Samsung has good hardware, but their software is so bad. I didn't mind because I could root it and install cyanogen. But they made that impossible to do on the S4. That's just malicious. I'm convinced their software engineers have a competition to see who can write the worst code without getting fired and get it shipped. Clearly nobody has ever been fired at samsung.
Their awful software combined with their pathological paranoia about people rooting their phones means I'll never buy a samsung product again.
It's a brick. A paperweight. Crap. Unusable. The software is so bad, it hurts. It has flaws all over the place. I hate it so much, I'm trying to revive a 5 year old device with a dead battery right now.
That completely ignores
- that the "Edge" feature is so useless, utterly useless. Slightly shiny. So pointless.
- that this manufacturer doesn't give a shit about being open, probably is the worst in that regard. Forget about using the hardware with decent software - you are stuck with their stuff
After having had iPhones and Samsung S-series since they came on the market, I bought a Huawei P8 Max last week in some outlet in Thailand. The software is great; I want to break my S6 in half when I touch it. The phone is excellent too; it's fast and, as I am a freak when it comes to battery life, it fixes all my power issues. With the MS foldable mobile keyboard I can do almost everything on this thing. It weighs more than most phones but compared to carrying my laptop + batteries + power cable this is very light.
i had a galaxy s6 for the past 5 months and it was a nightmare. i made the mistake of not doing my research, approving an OTA upgrade to 5.1.1 and made it impossible to root my phone. recently got a nexus 5x and i am so happy to have a stock google phone again.
I'm going back to my Nexus 5 after upgrading the internal battery by 30% [1], the S6 had great hardware but the memory management and overall software experience is horrible. Just give me AOSP!
I'm going to miss the camera and Samsung Pay, though.
To be honest, my Nexus 5X has been acting up since the day I bought it. It's had an ongoing issue with performance: https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/3ua0ad/nexus_5x_pe.... It seems like buying a good Android device can be a hit or miss. It's sad because Android itself has come a long way.
I always find Samsung devices have more consistent performance on weaker hardware than the pure-google alternatives, and I assume their choice to trail Google's releases is part of that. For example, I don't blame them for maintaining the stock browser over Chrome.
To offer an anecdote from another point of view I'm quite pleased with my Note 3 but all I do on my phone is browse with Chrome, read email, draw occasionally (thus the Note), take some video, watch netflix and some sms and actual phone calls.
I've disabled the fancy stuff like multi display, though.
My baseline expectations for samsung software are quite low so it might just be that I'm happy this phone works at all - but I can't recall the last time any software issues actually impacted me in a negative way. I don't have any carrier stuff on the phone, maybe that's a factor.
Ignoring the fact that it's ugly as sin and they bundle hundreds of useless apps which are cannot be removed which can cause weird breakages when disabled, the problem is that despite the fact that on paper their hardware should crush every other phone on the market they somehow manage to make the phones UI slower than a budget phone running stock (or near stock) Android.
To be fair, that hardware shines when Android fades away and you want to play graphically intensive phone games but it's terrible for everything else.
Just curious, when was the last time you used a Samsung device ?
A couple of points as I used to share your opinion, but I recently purchase a Edge Plus which changed my views (which while not as extreme were aligned with yours.
1.) For the most part, I do prefer stock android in terms of aesthetics and some key apps (dialer, etc).
2.) Samsung has really toned down their over the top "colourful" aesthetic on phones. They are increasingly following Material design guidelines.
3.) Depending on the carrier variant (and this could be killer), Samsung bundle apps are not as critical anymore and they definitely do not cause weird breakages when disabled.
4.) Having used both a Nexus 6P (considered the cream of the crop when it comes to stock Android experience) and there is very little performance difference between the two.
5.) Samsung (and other OEMs) have always been ahead of the curve of stock android when it comes to features that were co-opted into later versions on Android. They were the first to have quick access toggles in the notification bar, lock screen notifications, etc. So there were always some trade-offs.
6.) Even without getting into third party launchers, etc that can completely ape stock android in looks - Samsung has finally included proper theming support for their devices - so even a novice user can download a "Material Dark / Material Light" theme.
One perfect example that is still relevant to this day is the multi-window option that I use daily on my Edge Plus, which would not be possible on a Nexus device (just yet).
Samsung's software has also had security problems in the past. Only the bare minimum was done to avoid exploitation. Issues are likely to remain.
Their modifications are also a large source of their delay to update to new Android versions. It's somewhat ironic that many users buy their hardware despite their software modifications.
- a shitload of unwanted stuff (Samsung Services, Samsung Applications) that randomly update themselves
- The 'resize window' feature. If you've seen people using a Note you might've noticed that they had two apps open at the same time for example. The rather small (this is a 'pro', btw) S6E has the same feature, but it is pointless. Worse, I constantly, daily, activate it in error. Right handed, swipe with the thumb to open the notifications. This always ends up (try it) being a diagonal swipe for me, from top-right to bottom-left. Diagonal swipes like that activate the 'shrink current window' feature.
I haven't found that and - embarrassed by this comment, thinking that I missed something obvious - failed again just now.
Online guides (always trying to _enable_ that for some reason) don't match what I see at all.
If you have a pointer I'd be very, very glad about it.
I have come to quite like the split pane and app resize features that others talked about. As per the bloatware that came with my s6 edge, I disabled most of those apps the very first day and haven't run into any problems because of that. My phone's battery life is very much comparable to my girlfriend's iPhone 6s, both of which last us through a full day with average use. The only difference being that because I have the s6, I get the Ultra power saving mode though which if turned on at 3% charge or so let's me make/receive calls, text/whatsapp my friends, browse the interwebs, Facebook and Twitter for another 8-10 hours.
Looks great but no way am I going to go back to Samsung now I have a Nexus 6P. In the past the Nexus phones have always been kinda "nice but not great" but the 6P is easily one of best phones you can buy. The camera is top-notch, the screen is stunning, performance is awesome and battery life is incredible. And stock Android is bliss. I can't really fault it :)
Yes, and I don't think I could go to some manufacturer-customized bloated version ever again. The only thing I'd like to be better on my Nexus 5 is camera. Otherwise it's an awesome device.
Not to rain on your hyperbole parade ;), but how long is the "incredible" battery life? Asking for a friend with an ageing nexus 4, who swore not to spend that much on a phone again...
well there are two areas to my incredible claim :)
first is that the battery easily lasts me 2 days sometimes into a 3rd day if I use it a little less than normal.
however I only ever charge it for 15-20 minutes and in that time the fast charge gets me back up to 80something %. It is amazing how fast it charges. I never worry about the battery life on this phone which is the first time I have ever said that since smartphone came along.
for me the fast charging is actually the more important thing for me as being able to get 50+% battery charge in around 15 minutes is just awesome.
Your battery life is great now, but what about 3 years from now? The current ~2 year phone refresh cycle should not last forever, and I think that both the S7 and the nexus have it wrong when it comes to batteries. Even at a gentle 50% Depth of Discharge, a typical li-ion is at only 70% capacity after ~1200 cycles. Bump that to near 100% DoD, and you're at 70% after only 300-500 cycles. Sealed-in batteries in a phone are, IMHO, even a bigger deal than the lack of expandable storage.
A fair point. However I buy my phone SIM free for cash. I do not expect to keep this more than a year because like you said a built in battery isn't great. I will sell this phone/trade it in and buy whatever the new phone I want is. Doing it this way means I still get a good price for selling my phone to offset the cost of the new phone. Sure I spend about £200-250 on a phone each year but I am not tied into a contract for 24 months and I am on a great SIM only plan with unlimited 4G data for £15/month. When I calculate it over 24 months I save money over getting the same phone on a contract.
Being off contract, you save the most money by the fact that you aren't forced to continually upgrade your phone to get your subsidy. I'm on a ~$25 USD/month plan with unlimited talk/text + 2.5GB LTE, and I typically keep my phones ~3 years. Having said that, as you stated, even if I needed to have new phones every year, it'd still be cheaper than a contract :).
I've been considering a... is it the "5x", now? Mid-range price. The camera is supposed to be excellent. Somewhat more pocketable.
And, being on Verizon, my understanding is that I can pop in the micro-SIM from my 2013 Moto X and it will "just work", despite Verizon not officially supporting the 5x.
For that is a primary concern of mine. Due to circumstances, I'm kind of stuck with Verizon (in the U.S.). But I will never again purchase a phone whose updates are under their control. It seems to be either a Nexus that I can get to work on their network, or an iPhone.
I have a Nexus 6P and got my wife a Nexus 5X thinking it would be a smaller version of basically the same thing. The 6P has been nice, but the 5X has all sorts of issues with bad performance. For example, opening the camera will often freeze the phone for 10-20 seconds. Google still hasn't fixed this after 4 months [1].
It frustrated my wife enough that we sold it and got a used Galaxy S6 instead. It worked a lot better overall (despite running an older version of Android).
It's really disappointing. On paper, the Nexus 5X looks like a great phone. But in practice, basic features like taking pictures don't work reliably.
>[...]but the 5X has all sorts of issues with bad performance. For example, opening the camera will often freeze the phone for 10-20 seconds.
Odd, I have a nexus 5X and I do not have this issue. The camera is pretty responsive. I think I've experienced some momentary freezes (the number of which I can count on one hand after 3 months?). YMMV? Although using "ymmv" makes no sense because they are the same device...
Also, the battery life is great and it is an good device over all.
> the 5x has all sorts of issues with bad performance
I have a Nexus 5x and so far its performance has been absolutely fine for me. Opening the camera app has never produced a 10-20 second freeze.
I have seen some things online suggesting that the Snapchat app may be responsible for some 5x performance problems. Did your wife's 5x have Snapchat installed, by any chance?
Yes any activated Verizon SIM should work with either of the Nexus phones. (I used one from my M8 and it worked fine in a 6P. Also you'll need a nano SIM - you can cut your micro sim using any one of the SIM cutters from Amazon.)
I have one. I find the width too large and I'm 6'4". Dislike having to carry it while running as well due to the size. I end up taking my cheaper, smaller windows phone while running instead. Also, the slippery metal back can easily make it fall out of gym shorts and sweats if you don't want a case.
Other than those 2 aspects, I'm pretty happy with it.
* The shape of the actual phone. It's completely ridiculous that the phone doesn't sit naturally on a flat table. However, Google's case completely fixes this problem.
* Good luck finding a case that offers non-trivial protection.
* (This could be a pro) You likely cant walk into your carrier's store and buy one which means you have to buy it directly from Google and without an upgrade 'subsidy'.
* It's pretty expensive. Nexus phones have been historically cheap but this isn't really the case anymore. If you want cheap and near-stock you have to look at Motorola...
* You're being gouged for internal storage. If you want more than a paltry 16GiB of internal storage you'll be paying out the nose for it, and with no microSD card slot you cant buy a large and cheap storage for your photos and music.
* The battery isn't removable or user replaceable. This should be combined with my first point because the two are most likely linked. If the phone had a uniform thickness there's no doubt they could have fit a removable battery. Form over function seems to be the motto of every hardware designer. I haven't read the iFixit guide yet so it might be replaceable by you or me but it's certainly out of the range of your typical consumer.
* Since you bought the phone from Google you get to deal with Google's legendary customer support.
* This might be a weird complaint but the LED light on Samsung phones is much nicer than what you get on the 6P.
* Rooting the phone is trivial but requires a complete wipe of the device and disables the use of Android Pay. Maybe not a huge deal especially considering other phones in the ecosystem but it was nice when older Androids could be rooted in place.
But despite all of this it's still the best phone experience I've ever had and as long as the person isn't a die hard phone gamer or in the Apple ecosystem I would recommend them the 6P over just about everything else that's currently available.
> Good luck finding a case that offers non-trivial protection.
They exist, but the phone is already big enough.
> You likely cant walk into your carrier's store and buy one which means you have to buy it directly from Google and without an upgrade 'subsidy'.
That's million times a "pro" and not a "con" to me. Main reason I ditched Verizon was their locked down subsidized phones.
> If you want more than a paltry 16GiB of internal storage you'll be paying out the nose for it
Nexus 6p starts at 32GB, there is no 16GB version. Also, it's only $50 more for 64GB. Only Nexus phone to have an sdcard was the Nexus One (which really really needed it with 500GB internal storage).
> The battery isn't removable or user replaceable.
I don't like that either, but sadly most phones have gone to doing this, especially higher end ones.
> Since you bought the phone from Google you get to deal with Google's legendary customer support.
I called them once (yes, you can call them for phone issues) and they were native English speakers. Overall, they were quite easy to deal with.
Motorola on the other hand was horrible to deal with and outsources their call centers. Would never buy another Moto phone again after dealing with their broken customer service (this was after the acquisition by Lenovo). Moto's customer service lied to me and told me my phone was shipped when it hadn't even left the warehouse yet. That was just small issue to some others I had with Moto though.
> Rooting the phone is trivial but requires a complete wipe of the device
That's a security feature and a good thing. Always been that way with all Nexus phones or any phone that allows root without an exploit (exploits that can be used maliciously as well).
I have pretty small hands yet I am ok with the size for about 90% of my use. I wanted a mini-tablet and that is exactly what I got :)
I wouldn't want to run with it though! I can imagine that would be a pain in the ass as it is big. Not super heavy or bulky but I can't see it being very comfortable just because of the dimensions.
Ok I should be clear about what I mean when I say I can't fault it. Obviously nothing is perfect. If you want me to really take things a part then sure I would have preferred the headphone jack be on the bottom as that is my personal preference. I would put OIS in the camera. I would improve the stock Android camera app.
However I still can't really fault the phone as it is. Sure I would change some things but nothing about it is fundamentally faulty.
One con about Nexus phone is... well, try and buy one anywhere outside of US or some large country. You can't. I can't understand how that's possible with a company of that size.
I love the Samsung hardware, and own an S6 - mostly because I was excited about Gear VR - but I really wish I could root my phone without forever tripping some "Knox" bit that might theoretically have repercussions in the future, and at the very least would affect resale value.
In an ideal world, root would be a built-in feature, which can only be accessed through some obscure code, like the developer settings. It would show a big scary warning, and it would have su app controls included. Rooting the phone could trip some bit, sure, but a full factory reset should reset it.
The only reasons I can see not to do this are 1) extra work supporting people who've messed up their phones. Easy enough to fix: we don't support phones while they are rooted. 2) allows removal of built-in apps. But really, just because you can't uninstall the stuff doesn't mean you have to use it, so is there really a benefit there? And 3) it would take a bit of development effort to add the feature. Perhaps the demand just isn't sufficient to justify it. But I find that hard to believe. Unless there's a 4) that there's a segment of the buying public that would actually be scared to learn a phone could be rooted or something?
The actual reason to not do it: They don't want you to. We sold you this, don't fuck with it like that. You technically own it and can root it, but then if it slows down you don't blame the root you blame the phone. When your friend sees your non-factory clean S6, he associates all those custom features with an S6, and not a rooted S6. They made a product and want everyone to use it and see it as they intended, rooting detracts from that. You have every right to, they just don't want you to.
When your friend sees your non-factory clean S6, he associates all those custom features with an S6, and not a rooted S6.
Wouldn't the fact that "you can do all these cool things once it's rooted" increase the perceived value and help drive sales and push towards manufacturers making it easier to root? IMHO the big selling point is all the apps, not just what software came with the hardware.
If you apply this reasoning to iPhones, Jailbreaking should also increase the preceived value of an iPhone. Yet, jailbroken iPhones are the most vulnerable iPhones on the market, so it could actually be detrimental.
Not if people mess up their phones I suppose. Personally all I really want is proper full image backups, and a few little tweaks like the ability to turn off the stupid sound whenever it's plugged in and proper nighttime colour filtering.
From a security standpoint, allowing a user root access means allowing others to modify the underlying filesystem without validation. This means things like Samsung Pay become vulernable. Tripping the Knox counter is the only way to ensure that the software hasn't been modified by a malicious party. The majority that enjoys using Samsung Pay is a bigger than the minority that benefits from rooting. While the reasons you state are a probably factor, I think security is the biggest reason for the bit.
Right, which is why they can go ahead and trip it when you root, but there should be a way to completely factory reset, including resetting Knox. That said, we manage to make credit card payments online via rooted devices all the time, so I'm not sure the idea holds water that payments via a rooted device are completely impossible. (Still, I can certainly see that it might not be worth their time. The factory reset shouldn't be very difficult though.)
Apple their bricking last week and this is very much because of the liability shift October last year. If manufacturers cannot show their equipment is safe the merchant pays for the fraud which means merchants will not accept those means of payment as a result.
Still happy with my S3 and feel I'm not missing any key features. The more generations go on you realize just how incremental the phone upgrades have gotten for quite some time now.
Talking about Core 2 Duo, you remind me of my slow desktop that I haven't turned on in a few months.
I have an S5. I can understand the move back to USB2 in S6 and above, and I don't know if USB3 is the cause, but my S5 battery goes from empty to full in a good short space of time, so I'm not missing out that much on the super charging goodness. Battery life is still good too.
I'm also lucky to be in a country where Samsung have 2 free screen repairs over 2 years.
Hopefully I'll be able to wait for the S8 or 9. I'm impressed with the S7 on paper, and I'm glad they brought back the things that made me dislike the S6. Now for hoping for better Android upgrades from Samsung :)
I share your opinion. I'm sticking with the S2, the first Samsung phone good enough to buy (the S was too limited). It still works, it's small and light, I can mount it as a true USB disk, no need to change it. I'll buy some other 4" phone when it eventually dies, maybe a Sony Z* Compact.
Interesting. Mine does the opposite - shuts down. Sometimes even pressing the on-off switch does not turn it back on. I found that if I remove and replace the battery, it starts again.
I feel the same with my S2. Spend some time on xda and you have android 6 running on it. It's not even slow except when you're switching between big apps because android have to kill them when they are not in use thanks to the 800mb of ram.
I also bought a 3500mha battery and it lasts the day.
I have the S3 and I can't wait to upgrade. It is SLOW (noticeable lag). Plus, not sure what causes this (hardware or software) -- but the GPS navigation is terrible. I'm stuck on Android 4.4.2. Takes forever to lock in on my location, loses signal randomly, and sometimes in the middle of navigation it stop updating where I am on the visual display. The camera is horrendous. So, speak for yourself. Phones have come a long way since the S3.
Random digression, but if you're having problems with GPS reception on your S3, try tightening all the screws on the back of the device with an eyeglasses screwdriver or similar. The GPS antenna(e) are in the screwed-on backplate and connected via sprung contacts to the mainboard, so if the screws aren't tight, it won't make a solid connection. You can also try removing the backplate and (gently) prying up the spring contacts at the bottom of the motherboard, and then cleaning both them and the contacts on the backplate with isopropyl alcohol. I bought my S3 used and couldn't get a single GPS fix, but after tightening the (noticeably loose) screws, it now happens in a few seconds.
In the same boat. Family members upgrade constantly. Half of every holiday gathering is an expo of everyone's new phones and the other half being which discount carrier they're using to pay for said phones. Having the S3 since it came out and paying through the nose for fast 4G LTE I feel like I come out ahead just being content with good enough. This release might persuade me to finally upgrade though, but the non-removable battery really worries me...
I only replaced my S3 in October (after ~ 3 years) because the battery finally gave up, and I didn't want to run the gauntlet of fakes/scams that is trying to buy a replacement battery. The thing is I was able to turn the S3 into a music player by plugging it into a cheap bluetooth speaker/charger basestation and running the Squeezebox client.
"I didn't want to run the gauntlet of fakes/scams that is trying to buy a replacement battery"
I felt the same way when I had to replace a phone battery...which then made me wonder what the point of having a replaceable battery is when you worry that a replacement battery might explode. So my next phone, HTC One, did not have a replaceable battery and I did not miss it. Replacements are too hard to find and besides it's easier to just plug in an external battery anyway.
I see why Samsung went with the non-removable battery on the new phones.
As far as I can tell, the problem is the manufacturers stop making the batteries for particular phones after quite a short time. So by the time you need a replacement, you're in the territory of "reconditioned" batteries (in the best case).
I suppose I could have the foresight to buy two batteries when I get a new phone, although I've never done that and I'd have to work out how to store the second battery so it wouldn't go dead or get lost, and it increases the initial cost of the phone even further.
Agreed. It also still works great and it also supports FoxFi which is great to share data with the kids.
My friends make fun of me for how 'small' it is, but I look at them put their giant phablets to their ear and it just looks ridiculous. Wasn't the big thing making things more compact, now we're going back to giant phones again?
If you relegate it to less usage (e.g. a second phone or hand-me-down to less-frequent user), be sure to keep cycling the phone periodically. When I semi-retired my GS3, I've had a big problem with batteries becoming unusable, even factory batteries.
My Galaxy S5 has been terrible since the 5.1 upgrade. I actually don't want any software updates. My phone used to be a fast nicely functioning phone and now it's a sluggish piece of trash that's unusable. Like just stick with the current phone software and give me security updates and that's it. I've tried factory resetting and uninstalling most apps (and a factory reset is a huge pain with 2-factor set up everywhere by the way). The 5.1.1 upgrade didn't help either.
Omg yes the experience resetting a phone with 2FA is hilariously bad. I get an SMS I can't read!
Although for me the factory reset did fix my post-upgrade performance failings... But I'm just using a moto g 2.
That said, the space gobbling is making 8GB stock in value-priced devices ludicrous. I can barely fit all the stock software, much less 3rd-party apps.
Thanks so much for not letting me uninstall hundreds of MB in international keyboards I'll never use - yay, pinyin.
I explicitly said that I do want security updates, I don't need the next version of Android though. If the current software I have is broken, please just fix that and not ship me something my phone can't deal with.
I've had the same experience with my 2013 Moto X. Phone used to be sufficiently responsive for my use. Updated to 5.1, and things hang momentarily and lag.
And, I'm not talking about browsing and other uses that continue to escalate power demands. The darned phone app/dialer is quite laggy. One difference that might account for some of it, is that the appear to have made it more graphical and to have further animated the graphical elements it displays.
Under 4, the dialer popped right up, populated its list displays expeditiously and smoothly, and did things the moment you touched the control.
Now, it can take a couple of seconds just to launch. Buttons are harder to hit because they are smaller, move around, and are not positioned at the screen edge as they were before. The also don't respond consistently; often there is a delay, and occasionally a touch doesn't register at all.
The recent calls list displays a couple of days with only some jerkiness, but the requires an explicit tap to go further back and quite noticeably delays when first doing so and continues to delay and stutter as one scrolls down.
Function first. Then form, or "design." The move from 4.x to 5.x seemed to get this backward, in this regard.
The S5 can deal with it. Considering my Nexus 5 has dealt with all versions of Android including the current version means that the S5 can too. The S5 has a more powerful CPU than the Nexus 5.
The problem is with Samsung and their terrible UI.
Where are all of the security exploits? I keep hearing about that Android armageddon that was supposed to happen because of the Stagefright bugs, but nothing ever happened and the FUD fizzled out into nothingness. As long as you stick to the Play store and don't install apps from shady app sites or downloads then you have nothing to worry about.
I suggest you watch Adrian Ludwig's State of Android Security on YouTube to see how really ineffective malware on Android really is.
I ditched my S6 for a Nexus 6P about a month ago as I was tired of waiting for the Marshmallow update. I believe it finally started rolling out a couple of days ago, about 4 months after Google released it.
Love the hardware and Samsung Pay is absolutely revolutionary (far better than anything Apple or Google have put out), but the slow device updates and general Samsung bloat mean I'll never go back.
I had an S3 which never received a single update; was on Android 4.1.2 until I finally replaced the phone recently.
I suspect it was my carrier's fault (Spark NZ) not Samsung. After that experience I switched to Nexus 6P, and won't be using any phone in which the carrier gets to install any kind of software :)
I've been a Samsung supporter for a long time. I've had the note 2, 3, 4, and now 5. I really do love the Note 5 but I'm really mad at Samsung for creating another generation with no removable battery. I maxed out the storage in the Note5 when I got it since it also wasn't removable and I've never had issues with that.
However, the battery life which was pretty decent at the beginning is now horrible. At home, on wifi, I'm lucky to make it 12 hours with minimal usage before needing to charge. On previous notes about half a year in I swap the battery with a replacement and get full life again. Can't on the Note 5 and looks like the S7 series is going to be the same :/ Really poor choice Samsung.
I see why they're doing they're not making the battery removable though. They're pushing portable chargers.....
The most important feature of my S5 is the fact that it's waterproof - glad they carried that over to the S7. My kids like to throw stuff in the toilet, including any phone that is not actively being held, or splash on them from the bath, so it has saved me many many times already.
That's what sets it apart from the Apple devices for me as a daily device and I'm surprised more phones don't do that - but apparently consumers don't care that much.
Waterproofing isn't as obvious as it seems, though. The previous iterations of Samsung S series that were not waterproof included an amazing array of environmental sensors that they can't seem to add and also have waterproofing. The Galaxy S4 had a hygrometer and a thermometer, which are absolutely awesome and represent a really amazing trend of smartphones and environmental sensing. They removed those sensors for the S5 to be waterproof, and I'm sad to see that continues with the new phones still.
At least they are still able to include a barometer, though! That's awesome.
I mean this is just about tradeoffs. I'll happily trade a hygrometer and thermometer for being waterproof. The former gives me marginally more information about my environment is some kind of specific niche cases - the latter prevents me from needing to buy a new phone and also allowing me to not worry about it around water.
Apple doesn't advertise it, but the iPhone 6 is pretty water proof. In this video it was left in the water with the screen on for >20 minutes and all happened was the speaker stopped working.
nice to see that sd cards are supported again as well as waterproofing, now if they could figure out a way to removable battery with the same form-factor (because if they had a plastic back they'd be crucified in the press, despite the fact that a plastic back is just as good IMHO) it would be amazing
I stopped considering Samsung's phones because we don't get timely OS upgrades and security fixes. I now bought an iPhone. There is a significant price overhead but at least I get software updates and security fixes. No deceptive surprize of defective device when receivîng it like some had with nexus phones. The apple phones are so expensive because all other phones sucks.
> Perhaps the most significant change this year comes in the S7’s new 12-megapixel camera. It’s lower resolution than last year’s 16-megapixel shooter, but Samsung says its larger pixels let in 56 percent more light than before for better low light images.
>The HTC One trades sheer megapixel count for larger (2-micron) pixels on the sensor itself, allowing for improved low-light capabilities when combined with its wide-angle f/2.0 lens.
>the HTC One runs rings around the Galaxy S4 in night shots
"the HTC One runs rings around the Galaxy S4 in night shots"
Maybe Samsung is doing something right here...but the HTC One had an awful camera. I bought it for the low-light camera performance. But it had some sort of hardware flaw that caused low light photos to have a purple haze. HTC had a replacement program, which would have required me to go without a phone for weeks. So I got Verizon to replace my phone with a refurb, which was actually worse. I just sent the refurb back and kept the purple haze phone.
After this I switched to iPhone, not least because if it is defective an exchange just takes a trip to a retail store.
I had the same phone, bought for the same reason, and had the same problem.
It was a hugely expensive phone, with terrible, terrible lowlight photos and broken AF.
Furthermore, HTC refused to replace it under their replacement policy, as I had placed a custom ROM on the phone.
The woman on the phone actually said: this is a known hardware issue, but you changed your ROM, so bad luck.
Think of a CPU going from 4 GHz (Pentium 4) to 3 Gz (Core 2) and still being faster, because of a higher IPC. You can do the same thing with cameras to a degree, megapixel is not the end all be all measurement device.
Sensor size and quality are much more important than megapixels. Bigger pixels have a better dynamic range which makes for better pictures in both bright and dark situations (which is a huge boon on a smartphone). There are more pixels in the photo than the display you view it on, you might as well make sure the recorded pixels are the best they can be.
Here's a decent explanation of the phenomenon they're referring to [0]. Marketing departments usually boil it down to "larger pixels = less noise in low light" but that's a really simple explanation.
I'm not going to get into a flame war here but history has made me very cautious of Samsung and from what I've seen they've been one of the worst offenders when it comes to security updates, add to that the large number of custom software they bundle with their devices and you tend to have quite a large attack vector.
Reminds me of the time that I was working at a large (5K+) org and we found a virus to be circulating that was spread by custom scanner software that was really just bloatware / trayware that came bundled with various models, it hardly ever got updated and it did crazy things like run a local (custom) http server etc... what a nightmare.
Wow, that's a shame. I've had quite a different experience with my devices, so much so that I went from a Nexus back to a Samsung device (note 4) for the extra perks and have been very happy with it.
It never ceases to amaze me the price Samsung pays for sticking with shitty software. The main criticisms of the s6 and S6 Edge were:
* poor battery life
* you can't uninstall all the bloatware.
As someone who is running a custom rom on an s6 edge, I can confirm: the software us also the reason for the poor battery life. I regularly get 10 hours usage time out of my phone. It easily survives 24 hours of light use. My rom isn't anything special or battery oriented; it's just a version of TouchWiz android with all the S-features removed.
Imagine what Samsung could do if they shipped that way. Their 2015 offering would have been one of the best built phones on the market, also leading the pack in performance AND battery life. Imagine the S7 series if they didn't have to pack extra battery into the enclosure.
Their business plan must hinge on selling the extra data collected through S-crap. But I can't imagine it's worth more than, say, raising the price by $20 per unit.
Hell, they could offer a "vanilla" version of the phone for $100 more and get plenty of takers... And silence the critics.
It's the 90s all over again. Dell, hp, compaq destroying the experience for Windows users. Apple holding the line on what is acceptable. Let's see how it plays out...
I was pretty amazed at that last beauty shot of the S7 edge next to the iPhone, to my taste it looked better. I have mixed opinions about the software issues, on the one hand if the stock software is good enough, well its good enough, but when it isn't the lack of choices is always painful.
My current phone is a Moto-X 2nd Gen which is good enough, not great.
I am very disappointed by the lack of USB Type-C which is clearly the new standard. Compatibility with their Gear VR is surely not good enough reason since it will only affect minority of the users, besides there's always an adapter.
Samsung and LG both introduce their annual flagship smartphone so early in the year. Doesn't it give Apple plenty of time to counter them spec wise if any? Just curious, if you're Apple competitor, what's the pros and cons of launching your flagship before and after Apple's launch?
How about the other way round? Who's to say that they're not countering Apple in their specs?
I think that with this one-year cycle that phone manufacturers have--unfortunately--imposed on themselves, it is a strategic decision to have both ecosystems at different times in the year--so you have all the media buzz for one system at a time. If you were to have both competitors released at the same time, there would be probably less reporting on either, and that may be a risk neither Samsung nor Apple want to take--the two being the only two manufacturers whose releases regularly make it into non-tech news outlets.
Also, if you have half a year between releases, then the pressure of being able to directly compare specs is off, as compared to if both were released the same day (then one would have 'won' the specs contest and the other lost, which would likely be publicized widely, which both want to avoid by being able to say: our next release will blow everything that existed before out of the water).
Those would be my best guesses why we're seeing such consistent schedules.
I have always wondered if it's a cultural thing? Apple is a US company and times its releases so they are ready for Western winter holidays. As a Korean company is there something significant about spring?
I'd imagine that the specs on the upcoming iPhone would already be more or less finalized by this point. Or moving in that direction, at the very least. Unless Samsung or LG unveiled something groundbreaking that would make upending plans for Apple worthwhile, I don't think it much matters. They probably already have a pretty solid idea on what their competitors are likely to do when they start development in earnest.
I don't think Apple plays much of a countering game — iPhones are (probably) announced late in the year as they're some of the hottest holiday items globally.
I wonder if competitors would get drowned out if they announced around the same time. (Not trolling, genuinely wondering, as iPhones create a lot of buzz.)
I don't think it's a strategic question like that. It's more simple: Mobile World Congress starts tomorrow. It's the default venue to launch new devices (assuming you're not Apple or Google).
Nah. Apple largely does not care what competitors do, Apple seeks to set trends instead of following them. They're more interested in Google's software than Samsung's hardware, and only so far as to make sure truly necessary features are included in iOS.
Plus, Apple buys or has bought chips and screens from Samsung.
On the flip side, getting your flagship out months and months before Apple means hundreds of thousands or millions of people walking around with the "latest and greatest" which might just eclipse the last gen iPhone.
Still, Apple doesn't compete on specs. They happily put less megapixels (with better quality) or a lower clock speed (with better chip design and operating system efficiency), and have almost always had much smaller batteries.
> Apple largely does not care what competitors do, Apple seeks to set trends instead of following them.
That's why Apple set the trends with large phone displays and 7 inch tablets right? I think Apple makes great devices and that you don't need to distort the great work this company does by living in a fantasy world about Apple getting everything right on the first try and not borrowing ideas from others because they clearly do.
That's an example of one of the few ways in which they conservatively decided to copy one successful feature that rose out of a literal sea of ideas.
I didn't say they never follow trends, in fact I explicitly pointed out when they did -- to ensure that iOS and iPhone don't fall behind on critical features.
Fact is, Apple could not care less what gimmick or spec Samsung is introducing. Apple will not adjust this years iPhone because of any feature or spec that Samsung introduces, and they've never done that in the past either. The biggest change like this would be perhaps Jobs' frantic last minute change from plastic to glass screen, a "rest is history" kind of moment.
If Samsung's new feature this year is that important then Apple will introduce it in a few years. They're not in a rush. Years late to mobile payments, years late to e-watches, years late to large screens... they do not make quick changes.
I few months ago I lost my 3 years old HTC One, so I had to get a new phone.
For the first time I decided to get an iPhone. So I got a 6s.
Worst mobile phone I've ever had.
The battery life is terrible. Now I understand why people have 'Power banks' with them all the time.
The phone also dies with 40% battery! I turn it on, it shows a splash screen meaning low battery, turns on, shows 40% battery, then dies after a moment again.Funny thing is that I try restarting it several times and at some point it starts working for hours (which means it actually does have 40% battery and its not a calibration issue).
The user interface (which it was supposed to shine at) is just bad. I can never find items I'm looking for.
I had to read an article to find out how I'm supposed to turn on the Hotspot feature (And it actually seemed like editing xorg file!)
Viber/Skype start ringing and I cannot respond immediately, as the ringing dialog doesnt even show up until I do to the application.
ios has only a few keyboard layouts and misses my language (Farsi) and I have to rely on third party keyboards to type and third party keyboards are so unstable. Sometimes the keyboard just doesnt show up until I close/open the application.
My GPRS just started working when I inserted the SIM card to my HTC phone. On ios? I had to configure it manually! Again, felt like Linux +10 years ago!
I know this is totally off-topic to this thread but I had to say this rant. iPhone is only a fashion item. Its nowhere as usable as Android.
If you want a phone that just works do yourself a favor and give a decent flagship Android phone a try. You'd be surprised.
(And I'm not a fanboy of Google/Android, I wish we had a FOSS OS with an open ecosystem, but Android just works, unlike ios)
> The phone also dies with 40% battery! I turn it on, it shows a splash screen meaning low battery, turns on, shows 40% battery, then dies after a moment again.Funny thing is that I try restarting it several times and at some point it starts working for hours (which means it actually does have 40% battery and its not a calibration issue).
Other complaints aside, have you considered that your device might be defective? What you describe is neither common nor accepted by iPhone users at large.
I have an iPhone 5 that has this issue. ~40% battery and if there's a sudden voltage sag like turning on gps or opening the camera, the phone will immediately shut off. This ended up indeed being a defect, so much so that Apple had a recall: https://www.apple.com/support/iphone5-battery/
"(And I'm not a fanboy of Google/Android, I wish we had a FOSS OS with an open ecosystem, but Android just works, unlike ios)"
:D
You most definitely are or you somehow managed to mix iPhone and Android in every single sentence. Most of the stuff are not even opinions, they are just simply wrong information/lies.
"The user interface (which it was supposed to shine at) is just bad. I can never find items I'm looking for. I had to read an article to find out how I'm supposed to turn on the Hotspot feature (And it actually seemed like editing xorg file!)"
If you are serious about this I gotta say I'm speecless. It's actually amazing you were able to turn on your computer and open the web browser since it take just as much as turning on that hotspot: Pressing a single button...
Their awful software combined with their pathological paranoia about people rooting their phones means I'll never buy a samsung product again.