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Why I will never buy another Samsung device

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Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#331

Post by 72deluxe »

ornornor wrote: post #245
midrus wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any alternatives? What would you recommend instead? I'm under the suspicion that every single Smart TV vendor has the same problems.

Been very happy with our Panasonic OLED. It’s perfectly happy without an internet connection, turns on in 5 seconds flat (a feature these days if you can believe it, as most smart TVs boot a whole Linux or android and take for ever), the amount of options to adjust the image is incredible (they’re used as reference displays in movie studios for coloring movies apparently), and the picture is beautiful. Oh and not a s…

I have a Panasonic from a few years ago (cheapest 4K I could find; is "smart" so has Netflix and Amazon Prime Video and other UK streaming services like More4, ITV Player, Disney+) and it does rely on contacting Panasonic for them to work. Their server went down the other year and ALL of the services on the TV stopped working - Netflix wouldn't launch any more.

It does contact Panasonic but I have blocked the domains with a Pihole and closed outgoing port 53 other than traffic from the Pihole so nothing can make DNS requests directly (eg. hardcoded to 8.8.8.8).

The TV itself is great though. It runs FirefoxOS I believe.

The TV is not as bad as the LG I had before it which sent a web request to LG every time you pressed a button on the remote control... volume up.... web request to LG. Volume down... TV sent a web request to LG.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#332

Post by js2 »

midrus wrote: post #168
jiggawatts wrote: post #160

I avoid all things Samsung for a much more important reason: They spy on you mercilessly, up to about the same level as Facebook. For example, they take screenshots of what you watch on your Samsung Televisions! Don't believe me? Take it from them: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/samsungads/resources/tv-... and https://www.samsung.com/us/business/samsungads/insights/ You're not their customer, you're the product.…

Any alternatives? What would you recommend instead? I'm under the suspicion that every single Smart TV vendor has the same problems.

My cheap Hisense U6G works fine as a dumb TV. It’s not hooked up to my network. I use an AppleTV instead. Got it because it was the best 65” TV on rtings under $1K at the time I bought it.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#333

Post by cma »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #255
rightbyte wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only works if there are no open wifis around. And I would not be suprised if Samsung use Verizon's (?) spy mesh of wifi routers.

I've always heard people claim that TVs will do this, I've never seen one actually do it. I don't believe any TV will speculatively join open wifi without asking.

If you consider Echo Show a smart TV, it can use amazon's sidewalk network to connect without internet.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#335

Post by reflexero »

pcurve wrote: post #197
viraptor wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's something I noticed: the fans of Apple hardware know they can do this, because they... have to do this. I've had 9 or so different laptops in my life over the last 2 decades, from bargain bin models to latest high-spec Lenovo. The only times I've had to fix a laptop was twice in the last 3 years on work-assigned MBP (once the motherboard failed, another time the keyboard fell apart), then had to replace a fail…

I went through 3 lenovos in the past 17 years. I had 3 failures: 1. HDD failed. 2. SSD failed. 3. I dropped it from kitchen countertop. Backlight had to be replaced, but otherwise fine. There was zero failure associated with ports, keyboard, trackpad, or board. Mind you, each machine went through thousands of dock / undock cycle. Even batteries were holding strong charge after 5 years. These were work laptops and I d…

With a cheap Lenovo the design and manufacturing quality is very low and failures much more common than in their professional models. As a Repair Cafe volunteer I've seen people bring in low-end Lenovos only 1-2 years old, that are literally falling apart, through normal use. The reality is there's really two Lenovo brands - the enterprise-grade one, making products designed for serviceability and durability. And there's the consumer-grade Lenovo, with products engineered to a very low price point. Other brands have this duality too. Caveat emptor.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#337

Post by cma »

userbinator wrote: post #36
klodolph wrote: post #4

I am truly, deeply, unsurprised that foldable phones fail along the seam. I know that's not the point of the post, and I'm not blaming the author. It just seems like such a ridiculous concept in the first place. My old flip phone had its own problems, and there wasn't even a display along the seam.

I don't get the point of this design either, unless it's to show off deliberate planned obolescence. Two regular screens with ultra-narrow bezels on the butt edge would achieve the same effect, without the constantly stressed folding bit. I have some old (almost 10 years old now) smartphone LCDs and the pixels go right up to the edge of the glass itself.

What happens if one tiny piece of grit gets in-between the two screens at the visually seamless butt edge? It then gets leveled as they click into place and cracks one doesn't it?

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#338

Post by Teever »

TillE wrote: post #69
userbinator wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get the point of this design either, unless it's to show off deliberate planned obolescence. Two regular screens with ultra-narrow bezels on the butt edge would achieve the same effect, without the constantly stressed folding bit. I have some old (almost 10 years old now) smartphone LCDs and the pixels go right up to the edge of the glass itself.

It's really incredible how much technology and marketing has gone into removing a tiny seam (which is actually not even fully removed anyway).

The people who are tricked into buying these phones through that marketing are beta testers.

Give it a couple of revisions and you'll see products that you actually want to buy.

Compare those pen based tablets that Bill Gates was demoing in IIRC 2002 to the first ipad.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#339

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

jiggawatts wrote: post #160

I avoid all things Samsung for a much more important reason: They spy on you mercilessly, up to about the same level as Facebook. For example, they take screenshots of what you watch on your Samsung Televisions! Don't believe me? Take it from them: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/samsungads/resources/tv-... and https://www.samsung.com/us/business/samsungads/insights/ You're not their customer, you're the product.…

I'm skeptical Google - or even Facebook - are taking screenshots of what average users are looking at.

Sure, they're huge companies - somewhere, some one is probably doing this for some edge case.

Either way - even at FB - I would be highly surprised if this data didn't get auto-deleted within a few weeks (at the latest).

And if you're telling me that Samsung is really that much different - I'm surprised - because there's not any way for them to monetize this data. They're just wasting storage and in the process creating a massive liability for themselves...

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#340

Post by ComodoHacker »

ornornor wrote: post #239
jiggawatts wrote: post #160

I avoid all things Samsung for a much more important reason: They spy on you mercilessly, up to about the same level as Facebook. For example, they take screenshots of what you watch on your Samsung Televisions! Don't believe me? Take it from them: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/samsungads/resources/tv-... and https://www.samsung.com/us/business/samsungads/insights/ You're not their customer, you're the product.…

Worked for Samsung a while back and can confirm all of the above. You couldn’t pay me enough to own and use a Samsung anything.

Does it apply to washing machines? I use one from Samsung. It's not connected.
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