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Michael Goff

Suspended
Jul 5, 2012
13,329
7,422
Depending how you want to spin it. All iPhones can be said to be crappy with lag/battery drain/planned throttling under ios11.

And as we all know, you'll spin it your way. I swear, it's almost like a large portion of this forum can't like Android without hating iOS.
 
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Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
4,019
1,456
Central California
I currently have two phones, an iPhone X and a Samsung Galaxy S8. The iPhone X is of course great and works beautifully. There are some flaws, but they do not affect the overall experience.

The Samsung S8 is a dog. The S8 was supposed to be fast, but it is really sluggish and laggy and crashes a lot. It is so slow that sometimes I cannot even use WhatsApp on it.

The user interface is also terrible. The auto-hide navigation bar requires an additional touch to navigate, and sometimes does not even work. The annoying Bixby keeps appearing when I inadvertedly hit somewhere in the screen. And the battery life is not good at all.

Of course, the S8 has a great screen, and a great camera, is slim, light and beautiful. But that does not change the fact that the experience using it is just terrible, mainly because of the crappy Touch Wiz, which seems to ruin everything.

This is not my first Samsung device. I had a Samsung Galaxy S4 a few years back. In the first week, it felt great, as it was a powerful phone with a big screen. But then I realized that the user experience was far from good, really crappy indeed. I then bought an iPhone and never looked back. People kept saying (and I kept reading) that Touch Wiz got much better over the years, which led me to buy the S8. Terrible phone.

Not all my experiences with Android phones are bad. Last year I had a Moto Z Play, as my secondary device (together with an iPhone). The Moto Z Play was a very good phone. It was not a delight to use as the iPhone, but it was reasonably fast, had a great user interface, and was not sluggish or laggy as the S8 (which is way more powerful). The near stock Android provided a much better experience than Touch Wiz. And the battery life was just great. It was much cheaper and in an inferior category than the S8, but it is definitely a superior device.

I just cannot understand why people keep praising Samsung as the best Android phone maker. The Galaxy S8 was considered by many as last year’s best Android phone, and some reputed it as being better than the iPhone. And nobody seems to point out how bad this phone is. All I see is praise. I just cannot understand it. Is it just me?
I can sum this up in one acronym: YMMV

There is about 2 billion people on the planet using a Samsung phone of some sort. For them, it is just fine. For you, it was junk. I'd say you are just as correct as anyone else.
 

5105973

Cancelled
Sep 11, 2014
12,132
19,733
I had a Galaxy S7 that was a chronically overheating glitchy piece of garbage. But I had a replacement one that is excellent and that I still have and use for VR.

I had the S8+ and so did my husband and they both are laggy and unpleasant to use now. We each also both have a S9+ and those have been great. If we weren’t using Apple Watches and iMessage we could use them as our only phones.

So I guess the answer is it’s the luck of the draw with Samsung. But we also increasingly see that with iPhones. My Max that I just returned had some of the major issues covered on the various forum threads. It had “charge-gate” and connectivity problems galore.

Anyway my husband’s iPhone Max seems to be a lot better and doesn’t give him any problems. He had a few connectivity bugs the first few days but those smoothed out and his phone has passed every test he’s put it through against his S9+ and Huawei.

What you need to concern yourself with on any phone purchase is the ease of returning a lemon and the reputation for honoring warranty service.
 

skaertus

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 23, 2009
4,252
1,409
Brazil
I had a Galaxy S7 that was a chronically overheating glitchy piece of garbage. But I had a replacement one that is excellent and that I still have and use for VR.

I had the S8+ and so did my husband and they both are laggy and unpleasant to use now. We each also both have a S9+ and those have been great. If we weren’t using Apple Watches and iMessage we could use them as our only phones.

So I guess the answer is it’s the luck of the draw with Samsung. But we also increasingly see that with iPhones. My Max that I just returned had some of the major issues covered on the various forum threads. It had “charge-gate” and connectivity problems galore.

Anyway my husband’s iPhone Max seems to be a lot better and doesn’t give him any problems. He had a few connectivity bugs the first few days but those smoothed out and his phone has passed every test he’s put it through against his S9+ and Huawei.

What you need to concern yourself with on any phone purchase is the ease of returning a lemon and the reputation for honoring warranty service.

Well, I cannot rely on the ease of returning it. I live in Brazil. If I buy a phone online, I have a week to return it (and most stores will make your life hell when attempting to return it). If I buy it in a store, then it is over, I cannot return it.

Yesterday I looked at some websites and I enabled the hidden developer options on the S8. I then disabled some animations, and turned on 2D GPU acceleration. The phone was unstable at the beginning, with red lights flashing. But, after a restart, the lag problems seem to be gone. The phone is fast and zippy. The user interface is still not the best, but I can live with it if the lag that made it impossible to use is gone. Let’s see.
 

koigirl

macrumors 6502a
Jul 29, 2011
846
401
Raleigh, NC
I have a Note 8 (first Samsung phone) after many years with iPhone and it's my best phone yet. No lag and still happy with it after a year. I really like Samsung Pay, Samsung Pass, and the Samsung browser is also great. I love the stylus, headphone jack, and virtual home and back buttons plus one-handed mode. I thought about upgrading to Note 9 but my phone is still going strong so I will prolly wait for 10. Might consider the XS Max eventually if it had built-in stylus and dual-screen support but I think that is years off if ever. Only things I miss from iPhone are iMessage (WhatsApp suffices), flat vs curved screen, Apple support, and iOS update process. But my phone/browser never freezes, apps don't reload, and Android OS makes iOS seem dated (only IMO).

This phone is definitely not "crap" though. Apple makes really nice phones and so does Samsung.
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
Android has come a long way. I think the differences are definitely less than they’ve ever been. I still think iOS is more fluid and smooth - some see this as faster. I’ve used many Samsung devices and I’m a huge touchwiz hater. I’ve used pixel phones and they aren’t bad but they don’t age well. I prefer iPhone for build quality and longevity. But I know many Samsung lovers - my sister has the S9 coming from the iPhone 6 and she loves it. My boss went from an iPhone 4s to a Samsung S8 last year and he hates apple now. I think his life proof case interferes more than anything.

Apple needs Samsung for competition and vis versa. People need to try both if they can. Sadly devices are getting so expensive that this isn’t easy to do. Just a day with a phone isn’t enough.

But yes I can’t stand Samsung ui or Android adware. Apple has had my business for awhile and will have it for many years to come. Is apple perfect? Nope but I like it better after trying both.
 
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slitherjef

macrumors 65816
Feb 8, 2012
1,402
1,189
Earth
Speaking of Samsung, I wouldn't be surprised if they finally ditched Android all together and went with their own ecosystem. They have pretty much everything they need including the customer base.

I'm more surprised it hasn't happened yet.

I wonder how fluid their devices would be without the Android framework under their skin?
 

1050792

Suspended
Oct 2, 2016
2,515
3,991
Speaking of Samsung, I wouldn't be surprised if they finally ditched Android all together and went with their own ecosystem. They have pretty much everything they need including the customer base.

I'm more surprised it hasn't happened yet.

I wonder how fluid their devices would be without the Android framework under their skin?
They have everything except their own OS and I doubt Samsung would go that way since it would make them just like another Apple, imagine Samsung phones without Google Play? Not gonna happen.
 

slitherjef

macrumors 65816
Feb 8, 2012
1,402
1,189
Earth
They have everything except their own OS and I doubt Samsung would go that way since it would make them just like another Apple, imagine Samsung phones without Google Play? Not gonna happen.

They have their own os, or at least one in the works. It's tizen. Their watch is running it I believe.
 

skaertus

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 23, 2009
4,252
1,409
Brazil
Android has come a long way. I think the differences are definitely less than they’ve ever been. I still think iOS is more fluid and smooth - some see this as faster. I’ve used many Samsung devices and I’m a huge touchwiz hater. I’ve used pixel phones and they aren’t bad but they don’t age well. I prefer iPhone for build quality and longevity. But I know many Samsung lovers - my sister has the S9 coming from the iPhone 6 and she loves it. My boss went from an iPhone 4s to a Samsung S8 last year and he hates apple now. I think his life proof case interferes more than anything.

Apple needs Samsung for competition and vis versa. People need to try both if they can. Sadly devices are getting so expensive that this isn’t easy to do. Just a day with a phone isn’t enough.

But yes I can’t stand Samsung ui or Android adware. Apple has had my business for awhile and will have it for many years to come. Is apple perfect? Nope but I like it better after trying both.

Well, I kind of agree with you. Don’t get me wrong, I think Android is great. What I don’t like about Samsung phones is TouchWiz and all that customization. I have used a Motorola phone for over a year, and I could use an Android (pure Android) phone as my main phone. I still prefer the iPhone, but Android is just fine.

My biggest problem with the Samsung S8 is that it had become nearly useless. It was so slow and sluggish that I had to restart it twice a day at least. I fixed it by unlocking some hidden options, which most users probably won’t.

Even now that I managed to make the S8 fast again, I still don’t like Samsung’s customized interface. Pure Android is so much better. I wonder why Samsung phones are the best-selling Android phones. Apple’s nemesis could be Motorola or Google, or even LG or other vendors. Is it just because of Samsung’s hardware?
 
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IowaLynn

macrumors 68020
Feb 22, 2015
2,145
589
Sammy Experiece is not even like Touchwiz.
Adware is platform agnostic unless you mean apps that use ads to pay for themselves which use adservers.
Note 9 is more fluid. Maybe 6GB really helps, cpu and memory are not as stepped or throttled, or they actually are tuned and optimized.

Crap apps exist on both. Aggressive sleeping of apps means longer to load and run.
Use to tell people you can run bad code and throw hardware at it or use better code and compilers.

By March I’ll probably buy XS Max when iOS 12.3 is also out and production has improved chips if needed.

iOS isn’t as malware immune if Malwarebytes is to be believed, nor is Oreo and Pie a seething cauldron of malware today.
 
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Shanghaichica

macrumors G5
Apr 8, 2013
14,725
13,245
UK
Are you comparing a smartwatch OS to smartphone OS? They have nothing in common.
I think they’ve released some tizen based phones in India before.
[doublepost=1538946230][/doublepost]
We are talking about Samsung's own Flagships why are you bringing unrelated stuff to the conversation. Do you think Samsung would ever lose their partnership with Google for the sake of having their own OS which they pretty much do with their Android skin + Google Play? ...
I think they wanted to in the past but google reigned them in. There was a lot of talk of Samsung ditching google and then in early 2014 Samsung and google had a meeting.
 

1050792

Suspended
Oct 2, 2016
2,515
3,991
I think they’ve released some tizen based phones in India before.
They did, they were budget phones and it didn't turn out well so they gave up on Tizen for their smartphones and kept using it for smartwatches and TV's.
[doublepost=1538946412][/doublepost]
I think they’ve released some tizen based phones in India before.
[doublepost=1538946230][/doublepost]
I think they wanted to in the past but google reigned them in. There was a lot of talk of Samsung ditching google and then in early 2014 Samsung and google had a meeting.
That's when they came up with their own Tizen budget testing phone and it didn't go through. People use Samsung for their Hardware and Google's Android + Google Play Apps. There's no way Samsung would have a chance against Android and iOS if they'd start shipping their flagships with their own Tizen OS.
 

Shanghaichica

macrumors G5
Apr 8, 2013
14,725
13,245
UK
They did, they were budget phones and it didn't turn out well so they gave up on Tizen for their smartphones and kept using it for smartwatches and TV's.
[doublepost=1538946412][/doublepost]
That's when they came up with their own Tizen budget testing phone and it didn't go through. People use Samsung for their Hardware and Google's Android + Google Play Apps. There's no way Samsung would have a chance against Android and iOS if they'd start shipping their flagships with their own Tizen OS.
They did, they were budget phones and it didn't turn out well so they gave up on Tizen for their smartphones and kept using it for smartwatches and TV's.
[doublepost=1538946412][/doublepost]
That's when they came up with their own Tizen budget testing phone and it didn't go through. People use Samsung for their Hardware and Google's Android + Google Play Apps. There's no way Samsung would have a chance against Android and iOS if they'd start shipping their flagships with their own Tizen OS.
i agree it wouldn’t be a good move for them to ditch android but I do believe they had plans to some years ago. Google put a stop to it though and reigned them in a lot.

https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/29/5358290/google-samsung-finally-agree-on-what-android-should-look-like?_gl=1*


https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....msung-will-dial-back-android-tweaks-homegrown
 
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1050792

Suspended
Oct 2, 2016
2,515
3,991
i agree it wouldn’t be a good move for them to ditch android but I do believe they had plans to some years ago. Google put a stop to it though and reigned them in a lot.

https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/29/5358290/google-samsung-finally-agree-on-what-android-should-look-like?_gl=1*


https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....msung-will-dial-back-android-tweaks-homegrown
Yep, they did think of it but it wasn't beneficial to Google since Samsung phones are the main and most sold Android phones on the market. Pretty sure Google "showed" them how they would be losing a lot by ditching Android on their phones. :D
 
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Puddled

macrumors 6502a
Jun 9, 2017
548
602
My S6 is the Best phone I've ever had and I still use it.

IPhones drive me nuts.
 

slitherjef

macrumors 65816
Feb 8, 2012
1,402
1,189
Earth
We are talking about Samsung's own Flagships why are you bringing unrelated stuff to the conversation. Do you think Samsung would ever lose their partnership with Google for the sake of having their own OS which they pretty much do with their Android skin + Google Play? ...

What? :confused:

I am talking about Samsung. What unrelated stuff are you talking about?

I pondered if Samsung running their own os (tizen) would allow for a more fluid user experience seeing as stuttering, lag and other issues seem to be a common theme.

Yes, I do think if push comes to shove Samsung would ditch Android... Look at the position they are in, they have almost every service Android has...

There seems to be a misalignment in our conversation here it seems like, so I'll just cease posting in this thread instead of "derailing it" even more. :cool:
 

1050792

Suspended
Oct 2, 2016
2,515
3,991
What? :confused:

I am talking about Samsung. What unrelated stuff are you talking about?

I pondered if Samsung running their own os (tizen) would allow for a more fluid user experience seeing as stuttering, lag and other issues seem to be a common theme.

Yes, I do think if push comes to shove Samsung would ditch Android... Look at the position they are in, they have almost every service Android has...

There seems to be a misalignment in our conversation here it seems like, so I'll just cease posting in this thread instead of "derailing it" even more. :cool:
You sent me a link about Tizen website and you assumed how Samsung has made a phone with Tizen. That's completely unrelated since we are talking about Samsung ditching Android on their next Flagships with Tizen. You aren't clearly understanding. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[doublepost=1538950087][/doublepost]
My S6 is the Best phone I've ever had and I still use it.

IPhones drive me nuts.
I use my S6 from time to time, the battery which was bad when I bought it is still worse right now, barely lasts me 1 hour..
 

1BadManVan

macrumors 68040
Dec 20, 2009
3,285
3,446
Bc Canada
My wife has a note 8 and she absolutely loves it. Flies along without a hitch and she’s a heavy user, runs PUBG really nicely as well.

She wasn’t even interested in the note 9, she was loving her note 5 but it was showing it’s age more and had a few tumbles, she decided to save several hundred and go for last years model and has had zero issues.

We’ve only had the two Samsung phones in this house but they have definitely been top notch quality hardware and a great experience. Android 8 definitely helped boost those phones as well
 
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