Samsung phones are about 50% bloatware and 50% bad Android Software nowadays.
Had Samsungs for 10 years watching them slowly get worse and worse. Switched to a Pixel last year and couldn’t be happier.
Same, cant stand Samsung’s bloated software not that pixel is perfect in this regard but miles better.
Just wondering because I don’t buy hardware I don’t need so I’m still using a Note 10+. Not defending a corporation at all here just genuinely want to better my choices as a consumer:
Besides the removable Samsung branded apps that I was able to just remove, have they started adding addtional bloatware with messures to restrict removal in the more recent device categories?
See a lot of bloatware being mentioned, but noones pointing to specifics. Sorry to pick your comment to reply to, seeing theres plenty. Hoping other people can chime in as well.
Same, but I switched to an iPhone. It was an annoying adjustment for a few months but now I’d never go back. Great hardware, but Samsung’s software is an almost comical mess, and they seem to have zero awareness of how bad they are at it.
Here I am, on my first Samsung ever, being happy that stuff just works again. (like it did on my Huawei, long, long ago)
Ymmv.
The rule of thumb for comments like OP’s is that either they’ve last used a Samsung phone back in TouchWiz days and still think that the software and hardware are the same, or they’ve never used a Samsung phone and just hopped on the Samsung-hating bandwagon for internet points.
Either way screams of Pixel fanboyism and gatekeeping
I am using a Samsung right now, I’ve been using Samsungs since I used smartphones. And that’s way too long, because the bloatware got worse every time I got a new one. I will use this until breaks, but as things stand, I won’t get another Samsung.
It’s cute when the serfs tear each other down
sent from my iPhone
deleted by creator
Agree I have a Samsung phone and hate the damn intrusive Samsung bloatware. I’m just going to buy a Google phone next time to get Android unadulterated. Though people still have their complaints with those Pixel phones and they’re more expensive. Well at least maybe then I can tolerate my phone instead of downright loathe it.
Motorola makes unbloated android phones with stock android and their gestures are really good. But they lack in the updating department.
Hey thanks for that. Did some reading and even Pixel uses a “skin” so it’s not a perfectly stock Android system. But the main thing is I want to avoid third party bloatware. Looks like Motorola does pretty well there, also inexpensive.
I am very happy with them, they are not without issues as I said they lack A LOT in the update department but I can’t live without their gestures anymore, I know they are apps now but I have been using Motorola since the Moto X Play, and I buy Motorola for my family,
Also they have one of the smaller smartphones with the Motorola Edge 30 Neo and I really appreciate it.
Also awesome battery
If its stock android, how do they add gestures??
HMD Nokia’s are also pretty unbloated and work just fine, except mine got a shitty usb-c port that had to be replaced by warranty.
On the other hand, so did my 2 other previous phones, and they were Samsung.
I tried switching to Pixel 7 Pro last fall, and I’m ready to go back to Samsung or try an iPhone next. The stupid thing loses GPS accuracy to outside of a block radius every other day. Also, every once in a while the app switcher just breaks because a Pixel service gets stuck. And the phone tends to crash every week or so if I don’t reboot it.
I’ve been meaning to try graphene os, but haven’t found the time to make that switch yet.
Thanks for the feedback. Those Pixel phones are on the expensive side. Unlike most I’m not willing to drop big money on a phone. I was looking at the Motorola line-up after someone mentioned they use a fairly bloatware free installation of Android. Their phones are inexpensive.
Haven’t looked into Graphene OS, seen it mentioned. When you say open source it usually means you have to dive into the nuts and bolts of things, not sure I want to do that. I should probably look into it more. Really don’t have any positive feeling toward either Android or iOS, giant douche or turd sandwich as the old South Park episode goes.
That’s my biggest problem with my s22u. Samsung is always launching a new app to annoy me.
No, I don’t want Bixby, no I don’t want your tips, just give me a nice android experience.
Pixels are actually quite worth it, they work like a clockwork, soft and hardware are good and the cameras are up to standard. Its worth the money (don’t buy on release)
Samsung pissed me off massively by having a pre installed Facebook app that cant be removed…
I had the Samsung Note 2 back in the day. I installed a custom bootloader and OS that worked fantastically. I had GPS issues, and all the guides I read said I have to reinstall Samsung’s OS, get a GPS fix, then reinstall my custom OS.
I made the mistake of installing a newer version of the Samsung OS which installed Knox and locked down my bootloader. I was now locked into an old, insecure Android version with no possibility of ever upgrading because Samsung abandoned it.
From that day on, I vowed never to buy another Samsung product again. Screw them and their anti-choice bullshit.
I’ve always been a Stock Android fanboi, but I really wanted to buy a foldable, so got myself a Galaxy Fold 4 last year. This is the first Samsung I’ve owned after decades - my last one being a Galaxy S2. I removed all bloat (including crap like Bixby) using Universal Android Debloater, and using a custom launcher, OneUI stays out of the way for the most part. I don’t really miss stock Android. With my current setup, there’s no performance issues, no TouchWiz bugs/annoyances like in the old days, everything’s running pretty smoothly.
In saying that, ideally I’d love to unlock the bootloader and run LineageOS on it, but there’s no build out for it yet (and unlikely there will be one for a long time), also, I’m not sure if I want to play the whole SafteyNet cat-and-mouse game again. Shizuku works great for apps that need higher privileges, I use Droidify and open-source apps where possible, life is good.
Yeah Samsung sucks. I am never going to leave Android so if I want a decent lower-midrange phone I have to stick with Motorola.
Maybe mine have less bloat because I’m in Australia, maybe I don’t consider some of the apps to be bloat, not sure - but I’ve had Samsung’s since the S2 and I’ve always been content with my phones.
I have definitely found the software to be improved over the years, and I love that I can customise the colours of every element down to hyperlinks in my text messages, all using their Theme Park app from their funny little app store. They also have a few other decent apps to change around the notification bar icons and things like that.
I’ll definitely be sticking with Samsung as long as all of these things keep going in a happy direction.
I’ve had Samsung phones for years and their software on my current phone has had me thinking I might switch to an iPhone whenever I upgrade (hopefully not soon), so, yeah. It was not this bad 10 years ago.
Last Samsung I had was the Galaxy s8, it was such a piece of shit I switched to an iPhone and am never going to buy another Samsung product in my life.
I mean, phones hand so much space now. Does it matter?
I know I can root and get rid of stupid apps, but like I just downloaded sent movie or Playlist I needed for a two week trip without any issue on space on my fold 4. So… why does the extra crap layer these days.
Early days, I’d root as my phone degraded over time. Now… why bother
Look at the size the 10% bar is in the 40-49 graph. Then the 6% bars in the 50-59 graph. Then look at the size of the 9% bar in the 60-69 graph. And then the Other bar (8%) in the 70+ graph.
Then go backup and look at the LG and Other bars (8% total) in the top graph. Whoever made this graphic is either intentionally misleading or just plain dumb.
Edit: The 78%, 80%, an 85% bars are also all exactly the same size. It just gets worse the longer you look at it.
Why not both
Yea, it’s strange - top to bottom rows sum up to 94, 100, 92, 94, 100, 100
Young Koreans favor whatever is new and cool from year to year. One year I was there everyone had iDevices, a couple years later it was Samsungs. Trendiness with electronics is a big thing.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Personally I don’t think I could handle the device whiplash that much. I use my phones and laptops until they break or become unbearable. This year, I finally bought a new MSI laptop to replace my 2013 MacBook Pro which, other than battery issues, was still going strong.
I own a lot of different kinds of devices, sure, but I spend a long time getting my phones and PCs set up just right after I get them. Going through that on a yearly basis just seems needlessly stressful, to be honest.
deleted by creator
Yeah, although to some extent stuff like app-store lock-in does restrict easily jumping from one ecosphere to another.
If one is an Android user, there is at least some flexibility in switching between different phone vendors and styles, but in many places Samsung is pretty dominant, while others like LG have dropped out of the game entirely.
I blame Apple.
deleted by creator
Honestly at least a lot of Apple products from 1998 ~ 2017 were actually stylish. Now Apple products just look boring and yet they’re still treated as fashion accessories. Like, I could actually see how an iPod Classic or an iMac G4 was a fashion accessory. iPhone 14 or the M1 iMac, no.
Also RGB looks garish and I wish it weren’t the predominant look of PC customization, but also it’s admittedly one of the only forms that’s accessible.
That’s extremely surprising considering how much Samsung has a hold over SK
My first thought was this was a punk thing, like, if you want to think of yourself as a bit rebellious you can buy the American phone instead of the phone made by the company that owns your nation.
That would make sense
I’ve used samsung for all of my smartphones until my latest (when I switched to oneplus), but it’s still an android phone. No way would I switch to ultra-locked-down apple.
Ye oneplus is great you just need a dns to block those chinese queries over vpn for example because it wont allow you to change the dns manually. (op8)
Yeah I have some serious ethical issues with Apple. I’ve never bought any of their products and never will. Aside from the anti-competitive walled garden of their tech and exorbitant cost of their products, their labor practices violate human rights in low cost labor markets. However Google and their partners such as Samsung are not free from guilt either. Unfortunately there’s little choice in phone products, Android or iOS, pick your poison.
The major brands selling Android phones also lock things down, but at least I can do things like install apps outside the app store. I can also do Android development without having to buy a Mac and pay a license fee.
You have root access in pixel phone and can install custom ROMs like graphene OS.
deleted by creator
I’m an Apple person, but for customizability you can’t beat a google pixel with an unlocked boot loader. You can literally run anything you want.
So are you saying that apple is better, or just saying proprietary mobile OSes Bad?
I’ve had Samsung for around nine years. The thing that kept me married to them was the SD card slot. Now that it’s gone, after my Note 10+ stops getting updates, I’ll be looking at something else. I have the Samsung watch, buds and tablet but I’m assuming they’ll work with a pixle if that’s what I land on. I like the Samsung nearby share but that’s such a small thing and doesn’t keep brand loyalty. Otherwise, what do they offer that say the pixle doesn’t?
It’s basically the reason I’m using a mid-range Samsung. But they got rid of the headphone jack on the last generation A-series and it’s only a matter of time before the SD card disappears too. Gonna look elsewhere for me next upgrade
Galaxy S10 with 128GB internal & 256GB microSD. Play anything from the entire music collection with the aux port in the car. Frequently listen to podcasts with bone conduction headphones. Couldn’t be happier with a pocket computer.
I’m just hoping either Fairphone irons out it’s kinks or legislation catches up with removable batteries and locked-down operating systems. I’m tired of feeling like I’m owning a device just until the manufacturer decides to turn it into e-waste.
I agree with you. One thing that keeps me with Samsung though is Dex. Everything else is replaceable with a time adjustment, but Dex is pretty big for me and other phones don’t have it… Yet.
There was a time where Samsung flagships had features that iPhone didn’t. Samsung slowly stripped their phones of these features.
If you don’t need an android platform, and aren’t after a foldable, there’s a lot less of an argument to be made to be on Samsung these days.
And the bloatware got insane. At least let me remove the shit I don’t want, Samsung.
A bit weird to see LG in the charts (given that they’re out of the smartphone industry now) and yet none of the other big manufacturers (Xiaomi, Huawei, Google).
I believe LG is also a South Korean company compared to the Chinese ones you mentioned so maybe there is a little patriotic incentive for LG over there.
The brands you mentioned aren’t widely available in Korea. Since LG left the market, all the carriers, to my knowledge, only offer Apple or Samsung devices.
Source: I’ve lived in SoKo for a long time.
Thanks for the insight. Is what you’re saying that there you can only buy a phone through a carrier?
You can buy unlocked phones of other brands like Google or Xiaomi on the Korean equivalent of Amazon (Coupang), but they’re substantially more expensive. I’d bet you can get Chinese brands at the little mom and pop shops that cater to Chinese students and immigrants.
Not much of a surprise, at least to me. Granted, my knowledge of the place is limited, but from what I’ve heard they really care about symbols of status (Fancy watches, jewelry, and, of course, expensive phones). Add that to the fact that kids nowdays aren’t as patriotic (a good thing imo) and care less about local brands and the fact that tech literacy is not great either… Well it puts thing in perspective.
You seem to be pretty judgmental of something you admit you know little about.
Yeah, sorry if I came out harsh. In all honesty I am just frustrated by the incredible growth of Apple. It really confuses me how with such a tight ecosystem and anti-consumer practices they have managed to attain such mindshare that it’s not even funny. And I am saying all that despite this very comment being sent out of an iPhone.
I think I was done with Samsung as a phone brand when the photos app asked me to sign in, rate it and send feedback. So much bloatware.
Probably doesn’t help the perception of high end status.
I’ve dealt with Samsung as the developer of a large app. They will pre-install your app on new phones if you pay them, which I think is pretty seedy. It’s also not very good for the dev because who knows if anyone will ever launch your preinstalled app. Samsung even claimed not to know. So we had no idea what we’d be paying for. Samsung’s Galaxy app store is also a totally laughable mess, far inferior to Google Play and AppStore in functionality. It even has spelling mistakes 😖
However I’ll keep doing business with Samsung. They’re just janky and it’s not surprising that users think they’re just as janky as I do.
Now Huawei…fuck Huawei. They created a big work mess for me by networking their way to a high ranking executive at our company and then telling them our app was “broken on millions of Huawei phones.” They made it sound like a bug in our code. But here’s what it actually was:
Trump banned Huawei from doing business in the US due to their ties to the Chinese Communist Party. This meant Huawei had to stop using some very core Android code libraries, since Google is an American company and couldn’t allow use of those libraries. So Huawei whipped up their own replacements to these libraries, but developers basically need to customize and republish their app specially for Huawei.
So because they got in trouble with Trump, Huawei needed all devs to rewrite their apps for Huawei phones. Instead of being honest about this, they got me in trouble, convincing an executive that something was wrong with our app. They generously offered to meet with our tech team and “help us fix it.”
I met with them, and once I understood what they were doing, I told them to get fucked. Then I wrote up a memo about what happened and let our executive leaders know that we wouldn’t be on Huawei phones ever again, going forward.
Samsung’s not THAT bad. Not even close.
wow
Ouch… isn’t Samsung based in Korea?? How did they fuck that up
Shit software and OS
2 months ago I bought a regular samsung galaxy s23 and it’s been running great so far. I expected MIUI levels of bloat, but surprisingly it is not that bad.
I had to disable a few samsung apps and for the most part, the phone stays out of my way and lets me do whatever i want.
I wish the s23 lineup gets good custom rom support. Would love to run a lean LineageOS / any AOSP based rom with MicroG on this phone.
The majority of youngsters will always pick a fashion brand (apple). However, the majority of them cannot afford it.
In its analysis, the survey credited iPhone’s appeal among young people to Apple’s premium branding – for the same storage size, an iPhone 14 (128GB) costs 1,250,000 won ($989) compared to the Galaxy S23’s 1,150,000 won. Introduction of Apple Pay, Apple’s mobile payment service, to Korea earlier this year was cited as another contributing factor.
According to the article, cost is not a factor in their choice as they nearly cost the same.
