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I was furious when I found out that the default keyboard was infested with Grammarly, sending all my keystrokes without consent. Embarrassing for a $1200 flagsh

I was furious when I found out that the default keyboard was infested with Grammarly, sending all my keystrokes without consent. Embarrassing for a $1200 flagship device.

resource_waste 3y ago
This is a user/psychology problem. No one in their right mind is suggesting Samsung. Heck, similar to Apple, you have swaths of people warning you about Samsung. Samsung lives and dies off their huge marketing budget. Buying their phone is more of a psychology thing, than 'I did lots of research and I bought a high quality phone'.
- blfr 3y ago
  I have a Samsung tablet (Galaxy Tab S9+) and I not only suggest but downright recommend it. Sure, right away I switched away from their default apps (launcher, notes, keyboard, etc) but it wasn't difficult. Maybe they got me with their clever marketing but there doesn't seem to be competitive hardware in this class (fast, oled screen, 5g, overall build quality) available from another manufacturer.
- morsch 3y ago
  I've had multiple Samsung Android devices before buying the midrange phone. The hardware, I found, was universally pretty good. They were one of the few manufacturers with a moderately sized flagship device (the new Pixel 8 also qualifies, which is great). I bought the midrange device because it was one of a few phones priced around 300 EUR with more than two or three years of updates.
  - bboygravity 3y ago
    [dead]
- Semaphor 3y ago
  Isn’t it more that Samsung, almost like apple, has great cameras? At least that’s what I often heard, I don’t go near flagship devices and root everything, so no personal experience.
- tayo42 3y ago
  What android brand are people going with? I thought Samsung was the biggest alternative to pixels
  - hughesjj 3y ago
    I'm real tempted to go asus because of how good their other devices have been, will see what happens this time. Tired of my pixels constantly overheating when trying to take pictures after navigating to a place i want to take pictures with the 4a+5a. It's not just a bad phone, I've inevitably broken a screen or submerged one and had to replace it (apparently the ip68 isn't fool proof either..)
    - resource_waste 3y ago
      I'll be trying Asus since they have been the best when it comes to laptops. They also have lots of nice hardware like Aux ports. Google Pixel 5a... The last Google product before they went full Apple.
      - kirenida 3y ago
        Check out the official Asus support forums before you buy. I got a ZenFone8 when it came out and was very satisfied with it at the time. Then, a month later, posts started popping up with people reporting that their phones just randomly rebooting and bricking. I think there were a few hundred cases reported. To this day, there is no official response from Asus. I used to carry a backup phone with me every time I was away from home for longer than a day because I was afraid that my phone could die at any moment. Also, every update seemed to introduce a new bug that only got fixed in a month or so with the next update. So we had broken face unlock for a month, broken Google Pay, broken notifications, among other things. I haven't been following reports for the ZF9 or ZF10, but I think they had similar problems. To top it all off, the official unlocker / root tool from ASUS has been disabled for over a year by now, and nobody knows when it will work again. All in all, ASUS phones (at least the ZenFone line) do have great hardware, but official support is abysmal.
      - hughesjj 3y ago
- lozenge 3y ago
  "No one in their right mind is suggesting Samsung. Heck, similar to Apple, you have swaths of people warning you about Samsung." Apple and Samsung are the two most popular phone brands in the world, so it's not like "everybody knows not to use them" as you suggest. Actually, it's the complete opposite.
- rchaud 3y ago
  > Samsung lives and dies off their huge marketing budget. This is a ridiculous take. Samsung is the entire reason Android didn't go the way of WebOS and Windows Phone. Samsung had pressure-sensitive pen support on Android 5 years before iOS. Samsung DEX desktop environment can turn my phone into a proper work machine with just a USB-C display cable and a lapdock. They've also had folding phones that can turn your phone into a tablet for several years, but I suppose we'll need to wait until 2030 when Apple launches it "the right way" to recognize it as an innovative form factor.
  - geraldhh 3y ago
    is dex actually useful? it sounds fantastic hence i suppose there is a catch
    - rchaud 3y ago
      Yes it is. Floating window support makes a big difference for actual multitasking. In Dex you can also drag and drop files and images, which is not supported on Android. Considering that you can use Termux for web dev work, with a proper desktop environment, it becomes an actual computer instead of a locked down Google Docs type of device. The catch with Dex is that it's only offered on the high end models: Galaxy S and Galaxy Z Fold series phones.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  > Buying their phone is more of a psychology thing, than 'I did lots of research and I bought a high quality phone'. For me it's more of "I'm no longer a kid so I don't have time to do lots of research". Samsung gets my money because their flagships are reliably good.
  - naasking 3y ago
    You can't spend a couple of days researching an essential, expensive device you're going to use for at least the next 2-3 years?
    - throwaway11460 3y ago
      What better hardware is there?
      - naasking 3y ago
        The hardware doesn't have to be better, could be equivalent but with less spyware or bloatware.
        throwaway11460 3y ago
        What equivalent hardware is there?
  - geraldhh 3y ago
    supposedly there will come a time after "no longer a kid" where due diligence is the among the top things worth doing
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
      That's called retirement, where once again one has too much time and too little money.
  - 1oooqooq 3y ago
magicalhippo 3y ago
On my S21 it's an option. I can't recall turning it off, but it (and the other 3rd parties) are off. Perhaps I did so indirectly during initial setup.

I was furious when I found out that the default keyboard was infested with Grammarly, sending all my keystrokes without consent. Embarrassing for a $1200 flagship device.

resource_waste 3y ago

This is a user/psychology problem. No one in their right mind is suggesting Samsung. Heck, similar to Apple, you have swaths of people warning you about Samsung. Samsung lives and dies off their huge marketing budget. Buying their phone is more of a psychology thing, than 'I did lots of research and I bought a high quality phone'.

blfr 3y ago
I have a Samsung tablet (Galaxy Tab S9+) and I not only suggest but downright recommend it. Sure, right away I switched away from their default apps (launcher, notes, keyboard, etc) but it wasn't difficult. Maybe they got me with their clever marketing but there doesn't seem to be competitive hardware in this class (fast, oled screen, 5g, overall build quality) available from another manufacturer.
morsch 3y ago
I've had multiple Samsung Android devices before buying the midrange phone. The hardware, I found, was universally pretty good. They were one of the few manufacturers with a moderately sized flagship device (the new Pixel 8 also qualifies, which is great). I bought the midrange device because it was one of a few phones priced around 300 EUR with more than two or three years of updates.
- bboygravity 3y ago
  [dead]
Semaphor 3y ago
Isn’t it more that Samsung, almost like apple, has great cameras? At least that’s what I often heard, I don’t go near flagship devices and root everything, so no personal experience.
tayo42 3y ago
What android brand are people going with? I thought Samsung was the biggest alternative to pixels
- hughesjj 3y ago
  I'm real tempted to go asus because of how good their other devices have been, will see what happens this time. Tired of my pixels constantly overheating when trying to take pictures after navigating to a place i want to take pictures with the 4a+5a. It's not just a bad phone, I've inevitably broken a screen or submerged one and had to replace it (apparently the ip68 isn't fool proof either..)
  - resource_waste 3y ago
    I'll be trying Asus since they have been the best when it comes to laptops. They also have lots of nice hardware like Aux ports. Google Pixel 5a... The last Google product before they went full Apple.
    - kirenida 3y ago
      Check out the official Asus support forums before you buy. I got a ZenFone8 when it came out and was very satisfied with it at the time. Then, a month later, posts started popping up with people reporting that their phones just randomly rebooting and bricking. I think there were a few hundred cases reported. To this day, there is no official response from Asus. I used to carry a backup phone with me every time I was away from home for longer than a day because I was afraid that my phone could die at any moment. Also, every update seemed to introduce a new bug that only got fixed in a month or so with the next update. So we had broken face unlock for a month, broken Google Pay, broken notifications, among other things. I haven't been following reports for the ZF9 or ZF10, but I think they had similar problems. To top it all off, the official unlocker / root tool from ASUS has been disabled for over a year by now, and nobody knows when it will work again. All in all, ASUS phones (at least the ZenFone line) do have great hardware, but official support is abysmal.
    - hughesjj 3y ago
lozenge 3y ago
"No one in their right mind is suggesting Samsung. Heck, similar to Apple, you have swaths of people warning you about Samsung." Apple and Samsung are the two most popular phone brands in the world, so it's not like "everybody knows not to use them" as you suggest. Actually, it's the complete opposite.
rchaud 3y ago
> Samsung lives and dies off their huge marketing budget. This is a ridiculous take. Samsung is the entire reason Android didn't go the way of WebOS and Windows Phone. Samsung had pressure-sensitive pen support on Android 5 years before iOS. Samsung DEX desktop environment can turn my phone into a proper work machine with just a USB-C display cable and a lapdock. They've also had folding phones that can turn your phone into a tablet for several years, but I suppose we'll need to wait until 2030 when Apple launches it "the right way" to recognize it as an innovative form factor.
- geraldhh 3y ago
  is dex actually useful? it sounds fantastic hence i suppose there is a catch
  - rchaud 3y ago
    Yes it is. Floating window support makes a big difference for actual multitasking. In Dex you can also drag and drop files and images, which is not supported on Android. Considering that you can use Termux for web dev work, with a proper desktop environment, it becomes an actual computer instead of a locked down Google Docs type of device. The catch with Dex is that it's only offered on the high end models: Galaxy S and Galaxy Z Fold series phones.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
> Buying their phone is more of a psychology thing, than 'I did lots of research and I bought a high quality phone'. For me it's more of "I'm no longer a kid so I don't have time to do lots of research". Samsung gets my money because their flagships are reliably good.
- naasking 3y ago
  You can't spend a couple of days researching an essential, expensive device you're going to use for at least the next 2-3 years?
  - throwaway11460 3y ago
    What better hardware is there?
    - naasking 3y ago
      The hardware doesn't have to be better, could be equivalent but with less spyware or bloatware.
      - throwaway11460 3y ago
        What equivalent hardware is there?
- geraldhh 3y ago
  supposedly there will come a time after "no longer a kid" where due diligence is the among the top things worth doing
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    That's called retirement, where once again one has too much time and too little money.
- 1oooqooq 3y ago

magicalhippo 3y ago

On my S21 it's an option. I can't recall turning it off, but it (and the other 3rd parties) are off. Perhaps I did so indirectly during initial setup.