Android

Hardware great, software garbage. They really want to be like Apple but aren't even half as competent (which is more an insult to Samsung than praise to Apple). It comes bloated with all kind of garbage alot of which you can't uninstall (like Facebook). They have their own app store next to the Google Store which is annoying. It has no reason to be there other than distributing their shitty apps that I don't want in the first place.

I currently have an S21 and can't wait to have the spare income to replace it.

Samsung phones have great hardware, but all the Samsung bloatware ruins the phone. Good if you can get one with only stock android

Samsung has great hardware but my OG galaxy S2 was peak Samsung for me. I still love their build quality but I don't like curved screens, lack of sd slots and 3.5mm jack and so on. Neither do I want all the Samsung social etc. apps.

If Samsung made a clean phone like the pixel with their build quality, that would be a game changer.

Samsung phones are the worst android phones you can buy, except for all the others.

As frustrating as Samsung is, I always find myself going back to them. Displays, build quality, cameras, performance, storage capacity, speakers, software features (Dex!), they're just ahead of the curve across the board.

The only legitimate advantage of Chinese phones is the super fast charging, but I'm in the better safe than sorry camp on that one.

I've had the Fold 3 and now Fold 4, and I really don't see myself getting anything other than a Fold 6 down the line, unless something major changes.

I bought a Samsung because it was the only device with a headphone jack and removable battery. I have zero brand loyality - I just go with whoever makes the best device

Hardware:

They make high-quality hardware and I like that they’re trying to do something new and interesting with foldable tech, but I’ve never been a fan of their Exynos processors and foldables (imo) have proven to be little more than a gimmick that sacrifices far too much on durability for minimal benefit to most people.

Software:

I hate bloatware, and I’m not a fan of their crusade against open bootloaders.

Mixed opinions.

Things I like about Samsung:

• Feature-rich hardware and software
• 4 years of OS updates compared to 3 by Google
• S Pen in Note/Ultra
• Foldables
• Keeping Android tablets and Android-compatible smartwatches alive when Google abandoned them. Huge props for that.

Things I dislike:

• Making fun of Apple and then doing the exact same things they did: removing the headphone jack, display notch, removing the charger in the box.
  • They even got rid of expandable storage in the S series despite being a major manufacturer of micro SDs.
• Samsung's software is notorious for being slow, generally inferior compared to Google's and not the most well-designed out there.
  • I tried both the Galaxy A52 and a Pixel 6a at Best Buy. The A52 was lagging. I bought the 6a.
• They're edging towards anti-repair.
• Certain Samsung smartwatch features only work if you have a Samsung phone.

As someone who exclusively used Samsung flagships as their daily driver (GS2 > Note 4 > Note 8 > Note 20 Ultra), I was a Samsung absolutist and fanboy. But their decisions since the N20U has been frustrating, and has had me eyeing other brands for the first time.

To start about what I love about them: fantastic hardware with solid software. I don't mind their excessive features, because they become so useful, Android/Google adds them to stock 2-3 years later. So it's like a decent beta test for some awesome utilities, like saying "smile" to take a photo with the camera when you can't reach the shutter button. I think several phones now offer this.

What has me eyeing something else for my next phone: shitting on their hardcore power users and greedily taking away options. The removal of the SD card (critical for my usage), the dilution of their features across different models (base, plus, ultra), removing the magstripe, etc. are all anti-consumer with NO benefit to their customers. Even if your typical customer doesn't use a specific feature, it strips the option away from those who do, and it's not like the savings go towards the consumer. If not for these decisions (among other, smaller infractions), I wouldn't be contemplating other brands.

Because of the bloat and their Knox bullshit making it difficult to impossible to remove said bloat with a custom ROM, I will not touch a Samsung phone.

Good photos and the battery lasts quite a while too compared to my other phones I've had.

Overall it's great hardware with good photos and terrible software for me. I'll probably never buy it on a phone again because they're evolving in the way I'd rather not have them evolve.

They have their own unremovable:

• contacts
• calendar
• browser
• phone
• messages
• app store

Makes me feel like they're stealing all my info if I would use it. Besides a Google account they also want you to use a Samsung account which ( honestly ) makes the whole phone more confusing ( especially to older people like my parents ).

But yeah. Good photos and great battery life. I've got no real complaints of the tab s5 tablet which I use when travelling and streaming shows to the tv otherwise. Though I'd have to see if the newer tablets are as much of a dumpster fire software wise like their phones.

Side note: I even had somebody come up to me with their phone "because I work in IT". The default setting of a Samsung phone was to have the lock button activate bigsby rather than lock the phone. There's a setting somewhere to change that. But it definitely felt agressive pushing of bigsby that nobody ( at least around here ) uses/wants to use... Maybe it's different in other countries?

Flagship has no headphone jack or even micro SD card. Absolute joke.

If they had those I would strongly consider buying. I was an LG person until they stopped making phones.

I still have my S21 and I <3 it

I don't know about cheap Samsung phones, but their flagships are excellent. I'm pretty happy with mine.

Good hardware due to samsung producing most of its conponents directly, held back by samsungs fabs with exynos.

Other than that, dont use them because of bloat (devices I've used had a fairly light or almost aosp experience)

Samsung is a shit company and nobody should ever buy anything from them. Phones, TVs, appliances, it doesn't matter -- it's all either pre-infested with ads and malware or sabotaged with planned obsolescence.

I recently bought an S23 after owning 2 pixels and a nexus. So far, I'm loving the experience much more, funny enough because of the things people call bloatware. Maybe it's because I play lots of games.

The sidebar shortcuts a super useful, the lockscreen customizations remind me of old android before google went all apple, and dex is great for multitasking.

The only thing that's a bit annoying is bixby, but i simply installed google assistant alongside it.

Crap phones that don't last, bad UI, filled with bloat and ads, don't play nice with the other Android kids, and steal their homework.

I will only purchase a Samsung again when they let me unlock the damn bootloader

No bootloader unlocking no buy.

I hated Samsung phones when I had them ~2019 because of One UI being so far behind Android as well as me getting constantly badgered to create a Samsung account to use the Samsung store so I can upgrade the built-in photo editor even though I never had any reason to do so.

I didn't see any reason to complain about the hardware One UI ran on, though.

They are very anti repair. And also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-8qqkCbo3U

Great hardware, especially as far as the screens. Questionable software environment. Last I had one, there were duplicates of most Google apps in inferior Samsung form, which was really useless, and they couldn’t be deleted (I think). While the display was s beautiful, another thing I didn’t like was I had one of the ones with curved glass on the sides, a Galaxy S9, which looked cool, was useless, and it ended up getting cracked on the side, so it was useless and fragile.

Their foldables are so damn fragile. My sister's Flip 4 was busted after a fall with a case while my Fold 4 had the black line of death not too soon after the screen protector on the inner screen started popping off.

My current phone is a Samsung and it is the first Samsung phone I have owned and maybe the last. I had previously only owned Motorola phones and absolutely loved them. The Samsung is a perfectly capable phone with (when new) top tier components for its class. The build quality is very good and the screen, of course, is gorgeous. But it's a boring device.

I loved all the extra little touches that Motorola gave me. They didn't change the OS too much, but just enough and the phones were better for it. With Samsung, it's the opposite. The changes are all for the worse. But let me be perfectly clear here, it is still a great phone for the masses, it's just boring.

I consider the Galaxy S line of phones is like the Toyota Camry. Good, reliable. Will do exactly what you need it to do, but don't expect to fall in love with it. It's a well engineered appliance aimed at the general public.