Make a Samsung Smartphone Great by Switching Out Its Apps | Hacker News Reader

Make a Samsung Smartphone Great by Switching Out Its Apps

nytimes.com

31 pointspavornyoh26 comments

Mossberg said in a recent review "Premium devices shouldn't be vehicles for carrier come-ons".

http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/8/11176606/walt-mossberg-sams...

I can't imagine spending $700-$800 USD for a device and then having to uninstall junk.

I have no love for carrier or manufacturer bloatware, and Android devices are worse than iOS for both. But I have to say that iOS isn't immune - I have a folder full of Apple apps that I don't use and can't even disable on my iPad (Health, Watch, Maps, Find Friends, Tips, etc etc etc)

I thought I was the only one with an unused builtin app folder hidden on my last screen! For the life of me, I don't understand why Apple won't let you remove the Tips app, of all things...

It probably sends somebody 'tips' about you ;-)

They don't want to field the support calls from people who delete Safari.

I think that Nexus devices even has less pre-installed apps than iPhones. Standard Android OEMs devices are still full of all sorts of preloaded crap though.

This makes me want to see Google finally take Pixel/Nexus seriously and push its own SOC & terminals.

For the most part, devices sold by google directly have a pretty decent start point for apps. Though not everyone prefers the google apps for things, they're generally better than most of the other carrier/vendor apps out there.

I'm currently using an OPO, but will probably go back with Nexus for my next phone...

Some premium devices can be bought as "Google Experience" devices (similar to how laptops bought from the MSFT store will have zero pre-installed vendor software).

Samsung however is very bad at this and they have replaced pretty much every core Android feature with their own most of which cannot be uninstalled easily or at all.

So if you really want a clean OS e.g. without Samsung Mail, Browser (which is the most insecure version of Chrome I've seen in a long long time) Keyboard and the other 10,000 Samsung services you have to flash it with an AOSP based ROM.

LG, Motorola, HTC and others usually offer GE devices when you buy it directly from them or trough the Google store.

Sadly, as of January 2015, "Google Play Edition" variants stopped being sold altogether. The last phones sold before the closure of this program were the HTC M8 and the Galaxy S4 (which now are obviously about 3 generations behind).

As Chen notes, flashing is a very difficult process for "non-techies" and actually near impossible for carrier variants of flagship phones due to bootloader restrictions.

> I can't imagine spending $700-$800 USD for a device and then having to uninstall junk.

Erm, so you've never bought any computer then? Phones are just like every other computer - buy for the hardware, ignore whatever junk software the manufacturer loaded, and install your own environment as the very first thing you do. If one is too lazy to do basic setup, they shouldn't be surprised that companies will continue to herd the weak-willed for their own gain.

At this point it is quite clear that OEMs only put these apps on consumer's devices to make a profit, and that there is no eye towards the affect on the product.

The bigger question is, why do the carriers want so badly for me to use their NFL app?

They don't, but they got a fraction of a penny to put the app in front of you. Nobody (to a first approximation, and especially on the Android side) buys a phone because of the software - they just look at the hardware (if that) and make their decision. By the time you're being annoyed by NFL apps it's too late.

It's not just about the apps with Samsung Phones, the long delay on new Android versions and the "TouchWiz" skin make it inferior to a Nexus or even a "close-to-native" experience like the Moto X pure.

This is the reason I made the switch to a nexus device. Sure, Nexus phones aren't as powerful as a Samsung Galaxy, but I can be guaranteed software updates.

When I got a SG III, the Android version on my phone was the one and only release (at least during my run with the phone). That was enough for me to make the switch.

Flashing the phone to stock, or a forked version is worth it. Its fun trying out the forked OS's for those of us that are more 'phone interested'. It's a fairly quick process (flash + phone setup) once you're used to it. Also I find older phones get a new lease of life if you remove bloatware so you get another year of a phone feeling responsive. And it gets rid of that urge to buy a new phone for the sake of it like I get after having the same phone for a while.

Yeah I agree and have flashed in the past. But ultimately, as a user, I want that out of the box.

It's been a while. Do you have any recommendations for forked OS's?

Here are some: http://beebom.com/2016/01/best-custom-roms-android.

I've been more interested in watching alternate OS develop lately. I'm running a Windows version currently (not there yet but a few good features). And likely give Ubuntu a go next as I've been really curious about their progress though it seems to have slowed, possibly try Sailfish...

CyanogenMod is by far the most popular AOSP derivative right now.

Touchwiz with a custom launcher is completely fine. I actually ended up getting a note 5 because Samsung phones have a killer feature that I can't get anywhere else (yet), which is multi window. Being able to browse internet/reddit/hn and watch TV shows or netflix is an absolute necessity to me and at the time, I couldn't find any other phones that had it.

So in my case, TouchWiz + a launcher actually provided me value that I couldn't get through other Android phones.

Android 6 has native MW support, and there have been MW launchers since Android 4 if not earlier.

This article describes the exact process I went through with my Galaxy S3.

Interesting that the author makes the point that choice is important for an OS like Android, and then recommends only Google-made alternatives to make it "as Google intended". Google software != best software, necessarily.

Yeah, but many people like myself use Google services on android, so it's a good alternative.

Even if it is choosing the default, then that is still something I actually wanted. What really enrages me is to see how all that stupid Samsung software lives its secret life for itself on my phone, without me being able to make the choice to get rid of it. That stuff sits there, updates all the time and annoys me. Like a bunch of squatters living in my house.

Thanks for that "HP printer driver" btw, I really needed that one, Samsung.

Did the same steps with my S7. Much better after replacing the launcher and keyboard

Make apple devices great by using Google services.

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