Why doesn't Samsung update TW on older phones ?

[Tig Bitties]

I am an Android fan, but prefer stock Android, Nexus phones or GPE phones #1. But I have had several Samsung phones in the past, and liked them ok.

My question is how Samsung doesn't update Touchwiz on older phones. Follow me here please. Apple for instance comes out with a new iOS version, like iOS8 isn't just for the iPhone 6, it is also available for the 5S, 5, and 4S, and they all get pretty much the same features, and iOS8 will look the same on the 6 as it does the 4S, it's not a different version, or totally different design or style on both phones.

Android, and their Nexus and GPE phones will all get a new Android OS update around the same time in a month or so, point being a Nexus 6 running 5.0 L will look the same as 5.0 L on the Nexus 5 or HTC One GPE, or Nexus 4, it won't look different or have different a style or design.

Now back to Samsung. The Note 4 has the best looking Touchwiz to date, more stripped down and clean looking. The S5 kind of has that too, but not as much as the Note 4. The Note 3 still has the older Touchwiz ugly Gingerbread theme, and the Galaxy S4 even more outdated looking. But all of these phones have Android 4.4.3, and are only like 1 year to 18 months old.

Why does the S4 and Note 3 still have the ugly older Touchwiz, where Samsung came out with a big updated TW on the S5 and now the Note 4, but those Samsung flagship phones never got that new Touchwiz update, but they did get the new Android OS updates.

And things like S-Voice are just stupid Samsung apps, where Google already has that built into the Android OS, it's called Google Now. There shouldn't even be a thing like S-Voice, no need for that if you running the Android OS.

 

[Rodster]

I'm a fan of Samsung (hardware) but IMO and in the opinion of others, TouchWiz turns off people to Android as much as Amazon's skinned version of Android. Both OS's require additional power to run the added UI layer.

That said, there are several HQ launchers that smoke TouchWiz, such as Nova Launcher, Apex, KK Launcher, Google Now etc. My favorite is Nova and it doesn't impact the hardware at all and adds a bunch of customization and eye candy.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I'm a fan of Samsung (hardware) but IMO and in the opinion of others, TouchWiz turns off people to Android as much as Amazon's skinned version of Android. Both OS's require additional power to run the added UI layer.

That said, there are several HQ launchers that smoke TouchWiz, such as Nova Launcher, Apex, KK Launcher, Google Now etc. My favorite is Nova and it doesn't impact the hardware at all and adds a bunch of customization and eye candy.

And yet nobody buys those other OEM's devices in the same number as they do Samsung devices.

 

[Rodster]

And yet nobody buys those other OEM's devices in the same number as they do Samsung devices.

That's why I mentioned (hardware) and I do own Samsung products. Some hate TouchWiz, some don't care but the consensus is TouchWiz is not a good UI and adds layers of bloat and impacts UI performance.

 

[mattopotamus]

Well for one they want people to upgrade their phones every year. The person who bought the note 3 they want to buy the note 4. If they deliver the same features, someone may not upgrade.

I also think it has a lot to do with the update process. It is not like apple where the OS can just be updated on a whim. The updates for android, OS aside, still have to go through a carrier. If samsung wants to update just TW they still need to send it to att/verizon/etc so they can update their bloat. At least I think they would still need to, which could be a reason.

Then when you add in android getting updated, it is just a pain in the ass to update as a manufacture.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

My question is how Samsung doesn't update Touchwiz on older phones. Follow me here please.

Why does the S4 and Note 3 still have the ugly older Touchwiz, where Samsung came out with a big updated TW on the S5 and now the Note 4, but those Samsung flagship phones never got that new Touchwiz update, but they did get the new Android OS updates.

As a fan of TW, I've wondered that too. It seems any phone without the fingerprint sensor or the heartbeat reader, doesn't have or will not be updated with the new TW design. I guess Samsung wants to move forward into a new chapter and not look back.

Apple for instance comes out with a new iOS version, like iOS8 isn't just for the iPhone 6, it is also available for the 5S, 5, and 4S, and they all get pretty much the same features, and iOS8 will look the same on the 6 as it does the 4S, it's not a different version, or totally different design or style on both phones.

Plenty of missing software features on the 4S and the 5. And on my iPad 2, the list of missing features are too long. And many software features are not hardware related/restricted.

Android, and their Nexus and GPE phones will all get a new Android OS update around the same time in a month or so, point being a Nexus 6 running 5.0 L will look the same as 5.0 L on the Nexus 5 or HTC One GPE, or Nexus 4, it won't look different or have different a style or design.

And for many, that's a turn off. I personally don't want pure Android on my Samsung phone. But I like it on my Nexus 7.

Now back to Samsung. The Note 4 has the best looking Touchwiz to date, more stripped down and clean looking. The S5 kind of has that too, but not as much as the Note 4.

The Note series will always have a slightly better TW than the S line, cause it's a phablet. Apple did the same thing with the 6 Plus over the 6, by letting the 6 Plus have homescreen landscape mode and gave certain default apps a tablet like UI. The 6 doesn't have those software features.

So you see, this is not just a Samsung thing. iOS features is at the beginning stages of becoming fragmented by hardware choice.

The Note 3 still has the older Touchwiz ugly Gingerbread theme, and the Galaxy S4 even more outdated looking. But all of these phones have Android 4.4.3, and are only like 1 year to 18 months old.

One thing I don't like about TouchWiz is how Samsung arranges it by default. For the most part, TW is ugly out of the box. But everytime I get a Samsung phone, in less than a day my homescreens will have a completely different look to it.

 

[linkgx1]

Because Samsung doesn't make any money on current devices after they are sold. It's more or less a ''support for a few months then get rid of it'' scheme. Samsung makes more money selling devices than they do supporting them..unlike Apple. If you have an iPad 2, Apple still gets 30% of all your app purchases. Doesn't happen on Android because Sammy doesn't own Android.

It does become very frustrating because Samsung isn't ''tied'' to their OS. So they just don't give a damn. If you get a Galaxy, rest assured there's going to be that ''one'' thing that you want get on the following device.

Galaxy devices, while advanced, quickly become behind. In order to get any part of something ''new'' you have to upgrade. Apple devices still get a lot of the older features, even if you have an older device like the 4S. But a GS2 will not have any features of the newer galaxies, even if it is capable.

 

[The Game 161]

I use nova on my note 3 but to take advantage of the main features I'm going to use touchwiz

 

[tbayrgs]

Because Samsung doesn't make any money on current devices after they are sold. It's more or less a ''support for a few months then get rid of it'' scheme. Samsung makes more money selling devices than they do supporting them..unlike Apple. If you have an iPad 2, Apple still gets 30% of all your app purchases. Doesn't happen on Android because Sammy doesn't own Android.

This^. I'd also guess that it's easier to tweak an existing version of TW that was already designed for a specific device rather than make numerous versions of the newest release that needs to accommodate all the hardware differences. Path of least resistance, so to speak.

 

[Technarchy]

Well for one they want people to upgrade their phones every year. The person who bought the note 3 they want to buy the note 4. If they deliver the same features, someone may not upgrade.

Most likely.

Samsung makes their biggest bucks by selling hardware. Why would they want you to be happy with older hardware, when they can make you happier with new hardware and make a buck.

You can expect a newer, and better Touchwiz to appear with S6. But don't ever expect to see it on an S5, S4 or S3.

Hence why I like AT&T next. How long and deeply Samsung supports a device is not really all that important because I get upgrades every 12 months.

 

[Stuntman06]

I use nova on my note 3 but to take advantage of the main features I'm going to use touchwiz

I use Nova Prime on my SGS3. It just replaces the home screen. Everywhere else like settings is still TW. I don't really have an issue with TW. I like the voice actions for instance. I only use Nova Prime to get rid of that dock on the bottom of the home screen which is by default present on every Android device's default launcher.

 

[rockitdog]

Most likely.

Samsung makes their biggest bucks by selling hardware. Why would they want you to be happy with older hardware, when they can make you happier with new hardware and make a buck.

You can expect a newer, and better Touchwiz to appear with S6. But don't ever expect to see it on an S5, S4 or S3.

Hence why I like AT&T next. How long and deeply Samsung supports a device is not really all that important because I get upgrades every 12 months.

Renting a phone.... no thanks!

 

[Shanghaichica]

I think they do, at least they used to. The original galaxy note is the only Samsung phone that I've used for any period of time. The rest ive used for about 6 months max, before upgrading to the latest galaxy flagship. I had the original galaxy note for 16 months. In that time it got a few software updates and eventually the touch wiz UI got updated to the one that was on that galaxy S3/note 2. I haven't used the other phones for long enough to really get an idea of their upgrade paths over time.

So maybe next year the S4 and Note 3 would get updated to the current version of touchwiz (2014).

 

[TechGod]

And yet nobody buys those other OEM's devices in the same number as they do Samsung devices.

Advertising at it's best.

 

[Fanaticalism]

Renting a phone.... no thanks!

how many phones have you purchased over the past two years and how many do you still have?

Edit: And you clearly don't know how next works.

$15 x 12 for the line plus $32 x 12 for phone = $564

vs

$200 up front + $40 x 12 for line =$680

Hassle free upgrades every year.

 

[Savor]

What I don't get with Samsung is why do some of their lower end models look better than their past flagships? I was checking out the Galaxy Core 2 today and wondered how can a sub-$200 smartphone look better than a Galaxy S3 and S4 ? The Galaxy Core 2 does look pretty good for Samsung's standards and for its price range. Soft touch faux leather back really does feel nice. Although there are better options like the Asus Zenfone 5 or Xiaomi Redmi 1s that are even cheaper. Sony does the same thing by having removable batteries on their low end smartphones but nonremovable on their flagships.

 

[Dontazemebro]

Agreed on the Touchwiz front. Samsung rarely updates their phones unlike HTC who will update Android versions as well as Sense versions. Right now I'm running JasmineROM on the Note 3. It's a bastardized version of the S5 but meant for the Note series with S Pen support. It looks and functions so much better than the version of touchwiz meant for the Note 3.

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[LIVEFRMNYC]

What I don't get with Samsung is why do some of their lower end models look better than their past flagships? I was checking out the Galaxy Core 2 today and wondered how can a sub-$200 smartphone look better than a Galaxy S3 and S4 ? The Galaxy Core 2 does look pretty good for Samsung's standards and for its price range. Soft touch faux leather back really does feel nice. Although there are better options like the Asus Zenfone 5 or Xiaomi Redmi 1s that are even cheaper. Sony does the same thing by having removable batteries on their low end smartphones but nonremovable on their flagships.

Why wouldn't a newer phone look and/or be built better, regardless of flagship or budget?

 

[linkgx1]

Agreed on the Touchwiz front. Samsung rarely updates their phones unlike HTC who will update Android versions as well as Sense versions. Right now I'm running JasmineROM on the Note 3. It's a bastardized version of the S5 but meant for the Note series with S Pen support. It looks and functions so much better than the version of touchwiz meant for the Note 3.

[url=http://i.imgur.com/gkJRsmMl.png]Image​

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[/URL]

HTC is better at updating their older phones. WAAAAY better. Build quality is great too. But I just always have to have Samsung (or Apple). I'm hideous!

 

[Tig Bitties]

And with the MAJOR Android update coming next month; Android 5.0 L. I am very curious how Samsung will handle that ?

The Note 4 ships with the older and soon to be outdated 4.4.4 Android OS. And the next Samsung phone due out will be the Galaxy S6 in March, and for sure that phone and that Touchwiz on the S6 will be designed form the ground up running Android 5.0 L. Samsung has a bad track record of updating existing phones running older versions compared to a huge 5.0 brand new Android release.

My point is, the Touchwiz on the upcoming Galaxy S6 will be designed from scratch with Android 5.0 L code. Where as the Note 4 I see Samsung band aiding that on, and won't be nearly as clean or nice as what the S6 will get.

And you know the Note 4 will be left in the dust next year, and will never see the cool totally revised Galaxy S6 Touchwiz, just like now, the Note 3 still has the ugly old outdated looking Touchwiz, and Samsung has not given it the new S5 or Note 4 Touchwiz yet, and they won't.

 

[tbayrgs]

And with the MAJOR Android update coming next month; Android 5.0 L. I am very curious how Samsung will handle that ?

The Note 4 ships with the older and soon to be outdated 4.4.4 Android OS. And the next Samsung phone due out will be the Galaxy S6 in March, and for sure that phone and that Touchwiz on the S6 will be designed form the ground up running Android 5.0 L. Samsung has a bad track record of updating existing phones running older versions compared to a huge 5.0 brand new Android release.

Well, considering just a month ago only about 25% of Android phones were using KK, I wouldn't exactly call it outdated. It's always at least 6 months after a new version of Android is released that we start to see it make any significant inroads. Just the nature of how Android is utilized.

 

[Zwhaler]

I actually prefer the old Touch Wiz a little... the quick settings icons are easier to tap, the black theme I prefer over the white theme in contacts, phone, messages, etc. But the new one will go nice with my white Note 4. OP, either grow to like that version of Touch Wiz, get a 3rd party launcher, or upgrade your phone.