4 ms·

The hardware quality of Samsung's flagship products has always been excellent. However the software issues make the price ridiculous. Good luck getting rapid A

by tshtf 11y ago

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.

levemi 11y ago
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 everywhere by the way). The 5.1.1 upgrade didn't help either. I don't want updates. Leave my phone alone.
- jonknee 11y ago
  Without updates your phone is even more of a security nightmare than it is already.
  - levemi 11y ago
    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.
    - pasbesoin 11y ago
      I've had the same experience with my 2013 Moto X. Phone used to be sufficiently responsive for my use. Updated to 5.1, and things hang momentarily and lag. And, I'm not talking about browsing and other uses that continue to escalate power demands. The darned phone app/dialer is quite laggy. One difference that might account for some of it, is that the appear to have made it more graphical and to have further animated the graphical elements it displays. Under 4, the dialer popped right up, populated its list displays expeditiously and smoothly, and did things the moment you touched the control. Now, it can take a couple of seconds just to launch. Buttons are harder to hit because they are smaller, move around, and are not positioned at the screen edge as they were before. The also don't respond consistently; often there is a delay, and occasionally a touch doesn't register at all. The recent calls list displays a couple of days with only some jerkiness, but the requires an explicit tap to go further back and quite noticeably delays when first doing so and continues to delay and stutter as one scrolls down. Function first. Then form, or "design." The move from 4.x to 5.x seemed to get this backward, in this regard.
    - simplexion 11y ago
      The S5 can deal with it. Considering my Nexus 5 has dealt with all versions of Android including the current version means that the S5 can too. The S5 has a more powerful CPU than the Nexus 5. The problem is with Samsung and their terrible UI.
  - bitmapbrother 11y ago
    Where are all of the security exploits? I keep hearing about that Android armageddon that was supposed to happen because of the Stagefright bugs, but nothing ever happened and the FUD fizzled out into nothingness. As long as you stick to the Play store and don't install apps from shady app sites or downloads then you have nothing to worry about. I suggest you watch Adrian Ludwig's State of Android Security on YouTube to see how really ineffective malware on Android really is.
- Pxtl 11y ago
  Omg yes the experience resetting a phone with 2FA is hilariously bad. I get an SMS I can't read! Although for me the factory reset did fix my post-upgrade performance failings... But I'm just using a moto g 2. That said, the space gobbling is making 8GB stock in value-priced devices ludicrous. I can barely fit all the stock software, much less 3rd-party apps. Thanks so much for not letting me uninstall hundreds of MB in international keyboards I'll never use - yay, pinyin.
pkaye 11y ago
That is why I moved to the Nexus phones. Base software (no crapware) with rapid updates at a reasonable price.
xexers 11y ago
> 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-reveals-monthly-updates-18410195/ http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-makes-good-its-promise-reve...
- enjo 11y ago
  I ditched my S6 for a Nexus 6P about a month ago as I was tired of waiting for the Marshmallow update. I believe it finally started rolling out a couple of days ago, about 4 months after Google released it. Love the hardware and Samsung Pay is absolutely revolutionary (far better than anything Apple or Google have put out), but the slow device updates and general Samsung bloat mean I'll never go back.
- tshtf 11y ago
  Not true in practice. Samsung may pass the updates to the carrier, but the carriers fail to respond in a timely fashion.
  - nailer 11y ago
    Don't buy carrier phones. Use money you have, and if you need finance to buy a phone, don't buy a new phone.
- Malician 11y ago
  Marshmallow was released in October of last year. Samsung finally pushed it out and I won't receive it on ATT until quite a bit later this year.
- craigds 11y ago
  I had an S3 which never received a single update; was on Android 4.1.2 until I finally replaced the phone recently. I suspect it was my carrier's fault (Spark NZ) not Samsung. After that experience I switched to Nexus 6P, and won't be using any phone in which the carrier gets to install any kind of software :)

by tshtf 11y ago

levemi 11y ago

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 everywhere by the way). The 5.1.1 upgrade didn't help either. I don't want updates. Leave my phone alone.

jonknee 11y ago
Without updates your phone is even more of a security nightmare than it is already.
- levemi 11y ago
  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.
  - pasbesoin 11y ago
    I've had the same experience with my 2013 Moto X. Phone used to be sufficiently responsive for my use. Updated to 5.1, and things hang momentarily and lag. And, I'm not talking about browsing and other uses that continue to escalate power demands. The darned phone app/dialer is quite laggy. One difference that might account for some of it, is that the appear to have made it more graphical and to have further animated the graphical elements it displays. Under 4, the dialer popped right up, populated its list displays expeditiously and smoothly, and did things the moment you touched the control. Now, it can take a couple of seconds just to launch. Buttons are harder to hit because they are smaller, move around, and are not positioned at the screen edge as they were before. The also don't respond consistently; often there is a delay, and occasionally a touch doesn't register at all. The recent calls list displays a couple of days with only some jerkiness, but the requires an explicit tap to go further back and quite noticeably delays when first doing so and continues to delay and stutter as one scrolls down. Function first. Then form, or "design." The move from 4.x to 5.x seemed to get this backward, in this regard.
  - simplexion 11y ago
    The S5 can deal with it. Considering my Nexus 5 has dealt with all versions of Android including the current version means that the S5 can too. The S5 has a more powerful CPU than the Nexus 5. The problem is with Samsung and their terrible UI.
- bitmapbrother 11y ago
  Where are all of the security exploits? I keep hearing about that Android armageddon that was supposed to happen because of the Stagefright bugs, but nothing ever happened and the FUD fizzled out into nothingness. As long as you stick to the Play store and don't install apps from shady app sites or downloads then you have nothing to worry about. I suggest you watch Adrian Ludwig's State of Android Security on YouTube to see how really ineffective malware on Android really is.
Pxtl 11y ago
Omg yes the experience resetting a phone with 2FA is hilariously bad. I get an SMS I can't read! Although for me the factory reset did fix my post-upgrade performance failings... But I'm just using a moto g 2. That said, the space gobbling is making 8GB stock in value-priced devices ludicrous. I can barely fit all the stock software, much less 3rd-party apps. Thanks so much for not letting me uninstall hundreds of MB in international keyboards I'll never use - yay, pinyin.

pkaye 11y ago

That is why I moved to the Nexus phones. Base software (no crapware) with rapid updates at a reasonable price.

xexers 11y ago

> 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-reveals-monthly-updates-18410195/ http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-makes-good-its-promise-reve...

enjo 11y ago
I ditched my S6 for a Nexus 6P about a month ago as I was tired of waiting for the Marshmallow update. I believe it finally started rolling out a couple of days ago, about 4 months after Google released it. Love the hardware and Samsung Pay is absolutely revolutionary (far better than anything Apple or Google have put out), but the slow device updates and general Samsung bloat mean I'll never go back.
tshtf 11y ago
Not true in practice. Samsung may pass the updates to the carrier, but the carriers fail to respond in a timely fashion.
- nailer 11y ago
  Don't buy carrier phones. Use money you have, and if you need finance to buy a phone, don't buy a new phone.
Malician 11y ago
Marshmallow was released in October of last year. Samsung finally pushed it out and I won't receive it on ATT until quite a bit later this year.
craigds 11y ago
I had an S3 which never received a single update; was on Android 4.1.2 until I finally replaced the phone recently. I suspect it was my carrier's fault (Spark NZ) not Samsung. After that experience I switched to Nexus 6P, and won't be using any phone in which the carrier gets to install any kind of software :)