>Samsung annoy me with all the bloatware etc

This is why it never has been and will never be considered a premium android phone. Samsung's apps are awful.

bluegatty 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's amazing that all those other companies have not figured out that their apps are generally bloat, and they release all sorts of models to Apple's fairly tight lineup.

The winning example of tight product management is right there for them, but they continue to act like 'feature factories' without any concious 'whole product' design philosophy.

Probably many people within these organizations are aware, but they don't have the power to resist ingrained operational culture.

	▲	MBCook 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There is a possible winning strategy in trying to cover bases Apple isn’t interested in. Apple has shown that they’ll make phones that seem to be successful to some degree (the mini) but just aren’t successful enough by whatever internal metric Apple is using. And there are some things they just don’t have right now like foldable phones. (I’m aware of the rumors) That doesn’t mean you can’t go overboard. I don’t know Samsung’s current lineup, but I think we’ve all seen PC manufacturers who make 75 different models that are all just ever so slightly different for seemingly no reason.

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linkage 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I disagree. Samsung Notes has always been more useful and better designed than Google Keep, especially the way it works with the S-pen. GoodLock makes it possible to customize your Galaxy phone in ways that are impossible even with developer mode on the Pixel series.

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nine_k 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Which apps are the bloatware I keep hearing about? I use an S20 for several years, and the only custom (non-vanilla Android) apps I seem to be using are the camera, and the photo gallery in connection to it. Both are fine, do not require a Samsung account, etc.

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recursive 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The last Samsung phone I owned had a hardware button for launching Bixby. I've never wanted to use Bixby in my life. To this day I have no interest in learning what it actually does. You could not change the function of this button. It was just a button that I would press accidentally that would begin the apparently laborious process of starting up Bixby.

I'll probably never buy another Samsung.

Edit: Just thought of another one. I remember reading the news about how Android SMS was getting upgraded to have emojis or reactions or something. I don't remember the details. But it didn't work on my phone. A year later, I realized it was because I was using the Samsung messages app, instead of the Google one. I didn't even realize it.

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blell 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's so bad that phones come with a "Samsung Global Goals" app to push the UN ideology.

>The Samsung Global Goals app is a, CSR initiative partnering with the UNDP to promote 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality, and fix climate change by 2030.

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ahartmetz 4 hours ago | parent [-]

>to push the UN ideology

I think you fell into the wrong rabbithole somewhere

Such virtue signaling by app is lame and hypocritical, but the UN is far too divided to be pushing anything.

	▲	blell 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The wrong rabbit hole of finding a pre installed app pushing politics to be icky.

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yunohn 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> This is why it never has been and will never be considered a premium android phone.

You are entitled to your opinion, but the S series is objectively considered a premium android phone by basically everyone. By your standard, the only possible contender is Google’s Pixel lineup, but I get the feeling you might consider Google’s forced 1st party apps as intrusive too.

	▲	stackghost 25 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		>the S series is objectively considered a premium android phone by basically everyone Not by anyone I know >I get the feeling you might consider Google’s forced 1st party apps as intrusive too. You'd be incorrect
	▲	kube-system 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		gApps and its stipulations are forced on all downstream android partners too. That's just part of how the capital-A Android ecosystem works. Generally google's apps are decent though and people refer to their minimal distribution as being "not bloatware".

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baal80spam 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Come on, don't you just love Bixby?