Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I will never buy another Samsung device

lehtimaeki.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 664 posts

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#421

Post by distances »

josephg wrote: post #357
virtue3 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

worked for a company doing apps for smartTVs. They all do it. Incessently. I made ad games that would pop up when the system recognized a certain ad was playing. you were supposed to be able to opt out of this but LG got busted in the UK for not listening to that option. This was back in 2013 era. It's worse by now I'm sure. They'd straight up send a screencap of whatever was on your screen every second for content r…

Yep. I have a smart tv. (What other kind exists today?). The remote has a netflix button - which is super useful. But according to my router, the TV sends a trickle of data over WIFI constantly. Even when its "off". So I've banned the TV from my WIFI network, and I just have a PC plugged into it. Its less convenient this way - we need to pull out a wireless keyboard & mouse to watch netflix. But I think its the right…

For Netflix, maybe Chromecast or similar stick would do the trick? The stick will surely track you still but at least it isn't Samsung.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#422

Post by wraptile »

jmyeet wrote: post #405

So the author had a folding phone that failed and couldn't get it repaired/replaced. The narrow take is that you're kinda crazy to buy a folding phone but Samsung was selling them so is really on the hook for the inevitable issues. The story of getting it fixed is really why people love Apple and even Amazon. I've had the Wifi go unreliable on an iPad. I got a Genius appointment for later that day. They confirmed the…

> The story of getting it fixed is really why people love Apple and even Amazon.

It's really one of those anecdotal experiences. I used Samsung devices exclusively because they have RMA offices all around SEA region. On the other hand Apple's iCare in my current town has 2.2 stars on google reviews which I didn't know was even possible. When my work iPhone's battery died I decided to drop 70$ from my own pocket rather than deal with iCare - that's how bad it was.

All I'm saying that warranty service anecdotes are just that - anecdotes, and your milage might vary.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#423

Post by poisonborz »

OP simply bought into new technology (even if this is a 2nd gen device), and pays the price. A such often used device with moving parts is in constant danger, and I'd wager any major manufacturer would react similarly.

You could call out Samsung on this issue, but outright trumpet "never buy any device again" based on your edge case is just sour clickbait. Samsung - despite myriads of issues with bloatware, OSS-hostility, half-assed and then abandoned features - is still a major innovator, has a solid product line, and currently the only company that can globally compete with Apple.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#424

Post by thathndude »

jmyeet wrote: post #405

So the author had a folding phone that failed and couldn't get it repaired/replaced. The narrow take is that you're kinda crazy to buy a folding phone but Samsung was selling them so is really on the hook for the inevitable issues. The story of getting it fixed is really why people love Apple and even Amazon. I've had the Wifi go unreliable on an iPad. I got a Genius appointment for later that day. They confirmed the…

A corollary to this take is that I don’t think folks appreciate how much Apple and Amazon have moved expectations. We’ve definitely adapted to this new normal that is insanely consumer friendly. But as soon as we get a taste of the way things used to be, it’s eye opening how far we’ve come.

I think Google might be more of the same, but I just don’t have enough experience with the company.

I’ve heard horror stories from Microsoft when it comes to hardware.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#425

Post by pastrybanking »

FrozenSynapse wrote: post #341
p410n3 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love some examples of this. I'm about to buy a new phone and originally planned to get a s21/22. But now I'm questioning this. But I'd also like some more details on this

what are the alternatives in the Android space with good camera and good user experience?

I'm a big fan of Nokias as they don't come with the bloatware common on some other Android phones.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#426

Post by southerntofu »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #409
southerntofu wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're a slimy company made up of unscrupulous people trying to squeeze every last drop out of every rock. Unfortunately, i find it hard in this day and age to find a hardware manufacturer that's not abusive. Do you know of a hardware manufacturer that has a reasonable warranty policy, makes it easy to repair the hardware (no screws or standard screws, definitely no glue), publishes datasheets (specs) and does not…

You are placing a much higher bar than GP. Yes, by your standard almost all companies fail. But I think GP’s point is fair that Samsung goes well beyond Apple’s screws and glue by also collecting collecting a ton of data that you wouldn’t expect.

I'm placing a much higher bar yes, but don't you believe it's a very low bar that should be a legal requirement? It's not like i'm asking for the phone to have 10y warranty and available spare parts for 20 years... although wait i'm actually asking for that it sounds plenty reasonable to tackle the electronics waste problem which is uncomfortably related to climate change.

So yes relative to the current market, my expectations are high. But in absolute, and if you forget about all the crapware we've been fed in the past two decades, does that sound actually unreasonable?

PS: it appears iOS does plenty of background data collection too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28741262

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#427

Post by aembleton »

72deluxe wrote: post #331
ornornor wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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).

I don't understand - you've blocked it from contacting Panasonic; does that mean that none of the services work any more? Or is there another domain that it has to keep in contact with that you've allowed? If so, why block the Panasonic domain when you allow it to chat to some other third party?

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#428

Post by vinay427 »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #252
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.

Sony TVs use Google software, and while Google spies on you too, at least they're honest about it (!), and allow you to turn it off. I also trust Google to have fewer glaring security issues than Samsung.

> and allow you to turn it off.

Source? On Android with Google Play Services, which almost always applies to Android TV as they’re essentially the same OS, there are no UI toggles to turn off the spying. You can check this using a DNS proxy, for instance, and viewing the log after blocking Google domains using such a proxy might prove quite alarming. Android devices even with location and search tracking disabled contact Google every several minutes.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#429

Post by tremon »

josephg wrote: post #357
virtue3 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

worked for a company doing apps for smartTVs. They all do it. Incessently. I made ad games that would pop up when the system recognized a certain ad was playing. you were supposed to be able to opt out of this but LG got busted in the UK for not listening to that option. This was back in 2013 era. It's worse by now I'm sure. They'd straight up send a screencap of whatever was on your screen every second for content r…

Yep. I have a smart tv. (What other kind exists today?). The remote has a netflix button - which is super useful. But according to my router, the TV sends a trickle of data over WIFI constantly. Even when its "off". So I've banned the TV from my WIFI network, and I just have a PC plugged into it. Its less convenient this way - we need to pull out a wireless keyboard & mouse to watch netflix. But I think its the right…

I have a smart tv. (What other kind exists today?)

Monitors. I have a 40" monitor in my living room, connected to the cable company's STB. Not that that's regularly used, most of the time I use my HTPC instead, which runs Kodi.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#430

Post by ingenium »

josephg wrote: post #357
virtue3 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

worked for a company doing apps for smartTVs. They all do it. Incessently. I made ad games that would pop up when the system recognized a certain ad was playing. you were supposed to be able to opt out of this but LG got busted in the UK for not listening to that option. This was back in 2013 era. It's worse by now I'm sure. They'd straight up send a screencap of whatever was on your screen every second for content r…

Yep. I have a smart tv. (What other kind exists today?). The remote has a netflix button - which is super useful. But according to my router, the TV sends a trickle of data over WIFI constantly. Even when its "off". So I've banned the TV from my WIFI network, and I just have a PC plugged into it. Its less convenient this way - we need to pull out a wireless keyboard & mouse to watch netflix. But I think its the right…

I have my Samsung TV wired to my network only for remote control with Home Assistant (can turn it off if nothing is playing for example). But I force all of its DNS to use a pihole, blocking all Samsung domains. I think I also have firewall rules to also block all internet access on it except NTP, but I don't remember if I still have that enabled or not (there may have been an issue with it disabling something that I needed for Home Assistant to talk to it).
Post reply on HN