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Why I will never buy another Samsung device

lehtimaeki.medium.com

501–510 of 664 posts

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#501
I guess the very definition of Early-Adopter is that you bear the brunt of the product development costs :-D So it is not so much Samsung's fault, but you wanting to be an Early Adopter without having to bear any of the risks that come with that.

I mean, foldable screen, of course that will break quickly. It's actually astonishing that it survived for 3 months, that's pretty cool tech.

If you want safety, get an iPhone and Apple Care. They should be foldable in a few years time.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple understands something many retailers have lost. The way you deal with the customer when they’re not happy turns you into a lifetime customer. And if it doesn’t it’s a small price to pay. Costco, Nordstrom, Marine Layer, etc. To me this is a winning strategy. Even if it’s 1 in 5 or less.

If that one warranty-abusing user convinces 2-3 others to buy the same product and they don't abuse the warranty, the company is still making more money.

It comes down to margin. In a commodity business like Android phones or TVs the margins are razor thin. With a 10% profit margin you’d need to convince 10 other buyers just to break even on one fraudulent replacement. The real difference is Apple has some of the best profit margins in the industry.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#503

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 run the same setup for the same reasons. I also think having the TV disable itself until given network access (but waiting until after you've thrown the box away) or having prepaid 5G will come soon. It's disgusting but here we are.

I've actually come to appreciate the wireless keyboard though, it is awkward and bulky (even though it's a lightweight slim model) but the kids constantly lose the actual remote whereas the keyboard's size make losing it very difficult.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#504
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 rathe…

> I used Samsung devices exclusively because they have RMA offices all around SEA region.

And how long does that take? Do you need to speak to Samsung support on the phone to get an RMA number? How easy is that? That seems to be the process according to Google. What have you had to get repaired this way? What was the process?

> On the other hand Apple's iCare in my current town has 2.2 stars on google reviews

First, what is iCare? Do you mean an Apple Store? Are you referring to AppleCare? Or something third party? I'm genuinely curious: which store? Can you point to it specifically?

> 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.

This story doesn't really pass the smell test to me. Who is dropping money to fix a work phone rather than having work deal with it? Was this out of pocket or expensed?

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#505

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.…

This is sad. I was looking at S22 and may be it is finally good enough I could switch away from Apple. Now I need to think again.

Doesn't seems like I have much choice.

I have been thinking for some time, what does it take for a third Mobile OS platform. While there are millions of Apps, The absolute essential Apps on smartphone seems to have concentrated to less than a hundred?

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they made the screen as easy to replace as possible, treat them as consumable like removable battery, and sell the replacement at reasonable cost, it might actually works. Swapping a foldable screen once a year at $50 on a >$1000 phone is reasonable expense IMO.

those screens are the most expensive part, on top of that replacing them is hard due to technology that makes them good(good enough?), you make them easily replaceable and it will make them less desirable by the customer.

It is the most expensive part, yes, but even so, the BoM price for that flexible screen might still be cheap enough to be passed on to customer. They'll need to be creative on how to make that part as easy to replace as possible with as few material and complexity as possible, maybe like applying a piece of screen protector and slotting the edge into a slot like those thin flex wires.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#507
post #7

I can feel my blood boiling for you. In fact I'm in the market for a new phone and stories like this make me actively want to avoid Samsung. As companies get larger and larger they will tend to make choices that are suboptimal to consumers. Cynical me says that Samsung is seeing above average warranty claims on these foldable phones. Thus they need to get them down so some manager somewhere decides that they will enf…

Consider supporting GNU/Linux phones, instead of the Google-Apple duopoly: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30417086.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#508
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?

A Pixel phone.

Honestly Pixel should be the only android you consider as its the only phone that doesn't come loaded with trash spyware (outside of niche phones like Fairphone)

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#509

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…

Have you ever wondered if your TV has connected itself to one of your neighbors' unprotected wifi networks?

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#510

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 pretty sure just about every TV brand is doing this now. Roku and FireTV are well known - there's literal research papers out there about the tracking they do - and a ton of TVs come bundled with Roku or FireTV these days. AFAIK LG is also doing that but I don't have a quotable source on it.

In the US, the Video Privacy Protection Act has a pretty interesting history. If you aren't familiar with it, the Wikipedia page has a pretty good summary:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

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