Just when it seems like we’ve reached the bottom on the level of Samsung’s incompetence, it just drops deeper.
I’ve avoided Samsung anything for years because of their total disregard for security and total contempt towards their users.
I’ve avoided Samsung anything for years because of their total disregard for security and total contempt towards their users.
The thing is, if you live in the west then all the other major Android brands aren't better at all. There just are no good options anymore. HTC went bust, OnePlus turned to shit, LG threw in the towel, Sony's SW updates cycle is unimpressive for how expensive they are, Google Pixels are buggy as hell and not available in every country, and Motorola, Nokia and Blackberry are basically rebadged Chinese OEM designs. This lack of good options explains why Android lost so much market share to iOS in the last years.
Excluding Chinese phone makers, Samsung is pretty much the only big player in town from a western aligned nation, that has its shit mostly together as of present, promising 5 years of updates, having service and distribution centers in most countries around the world and a wide portfolio covering all price brackets.
For example, if you're in the market for a new relatively affordable mid-range ~300 Euro phone, then Samsung is pretty much your safest bet in the Android space.
Sure, there are better option like Fairphone but those are far away from being globally mainstream.
That hasn't been my experience.
1. GPS didn't work in the background for me. A few OS updates and some Waze updates later it seems I do get turn-by-turn directions.
2. GPU artefacts in Minecraft and Firefox. A few OS, Minecraft and Firefox updates later and it all "just works".
3. Fingerprint sensor works well except when you need it. Murphy's law for sure.
4. I'm in a low signal area and it seems to be unable to receive calls sometimes. I've had people tell me they called and my phone just didn't ring (it's not do not disturb).
Overall is a decent phone but it was a struggle for the high price it had.
My 5G/LTE performance definitely seems much worst than the Pixel 3a XL I had previously.
Google has no quality consistency both with SW and HW, it's all hit and miss with their Pixel range. Some turned out great, some were abasically e-waste.
IMHO they peaked with the Nexus 5 and then went downhill after that. Then current Pixel 7 seems to be an exception.
Like what?
That aside, Samsung’s shittiness extends far beyond smartphones. Their TVs are a disaster, their appliances fail just outside warranty, their wearable and speakers are spyware just like the rest of their products… the only thing from them not on my shitlist are semis or components like ram because there isn’t much that can go wrong on this kind of commodity product.
I tried to get my mom a 2020 SE since that's the phone my employer gave me and she hated the tiny, dim, low resolution display but she loves her Samsung A52 though, with its big and bright OLED display while being cheaper than the SE. Also battery life is longer on her A52 than on my work SE.
Different people have different requirements for a smartphone that go beyond the brand and reputation (display size, brightness, USB-C, etc). iPhone SE is not a one-size fits all solution for everyone.
They also pioneered the work container before Google started offering this as part of AOSP under the name 'Work Profile'. A feature which is really nice for privacy, separating a user's personal activity from their work activity.
And they're really good at rolling out security patches. Even before apps like SnoopSnitch drew attention to Android OEMs playing loose and fast with patch levels and missing out patches, Samsung was one of the most complete in this area. https://9to5google.com/2018/04/12/android-security-update-mi...
I was a mobile MDM admin of a huge fleet until last year. No commercial involvement with the vendors though because in our company each country picks their own models but technical management is global.
I do have complaints about Samsung like the huge amount of crapware they ship. Upday, facebook, etc. And their ads in their apps. And it's bugging the users to sign up for a personal onedrive account even when they're already signed in to a corporate one :(
But on security I consider them quite good for an Android vendor.