2 months ago I bought a regular samsung galaxy s23 and it’s been running great so far. I expected MIUI levels of bloat, but surprisingly it is not that bad.
I had to disable a few samsung apps and for the most part, the phone stays out of my way and lets me do whatever i want.
I wish the s23 lineup gets good custom rom support. Would love to run a lean LineageOS / any AOSP based rom with MicroG on this phone.
I’ve dealt with Samsung as the developer of a large app. They will pre-install your app on new phones if you pay them, which I think is pretty seedy. It’s also not very good for the dev because who knows if anyone will ever launch your preinstalled app. Samsung even claimed not to know. So we had no idea what we’d be paying for. Samsung’s Galaxy app store is also a totally laughable mess, far inferior to Google Play and AppStore in functionality. It even has spelling mistakes 😖
However I’ll keep doing business with Samsung. They’re just janky and it’s not surprising that users think they’re just as janky as I do.
Now Huawei…fuck Huawei. They created a big work mess for me by networking their way to a high ranking executive at our company and then telling them our app was “broken on millions of Huawei phones.” They made it sound like a bug in our code. But here’s what it actually was:
Trump banned Huawei from doing business in the US due to their ties to the Chinese Communist Party. This meant Huawei had to stop using some very core Android code libraries, since Google is an American company and couldn’t allow use of those libraries. So Huawei whipped up their own replacements to these libraries, but developers basically need to customize and republish their app specially for Huawei.
So because they got in trouble with Trump, Huawei needed all devs to rewrite their apps for Huawei phones. Instead of being honest about this, they got me in trouble, convincing an executive that something was wrong with our app. They generously offered to meet with our tech team and “help us fix it.”
I met with them, and once I understood what they were doing, I told them to get fucked. Then I wrote up a memo about what happened and let our executive leaders know that we wouldn’t be on Huawei phones ever again, going forward.
If you can’t uninstall the bloatware, just disable it in settings. I have been doing that and works perfectly fine. And then I put all the bloatware into a single folder in the launcher and voila, it’s a clean experience. Stock android is the best, the next best thing is OneUI in my experience.
Anyone with common sense prefers iPhone over stock rom Samsung.
Samsung’s software is bloated with preinstalled crap. The software is not optimized, so even new the phones have major stutters frequently.
And don’t get me started on the OTA updates. Those take a year to complete.
I love android because I can use FOSS software and I have more freedom when using it. But if I had to choose between a Galaxy and an iPhone, I’d pick the latter.
This is the argument someone makes who hasn’t used a flagship Samsung device in at least 5 years.
One UI is one of my favorite OS’s and usually has features months if not years before stock Android. I get OTA updates every month like clockwork and have even had beta versions of new Android OSs before Pixel users. I’m typing on a Fold 4 and my user experience is somehow smoother than when I purchased it. You cannot say the same for a Pixel or iPhone.
Look at the size the 10% bar is in the 40-49 graph. Then the 6% bars in the 50-59 graph. Then look at the size of the 9% bar in the 60-69 graph. And then the Other bar (8%) in the 70+ graph.
Then go backup and look at the LG and Other bars (8% total) in the top graph. Whoever made this graphic is either intentionally misleading or just plain dumb.
Edit: The 78%, 80%, an 85% bars are also all exactly the same size. It just gets worse the longer you look at it.
Young Koreans favor whatever is new and cool from year to year. One year I was there everyone had iDevices, a couple years later it was Samsungs. Trendiness with electronics is a big thing.
Honestly at least a lot of Apple products from 1998 ~ 2017 were actually stylish. Now Apple products just look boring and yet they’re still treated as fashion accessories. Like, I could actually see how an iPod Classic or an iMac G4 was a fashion accessory. iPhone 14 or the M1 iMac, no.
Also RGB looks garish and I wish it weren’t the predominant look of PC customization, but also it’s admittedly one of the only forms that’s accessible.
Yeah, although to some extent stuff like app-store lock-in does restrict easily jumping from one ecosphere to another.
If one is an Android user, there is at least some flexibility in switching between different phone vendors and styles, but in many places Samsung is pretty dominant, while others like LG have dropped out of the game entirely.
It’s crazy how people just constantly buy the latest and greatest. I can afford it, I just don’t want to. I bought a refurbished iPhone 11 like 8 months ago, works great. Bought a 2021 MacBook Pro that was refurbished, works great. Literally just purchased a refurbished gaming computer with a 2070 that gets here this week, I bet it’ll work just fine. Do most people actually NEED the latest and greatest or is it more of a fashion or financial statement?
Personally I don’t think I could handle the device whiplash that much. I use my phones and laptops until they break or become unbearable. This year, I finally bought a new MSI laptop to replace my 2013 MacBook Pro which, other than battery issues, was still going strong.
I own a lot of different kinds of devices, sure, but I spend a long time getting my phones and PCs set up just right after I get them. Going through that on a yearly basis just seems needlessly stressful, to be honest.
I’m with you 100%. I like to fine tune everything so it works perfectly, in tandem, exactly how I want and need it. I really hate changing devices even though Apple makes it quite easy. I’m sure android does too but I haven’t owned one a while so idk. My girlfriend is the same way BUT she does like to stay with more current phone models due to camera quality. She gets a lot of use out of the camera, whereas I don’t but that reasoning makes some sense to me.
I have friends that are constantly upgrading their phones on these ridiculous payment plans through their carriers and putting their MacBooks or laptops on credit just to stay up with the “latest tech.” It doesn’t make sense, must EVERYTHING be on a payment plan? If you can’t buy a device then and there with cash, and you aren’t in a dire situation where you need to replace something (you should prob consider insuring your devices) then you can wait and save. Consider refurbished as well.
I’ve used samsung for all of my smartphones until my latest (when I switched to oneplus), but it’s still an android phone. No way would I switch to ultra-locked-down apple.
Ye oneplus is great you just need a dns to block those chinese queries over vpn for example because it wont allow you to change the dns manually. (op8)
Yeah I have some serious ethical issues with Apple. I’ve never bought any of their products and never will. Aside from the anti-competitive walled garden of their tech and exorbitant cost of their products, their labor practices violate human rights in low cost labor markets. However Google and their partners such as Samsung are not free from guilt either. Unfortunately there’s little choice in phone products, Android or iOS, pick your poison.
The major brands selling Android phones also lock things down, but at least I can do things like install apps outside the app store. I can also do Android development without having to buy a Mac and pay a license fee.
I’ve had Samsung for around nine years. The thing that kept me married to them was the SD card slot. Now that it’s gone, after my Note 10+ stops getting updates, I’ll be looking at something else. I have the Samsung watch, buds and tablet but I’m assuming they’ll work with a pixle if that’s what I land on. I like the Samsung nearby share but that’s such a small thing and doesn’t keep brand loyalty. Otherwise, what do they offer that say the pixle doesn’t?
It’s basically the reason I’m using a mid-range Samsung. But they got rid of the headphone jack on the last generation A-series and it’s only a matter of time before the SD card disappears too. Gonna look elsewhere for me next upgrade
Galaxy S10 with 128GB internal & 256GB microSD. Play anything from the entire music collection with the aux port in the car. Frequently listen to podcasts with bone conduction headphones. Couldn’t be happier with a pocket computer.
I’m just hoping either Fairphone irons out it’s kinks or legislation catches up with removable batteries and locked-down operating systems. I’m tired of feeling like I’m owning a device just until the manufacturer decides to turn it into e-waste.
I agree with you. One thing that keeps me with Samsung though is Dex. Everything else is replaceable with a time adjustment, but Dex is pretty big for me and other phones don’t have it… Yet.
In its analysis, the survey credited iPhone’s appeal among young people to Apple’s premium branding – for the same storage size, an iPhone 14 (128GB) costs 1,250,000 won ($989) compared to the Galaxy S23’s 1,150,000 won. Introduction of Apple Pay, Apple’s mobile payment service, to Korea earlier this year was cited as another contributing factor.
According to the article, cost is not a factor in their choice as they nearly cost the same.
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