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The Game 161

macrumors Nehalem
Dec 15, 2010
30,991
20,174
UK
Yeah but at least we have us regulars who are more open minded - just have to ignore all the detritus being thrown around, I do....
Yep that's all we can do. It's not like we are talking sports here on which team is better. There's no right or wrong choice with tech.
 

zOne31

macrumors regular
May 21, 2012
137
29
I cannot believe how much Samsung hate there is on this forum......

I think this applies to those who were early adopters of Samsung especially those who got burned getting the Galaxy Nexus. Because of that, I've told myself that I will not be getting any Samsung devices if I went back to Android. I'll still look into the newer Note/Galaxy series because I haven't handled them for the past few iterations but ultimately I think I would pass on them.

I can definitely see a situation in the future in which Samsung drops Android and goes with their own OS. It seems unlikely but anything is possible.
 

jamezr

macrumors P6
Aug 7, 2011
16,080
19,080
US
I think this applies to those who were early adopters of Samsung especially those who got burned getting the Galaxy Nexus. Because of that, I've told myself that I will not be getting any Samsung devices if I went back to Android. I'll still look into the newer Note/Galaxy series because I haven't handled them for the past few iterations but ultimately I think I would pass on them.

I can definitely see a situation in the future in which Samsung drops Android and goes with their own OS. It seems unlikely but anything is possible.
I have heard about some of the issues with the Galaxy Nexus. Not good.....

It is very interesting all the testing Samsung has done with Tizen. It seems like they would be better suited to streamline/optimize TW but that is just MHO......
 

Fanaticalism

macrumors 6502a
Apr 16, 2013
908
158
If all these great "plain android" phones are so great, then where is their market share?

Couple points:

Samsung has marketed itself to be the iPhone alternative, so they have the best consumer perception.

Their screens have that wow factor, so they show very well in retail environments.

When the question of camera quality comes into play, Samsung's have the best overall cameras out of the other android devices. So that immediately rules out many.

Easy mode- logical transition for many coming into their first smartphone. Oddly enough, also appealing for many coming from an iPhone (I'm referring to the non tech, general consumer).

The physical home button- sense of familiarity.
 

wilky76

macrumors regular
Oct 9, 2013
215
1
Wigan
Having owned both the S5 and iPhone 6 i can tell you now touchwiz on 4.4.2 is alot less buggy and lag free than iOS 8.0.2 is on the 6 & 6 Plus is atm.

If anything Android now is the better OS was not always the case mind, but since the advent of Kitkat things have got alot better & Android L will improve on this further.
 

sviato

macrumors 68020
Oct 27, 2010
2,432
430
HR 9038 A
Most of Samsung's sales are the low cost Android devices that you don't really hear about - and they sell a lot! This is good for Google because Google only cares about the volume of phones out there running its services. In this case, Samsung provides the bulk of that volume so I don't think it would be wise for Google to ditch.

It would probably be more beneficial for Samsung to leave Google, however, as it makes its profits from hardware sales - hence the high promotion of Galaxy S and Note lines which are more expensive. If Samsung didn't have to rely on Android to sell the devices, it would reap more benefits from selling the low-cost devices running its own OS. However, it's clear that at this point the ransition would be difficult if not impossible given Android popularity and consumers' commitment to it. Google would really have to drop the ball with Android somehow or Samsung would need to build a very strong brand following for the Galaxy line that would continue to buy the devices even if they didn't run Android.
 

Jibbajabba

macrumors 65816
Aug 13, 2011
1,024
5
No complaints about my Galaxy Note 3. It's what got me to fall in love with Android after only owning iPhones in the past. So your argument is.. weak. Be gone.

Was about to say the same. Actually I like TW on my Note 3.
 

ozaz

macrumors 68000
Feb 27, 2011
1,615
577
No.

I'd like to see more vanilla Android options, but Android without skinned options (including those from Samsung) would be boring.
 

bearboy

macrumors member
Jul 12, 2010
81
15
Chi-town
That's the beauty of Android. If you don't like Touchwiz, root it and throw a ROM or Launcher like Apex on your device.

Never been a huge Touchwiz fan but I'll picking up a Note 4 this Friday.
 

Tsuchiya

macrumors 68020
Jun 7, 2008
2,310
372
Can you imagine that conversation?

"Sorry guys, I know you ship tens of millions of devices per year with our software preinstalled, but yeah we don't like the look of TouchWiz so go **** yourselves."
 

vgamedude

macrumors 6502a
Dec 10, 2013
798
6
That's the beauty of Android. If you don't like Touchwiz, root it and throw a ROM or Launcher like Apex on your device.

Never been a huge Touchwiz fan but I'll picking up a Note 4 this Friday.
Yes but if you were to root a Samsung device youre going to trip Knox and then you will invalidate your warranty and hurt your chances of ever repairing the phone if something goes wrong, even if it's fairly minor, for an expensive phone it's a big risk to take.

also in the case of the note series flashing a different rom will likely result in you losing some spen features.

Also no refunds after that either.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,370
8,952
a better place
Yes but if you were to root a Samsung device youre going to trip Knox and then you will invalidate your warranty and hurt your chances of ever repairing the phone if something goes wrong, even if it's fairly minor, for an expensive phone it's a big risk to take.



also in the case of the note series flashing a different rom will likely result in you losing some spen features.



Also no refunds after that either.


You'll be delighted to know the Galaxy Alpha doesn't have KNOX at all ;) neither the software or the flag/hardware trip switch.....

Yay!!!!
 

Switchback666

macrumors 68000
Nov 16, 2012
1,600
67
SXM
Google should ditch Samsung? Lol they are probably the MVP on Google's house.

Eventually Samsung will leave but not the other way around, atleast not in the next couple of years.
 

Savor

Suspended
Jun 18, 2010
3,742
918
I was asking myself today why did a 4-year old company like Xiaomi become #1 in China and topple Samsung so fast? Low price? There are literally hundreds of Chinese clones that are cheaper. I realize because of the quality they put behind their products which is unusual for a Chinese brand and the hype they generate with flash sales.

Which made me think of Samsung's future and most other bigger players in the Western markets. I believe the Android One program is going to change the dynamics once again. Most people will stop buying $700 smartphones and go to those $100 phones instead. Even iPhone users will buy an Android One device to use as a spare.

Google's plans for the NEXT BILLION Android users is reachable. And I see Samsung and many others including carriers locking people with contracts will start getting affected by it. How I envision it being more of an even playing field will start to come into fruition. No longer one dominant manufacturer in the Android race.
 

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
20,396
23,902
Singapore
Seriously. Plain android is great. Samsungs skins however, is not. It takes up a large part of the ram space and it lags horrifically. Not to mention the lag can be terrible at times. Samsung releases about 50 different types of phones which all come with bloatware. I played with my friends jailbroken Note 3. I asked him why he felt the need to jailbreak it. He told me because of the bloatware and samsungs software severely slow down his machine.

When people think android they think Samsung. Not google. Android is a fantastic OS which gets a bad rep because of Samsungs shortcomings.

Google chose to offer Android for free, so they really have no right to complain when companies like Samsung get to do whatever they want with the OS, for better and for worse.

It's called "You reap what you sow".
 

vgamedude

macrumors 6502a
Dec 10, 2013
798
6
You'll be delighted to know the Galaxy Alpha doesn't have KNOX at all ;) neither the software or the flag/hardware trip switch.....

Yay!!!!

Also tier worse phone really. Mid range specs for a high range price. I wouldn't go for it, the only Sammy device id consider would be the note 4 and possibly an upcoming S6.
 

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,878
10,987
Also tier worse phone really. Mid range specs for a high range price. I wouldn't go for it, the only Sammy device id consider would be the note 4 and possibly an upcoming S6.

I wouldn't say the specs on the Alpha is Mid Range. Compared to most phablets, most of the specs are around the same range or equal, so the Alpha is good for a non phablet.
 

sracer

macrumors G4
Apr 9, 2010
10,405
13,290
where hip is spoken
A few years back I bought a GTab 2 7.0 Student Edition. It was a decently performing tablet at the time. After rooting it and removing SOME of Samsung's bloatware, performance was greatly improved. It is still a snappy little tab.

I've recently purchased a GTab Pro 8.4 ($249 @ BestBuy was too good to pass up). With stock TouchWiz, there is no lag at all. Part of me wants to root it and remove the similar bloat to see how blazing this thing could be.

But TouchWiz, or more specifically, the system additions that Samsung has added to Android, is something that I've come to appreciate. Multi-window is quite nice. With the 8.4, you can have custom profiles of multi-window configurations to automatically load, size, and position 2 apps with a single tap.

The widget-like floating applets are handy.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,370
8,952
a better place
Also tier worse phone really. Mid range specs for a high range price. I wouldn't go for it, the only Sammy device id consider would be the note 4 and possibly an upcoming S6.
Other than screen resolution you are wrong.

Indeed my Alpha is benchmarking higher than nearly ALL other android devices currently available. That is not something that happens in mid range hardware.

Antutu 48,500
Geekbench 3100 multicore
GFXbench onscreen - Manhattan 25.6fps T-Rex 48fps
 
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