Android

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.

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.

Samsung phones have great hardware, but all the Samsung bloatware ruins the phone. Good if you can get one with only stock android

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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)!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

like i feel after a seven course dinner.

bloated.

I don't know about cheap Samsung phones, but their flagships are excellent. I'm pretty happy with mine.

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.

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

I still have my S21 and I <3 it

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)

No bootloader unlocking no buy.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.