Samsung reins in outlook due to tepid demand for its Galaxy S6

[AGTDenton]

For an unknown reason 'professional' reviewers constantly knocked off points from Samsungs S devices because it lacked a metal case. Now they've gone and actually made a metal case it's sacrificed so many other features. Most people with a phone get their own 3rd party case so having a metal or plastic body really doesn't matter. I'd opt for the body that enabled the most features. Now you can no longer drop your S6 in a bowl of water and expect it to live.
Bloatware is a massive problem at Samsung. LG at least addressed this minus 1 included app

Edit: Well, after Googling a bit, I think that I am going with an LG G3 next. I know the G4 is out, but it doesn't seem like such a major upgrade.

I went from S3 2nd edition to G3 and it was a minor upgrade, it feels 2 steps forward 1 step back. The keyboard and general typing is far superior on the Samsung. You will also lose control of your camera as advanced features I found useful on the S3 are missing, this is addressed in the G4.
The laser focus on the G3 is slow and frustrating to use. Supposedly addressed in G4 though reviews are saying otherwise.
G3 doesn't feel faster than S3
I'd say the G4 fixes a lot of G3 issues and would suggest getting that one. I'm already looking to replace my G3 after 4 months.

[peterb]

And iOS is too restrictive....each to their own. I much prefer the superior camera and screen on many Android devices these days that going back to iOS seems a real backwards step now. A young lady I know (under 16) recently got an iPhone 5C and it is god damn awful, basic, rubbish screen and camera and it wasn't cheap at all

I described the problems I had and have with some of the basic out-of-the box applications here.

http://forums.hexus.net/android/338560-new-phone.html

The basic e mail application doesn't support some basic forms of authentication for mail, no search function on POP3 mailboxes. I have found workarounds, weakening the security on my server etc,.

Android is fine if you want to tinker and mess around with it.

I think we know where your loyalty lies.

That statement would have been fair about 3-4 years ago, but given that much of the recent polish on IOS is lifted straight from Android (keyboards, notifications etc) it takes a little bit of imagination to take that seriously.

I have an iphone 6 from work. Lovely device, but there is a ton of crap in IOS that is still not fixed, and far, far from polished.

My number one: I have about 6 email accounts on there. Coverage is weak/drops out when it's trying to refresh. IOS gives a popup saying unable to connect. For. Each. And. Every. Email. Account. Separately. One. After. The. Other. Yup, they could have pushed this into notifications, but no, still a bloody great pop-up each time, for each separate account that I have to dismiss. This crap has been there since IOS1, and still hasn't been fixed.

How about another: the home button was getting crappy on my 5 - it sometimes registered as the trigger for voice dialling ... apart from not being able to turn that off, it would randomly dial someone, even in a room of perfect silence. The only way to kill it was to hit the power button which meant then going through the 8 character unlock set on the phone. No cancel button because that's against apple design, and no way to disable it because apple knows best.

IOS and Android are both fully functional now - it's down to personal preference which you prefer. Just don't try and imply Android is still at v2.2, because we are a long way on from there.

Not really a question of loyalty, more a question of the most appropriate/effective tool for the job. Ultimately it is less about the phone OS and more about the underlying infrastructure, whether that is Google's, Apple's or Microsoft's.

The more locked down something is, the more repeatable the results, but the less scope for experimentation.

But as you say, each to their own. The hardware on the Motorola is pretty good, and it cost 1/4 of an i6 and a third of a Samsung_S5 or S6

But at the end of the day, they are just communications devices, nothing more, nothing less.

[AlexKitch]

Historically, I've always been an iPhone user (as a matter of personal preference rather than any kind of 'fanboy'ism towards Apple). I really wanted to like what Samsung and Android were offering, so I ditched by iPhone and bought a Galaxy S3. I spent 24 months *hating* it with a passion. I found the whole experience to be totally unpolished and buggy, so I went and bought an iPhone 6 again as soon as my contract was out.

I'd like to think that things have improved since the days of the S3, but I'm just not completely convinced. I have friends who own Samsung/Android phones and although TouchWiz has seen some improvement,they still have many of the same complaints that I used to have.

Long story short, I just don't think Android is trying hard enough to appeal to iPhone users. Should it be? Possibly not. Maybe it's good that both sides have concentrated on their own strengths and not 'sold out'. Android is considerably more flexible than iOS, iOS is considerably more polished around the edges than Android.

[peterb]

Historically, I've always been an iPhone user (as a matter of personal preference rather than any kind of 'fanboy'ism towards Apple)..

Don't be silly! Apparently no-one buys Apple out of personal preference. Only fanboys/sheep/clueless and the brainless ever buy Apple products!

(Allegedly!)

[TooNice]

Unlike Alex, I went from the iPhone to the Galaxy S3, and while to this day still miss certain apps and features on the iOS (notably a keyboard that allows me to drawn Kanji character - I don't want to use a separate character, that is clumsy), I'd probably feel the same way if I was to go back to the iOS. What tipped me towards staying with Android is the expectations that I'd find a phone microSD and removable battery. I had expected to stick with Samsung because of that, but it seems like I'll have to jump ship.

@AGTDenton: Interesting. I don't expect much out of my smartphone camera, but I would things have moved forward nicely since the S3. Generally speaking, I have my SLT camera on me more often than not so it isn't a huge problem. But I do find my phone a bit slow at time, and sometime have application randomly close, which I presume is due to running out of memory, so I'd definitely want at least 2GB if not 3GB on my next phone (given I don't upgrade often). As for the keyboard, I don't use I use third party keyboard anyway (Google Japanese keyboard) since I need Japanese input.. would that be affected on the G3?

[shaithis]

And yet the android "it isn't apple so it must be good" sheep still flock to it.

People hate the sheep moniker but it is true. So many peoples FIRST smartphone is the most expensive £800 iPhone. I cannot think of anything else where 50% of purchasers go and buy the most expensive choice on the market....even when they have never used one or any of the competition beforehand.

Then sales drop because people want to surf the web reliably on their phone and can't on a small screen.

Apple add a big screen, the sheep "flock" back to Apple, even though Apple had refused to give them what they wanted (remember the phone must be usable with a single digit?).....until it was hurting their bottom line too much.

I have no problem with people buying Apple, IF it's for functionality. The moment people are buying them "because it cool or hip" I do start to have a problem as their inability to make an informed decision is shaping the market.

[AlexKitch]

People hate the sheep moniker but it is true.

I would strongly disagree. From what I see on the internet on a day to day basis, Android users are just as guilty of 'sheepism' (if not worse) than iPhone users. I suppose you need to define what a 'sheep' is. Am I a sheep for genuinely preferring one product over another? It's not really a fair label

I've seen plenty of Android users aggressively defending their choice to buy Android on the basis that they're "not a sheep", yet ironically, the very act of choosing one product over another based on anything other than actual *function* is 'sheepish'. You're following a crowd, or avoiding another crowd.

My advice to anyone is to just find a device that you enjoy using, and appreciate it for what it is - rather than assigning labels to people who didn't choose the same as you

[Percy1983]

Is it just me who sees the edge as absolutely pointless over its flat screened brother.

I am one of the budget smart phone buyers so am now on my second windows phone, never looked back.

It does seem the galaxy sheeple where getting as bad as the apple sheeple but maybe thats now changing.

[LSG501]

Is it just me who sees the edge as absolutely pointless over its flat screened brother.

Not just you... it doesn't add anything except distorted sides in my opinion. I don't like curved monitors either lol

[crossy]

Oh wow. I can sort of accept non-removable battery for water resistance as a fair trade off, but I can't accept no microSD. Wonder if I should pick up an S5 to replace my aging S3.
Samsung should have kept the removable battery and microSD on the vanilla S6 and, if they really had to, make another version without with the Edge (for people who care about having the fanciest / thinnest phone).
Edit: Well, after Googling a bit, I think that I am going with an LG G3 next. I know the G4 is out, but it doesn't seem like such a major upgrade.

Agree with what you're saying completely - in the end I plumped for the "unknown" (to me) LG replacing my much-liked S3 with a G3. Now I don't think I could go back to TW.

I went from S3 2nd edition to G3 and it was a minor upgrade, it feels 2 steps forward 1 step back. The keyboard and general typing is far superior on the Samsung. You will also lose control of your camera as advanced features I found useful on the S3 are missing, this is addressed in the G4.
The laser focus on the G3 is slow and frustrating to use. Supposedly addressed in G4 though reviews are saying otherwise.
G3 doesn't feel faster than S3
I'd say the G4 fixes a lot of G3 issues and would suggest getting that one. I'm already looking to replace my G3 after 4 months.

I use SwiftKey on my G3, mainly because I used it on the S3 that preceded it - so I can't comment on the TW-keyboard v's the LG version. And yes, I'll agree that the lack of "advanced" features on the camera app is annoying, although the Lollipop update did claw back a lot of respect. If you're still missing that must-have feature then it should be possible to use a 3rd party app, like the ones listed in this PhoneArena article, (I'm a Vignette user). Note, of course, that all of these are are either or less than US$5.

EDIT: just remembered that Myriam Joire commented on that the G3's camera was good, but the app wasn't. Found this post https://twitter.com/tnkgrl/status/560356608614490112 this points to [APP] XCam LG v6.2.4 [G3] and that app seems to be pretty well thought of and full-featured. Might be worth a try?

The last bits I'm going to disagree with - vehemently - camera focus on the G3 is "as billed" and lightning fast. Heck I was able to keep up with Angus Young's antics from the other side of Hampden Park, in low light too. And sorry, but the Lollipop (v2) G3 makes the S3 on it's last Samsung ROM look like running at 25%. I've even tried switching to Nova to speed up the S3.

For me, Samsung's major problem with the S6 is the pricing - when you've got the Edge costing more than the "fashion-led" iPhone6+ then people are going to wondering long and hard about the purchasing decision, irrespective of how pretty a device it is. Then again, ex-customers like me would also be wary of Samsung's appalling ROM-generating skills. I've see comments time and again that an S6 "Google Play Edition" would be a phenomenal device, and Samsung/Google would probably sell all they could make.

And it's not just the phones, just bought a Lenovo Yoga2 tablet and was impressed on how responsive it is compared to the Note 10.1 that it's supplementing. Hardware is comparable, so the difference has to be down to Samsung's OS choices. And yes, I did try Nova Launcher on the Note10.1 which, to be fair, did speed it up a good bit. Again, pointing the finger at Samsung's lousy skin...

[AGTDenton]

@AGTDenton: Interesting. I don't expect much out of my smartphone camera, but I would things have moved forward nicely since the S3. Generally speaking, I have my SLT camera on me more often than not so it isn't a huge problem. But I do find my phone a bit slow at time, and sometime have application randomly close, which I presume is due to running out of memory, so I'd definitely want at least 2GB if not 3GB on my next phone (given I don't upgrade often). As for the keyboard, I don't use I use third party keyboard anyway (Google Japanese keyboard) since I need Japanese input.. would that be affected on the G3?

Samsung seemed to understand my typing mistakes very well. Its predictive text and spell checker were spot on, very rarely did I make mistakes and always wondered why everyone else did so often. Since moving to the G3 its predictive text and spell checking is awful. For example, today I wrote and spelled correctly in a sentence 'A rated for wet roads', it changed it to, 'A rates for set roads' for no apparent reason, I thought id spelt them wrong but as I went to re-write my sentence I noticed it was changing words that were spelled completely correctly. This baring in mind is on the 'mild' setting, god alone knows what you would end up sending on the 'aggressive' option.
Sometimes when I type I press the wrong key such as Enter/carriage return when I meant 'M' or 'L'. On the Samsung it seemed to realise which key I actually meant to press, I assume this is in part due to word prediction or spell checking. On the G3 it doesn't deal with wrong key presses very well if at all, however, that's less annoying as I am to blame for hitting the wrong key, but for it to change correctly spelled words is infuriating.
So I don't think language would make a difference, however, if you don't use spell checking or predictive text then it is probably not going to bother you so much. Also I'm not expecting the keyboard to have any improvements on the G4.

I still prefer my S3 camera for usability and way faster focus in my opinion, its also possible that as the 2nd edition S3 had 2GB of RAM this aided overall performance vs the standard S3 (1GB). The quality on the G3 is very good once it finds its focal point. I was at some car show the other day and took a few pictures, zooming in on the gallery I was impressed at how clear number plates were a good distance away especially for a smartphone.

I use SwiftKey on my G3, mainly because I used it on the S3 that preceded it - so I can't comment on the TW-keyboard v's the LG version. And yes, I'll agree that the lack of "advanced" features on the camera app is annoying, although the Lollipop update did claw back a lot of respect. If you're still missing that must-have feature then it should be possible to use a 3rd party app, like the ones listed in this PhoneArena article, (I'm a Vignette user). Note, of course, that all of these are are either or less than US$5.

I started on Lollipop with my G3 so glad I didn't have it pre Lollipop if it was worse.

EDIT: just remembered that Myriam Joire commented on that the G3's camera was good, but the app wasn't. Found this post https://twitter.com/tnkgrl/status/560356608614490112 this points to [APP] XCam LG v6.2.4 [G3] and that app seems to be pretty well thought of and full-featured. Might be worth a try?

After briefly reading it does sound interesting. I'll check it out when I have a bit of time.

The last bits I'm going to disagree with - vehemently - camera focus on the G3 is "as billed" and lightning fast. Heck I was able to keep up with Angus Young's antics from the other side of Hampden Park, in low light too. And sorry, but the Lollipop (v2) G3 makes the S3 on it's last Samsung ROM look like running at 25%. I've even tried switching to Nova to speed up the S3.

For me it takes a while to focus on anything with the G3 and to mention my S3 was the 2nd edition which included 2GB instead of 1GB and may have had some other enhancements, this could mean it was improved over the standard S3.

[crossy]

I still prefer my S3 camera for usability and way faster focus in my opinion. The quality on the G3 is very good once it finds its focal point. I was at some car show the other day and took a few pictures, zooming in I was amazed at how clear number plates were a good distance away especially for a smartphone.

That's strange - the S3's camera was, imho, one of the worst features about it. Focus speed was okay, but indoor lighting - especially that industrial-style mercury ones - would utterly confuse it and you'd end up with blocky images. My previous smartphone - Sony Xperia X10 - was far better. But, like I said before, I'm pretty happy with the G3's performance all round - although better control would be nice.

As to the keyboard issues, (cut out of the quote above to save space), that's strange. I've had identical problems with Swiftkey on my Note10.1 - so maybe it's something underlying in Google's software, or a later update to Play Services etc that messed things up. I will grant you though, that the S3's keyboard is nicer to use than the G3's, although I had to switched to Swiftkey before I traded in/up S3 to G3.