I have a Samsung Galaxy S8 and I consider it to be an inferior product to my iPhone X. The interface is clumsy and awkward, the battery life is pathetic, and I always find myself using saving battery features to extract more juice from the phone. I was not impressed by the Galaxy S9 and S10 either.
But I was at a store yesterday and I tried the new intermediate line of Samsung, the A-series. Somehow, they looked much more interesting than the S10. All the models that I tried (A10, A20, A30, A50 and A70) had big bright AMOLED screens, which looked even brighter than my S8. The resolution is not so high, but I suppose it makes no difference at all on a screen this size. The processor is slower, but they all seemed snappy. And the battery life, at about 4000 mAh, should be much better than both the S-series and the iPhone, especially because of the lower resolution display and slower processors.
And they were all cheap devices. I live in Brazil, but in the U.S. prices for these models seem to range from $130 to $375. A bargain compared to an iPhone X-series or a Galaxy S-series, which will cost at least some $800. I mean, of course these phones are slower and do not have the same kind of features. But this year they seem to have cover a lot of ground, and offer features that could provide a great experience. I may be wrong, as I did not have the chance to try extensively these phones. But they impressed me.
I wonder whether Apple and other manufacturers will be able to keep pushing $1,000+ prices on features which become subtler and more difficult to tell apart every year. I mean, an iPhone XR or XS may be as fast a desktop computer, but does it really matter if you are not running desktop applications, and does not even have an adequate screen to work on powerful software? And does a screen resolution of 3040x1440 (Galaxy S10) does even make sense on such a small screen, other to consume battery, especially when cheaper models offer a 2340x1080 screen, in which is also not possible to tell pixels apart? And does it really matter to have a phone built of premium materials (glass, stainless steel), when you are going to put it inside a case and will not even feel the sophisticated touch of such materials?
I mean, for how long will it make sense paying three to five times the price for a product whose differences are increasingly more difficult to tell apart? Would it be status alone?
But I was at a store yesterday and I tried the new intermediate line of Samsung, the A-series. Somehow, they looked much more interesting than the S10. All the models that I tried (A10, A20, A30, A50 and A70) had big bright AMOLED screens, which looked even brighter than my S8. The resolution is not so high, but I suppose it makes no difference at all on a screen this size. The processor is slower, but they all seemed snappy. And the battery life, at about 4000 mAh, should be much better than both the S-series and the iPhone, especially because of the lower resolution display and slower processors.
And they were all cheap devices. I live in Brazil, but in the U.S. prices for these models seem to range from $130 to $375. A bargain compared to an iPhone X-series or a Galaxy S-series, which will cost at least some $800. I mean, of course these phones are slower and do not have the same kind of features. But this year they seem to have cover a lot of ground, and offer features that could provide a great experience. I may be wrong, as I did not have the chance to try extensively these phones. But they impressed me.
I wonder whether Apple and other manufacturers will be able to keep pushing $1,000+ prices on features which become subtler and more difficult to tell apart every year. I mean, an iPhone XR or XS may be as fast a desktop computer, but does it really matter if you are not running desktop applications, and does not even have an adequate screen to work on powerful software? And does a screen resolution of 3040x1440 (Galaxy S10) does even make sense on such a small screen, other to consume battery, especially when cheaper models offer a 2340x1080 screen, in which is also not possible to tell pixels apart? And does it really matter to have a phone built of premium materials (glass, stainless steel), when you are going to put it inside a case and will not even feel the sophisticated touch of such materials?
I mean, for how long will it make sense paying three to five times the price for a product whose differences are increasingly more difficult to tell apart? Would it be status alone?
