The problem with Samsung Android Devices

Samsung has been the market leader in the Android phone market for the last 7 years, depending on the sources viewed with approximately 50% of the Android market. That translates into  just less than 20% of the entire smartphone market.  By any yardstick Samsung Android devices must be successful -  correlating that  performance to consumer satisfaction, it would be expected that Samsung must provide the best Android experience.

But the sad fact is that while Samsung's Marketing and Manufacturing Departments are probably some of the best in the world. The day-to-day ability of the phones are lacking.

Why are Samsung phones lacking

The underlying AOSP code that Samsung phones run on which in 2017 is now very mature. Stock Android does almost everything you need and for what it cannot do there is an app that can. Flexibility is the power that lies in Android.

Trying to mix iOS and Android

But the issue with Samsung is that they have tried to completely reinvent Android. Changing many aspects from the way it works to the way a user interacts with the device. That is pretty understandable as they continue to work on Tizen... Samsung has had limited success with only 3 Tizen phones from Samsung have been released. Most Tizen devices have been Smart TV's and other household devices.

The unfortunate consequence is that a user ends up getting a phone has not go the simplicity and intuitiveness of iOS  or the flexibility of Android. What the consumer gets is an inflexible  unintuitive Android device with a sprinkling of iOS flavour.

Shame for android

This is especially a shame for Android as it potentially taints a consumers experience of android. If the S7 was my first experience of Android I would say it is fine. But most of the Samsung firmware not very flexible and feels like it is trying to be too much like iOS. Trying to force you to use the Samsung ECO system. It is even more frustrating when you are happy with Android how it is and just want a new Android Device.

A great example of this is how their do not disturb settings can be scheduled - you only get one option, as seen below.

[caption id="attachment_136" align="aligncenter" width="221"] Samsung do not disturb rules[/caption]

 

The visual similarities between the Samsung interface and iOS are surprisingly similar.

[caption id="attachment_133" align="aligncenter" width="268"] iOS do not disturb screen[/caption]

With Vanilla Android multiple rules and triggers can be set. Thats pretty much perfect allows a user to set their weekly schedule - because lots of people do not have the same schedule every day.

[caption id="attachment_137" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Standard android do not disturb rules[/caption]

Unfortunately there are no good solutions from the app store as natively android has this perfected. In a follow up post I will explain how you can regain this functionality along with deSamsung'ify without flashing or rooting the phone.

Another is how Samsung try to force you to sign into a Samsung Account on setting up the phone. Or when using Knox / Secure Folder and the account info syncs the phone to Samsung Cloud. This sync is not obvious.

Finally to finish this rant Samsung has removed the ability to have multiple user accounts like the vanilla version of Android has.

Apps Samsung wants you to use

Samsung has an app for every app that google has (usually inferior either due to execution or little cross platform integration).

Calendar, Contacts, Email, Galaxy Apps, Gallery, Galaxy Essentials, Internet, Memo, Messages, My Files, Samsung Connect, Samsung Billing, Samsung Members. Dialer  - this list seems to just go on and on.

The most annoying thing is that you cannot easily disable (Not able to go into the app and disable the usual way) the applications. Consequently application end up cluttering the launcher. So if you want to use an alternative app you have duplicates of everything.  The only App that I ended up enjoying to use is the S health app. The rest are not bad apps but there are better alternatives and usually they are the ones google develops.

The Samsung Launcher TouchWiz

The launcher is a little annoying in the way it works, but this is all down to user preference and it is not bad. I would probably keep it if I could also use google now. The worst part of TouchWiz is that you get Upday with it. Upday can be removed but then it cannot be replaced. So you end up using the Google Launcher...

[caption id="attachment_140" align="aligncenter" width="226"] Samsung Notification badges[/caption]

The launcher is not all bad, I kind of like how it displays the notifications per app in a little bubble above the app icon. Similar to how iOS displays app notifications as a constant reminder.

Not all bad

Sofar this post has mostly consisted of complaints about Samsung. How the S7 and other Samsung devices are inflexible, fully loaded with Samsung apps that cannot be removed.

But really the S7 is a top notch device with great battery, build quality, screen and camera. It also has some nice enhancements these mostly focus around configuring the battery and device performance. The fingerprint reader is quick and accurate. The notifications tray is a nice change over the stock android, with a few more options and customisation allowed. The lock-screen is also nice along with the "always on display".

Conclusion

When I first picked up the S7 I wanted to hate it. There was too much Sausungness everywhere but after investing a few of days with it. I managed to remove  almost all the parts that Samsung implemented that made it worse than the Vanilla Android. I now feel that I have one of the best android devices and experiences available. It is just a shame that it is not available from the start to all Samsung users..

If you would like to get in touch or have any questions then please do not hesitate to get in contact. In an upcoming post I will go over how to; Remove the Samsung Apps, Access the Full Do not Disturb Scheduler in Android, change the Launcher and utilise the google dialer.