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Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

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Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#51

Post by throwaway270925 »

close04 wrote: post #41
josalhor wrote: post #22

People use their phone today to: Manage 100k+,1M+ bank accounts, 2FA, secret messaging, sensitive media, medication, credentials and more. This privacy feature makes a lot of sense. Give it a couple of iterations and I think this will be the standard in business. It never made sense to me the trust that we put on no one looking at the contents of a display at the same time as us.

The people who are genuinely concerned about shoulder surfing probably slapped on a privacy filter anyway. They're no different from a screen protector. What the S26 Ultra can do is cool and super useful for the few people who need it, but I'd bet that all the rest will just show it off as a cool party trick and nothing more. I've seen this with laptops that came with integrated electronically controlled privacy filt…

> The people who are genuinely concerned about shoulder surfing probably slapped on a privacy filter anyway.

So only the people concerned about it should get privacy?

> They're no different from a screen protector.

Privacy filters are way worse than screen protectors, they permanently degrade your display experience by a LOT, and you cant turn them off when you dont need them.

> I've seen this with laptops that came with integrated electronically controlled privacy filter.

Which are a completely different thing than this privacy display.

> lowered image quality

Exactly, these addon filters or layers degrade image quality, this new display doesnt. In normal mode its just a normal 2600 nits, HDR, 120hz, and whatnot OLED smartphone display.

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#52

Post by whatevaa »

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.

Wait some time after launch, prices will come down.

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#53

Post by ageitgey »

I'm posting this with my S26 Ultra.

Is it just a lame rehash of the same phone from the last 4 years with a faster CPU and a screen privacy feature? Yes. But man, the screen privacy feature is so good. I expect that everyone will copy it. Once you have it, it seems irresponsible to not have it. Having it auto-enabled on an app-by-app basis is so nice.

Also, yes, it is absurdly expensive. But whenever Samsung launches a new phone, they offer large preorder bonuses and generous trade-in rates for 2-3 year old phones. So don't believe the price. I think they have to do this to keep growth going, but you get them much cheaper than the stated price if you pre-order. I paid less than 50% of the list price after trading in my near identical S24 and got a free bump to the 512GB model.

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#54

Post by hulitu »

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.

But your Ryzen is more than just a toy. You can run a real OS on it, develop SW, have a real keyboard.

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#55

Post by throwa356262 »

hulitu wrote: post #54
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.

But your Ryzen is more than just a toy. You can run a real OS on it, develop SW, have a real keyboard.

These phones have Dex.

I have multiple times in past used Samsung phones as my primary computer while the laptop was installing updates (thanks Microsoft) or when I simply forgot the laptop at home.

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#56

Post by close04 »

throwaway270925 wrote: post #51
close04 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who are genuinely concerned about shoulder surfing probably slapped on a privacy filter anyway. They're no different from a screen protector. What the S26 Ultra can do is cool and super useful for the few people who need it, but I'd bet that all the rest will just show it off as a cool party trick and nothing more. I've seen this with laptops that came with integrated electronically controlled privacy filt…

> The people who are genuinely concerned about shoulder surfing probably slapped on a privacy filter anyway. So only the people concerned about it should get privacy? > They're no different from a screen protector. Privacy filters are way worse than screen protectors, they permanently degrade your display experience by a LOT, and you cant turn them off when you dont need them. > I've seen this with laptops that came…

> So only the people concerned about it should get privacy?

To call this an uncharitable interpretation would be an understatement. The phone has a feature that costs money and if you look around you’ll see most people don’t bother with this concern.

It has nothing to do with “should”. I have the same privacy now and for way less than the price of that phone. The solution for privacy exists already and the one Samsung offers was already “rejected” in the past because of the added cost most likely. Why do you think it comes on one of the most expensive phones on the market?

> these addon filters or layers degrade image quality

You didn’t read my comment carefully. I wrote specifically about integrated electronically controlled privacy filters on screen laptops which lowered image quality.

A phone at this price level already targets a tiny niche just because of affordability. A small part of that niche buys the phone because they want the privacy screen.

Re: Review: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

#57

Post by LtWorf »

SchemaLoad wrote: post #42
rchard2scout wrote: post #39

> if you don't want any of these AI capabilities, you can spend a few minutes disabling and getting rid of most of them. Why is this "a few minutes" and "most of them"? Why isn't it "a few seconds" and "all of them with a single toggle in Settings"?

Samsung has never respected the user. I remember having having a Galaxy S5 and every update it would reinstall all the bloatware like facebook and paypal. Everyone who cares about a platform that respects them and their time moved to iPhone long ago. Apple's AI features can be turned off with one global toggle, as well as more granular ones.

I don't know why you're downvoted. On a really old device I had from work they pushed out an update which introduced an overlay with ads at random places on the screen.
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