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Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

wired.com

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Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#11

Post by yread »

mosselman wrote: post #7

This phone costs 1700 euros here... 1700 (Netherlands)! That is the price of a gaming laptop! Everything has become so incredibly expensive it just isn't fun to buy anything anymore. My iPhone 11's FaceID broke a few weeks ago and despite that I think I will just stick with it with today's phone prices.

No one sane buys it for the list price. During launch there are always various discounts. I got S25U for 800 (without sending my old phone, just some coupons) with a 5eur/month contract last year at launch. If it really lasts 7 years it's not even that expensive.

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#12

Post by samtheDamned »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #9
throwaway270925 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

significantly and dramatically are two different things. I was sceptic when buying it but have no problem using the display with privacy screen on, and dont see that much difference in brightness, even in direct sunlight, fwiw. Bonus with it on you can stretch your battery life, only half the pixels actually active saves quite some battery, who knew!

You’re paying more for less brightness.

Only if you turn it on for the whole screen at all times, and you are still getting a privacy screen out of it so its not a loss with no benefits.

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#14

Post by mortenjorck »

I was hoping, this being Wired, the article would have at least a surface-level technical description of how a software-defined privacy filter works, but alas.

How does it work? I'm guessing it's some kind of extension of the LCD polarizer, but all I can find online are explanations of the software like in the Wired article.

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#17

Post by zugi »

throwa356262 wrote: post #6
malfist wrote: post #2

Yeah, watch out for those nosy people looking over your shoulder at your phone, they're spying on you. Please ignore all the data mining we're doing on your phone and please don't make us continually harass you first thing in the morning every morning to accept new terms and conditions. (For what it's worth, my Fold 7 harasses me to accept two sets of updates to terms and conditions first thing in the morning every m…

Remove your Samsung account. It is needed for a bunch of things including all bixby stuff (which is admittedly starting to get useful) but those constant ToS updates can drive a man mad. If any Samsung employees are reading this: whoever is pushing those ToS changes is probably a on Apples payroll ;)

I've had Samsung phones for years and never made a Samsung account. Every few weeks my phone suggests signing in or accepting new terms and conditions, and I refuse.

I know Google is mining my information, but I convince myself I'm "sticking it to the man" and taking at least one small stand...

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#18

Post by zugi »

malfist wrote: post #10
throwa356262 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remove your Samsung account. It is needed for a bunch of things including all bixby stuff (which is admittedly starting to get useful) but those constant ToS updates can drive a man mad. If any Samsung employees are reading this: whoever is pushing those ToS changes is probably a on Apples payroll ;)

If I sign out, samsung nukes step tracking and basically neuters my watch's health metrics.

There are a bunch of free or cheap alternative apps. Probably not as smoothly integrated, but years ago a change to Samsung's terms popped up in the health app; I saw it said they could do anything they want with my private health data, so I rejected the terms and stopped using it.

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#19

Post by chistev »

mosselman wrote: post #7

This phone costs 1700 euros here... 1700 (Netherlands)! That is the price of a gaming laptop! Everything has become so incredibly expensive it just isn't fun to buy anything anymore. My iPhone 11's FaceID broke a few weeks ago and despite that I think I will just stick with it with today's phone prices.

What gaming laptop?

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#20

Post by automatic6131 »

abluentalpaca wrote: post #13

This chip is faster in Geekbench than the Ryzen 3900X system I just upgraded. At the time, this was at the top-end for multithreading performance, with a 105W TDP. Now outclassed by a phone.

I just don't believe these geekbench numbers represent real world performance numbers. Like... Firefox compile times or late game civ 6 turn times or such things
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