,299 for 256GB, $1,379 for 512GB, and $1,619 for 1TB (only available as an unlocked phone.
That's a $180 premium to add 256GB. You can get an SD card for that much for $25, also from Samsung. To go from 512 to 1TB is $240, while a 512GB SD card costs around $35. It's Apple levels of ridiculous markup.
Both SD cards and internal storage can vary in speed, but I would expect SD cards to be slower most of the time. And that's fine. I view it just like how in desktops you might have a large, cheap, SATA SSD or HDD for bulk storage and a fast NVME for things where speed matters.
Why would I bother with USB C file transfer? That seems like something annoying to manage- having to remember to go and back things up, transfer things over, and just generally maintain. Especially with WiFi speeds nowadays. But that is for backups for the sake of redundancy. Moving files off the phone to make room because of low storage means removing a layer of redundancy.
The Steam Deck has an SD card, as does the switch and all of their handheld competitors. My Xperia has an SD card. The Samsung A series still has an SD card, and so do most mid-tier phones. It's something useful that most people want, but Samsung and others know they can cut the $0.50/phone or whatever and the whales will still buy the newest flagship as a status symbol anyways.
Because I want more storage.
Because of the bloat and their Knox bullshit making it difficult to impossible to remove said bloat with a custom ROM, I will not touch a Samsung phone.
Very fair point.
I bought a Samsung because it was the only device with a headphone jack and removable battery. I have zero brand loyality - I just go with whoever makes the best device
Samsung is a shit company and nobody should ever buy anything from them. Phones, TVs, appliances, it doesn't matter -- it's all either pre-infested with ads and malware or sabotaged with planned obsolescence.
You and I must have ad the same Samsung experience.
A couple years ago you could replace that with Apple (except for the ads part i think), does that still apply or has apple seen any kind of redemption?
Just completely not true. I love my pixel phones, but apple takes care of its customers like no other company, while Samsung shits on its customers like no other company.
Only as long as you pay protection(apple care).
And bend over backwards.
Good photos and the battery lasts quite a while too compared to my other phones I've had.
Overall it's great hardware with good photos and terrible software for me. I'll probably never buy it on a phone again because they're evolving in the way I'd rather not have them evolve.
They have their own unremovable:
Makes me feel like they're stealing all my info if I would use it. Besides a Google account they also want you to use a Samsung account which ( honestly ) makes the whole phone more confusing ( especially to older people like my parents ).
But yeah. Good photos and great battery life. I've got no real complaints of the tab s5 tablet which I use when travelling and streaming shows to the tv otherwise. Though I'd have to see if the newer tablets are as much of a dumpster fire software wise like their phones.
Side note: I even had somebody come up to me with their phone "because I work in IT". The default setting of a Samsung phone was to have the lock button activate bigsby rather than lock the phone. There's a setting somewhere to change that. But it definitely felt agressive pushing of bigsby that nobody ( at least around here ) uses/wants to use... Maybe it's different in other countries?
Great hardware, especially as far as the screens. Questionable software environment. Last I had one, there were duplicates of most Google apps in inferior Samsung form, which was really useless, and they couldn’t be deleted (I think). While the display was s beautiful, another thing I didn’t like was I had one of the ones with curved glass on the sides, a Galaxy S9, which looked cool, was useless, and it ended up getting cracked on the side, so it was useless and fragile.
Have you tried the Active series? I think they have the same spec, just... bulkier, great for butterfingers like me.
I don't think they've had an "Active" phone since S7 though? I know there's the Xcover series, but it isn't tied to the S line, I wonder if it's targetting the same niche
I looked it up. The last one is the S8 Active.
Xcover is a silly name though.
I’ve only had a Galaxy S3 and the S9.
Typing from a Samsung Galaxy A50 right now, as a long time Samsung user. I've always hated TouchWiz from the older days, but I really love One UI. I'd even go as far as to say that One UI is the best Android skin (controversial opinion, lol)!
Same. I don't get so this hate. It's like people still think it's touchwiz and have never used one ui. I actually prefer one ui far more than stock android.
Hardware:
They make high-quality hardware and I like that they’re trying to do something new and interesting with foldable tech, but I’ve never been a fan of their Exynos processors and foldables (imo) have proven to be little more than a gimmick that sacrifices far too much on durability for minimal benefit to most people.
Software:
I hate bloatware, and I’m not a fan of their crusade against open bootloaders.
I will only purchase a Samsung again when they let me unlock the damn bootloader
I want the pure Android experience, not a phone coming with his package of uninstallable bloatware. Also, a phone is just a phone, I want to take pictures, use GPS, call and text. The Pixel are doing the same thing for half or 3times cheaper.
I also dislike Samsung repairability policy and how they care about their employees.
Fuck Samsung
I feel exactly the same way. Samsung peaked with the S4 or S5 I think.
The S10+ has been slightly upsetting. Good specs, shit bloat, shit durability, bad design.
Nokia had a couple of good models with Android One.. but have failed to release anything recent with good specs.
Motorola might get looked at, or Asus for my next phone.
Samsung phones have so many quality of life improvements over the default Android experience that I don't think I can get away from them just from software alone (why do you have to scroll down twice to change the brightness on normal Android it's the most important function in the quick menu) Not to mention they're the only phones that I can seemingly drop as many times as I want without breaking screen. I'd love to switch to another company as I don't really like Samsung but every other software experience I've had has been abysmal.
Only have to scroll down once but using two fingers. I am using Android 12 Motorola UX. I assume that stock Android would be similar.
I'm using the same at the moment, Motorola android 12, and that doesn't work for me.
Start at the very top press and hold both fingers and follow through all the way to the bottom.
Basically follow through the motion all way to bottom OR swipe with both to at least mid screen and then flick downward with momentum. Can't see why it wouldn't work for your phone 🤔
like i feel after a seven course dinner.
bloated.
Blame the carrier then, mine is unlocked direct from Samsung and doesn't have Facebook or anything like that. Once it hooked in to a carrier for the first time it installed the carrier apps but any and all are removable and don't come back after.
Unless you're defining bloat as anything but AOSP in which case I don't want to talk to you.
My phone is unlocked, it's difficult to buy locked phones in my country and I have Facebook force installed.
It could still have branded firmware even if it isn't carrier locked though. Did you buy it directly from Samsung as an unbranded unlocked phone?
Good hardware due to samsung producing most of its conponents directly, held back by samsungs fabs with exynos.
Other than that, dont use them because of bloat (devices I've used had a fairly light or almost aosp experience)
Unpopular opinion, but I love my Samsung phone - upgraded from an S9 to S21 not that long ago. I'm not a brand (or even OS) loyalist by any means, and Samsung has its flaws, but it's the phone that suits my needs the most.
Firstly, I need a "small-ish" phone for one-handed use during my commute in the subway. Of all the flagships, Samsung's is one of the few that has the triple-camera setup in a small form factor. Every other major phone maker puts the regular and ultrawide camera in the smaller flagship, and the zoom only comes in the bigger version.
Secondly, I've absolutely hated the new Android UI since... 12? The quick toggles are ridiculously big, and it makes me feel like i'm using kids' mode on my phone. And who thought it was a good idea to put the Wifi/data toggles behind a second layer of menu options? Samsung's UI fixes this right out of the box without a need for root.
As for the cons... I remember my S4 used to have horrible preinstalled software that came in the root partition and couldn't be uninstalled. But the newest Samsungs aren't that bad. It came with a few extra things, almost all of which could be uninstalled easily. Samsung also installs their own version of Calculator, Notes etc - some of them aren't bad at all, and the only annoying thing about their own utilities are that they force you to update them through Samsung's own app store. Their camera also tends to oversaturate colors, but it's a one-time effort to dial down the default saturation in the camera settings.
So yeah, the software has a few issues, but they're all a one-off fix, whereas my issue with other Android phones (no triple-camera setup in a smaller form factor + horrible quick toggles) are not fixable or require root.
Oh yeah. and Samsung DeX is amazing. I'm surprised Android doesn't have an equivalent feature. I love it when I can plug my phone into a monitor or TV at a hotel or a friend's house and play movies/games off my phone.
Crap phones that don't last, bad UI, filled with bloat and ads, don't play nice with the other Android kids, and steal their homework.
I mean, on the one hand I've had two Samsung phones last me the past decade (and the older one still fires up when I want to use it). But on the other hand, I've decided I'll never buy a Samsung phone again. Their great hardware is marred by the Samsung software experience. The ad experience hasn't been bad actually, probably because I'm on a flagship model.
But I hate the button they force to be associated with their feature that I don't want. Every single time I've hit that button was either by accident or experimenting with how it works. Even though I have set up one of the alternative presses to launch an app of my choice, I never think of the button other than when I accidentally hit it and need to swear at it and Samsung.
I don't know about cheap Samsung phones, but their flagships are excellent. I'm pretty happy with mine.
The best samsung phones are the 2 year old used flagship phones. All the power, features and longevity without the high sticker price. S21 Ultra is amazing at a fraction of the cost of new.
I preordered the s21 ultra as I need a new phone.
Only issues I have with it, is the battery starting to get a bit shit, but that's undoubtedly my own fault leaving it to charge to full every night with super fast charging on. And, the plastic on the back at the top left edge is cracked due to me dropping it more tines than I should have. However, I fixed this by actually getting a rubber case.
I've still got the original factory applied screen protector, and it's only just starting to show signs of scratches on it, and ever so slightly starting to peel on the top left corner.
It's a beast. I had an S10 5G (same physical size as the 21 ultra) and it was great. Only reason I upgraded was I had to swap carriers. But these classics are so powerful and sharp versus new, economy models.
shhhh. once too many people find out, the price will increase.
Top notch camera, top specs, best software support. It’s usually my first choice when I look for an android phone.
A lot of the issues you listed are bad for people that want to mod their phones but they are pros for anyone that wants a secure phone. As I get older, I just want a phone that works that is actively supported and patched from security vulnerabilities.
I still have my S21 and I <3 it
Flip 4 and getting a Flip 5 for my wife when it comes out. I find the Galaxy like to be the best thing out there unless you are hardcore about running a privacy OS. I'm too lazy and old for that anymore
The only thing I have to say is I couldn't get away from Samsung fast enough. The bloat is just ridiculous (like do I really need two voice assistants that I can't uninstall AND two stores for apps?), the UI is an abomination, and the camera processing always made my eyes bleed. As someone who dabbles in photography I hate that the camera prioritizes being vivid over all else. Probably the only good thing I can say about them is the build quality is great.
Hate that you have to even go through the process of removing meta services. Wish it wasn't there.
But, love the OS which is more feature rich than the custom roms of the past I used to use when combined with Good Lock. Love one hand operation+ which lets me not have to bother with gestures anymore and almost everything being available with the side gestures and edge panel. And I don't want to go without a stylus again on a phone, since I use it a lot to do write quick notes without unlocking the phone or selecting text or using it in DS games.
No bootloader unlocking no buy.
Well, technically they do, but it removes so much functionality it's not really worth it.
Too much bloat, no bootloader unlock. International model can be bootloader unlocked but you can't change secure boot keys and relock.
My current phone is a Samsung and it is the first Samsung phone I have owned and maybe the last. I had previously only owned Motorola phones and absolutely loved them. The Samsung is a perfectly capable phone with (when new) top tier components for its class. The build quality is very good and the screen, of course, is gorgeous. But it's a boring device.
I loved all the extra little touches that Motorola gave me. They didn't change the OS too much, but just enough and the phones were better for it. With Samsung, it's the opposite. The changes are all for the worse. But let me be perfectly clear here, it is still a great phone for the masses, it's just boring.
I consider the Galaxy S line of phones is like the Toyota Camry. Good, reliable. Will do exactly what you need it to do, but don't expect to fall in love with it. It's a well engineered appliance aimed at the general public.
More like a Lexus ES I think, but I get your point.
One advantage of Samsung over most manufacturers (including Motorola) is that they use standard USB PD 3.0 charging while motorola has their own Turbopower charging, Oneplus has Warp charging etc.
TurboPower follows USB-PD spec. Warp charging doesn't.
Hardware fuse disabling Knox on bootloader is irrelevant now. You can't unlock bootloader. At least for snapdragon chip.
Really nice hardware, inexcusably bad software.
Had a Galaxy S2 and then a Note 2. By the time that last one was up for replacement, Samsung had gone curved edges, which I disliked. Switched to OnePlus 3, later 7T and that was my last OnePlus as I didn't like where the brand was going.
Luckily Samsung ditched the curved edges, so I currently have an S22+. I'm quite satisfied with this one and I also got a Galaxy watch after having some quality issues with Fitbit devices. Both work together nicely as you'd expect.
I had (tbh I still have it somewhere) a Samsung Galaxy (the first model, no S, no number, no anything) as it was the first Android phone available in my country. About a year later Samsung decided they won't support this model anymore and I had to install custom firmware to keep it up to date to the quickly evolving Android landscape back then. I never bought anything from them again.
My opinion on them based on my last phone I got from them (S22 Ultra Exynos) is pretty mid just like the phone for its price. I overall think they are right now in a bit of a slump and resting very much on their laurels. Their phones are still for the most part very good, market leading in some points even, but they have slowed down the innovation a lot. Like the last 3 Galaxy Ultra phones are pretty much the same product. And the regular S20, S21, ... line also takes 0 risks and cuts one too many corners for my liking. And the whole Exynos situation is just a shame since usually where I live we pay more for less. If they stuck those Chips in 500 - 700€ ish phones and passed along the saving they would wipe the floor with all the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 1 wannabe flaghips.
What I think however nobody will take away from them anytime soon is OneUI. I think right now its the best and most feature complete Android skin and its refreshing seeing Samsung stick and refine one design for this long (before they changed the look and feel every 2 - 3 years). I only wish they would bring back Linux on Dex which was in beta for some time. That would be a killer feature for me!
I suffered through 2 years of zero software updates, not even security updates. Google Pay stopped working randomly. I contacted Samsung support who couldn't figure out why on either of these issues. It also kept lighting up on full brightness in the middle of the night due to no reason I could figure out, despite being on do-not-disturb. Never buying a Samsung again.
@kablammy @MargotRobbie I have always had a good experience. I bought a cheap-ish Samsung and it has worked perfectly for the last 3 years. My Samsung before that, I kept for 5 years. One minor irritation is that Samsung includes apps you might not want. I use third mostly party apps. Eg. Chrome browser instead of Samsung browser.
That also happens to me sometimes with my note 10. I think it has something to do with the weekly automatic reboot I have scheduled.
Cant use same email on two phones if you lost old one, because need old phone to verify account.
Over time phone runs slower and slower.
I find Motorola's much better, I generally go with the Pure.
S22 ultra here for 18 months now. Great phone, although I'm not into unlocking and Linuxing my phone. As it is, it's durable, camera amazing, speed great, screen great, speakers are awesome. No complaints about hardware at all. In fact, I find them to be the best available hardware right now.
Currently using an A series Samsung phone. For a non power user, it's pretty good since software support is up to 3-5 years. Chinese brand phones are good on paper but, don't expect any software support at all after purchasing.
A Samsung phone's best asset is it's screen. The CPU is a bit of a roulette. If you get a Snapdragon, you're golden. The Exynos ones run hotter and drain battery faster. If someone wants the most polished version of android, I'd recommend a Samsung.
Doesn't Pixels currently have the longest software support still?
Fairphone has longer.
That's fair.
Unfortunately, it's not officially available in my country.
I hated Samsung phones when I had them ~2019 because of One UI being so far behind Android as well as me getting constantly badgered to create a Samsung account to use the Samsung store so I can upgrade the built-in photo editor even though I never had any reason to do so.
I didn't see any reason to complain about the hardware One UI ran on, though.
I recently bought an S23 after owning 2 pixels and a nexus. So far, I'm loving the experience much more, funny enough because of the things people call bloatware. Maybe it's because I play lots of games.
The sidebar shortcuts a super useful, the lockscreen customizations remind me of old android before google went all apple, and dex is great for multitasking.
The only thing that's a bit annoying is bixby, but i simply installed google assistant alongside it.
Same for me, except I'm more using the Dex feature as playing games on the S23. But this is my first Samsung and I'm impressed.
They are very anti repair. And also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-8qqkCbo3U
Why does everyone always copy the bad part of Apple and never the good parts?
I disagree regarding Android. Google's Android feels to me like it's trying to go against everything that makes Android good such as SafetyNet, Android 12 removing customizability from Android 11 and choosing default apps convoluted, separating gestures and launchers, half assed tablet experience.
One UI has a lot more customization and practical options and generally always implemented features before Google did, like split screen and still can do things no other OEM can.
I had a note 8.
Ok phone, nice pen.
But the one phone I managed to break the screen of. Tanks to curved screen that make using proper protection impossible.
Went back to nexus / pixel.
I like them. Bloat ware is a bit annoying, but not a deal breaker. Just use my launcher to hide it. Timely updates, decent UI, relatively long-term support, some neat features here and there (integration with Windows 10-100 Phone Link is really cool), and having one of the last phones with the trifecta of headphone jack + microSD card slot + OIS means I'll be holding on to this for a long long time!
I thought most Android phones can use Windows Phone Link now.
I haven't been keeping track, but the neatest feature (seamless mirroring) only works with Samsung phones when I was shopping for a new phone.
Tell me about the seamless mirroring. I haven't heard of it before.
It's just mirroring your phone's screen in Windows. Nice when I'm at the desktop and don't want to use the phone.
That's actually pretty neat. I've heard Microsoft is bringing that natively with Windows 11 now.
Yea, Win11's Android subsytem is pretty neat, but I'm waiting for the UI bits to get cleaned up before I think of upgrading. Am happy to use Win10 and this method of getting apps on the desktop screen for now.
Their foldables are so damn fragile. My sister's Flip 4 was busted after a fall with a case while my Fold 4 had the black line of death not too soon after the screen protector on the inner screen started popping off.
Maybe we should do a big discussion on just foldables next time.
They became dead to me the moment they stopped having removable batteries.
No, this is not a Note 7 joke or anything. I just really hate the trend of integrated batteries in electronics because it places a fundamental limit on the product's useful life of about four to five years before the battery degrades so much that it becomes essentially unusable as a mobile device. It's probably the single worst "innovation" in consumer electronics history. Replacing a sealed-in battery out of warranty is often similar in price to getting a new damn phone, and not without risk either since modern phones are sealed so tightly that even professional technicians can accidentally destroy the rest of the device while trying to disassemble it.
You used to boast that your removable batteries were an advantage over the iPhone, Samsung. What happened to that?
Good thing the EU is making it so we're not going to have to worry about that for much longer.
Also it is possible to change the battery in your device it just takes some effort. Ifixit has replacement batteries, the needed tools and good instructions for many devices.
The battery, though glued to body of phone, is still easily replaceable. I don't understand why people complain about it. Just remove the back with heat, use IPA to remove it, glue new one there and glue the back and you're done. Yes, you might need some tools to it, which are cheap, or you just use your imagination and use what you have home. Only thing which you really need apart from new battery is the glue to glue back the back of phone. It cost me 1$ on ebay..
Instructions unclear, phone glued to dick. Which actually works for me, thanks.
When LG folded their mobile division I chose a Motorola over a Samsung.
The only thing I'd buy from Samsung without a lot of persuasion is Samsung's SSD drives, which are usually the best and most reliable on the market.
The main problem is that Samsung is one of the worst hardware manufacturers in terms of valuing privacy, even their TV's are being geared towards spamming ads at you and spying on you through their cameras.
Also Samsung forces Facebook/Meta bloat ware on you.
I personally love Samsung. Have a Note20 Ultra still going strong, got a Tab S9 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro in the last year. They are all so customizable out of the box using Good Lock and other software that it would be painful to switch. I find they all perform really well and the improvements of OneUI are appreciated. I like the Calendar, Browser (on tablet), Reminders and some other apps much more than Google's offerings.
The hardware is pretty good. Not a fan of Exynos tho.
The software feels really bloated. I usually have LineageOS on it instead. Compared to One UI, the Pixel-like UI feels very clean, and the OS feels very lightweight.
If it was impossible to have something less-bloated, I'd probably switch phone to a cleaner Android.
Have an s21, wife has s22, few yrs ago child had A20 (I think) the s series has been great. I could have upgraded to s22 didn't want. The A20 was horrid but for a youngish teen it was "fine" if I had to get another phone I would look around and see whats what but over all I like my phone better than the s22, and while my phone was being repaired I bought a Moto G5, considering the cost I hated the damn thing and was slow as F. Now my other youngish teen has that one, I am just happy to be rid of it. It worked for me, just barely. Admit to having been used to the s21, so may be somewhat biast.
Like I want a good android phone designed in the US. What Motorola use to be before Google bought and subsequently sold Motorola or an LG phone that was actually normal and really good.
Google pixels have hardware and software issues, Samsung is very anti consumer with active efforts to mimic apple and reduse repair options, Sony is often too expensive, and the rest are of Chinese origin and potentially carry creepy invasive spyware.
I couldn't buy a screen for my galaxy s20 to fix my self and taking it to an authorized repair shop resulted in a $350 repair that resulted in everything but my motherboard being swapped out without my permission. Waistfull greedy overvalued company that would definitely sell you out for a couple hundred if it could.
I haven't had a Samsung phone since Android Gingerbread, but I do have a Samsung TV in my guests room and every time it gets turned on, my pi-hole blocks a lot of traffic under the ads and tracking category, so Samsung's phones are probably similar.
I think their screens are really good and they also have 5 generations of foldable devices, more than any other company.
Still, I wouldn't buy one because I don't like their software and they tend to restrict functionality unless you use other Samsung devices. For instance, a Samsung Galaxy watch, even running Wear OS, will not have all the features enabled unless you pair it with a Samsung phone.
The flagships seem good. But the cheap Samsungs are a nightmare. I set up an M14 for my sister and it kept installing Candy Crush and some gambling apps every night. I found this practice predatory and wouldn't trust a company that did this
I'd say that the exception flagship (base S22) was not good due to its chip.
I'd spent months Googling for battery life fixes. I'd come across a myriad of comments blaming users for not "optimising" their phones, and Ultra users saying that the poor battery life and overheating throttling of the base model are just myths.
One day, I decided that enough is enough. I switched to a phone with the S8G2 and I couldn't be happier.
While I haven't used it before, the S23 seems to be what the S22 should be, and I would've continued using it if that was true.
Only Moto, OnePlus, and Pixels does clean software nowadays. (We don't talk about Nokia much here)
I don't like them for me. I hate all the Samsung software injected into android.
But for regular people they are probably the most recommended ones in the android ecosystem. So I recommend them sometimes if the budget is good.
I might not like the software. But the hardware seems good quality. And software still has some cool functions.
Somebody told me it has a way to hibernate apps that are in the background. And I think that is amazing.
I'm honestly quite happy with my Samsungs so far. Had an S9 and currently use an S21.
I honestly prefer the Samsung apps over the Google apps most of the time. They also integrate better with non google stuff. Especially calendar, contacts and mail. The Bixby button has been gone for a while now and most of the bloatware is hidden away well enough to be able to ignore it easily.
The irreversible bootloader unlock is quite the shame really because it will cause most banking apps to refuse to work so I never unlockedy bootloader. I used to do this on my nexus and Sony phones. Tbf though I don't miss my root privileges currently. Android and Samsungs one ui has come a long way.
Edit: formatting
I use cheap M11 phone. Solid and durable phone but a bit overpriced on my country. It survive my abuse for 2 and half years until now from dropped to gravel repatedly to get washed using tap water (dont try this at home, lol). It also somehow always better at receiving signal than my wife's Xiaomi phone. I love it.
I actively avoid buying exynos based samsungs. Rest is OK. Was lucky enough to buy M51 with 7000mah battery and an efficient snapdragon SOC which lasts minimum 2 days on full charge.
I really like it. All the customisation is enough that I don't miss rooting my phone. And I think I'm kinda stuck with them for a while now, because I can't live without one hand operation, which is even better when combined with one handed mode. I can do everything and reach anywhere on the screen using only one hand, without hand gymnastics.
We need S5 but with modern specs. Galaxy Alpha would be zased phone if it had a MicroSD reader.
I feel its the "cheap" ( even if it costs so much ) like preinstalled sponsored apps, some bad performance on like 2-3 Year old phones. Not the best ui. But its like the standard in every phone.
To be honest, I blame Google for not enforcing some parts of the ecosystem strongly enough for that. It took a while for most Windows laptops to be debloated, and I would expect the same from Android eventually.
I had one about a decade ago after my HTC Magic. Didn't like it, never went back. My mother keeps buying them and is infinitely frustrated. She'll also ask for help and I have no idea what to tell her. They move all the settings around, so it's next to impossible to understand unless you already know it.
I know we're not doing Sony here, but the Xperia Performance X was the most amazing phone I've ever seen. Glass slate phone dropped out of a god damned car on the highway at 120km/h. Chipped a corner and went on the work for another 2 years. Same phone went through a foam and mud obstacle course run in no case. Dirt and water wedger in every square inch of the thing, still worked for another 3 years, although the camera lenses did have some water in it (camera still worked though!). Only phone I've ever been impressed by.
Oh, we did Sony before our long break, check the link in the post.
They're the best Android phone, but not the best experience.
When it works, it works really well. I've had many of their Galaxy line up. I've even switched briefly to iPhone and came back to a Galaxy S23 Ultra, and it's so so good.
On the other hand, their budget phones aren't bad. I use one of their really old A lineup phones as a digital dash of OBD2 data for my car. That battery is just amazing, it stays charged for days, takes in the heat, and still operates no problem.
The only issue I have is support. They want to demand similar pricing to Apple, but if something break it's pretty much go fuck yourself attitude.
I dislike Samsung phones. Always has. But because they are so popular have I tried them two times (I am a bit of a advocate of try first criticize later)I am on one right now (s21). Bixby is my biggest source of annoyance together with all their other apps I can't uninstall and stuff I am used to be able to customize. Bixby wouldn't have been annoying if it wasn't because they force you to use it. I had to turn off the shortcut by setting it to turn off the phone only so now do I need to use a sidebar to do stuff like taking a screenshot. I got used to it but it annoys me when a standard is removed. It is like when you want to do copy on a computer and ctrl + C is an assistant instead and you need to use the mouse now because you can't bind the keys as you wish (it is either assistant or dead keys). the battery is pretty bad too, I am not a heavy phone user (2-3h per day) but it is still at around 30% in the evening. My other phones has been Sony, Huawei and Motorola. So I am used to a battery that last for almost 2-3 days. Samsung also overheat (and I guess that is why the battery is draining). I have my screen brightness at the lowest possible because that seem to be the reason it gets so hot(it gets extreamly hot in a short time on higher brightness) it will get hot if I use it for 15 min or more(non dark mode). My coworker had the same model and the battery almost completely died on him (it started to bloat up) so I am a bit worried the same will be true for mine.
One good thing is their dule Sim, I don't want to use two phones (work and private) and it is pretty easy to switch in the ui.
When this one is dead will I buy a pixel. I like to try out different models and phones even if I love moto. Some day would I like to try a OS like calcy but I need to do more research first.
I've had a few samsun galaxy phones. They have been really fantastic. Lightning fast and very reliable. The only other smart phone i've had was a sony xperia which was equally excellent. My current galaxy is 3 years old with 6GB of ram and it's still lightning fast.
I want to like them, but Exynos has consistently ruined it for me. I live in one of the countries that got the Exynos versions of their flagship phones until very recently. I had a Note 9 which the US-based Android world raved about, but I was unimpressed because the Exynos version was just that much worse and I feel the same way about the Galaxy S21+ I have now.
The processor overheats and throttles after the slightest workload making the system UI a laggy, janky mess and the battery life is mediocre at best. The modem is crap too, it switches between 5G and 4G for no discernible reason far too often.
The camera is infuriatingly slow all around; slow to launch, slow shutter, slow processing and slow UI. I miss so many photos of my toddler because of it. I had my phone replaced under warranty for an unrelated issue and the replacement has the exact same problem.
Battery life is seriously impressive and they do offer some customisations over stock that aren't even found in LOS but overall pretty meh and bloated.
My opinion on them based on my last phone I got from them (S22 Ultra Exynos) is pretty mid just like the phone for its price. I overall think they are right now in a bit of a slump and resting very much on their laurels. Their phones are still for the most part very good, market leading in some points even, but they have slowed down the innovation a lot. Like the last 3 Galaxy Ultra phones are pretty much the same product. And the regular S20, S21, ... line also takes 0 risks and cuts one too many corners for my liking. And the whole Exynos situation is just a shame since usually where I live we pay more for less. If they stuck those Chips in 500 - 700€ ish phones and passed along the saving they would wipe the floor with all the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 1 wannabe flaghips.
What I think however nobody will take away from them anytime soon is OneUI. I think right now its the best and most feature complete Android skin and its refreshing seeing Samsung stick and refine one design for this long (before they changed the look and feel every 2 - 3 years). I only wish they would bring back Linux on Dex which was in beta for some time. That would be a killer feature for me!
I've never had a good experience with Samsung till recently. The s4 overheated an insane amount, the s7 edge dropped wifi left and right, then finally I tried the fold 3 on my 3rd attempt at Samsung.
I enjoyed the phone for the aspect of the fold, the software handled it really well. But, one ui couldn't get out of its own way, it had a lot of nice extra features, but also had a lot of useless (to me) extra features. The bloat like others mentioned was bad. But ok, not super offensive like it was on the old touch wiz.
I kept that phone a little over a year, the battery aged terribly. It started out great, then by the 7 or 8 month mark, it just dove off a cliff. At the 11th month, the factory screen protector, the one that's like essential to the phone, popped a huge bubble right in the middle where the fold happens. Thankfully that was under warranty and I got replaced, but that was when I knew it was time to go.
I picked up a pixel 6 pro and sold the fold 3. I'm now on the pixel 7 pro. I replaced the galaxy buds with pixel buds, but I kept the watch. I will give it to Samsung on that, they have the best wear os watch experience I've ever used.
The experience syncing devices in the ecosystem was very nice, very apple like, and I do miss the quick sync between my phone and tablet. Google messages PWA is nowhere near as nice as the messages app on the Tab S7. Not being able to take phone calls on it anymore kinda sucks too. The earbuds and watch are pretty fluid, but not quite as seamless as when it was all Samsung.
Used mid end phone m20. Looks good on paper. Shit phone. Can't repair.
Samsung is just apple with Android phones.
I have a Galaxy A13 as a test phone for work. Not great, but great for the price. The UI is fine. Cheap Android phones have gotten a lot better recently.
I have a Galaxy Tab S8 for myself. I like the 120hz screen and the design, it feels solid and pretty. Good speakers. I also have a Galaxy Tab A7 Lite that I got for free from T-mobile. I like the size
Got a couple of Galaxy Tab S5e at work for testing purposes as well. Currently both of them have been hacked up to install Android Automotive and one of them is in my car serving as my infotainment system. Pretty sweet.
I wish Samsung would allow unlockable bootloaders on their US phones/tablets with cellular radios in them. I want to hack up my A7 Lite to install Android Automotive so I don't have to hotspot to the S5e anymore.
I've had several Samsung phones over the years and do not like how bloated their apps have become like Samsung Notes, Samsung Health, and such. I liked their software experience when S5 was released much better. Remember Milk Music? 🙂
The only reason to buy a Samsung these days is their top shelf hardware but primarily in. their flagships. Also had hardware issue with last Samsung flagship device I owned and then awful tech support from Samsung to boot.
Moto has really upped their game especially in their Moto G 2023 5G models.(U.S. here) I'll be sticking with Moto mid-range going forward.
I bought a Samsung A13, but found that there is no Lineage for it, it's dumped in the drawer and I installed the latest Lineage on my Nokia 6.1. Alas the Motorola's (Moto G, G2, G4) had hardware issues to soon.
The hardware is great, software of <censored>. I love the tablets I have, but again, running Lineage.
When going for another device, Lineage support is main requirement, I don't care to much about the rest. As phone Fairphone or google pixel are considered options for now, but the '18 Nokia 6.1 still works perfectly. Alas there are no relative small (< 5") phones anymore. Loved the size of the Moto G.
If you get the right model they are nice but stock firmware is not the best not the worst
Not Made In China. My A31 is made in Vietnam. Primary reason I bought it
Yes, there is bloatware, but I have disabled a lot of it, and put Nova Launcher on it to clean up the UI and customise to my liking
I have been happy with it, have had the screen replaced on it when it got broken, was not that expensive
I have an S10, I will stop using Samsung phones after this one. My phone heats up by itself in my pocket and drains my battery by 20% in a matter of minutes no matter how optimised my phone is. The curved screen is a nightmare with screen protectors and they've stopped with headphone jacks and sd cards in later models.
They are also as anti right to repair as Apple is although they don't have the hardware locked in atleast.
The camera resolution even with 12MP is very good but Samsung always oversaturates pictures by a massive amount so that grass looks like vomit. Raw images is the only way around that. And the camera app has weird limitations like no pro mode with the UW and tele lenses and third party apps can only use 1080p60 on exynos chips.
I'm just done with them
Honestly, they're horrible I can't believe people still buy them when wanting an Android experience. They come with so much bloat now and it just feels jank constantly.
I'd never recommend them to anyone but then again, Google Pixel devices aren't much better due to how unstable they are and you're essentially beta testing the phones as you go. Big part of the issue with Android phones these days.
Have you actually used them? I am currently using an s23 and it might be the best phone I've ever used.
Yeah I use phones on a daily basis as a part of my job everything from apple to Samsung to one plus etc
Don't mess with the knockoff Chinese phones and tablets. They're shit