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Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

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Re: Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

#21
post #11

Samsung and LG both introduce their annual flagship smartphone so early in the year. Doesn't it give Apple plenty of time to counter them spec wise if any? Just curious, if you're Apple competitor, what's the pros and cons of launching your flagship before and after Apple's launch?

Nah. Apple largely does not care what competitors do, Apple seeks to set trends instead of following them. They're more interested in Google's software than Samsung's hardware, and only so far as to make sure truly necessary features are included in iOS.

Plus, Apple buys or has bought chips and screens from Samsung.

On the flip side, getting your flagship out months and months before Apple means hundreds of thousands or millions of people walking around with the "latest and greatest" which might just eclipse the last gen iPhone.

Still, Apple doesn't compete on specs. They happily put less megapixels (with better quality) or a lower clock speed (with better chip design and operating system efficiency), and have almost always had much smaller batteries.

Re: Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

#22
post #11

Samsung and LG both introduce their annual flagship smartphone so early in the year. Doesn't it give Apple plenty of time to counter them spec wise if any? Just curious, if you're Apple competitor, what's the pros and cons of launching your flagship before and after Apple's launch?

How about the other way round? Who's to say that they're not countering Apple in their specs?

I think that with this one-year cycle that phone manufacturers have--unfortunately--imposed on themselves, it is a strategic decision to have both ecosystems at different times in the year--so you have all the media buzz for one system at a time. If you were to have both competitors released at the same time, there would be probably less reporting on either, and that may be a risk neither Samsung nor Apple want to take--the two being the only two manufacturers whose releases regularly make it into non-tech news outlets.

Also, if you have half a year between releases, then the pressure of being able to directly compare specs is off, as compared to if both were released the same day (then one would have 'won' the specs contest and the other lost, which would likely be publicized widely, which both want to avoid by being able to say: our next release will blow everything that existed before out of the water).

Those would be my best guesses why we're seeing such consistent schedules.

Re: Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

#23
The most important feature of my S5 is the fact that it's waterproof - glad they carried that over to the S7. My kids like to throw stuff in the toilet, including any phone that is not actively being held, or splash on them from the bath, so it has saved me many many times already.

That's what sets it apart from the Apple devices for me as a daily device and I'm surprised more phones don't do that - but apparently consumers don't care that much.

Re: Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

#24
post #4

The hardware quality of Samsung's flagship products has always been excellent. However the software issues make the price ridiculous. Good luck getting rapid Android updates for your carrier-modified Samsung Galaxy S7. I'm stuck with a T-Mobile Note 4 with 5.1.1.

> Good luck getting rapid Android updates for your carrier-modified Samsung Galaxy S7. I'm stuck with a T-Mobile Note 4 with 5.1.1.

Is this still true? This article seems to suggest Samsung is more committed to OS updates

http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-makes-good-its-promise-reve...

Re: Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

#26
post #11

Samsung and LG both introduce their annual flagship smartphone so early in the year. Doesn't it give Apple plenty of time to counter them spec wise if any? Just curious, if you're Apple competitor, what's the pros and cons of launching your flagship before and after Apple's launch?

[deleted]

Re: Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

#27
nice to see that sd cards are supported again as well as waterproofing, now if they could figure out a way to removable battery with the same form-factor (because if they had a plastic back they'd be crucified in the press, despite the fact that a plastic back is just as good IMHO) it would be amazing

Re: Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

#28
post #8
post #4

The hardware quality of Samsung's flagship products has always been excellent. However the software issues make the price ridiculous. Good luck getting rapid Android updates for your carrier-modified Samsung Galaxy S7. I'm stuck with a T-Mobile Note 4 with 5.1.1.

My Galaxy S5 has been terrible since the 5.1 upgrade. I actually don't want any software updates. My phone used to be a fast nicely functioning phone and now it's a sluggish piece of trash that's unusable. Like just stick with the current phone software and give me security updates and that's it. I've tried factory resetting and uninstalling most apps (and a factory reset is a huge pain with 2-factor set up everywher…

Without updates your phone is even more of a security nightmare than it is already.

Re: Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

#29

Still happy with my S3 and feel I'm not missing any key features. The more generations go on you realize just how incremental the phone upgrades have gotten for quite some time now.

I have the S3 and I can't wait to upgrade. It is SLOW (noticeable lag). Plus, not sure what causes this (hardware or software) -- but the GPS navigation is terrible. I'm stuck on Android 4.4.2. Takes forever to lock in on my location, loses signal randomly, and sometimes in the middle of navigation it stop updating where I am on the visual display. The camera is horrendous. So, speak for yourself. Phones have come a long way since the S3.

Re: Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

#30
post #28
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Galaxy S5 has been terrible since the 5.1 upgrade. I actually don't want any software updates. My phone used to be a fast nicely functioning phone and now it's a sluggish piece of trash that's unusable. Like just stick with the current phone software and give me security updates and that's it. I've tried factory resetting and uninstalling most apps (and a factory reset is a huge pain with 2-factor set up everywher…

Without updates your phone is even more of a security nightmare than it is already.

I explicitly said that I do want security updates, I don't need the next version of Android though. If the current software I have is broken, please just fix that and not ship me something my phone can't deal with.
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