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1y ago

How does everyone feel about Samsung phones?

Hold on tight, we are almost back...

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:

177 comments

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.
- 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
- 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.

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:
Feature-rich hardware and software
4 years of OS updates compared to 3 by Google
S Pen in Note/Ultra
Foldables
Keeping Android tablets and Android-compatible smartwatches alive when Google abandoned them. Huge props for that.
Things I dislike:
Making fun of Apple and then doing the exact same things they did: removing the headphone jack, display notch, removing the charger in the box.
They even got rid of expandable storage in the S series despite being a major manufacturer of micro SDs.

Samsung's software is notorious for being slow, generally inferior compared to Google's and not the most well-designed out there.
I tried both the Galaxy A52 and a Pixel 6a at Best Buy. The A52 was lagging. I bought the 6a.

They're edging towards anti-repair.
Certain Samsung smartwatch features only work if you have a Samsung phone.
- 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:
  the SD card has been drifting away from most Android phones for the core reason of reliability. Data stored on SD cards is not at reliable and when apps are forced to run off the SD card, there are side effects and crashes which are nightmares for devs. When a non brand SD card loses a user's data, the user blamed the phone manufacturer, which is akin to putting the wrong fuel in your car and then blaming the car manufacturer that your car won't go.
  mag-stripe. Considering they are a Korean company, I don't blame them for dropping a complex feature used by a select few in the US. Because the US is the only country left that thinks the ancient technology of the magnetic stripe is still a good medium for the transfer of your bank details. Contact-less paymemt is now pretty much standard everywhere else and is so much more secure and standardised. The range and reliability of the contact-less payment has increased massively for me on the S23 in comparison to the S20 which was also lumbered with magstipe support.
  dilution of features? Again, why should it be more complicated? A larger phone can incorporate more lenses, screen and battery, but the core features and benefits should be the same to make the choice simpler for the consumer. Advertising of the range is simpler also.
  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!
  
  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).
- 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

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.

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.

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.

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

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:
contacts
calendar
browser
phone
messages
app store
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?

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.

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’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.

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.

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.
  
  shhhh. once too many people find out, the price will increase.

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.
- 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)>
  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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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 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.

I will only purchase a Samsung again when they let me unlock the damn bootloader

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

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.

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.

Really nice hardware, inexcusably bad software.

Hardware fuse disabling Knox on bootloader is irrelevant now. You can't unlock bootloader. At least for snapdragon chip.

Too much bloat, no bootloader unlock. International model can be bootloader unlocked but you can't change secure boot keys and relock.

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!

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.
  
  Unfortunately, it's not officially available in my country.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'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 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.

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.

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.

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