Well, I dunno. I've seen it as a lesser evil compared to many others.

In ye olden times I had such a horrible time with my cheapo Samsung when trying to upgrade it from Android 1.5 to 2.1 that I swore it'd be my last Samsung, and it was, for well over a decade. During that time I went through some iPhones and a handful of the most popular alternative Android brands.

Since the thread is about Android I'll focus on that. Every manufacturer was hamstrung by one or more of the following issues:

- Subpar hardware

- Difficult and slow RMA process where your device flies around the globe for repairs

- Software bloat, just like Samsung, but from a country I trust even less (China vs SK)

- Very infrequent updates (if you are lucky enough to get them at all), especially once a newer model is out

Now since this thread is about bootloaders this is probably a hot take, but I spend enough of my time troubleshooting stuff at work, so when I use my phone I want it to "just work" and not have to play some stupid anti integrity protection cat and mouse game to access my bank's app. So the last two are not solved with an open bootloader.

Samsung on the other hand has in recent years given me the "just works" experience on decent hardware, paired with frequent updates. And while their authorized repair shop might not be in my city, it is at least in my country and just a train ride away.

That being said, the nerd in me is disappointed in this move, and the recent EU ruling that forces manufacturers to actually support the stuff they sell for a reasonable time even after it's off the shelves might change things for the better w.r.t. other manufacturers.

I've got a Samsung dryer and when it had a fault with the door sensor they got it fixed pretty quickly. I had better service from them than Bosch or Miele - I replaced a Bosch dryer when I was totally fed up of trying to organise Bosch to fix it and being told it was at least a 6 week wait - Samsung half the price, and surprised us that it is a better dryer (faster, easier to use etc).

I don't love their phones, though my wife has one. However, again on the service front, when my samsung S7 had a problem they fixed it pretty quickly. When my iPhone 5 came with the wifi not working it took weeks to convince Apple that it was actually broken and get a replacement.

All anecdotal of course, and probably varies a lot by location and over time.

It's actually incredible how consistent they are with it. I'm hesitant to buy a foldable or a display from them for this very reason, even though I'd be otherwise interested.

Is the alternative really better overall. We upgraded to a samsung fridge last year from two consecutive cheapo-chinese-local walmart-brands and it was worth every penny. It will pay itself in energy savings in less than two years.

I think their phone in the high end is the best phone on the market, unless ios is a requirement for you. Also, I bought a Samsung AC and really like the smart features. Really nice integration with Alexa too.

They seem to skip some years when bringing updated models to the US for some reason, but Sony Xperia phones check most of these boxes. I have an Xperia 1 V that I use as an app dev test device and as a backup phone and have found it pretty nice. The hardware feels great and their Android build isn’t nearly as junked up as Samsung’s. I’m always surprised they aren’t more popular.

Which of their phones have all of these?

  > samsung is the only smartphone manufacturer that still makes phones (though not many) with all the features I want

> microSD slot

That stopped from S21 on.

> side-mounted fingerprint reader

It is in the screen since S10?

> headphone jack

Not since S20.

Just speaking of the Galaxys of course.

I try to avoid big <anything> manufacturers by default.