After watching this video [1] (and others) it made me think and try something different, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ and while at it I wanted to try the Samsung Galaxy S5e tablet as well, the new "Pro" competitor S5 is not out yet, supposedly coming out later this year. I gave the Tablet a shot because I have this issue [2] with my iPad Pro 10.5.
[1]
[2] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ipad-10-5-pro-white-spot-on-screen.2117667/
__THE GOOD_
Samsung S10+ Cool features:
1) The LTE reception/network speed on cellular seems better (should be no surprise with the Qualcomm chip), you can see when Carrier Aggregation (CA) is in use in the menubar and also run various utilities to show the band information and have it run in the background.
2) You can play 1440p YouTube content on the screen although side-by-side, the iPhone Xs max seems to have better contrast/quality in my opinion than the S10+, although the S10+ can get slightly brighter than the iPhone Xs Max.
3) You can use Samsung Pay to pay for things where Apple Pay/NFC is not accepted, I really love this feature (MST) but not enough to overcome the items in the bad section below.
4) "Call Continuity" does "work" between the S10+ and the Galaxy Tab S5e but it is nowhere near as good as Apple's integration with the carriers. I believe only T-Mobile and Sprint support the continuity feature at the network level. My testing was with Verizon so it has to make the call through the other device vs. at network level. There was also a 5-10+ second when I called someone on the tablet, by the time I heard anything it was the voice mail being announced. Not a great experience.
5) With Android Pie at least on Verizon I was able to use VoLTE, Wi-Fi calling which was my gripes with the S9+ and previous version of Android. Verizon FYSA also has a new page that lists the unlocked Android phones that are "certified" to work with their network.
6) Verizon also appeared to support RCS but nobody I know has a compatible Android phone that uses that feature who is also on Verizon.
7) You can drag and drop files onto the phone, full filesystem access, which is a feature I really like.
Samsung S5e Cool features:
1) Call/Text continuity (sort of), does not work as well as iMessage and not on network level for Verizon/AT&T.
2) The OLED screen is beautiful and the colors pop.
__THE BAD_
Phone Annoyances:
1) With Phone+Tablet, the echo-cancellation is not as good when using Duo vs. FaceTime, sometimes I hear what I say on the other side.
2)) This is going to sound weird but when I am on the phone and the other person is talking, if I speak its like my voice does not go through, I have to wait until they are done talking for the person on the other line to hear me. This did not occur on the iPhone (carrier agnostic) and same issue with Wi-Fi calling or a VoLTE phone call.
3) Text messages incur additional data usage (MMS) vs. iMessage is sent over Wi-Fi.
4) Text messages also come in grainy (MMS) vs. crystal clear with iMessage.
5) People that reviewed photos from both phones said the colors are not natural with the S10 Plus, I agree.
6) Unlocking problems:
a) Before I registered my thumbprint twice, I could unlock the phone only 1 out of every 5 attempts.
b) After I registered my thumbprint twice, it would work 2-3x out of 5, see image for what I saw this morning when I tried to unlock the phone, no good!
7) Audio quality on speaker, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ seems slightly louder than the iPhone XS Max but the quality is not as good. Not an audiophile here but the S10+ sounds "washed out" at max volume whereas the iPhone does not.
8) Some of the Apps I use are on iOS exclusively and not available for Android, so this is a problem in some cases.
Tablet annoyances:
1) The tablet video quality (my video) with Google Duo lags, the remote person on an iPhone using Duo is 30fps but they say my video is around 10-15fps and I can also see myself lag in the local viewfinder. There seems to be no way to reduce the resolution of the camera in Google Duo (like FaceTime but for Android). This makes for a poor experience.
2) The rear camera has no flash (I knew this going in).
3) The photos from the camera aren't really that great at all compared to the iPad Pro 10.5.
4) The S5e is a little "pokey" it works for all it is intended for and I like the OLED screen but its slow compared to the iPad Pro 10.5. Yes I do realize this is a "mid-tier" device but I was testing with the S5e 128GB model (which has 6GB vs. 4GB of ram on the 64GB model).
Apple and the iPhone Xs Max features I missed the most:
1) FaceID works just about every single time--except when there is SUPER bright sunlight directly behind me (which is rare). Having to keep re-orienting my thumb and pressing over and over drove me crazy on the S10+.
2) I can use voice (Siri) to direct the phone to make voice calls and send text messages without needing to touch the phone. Siri is powerful in this regard. I had issues doing this with the S10+ and Google Assistant. I did not try doing the same tasks with Bixby as everyone says how bad it is overall.
Bottom line: Samsung's technologies and features are very nice but it is still not there yet for my use case.
Back to Apple!
[1]
__THE GOOD_
Samsung S10+ Cool features:
1) The LTE reception/network speed on cellular seems better (should be no surprise with the Qualcomm chip), you can see when Carrier Aggregation (CA) is in use in the menubar and also run various utilities to show the band information and have it run in the background.
2) You can play 1440p YouTube content on the screen although side-by-side, the iPhone Xs max seems to have better contrast/quality in my opinion than the S10+, although the S10+ can get slightly brighter than the iPhone Xs Max.
3) You can use Samsung Pay to pay for things where Apple Pay/NFC is not accepted, I really love this feature (MST) but not enough to overcome the items in the bad section below.
4) "Call Continuity" does "work" between the S10+ and the Galaxy Tab S5e but it is nowhere near as good as Apple's integration with the carriers. I believe only T-Mobile and Sprint support the continuity feature at the network level. My testing was with Verizon so it has to make the call through the other device vs. at network level. There was also a 5-10+ second when I called someone on the tablet, by the time I heard anything it was the voice mail being announced. Not a great experience.
5) With Android Pie at least on Verizon I was able to use VoLTE, Wi-Fi calling which was my gripes with the S9+ and previous version of Android. Verizon FYSA also has a new page that lists the unlocked Android phones that are "certified" to work with their network.
6) Verizon also appeared to support RCS but nobody I know has a compatible Android phone that uses that feature who is also on Verizon.
7) You can drag and drop files onto the phone, full filesystem access, which is a feature I really like.
Samsung S5e Cool features:
1) Call/Text continuity (sort of), does not work as well as iMessage and not on network level for Verizon/AT&T.
2) The OLED screen is beautiful and the colors pop.
__THE BAD_
Phone Annoyances:
1) With Phone+Tablet, the echo-cancellation is not as good when using Duo vs. FaceTime, sometimes I hear what I say on the other side.
2)) This is going to sound weird but when I am on the phone and the other person is talking, if I speak its like my voice does not go through, I have to wait until they are done talking for the person on the other line to hear me. This did not occur on the iPhone (carrier agnostic) and same issue with Wi-Fi calling or a VoLTE phone call.
3) Text messages incur additional data usage (MMS) vs. iMessage is sent over Wi-Fi.
4) Text messages also come in grainy (MMS) vs. crystal clear with iMessage.
5) People that reviewed photos from both phones said the colors are not natural with the S10 Plus, I agree.
6) Unlocking problems:
a) Before I registered my thumbprint twice, I could unlock the phone only 1 out of every 5 attempts.
b) After I registered my thumbprint twice, it would work 2-3x out of 5, see image for what I saw this morning when I tried to unlock the phone, no good!
7) Audio quality on speaker, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ seems slightly louder than the iPhone XS Max but the quality is not as good. Not an audiophile here but the S10+ sounds "washed out" at max volume whereas the iPhone does not.
8) Some of the Apps I use are on iOS exclusively and not available for Android, so this is a problem in some cases.
Tablet annoyances:
1) The tablet video quality (my video) with Google Duo lags, the remote person on an iPhone using Duo is 30fps but they say my video is around 10-15fps and I can also see myself lag in the local viewfinder. There seems to be no way to reduce the resolution of the camera in Google Duo (like FaceTime but for Android). This makes for a poor experience.
2) The rear camera has no flash (I knew this going in).
3) The photos from the camera aren't really that great at all compared to the iPad Pro 10.5.
4) The S5e is a little "pokey" it works for all it is intended for and I like the OLED screen but its slow compared to the iPad Pro 10.5. Yes I do realize this is a "mid-tier" device but I was testing with the S5e 128GB model (which has 6GB vs. 4GB of ram on the 64GB model).
Apple and the iPhone Xs Max features I missed the most:
1) FaceID works just about every single time--except when there is SUPER bright sunlight directly behind me (which is rare). Having to keep re-orienting my thumb and pressing over and over drove me crazy on the S10+.
2) I can use voice (Siri) to direct the phone to make voice calls and send text messages without needing to touch the phone. Siri is powerful in this regard. I had issues doing this with the S10+ and Google Assistant. I did not try doing the same tasks with Bixby as everyone says how bad it is overall.
Bottom line: Samsung's technologies and features are very nice but it is still not there yet for my use case.
Back to Apple!
