Samsung sees 95% drop in profits for a second consecutive quarter::Today, Samsung posted its Q2 2023 financial results. The report says Samsung’s profits have dropped considerably compared to last year.

  • pizzazz@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Drops in profits can mean investments, new hires and a myriad of other stuff. No meaning in the headline whatsoever. Profits are not revenue.

  • Polar@lemmy.ca
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    2 years ago

    Sorry. I’m just trying not to get evicted due to living in a country with the highest rent, internet, food, and data plan prices.

    • Wooki@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      At least you don’t live in the city with the highest rent prices. Our countries treated housing like and investment scheme which drives up local tax revenue resulting in reduction year in year of new developments (assuming Canada has the same supply Constraints as here) . The reduction is fueled by the tax revenue however also by the increasing amount of investors and owners who vote. They don’t want their asset values to decrease so it’s artificially kept high the value component of the assets left long ago, we are in fictional valuations now.

      Regarding food, their is no other way around monopoly or duopoly other than supporting farmers markets. By supporting them they can grow their base and bring down prices. Not sure what else can be done here. It’s a real problem for us here.

      Electricity prices are skyrocketing here and that’s squarely landed at the feet of poor renewables planning. Mandatory coal plant shutdowns without having replacement capacity in place is killing people when the elderly & vulnerable can’t afford AC during the heat waves.

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        It’s big and cold. How much food do you think grows there? There’s actually plenty of cheap land but people like to live with other people.

        If you don’t want modern conveniences, I bet it’s cheap. I bet you can live off of potatoes and chicken for like $0.

        • Polar@lemmy.ca
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          2 years ago

          It’s not cheap. Buying a crack shack in a shitty province with basically no job opportunities costs more than a nice place in LA.

          Actually.

          Getting a piece of shit, run down, SHARED town house in Nova Scotia costs more than a decent house in LA.

          • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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            2 years ago

            You can get a rural house with land for no money. You can grown your own potatoes and raise chickens. That life is exceptionally cheap. But like I said:

            People like to live with people.

            So the problem is, Canada is big and cold. No one wants to live in the cheap areas.

            • jiji@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              Yeah I watch a girl on YouTube who bought a run down old house in Nova Scotia + plenty of land for I think $64k? It obviously takes a lot of work to get it modernized but it was technically liveable when she bought it. But it’s kinda out in the middle of nowhere and therefore not as desirable.

              (If anyone cares, she’s a booktuber but she has a whole video series on refurbing the house. Her name is Ariel Bissett.)

      • Polar@lemmy.ca
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        2 years ago

        Government. Not liberals or conservatives, but the government as a whole. Canada has had many years where both liberal and conservatives were in charge, and nothing changed.

        Canada doesn’t allow competition. We have 3 main internet providers, 3 main phone plan providers, like 2 grocery store chains, a couple airlines, etc.

        When other companies attempt to come in to break up monopolies, they lobby, and get them shut down.

        I mean where are we going to go? America isn’t really an alternative, as much as Americans think it is. Our healthcare, gun laws, etc are things that make Canada really good. We could move to some European or Scandinavian country, but that’s not as easy as it sounds, especially when you need to learn a new language, get accepted, move your entire life, and live in such a different culture.

        So people in Canada just accept it. Maybe one day monopolies will be broken up, but there are no parties that are going to do that now. Left or right leaning.

            • steveman_ha@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              Capitalism and free markets are separate things within the economic “sphere” of society. Capitalism is an economic doctrine that focuses on directing production through private capital; free markets (in theory) ensure “equal access” to markets for products (as compared to monopoly or (economic, not necessarily drug) cartel markets which restrict access).

              Over in the “public sphere”, governments decide whether to jump in bed with private capital (often resulting in monopolies or cartels in economic marketplacs), or to make & enforce regulations that protect the (so-called) free market.

              Or to make and enforce regulations that protect consumers – i.e. human f-ing beings – and enrich local economies without protectionism and “zero sum games”, but I guess we shouldn’t get too carried away here ;)

        • Nonameuser678@aussie.zone
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          2 years ago

          We have a similar thing in Australia with our supermarkets, airlines and media. Our governments have been equally as stagnant in trying to change things. Housing and utility prices are fucked as well.

        • Bondrewd@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I haven’t even seen a North American have a kind of acceptable political understanding in the 2020s until now.

          • TechnoBabble@lemm.ee
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            2 years ago

            Plenty of real people are quite aware of our current issues, they just get drowned out online.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Government. Not liberals or conservatives, but the government as a whole. Canada has had many years where both liberal and conservatives were in charge, and nothing changed.

          Huh, it’s almost as if they don’t encompass as much of the political spectrum as they’d like us to believe.

  • No1@aussie.zone
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    2 years ago

    I got LineageOS official just waiting for when Samsung abandons me

    • PeachMan@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Only if you’re on a Chinese Samsung phone…the bootloaders are locked tight on the US and Exynos models AFAIK.

      • dinckel@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Probably depends on the device, but at least for me it’s the opposite. The Exynos model of the Note 10 is the only one that has any development going on at all. The Snapdragon model is the completely locked down one

        • PeachMan@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Ah right, I had that wrong, I think it’s the US Snapdragon variant that is locked down.

    • lobut@lemmy.ca
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      2 years ago

      I was so happy when they released those commercials with their commitment to the headphone jack after Apple abandoned it.

      After they dropped it, they made sure I’ll never buy another phone from them. They probably don’t care. They probably make more than enough through their bluetooth headphones.

        • kalleboo@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Sales are “only” down 37%, it’s profits that are down 95%. Which means either they’ve had to discount their phones, or they’re not selling enough volume to make up for R&D.

    • float@feddit.de
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      2 years ago

      Either you make products that people want or you don’t, it seems pretty simple to me.

      Imo even big companies fail to realize that they don’t know (or care) anymore what the customers want. Marketing used to be: analyze the market and find out what’s a good product to sell. Nowadays marketing is: make personalized ads and try to push whatever crap is cheap to produce to people who don’t realize they don’t even want this. Also make it look a lot better than it actually is.

      Samsung, stop trying to imitate Apple, it’s no use. You don’t have the vendor lock-in and cult-like status to pull that off. Just make good products at affordable prices. Ask the customers what they want, it’s that easy.

      • tiredOfFascists@reddthat.com
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        2 years ago

        You’re very correct. A core belief at apple is that the customer is too stupid to know what they want, so you can whatever you want down their throat.

        There is some merit to the idea that true innovation won’t be anticipated by customers so you have to take risks. But the way apple does it pisses me off to no end.

        No apple, removing every port (except shitty ass lightning ports of course) is not a good idea. It just isn’t.

      • Thadrax@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Ask the customers what they want, it’s that easy.

        Don’t forget though, that the typical customer may be very different from the bubble on this site.

    • Blastasaurus@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      I’ve had 3 Samsung phones in a row but I’m over it. The bloatware is too much for me at this point.

    • moistclump@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      To be fair, apples done those things and we said the same thing about those moves. And now look at em.

      • rm_dash_r_star@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        Except Samsung has competition. Apple has blind loyalty.

        I need to replace my Samsung phone soon and I’m looking at Motorola. An Apple user just says I need to replace my phone soon. Then they get to spend an arm and a leg to do it.

        • Thadrax@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          blind loyalty

          Maybe for some people. There is however a strong momentum to just keep using what you are used to, and Apple has done a great job in that regard. Stuff just works and it keeps working mostly the same and even switching to a new device is almost effortless. Plus their design guidelines for apps is providing a pretty consistent user experience, zero tinkering required. Which is what a lot of people like.

        • ghostBones@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Apple has blind loyalty

          I agree. However, I also think that vendor lock-in is the true culprit. The strange thing about Apple users is that they get locked into that platform and there is little escape, but instead of feeling resentful, they swell with pride instead. Apple user = proud capative.

          • szczuroarturo@programming.dev
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            2 years ago

            Its also beacuse Apple dosent have cheap tier of phones. So you have the classic went from a 100 dollar android to 1000 dollar iphone case. Like no shit sherlock obviusly extremly cheap phones are crap. Also for some reason the most common phone Brand on the planet is somehow treated like a status symbol. I would kinda uderstand sony phones being status symbol or samsung foldables but iphones But truth be told I really dont get Apple users. I tried one and other than it being really smooth (beacuse my Main phone is a cheap huawei) it was worse in every metric that mattered to me other than sound while costing 4 to 6 Times as much .

      • Thadrax@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        apples done those things and we said the same thing about those moves. And now look at em.

        True, however a lot of people really don’t care about that stuff which somehow often gets overlooked here and on reddit.

      • R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 years ago

        When apple did them they were seen as reasons not to buy iPhones, now everyone has copied them it’s no longer a factor in whether you buy an iPhone or not.

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.worldBanned
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    2 years ago

    They still made around $1/2 BILLION.

    I love how every headline about their earnings focuses on the drop from before and not on the actual number they made.

    Boo-fucken-hoo the record profits they were making the last few years couldn’t be sustained forever. Oh noes!1!!!

      • ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works
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        2 years ago

        No. Not at all.

        If a company made one penny last quarter, and 10,000,000 this quarter, then their profit is up 10 billion percent. It’s a stupid headline.

        • SuperStonker@lemmy.ml
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          2 years ago

          If a company did that it would be extremely newsworthy, as a 1,000,000,000,000x profit increase.

          I don’t see your point.

          If the same company made 10,000,000 last quarter and then made 500,000 this quarter that would also be newsworthy… as you know, a 95% drop in profits.

          • ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works
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            2 years ago

            “Company so and so did an INFINITE PROFIT INCREASE!”

            Stupid.

            My point is that it’s stupid to use percentages when reporting profits unless you’re writing for clicks. That’s not how professional do it when looking at earnings reports. Ever. And for good reason. Again, Samsung stock is not tanking, because investors are smarter than internet kids who are bad with numbers.

            Revenues are looked at as percentages. Profits are looked at as raw numbers. Typically.

            Relevant username btw hahaha

            • SuperStonker@lemmy.ml
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              2 years ago

              😳I really didn’t mean to upset you so much wee man… don’t get too emotional. Just having a conversation here aren’t we?

              Percentage is entirely legitimate to look at, it’s merely a way of quantifying what the raw numbers mean versus the raw numbers from last years performance.

              No one said Samsung stock is tanking, you’re kind of shouting that into an empty room.

              I was acknowledging that a 95% drop in profits vs the same period over the previous year is definitely a newsworthy item especially in two consecutive quarters… I think any shareholder of Samsung would agree.

              • ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works
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                2 years ago

                Company makes 1 dollar q1 2022. Company makes $.05. Q2 of 2023.

                Headline: “company loses 95% of its profits.”

                It’s the opposite of meaningful.

                • SuperStonker@lemmy.ml
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                  2 years ago

                  It is meaningful if you measure Q1 2020 vs Q1 2021. You’ve got a bit confused as to what YOY is, you’re not just measuring two random quarters from different years (q1 2022 vs q2 2023?), you’re comparing against the performance in the same quarter the previous year.

                  It is a very meaningful way of judging whether a companies performance (ability to turn a profit and create value for the investor) has improved against the same period the previous year.

                  https://www.investopedia.com/terms/y/year-over-year.asp

                  There is a little bit of very basic information for you. I can try find something more colourful and with nice pictures if you need.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Is it your belief that Samsung made hundreds of billions of dollars mysteriously in on huge surge?

          • ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works
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            2 years ago

            Revenue matters more since companies tend to invest in future technology. Most serious business analysts would never talk about profit in percentages. This is clickbait. Hence why the stock price (determined by investors not Reddit tech refugees) is not suffering.

      • ryannathans@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Maybe if it was revenue. Such a drop in profits could be from many ordinary business operations like expansion

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          It states in the article that it is from less than expected sales, no?

  • dgilluly@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

    This is a sign of an upcoming recession if we aren’t already in one. People are starting to run out of their savings due to stagflation and are looking for areas to cut. Buying a new phone every year or every other year and replacing laptops every 5 years are among the first things to go in anyone’s budget.

    So currently the only people refreshing their devices are the people who NEED new devices.

    Capitalist economies always need spends out of desire and not just necessity.

    Worst part is instead of reversing the gouging these companies will probably just go ham on the planned obsolescence.

    • Myrbolg@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Or simply that prices have become insane. Good phones used to be around 400, taking me a few days to think about it and say yes. Now they are beyond 1000, so I will do my best to avoid having to upgrade and go with custom ROMs again. In the meanwhile, we also lost exchangeable batteries, external SD cards, and microphone jack, and we gained more Google spyware and bloat.

        • Neflubaguzzi@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I had a Pixel 3a for years. It was a great phone and it was $350. Eventually it stopped getting updates :(

      • dgilluly@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Good phones used to be around 400, taking me a few days to think about it and say yes. Now they are beyond 1000

        I’m not sure what you mean by a “good” phone. Like yeah, they came up a bit. A Pixel 7a costs $499, and if one wants wireless charging and a better camera they can go with the Pixel 7 for $599. Regular non-Pro iPhones are around the same price.

        Like yeah, folding phones are well over $1,000 in most cases, but personally I think that’s a gimmick, my hot take. But for me and 99% of the people I know, we’re sticking with our slab smartphones.

      • Pofski@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I bought a m52 a while ago on a black friday promotion or something like that for 280. It’s the most expensive phone I ever bought (usially i try to stay under 200). I know that for some that is peanuts, but I have it hard to justify spending so much money on a phone. 1000 for a phone is something I would never be able to do. The thing I do like about it is the quality of the photos and the ease to connect with my wireless buds.

    • blarco@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      You hit the nail on the head for me. I loved my Galaxy S9+ but it was over 4 years old and literally falling apart. I just replaced it with an S23…but also as others have said, I think the S9+ was better. I’m especially having issues with the camera (look up bananagate) and my old car doesn’t have Bluetooth so I have a USB C to Aux adapter that randomly cuts out sound so for a lot of drives I just put the sound up on my phone speakers and play directly.

      • Nighed@sffa.community
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        2 years ago

        I got a cigarette lighter usb port to provide power to a Bluetooth -> aux dongle. Works well.

    • Oneobi@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      The gouging is insane. £300+ for a tablet keyboard case for the s9 ultra.

      I got one free as a preorder for the s8 ultra. No chance I am paying that much for a keyboard.

      • dgilluly@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Samsung isn’t on planet earth with their prices. I was avoiding them anyway because I believe TouchWiz is an inferior interface than stock Android. Just way too much bloat.

        • Oneobi@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Bloat is negligible. In fact it is their software that keeps me stuck with samsung. Its a total superior hardware and software experience.

          Just wished they hadn’t gone down the Apple courage route and bumped the price and pimped the features.

          • dgilluly@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            You’re the only one I’ve heard of who was happy with it. One of the guys I worked with, traded a new at the time Galaxy S-series phone back into his carrier to exchange for an iPhone because it was very laggy. After seeing one in action I didn’t blame him. It was laggier than my cheap Moto G series, which had a lot less processing power and slower storage. And this was back in 2017, so not too awfully long ago. But maybe things have changed since then.

            • Oneobi@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              2017 was a long time ago.

              Like with everything you need to invest time to learn the features. If you just want a phone with basic capabilities then you are better off getting other brands.

              The spen itself is packed with so many features but rarely does anyone bother learning them. Samsung have developed a powerhouse for productivity and unfortunately that means I’m stuck with them because nothing else compares.

              Everyone is on their own journey and I agree that it is not for everyone.

              • dgilluly@lemmy.world
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                2 years ago

                Part of my job still is to help people connect their work email to their personal smartphones, if they want to. Many buy Samsungs because their carrier’s store still sells them up front compared to other brands of Android. Though it’s mostly A-series phones.

                The problem with it is that Samsung doesn’t put the access to the features in convenient or intuitive locations so many users just get used to not using them anyway. The only feature, I as a Pixel user envy over Samsung is the right side menu thing. But anyone with iPhone experience or experience using an Android that has gesture nav enabled by default, wouldn’t think to try it even with the spen because that is the gesture to go back.

                Ofc Pixels can do multitask yet many don’t realize that because you have to click the app icons at the top of the recent apps screen to access the menu for it. So I guess I don’t have room to talk about that aspect as a Pixel user.

                But Bixby? I honestly think it’s a waste of resources for Samsung when they could have just used Google Assistant like other brands. I mean Bixby is okay but still lacks in some areas, but Samsung invested a lot of resources and effort into it just to come up with something that barely keeps up with Google’s Assistant.

                Also I’m not a huge fan of their app drawer still. I guess I’m more of a “I just want to see an alphabetical list of all apps” on the app drawer type of person.

      • Sheltac@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Even my iPad keyboard (the folio from Apple) “only” cost like £180. Samsung’s going nuts.

      • dgilluly@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Sadly I don’t think greedflation is an official term. Stagflation was the closest I know about anyway.

    • 5BC2E7@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I remember reading vague claims that this was expected by samsung and it was just the cost of something they did some years ago to eliminate competition. Unfortunately I don’t have anything more concrete but someone else might know and add a comment.

      • dgilluly@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Tbh, might not be a bad time to do it as long as you don’t sink yourself into debt too much or have to take out high interest loans. Because if the crash happens while you’re studying and by the time you graduate things might start recovering again. I guess we’ll see.

  • Hapa_B@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Lol everyone commenting it’s because THEY don’t want to buy a new phone. Samsung supplies screens, electronic internals for other companies, and a fuck ton of appliances. They don’t only make phones…

  • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Because more and more people are using their phones until they quit. Who needs a folding phone?

  • JohnOnABuffalo@sh.itjust.works
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    2 years ago

    Fuck Samsung, I’ve had the worst experiences in all of tech with their support system. I had a bad ram module on my s22 and even used the Samsung Support app and had a tech point it out to me. Sent it in and apparently the repair center can’t see those notes that the support dev had written. It took 3 tries and countless calls to support, and eventually got in contact with the office of the CEO, and they basically admitted their backend support is so fractured that someone with phone in hand can’t see any notes any other tech had written. They then decided to give me a refund, which was for less than the receipt, and after fighting for another MONTH to get them to give me the correct funds, they finally sent it to me. 3 months in total. Fuck Samsung.

  • arc@lemm.ee
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    2 years ago

    I know personally that I would never buy a Samsung phone again. The budget models are filled with ad/crapware. The premium models are expensive, gimmick laden and bad value.

      • arc@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        I didn’t know about the adware but I know they bundle a lot of duplicate shit in the deluded belief that people want to use Samsung’s payment system, or appstore or any of the other parallel universe junk that just stinks up the phone.

      • Patapon Enjoyer@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        You shouldn’t have to do this if course, but if you want to remove all the shit they put on phones it’s very easy and safe to use ADB. XDA usually has a list of the things that are safe to remove and there are tutorials online.

    • danciestlobster@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Genuine question: what do you recommend instead? Not really excited to support Google via pixel either and didn’t love my last iPhone. Is there a good choice anywhere?

      • boonhet@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        Oneplus has gone to shit as far as software is concerned, but the hardware is still good, so if you’re OK running a custom ROM, they’re good.

        I last used the Xperia lineup ages ago, but it was a pretty decent experience, close enough to stock Android and the additions they did add were actually improvements. No idea if that’s still the case, but you could look up some reviews.

        Ditto for Motorola, which was nearly stock Android back in 2014.

        Murena sells refurb and new phones with /e/os preinstalled if you want to go google-free.

        I do miss the early days of Android, when you had players like HTC creating completely unique Android experiences (I mean so did Samsung, but their uniqueness was how slow Touchwiz was).

        Edit: Also completely forgot the fact that Nokia makes some good phones, including pretty affordable ones and some higher end ones. But personally the one person I knew with one had issues with the USB-C port and had to have theirs repaired by the warranty and then refunded on the second or third round. But that was a much older model, maybe 5 years now, they likely have fixed the issues on their newer ones.

        • cman6@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I’ve had a Nokia 3.1 and 5.1 and I would advise everyone to steer clear! I won’t be buying a Nokia phone again

          • boonhet@lemm.ee
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            2 years ago

            Welp, another brand to avoid, that makes… pretty much all of them.

            Out of curiosity, what was wrong with your Nokias? I’d never heard of any other issues besides the USB-C port on the 5.1.

            • cman6@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              The 3.1 started to become incredibly slow once I installed at the latest updates. If it’s factory reset then it runs fine. The worst offender on that phone was turning the Wifi on and off. Turning it on (after all updates are installed) causes the phone to freeze for 10-20 seconds.

              On the 5.1 the keyboard stops responding to every other key press at times. That’s been my only gripe so far to be honest but it’s incredibly frustrating.

      • virtualbriefcase@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        I’ve been happy with my pixel. As much as it might be not ideal if you don’t want to support Google, ironically it’s like the only phone you can de-google and still have a locked bootloader and full features

          • virtualbriefcase@lemm.ee
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            2 years ago

            Doesn’t that invalidate safety net?

            Sorry I’m not 100% sure what your asking. If you’re asking about custom roms, I’d trust many custom roms (Graphene is my favorite) better than a lot of manufacturers’s roms. And a bootloader that can be re-locked is a big boost to security, since it requires that the OS be signed by the devs instead of making it easier for malicious code to be shimmed in and run at the OS level even if I install a custom operating system.

            • TheCraiggers@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              SafetyNet is the name of Google’s tamper protection thingy. Basically, if it’s not a trusted chain, safety net won’t pass.

              This doesn’t impact phone functionality, but some apps check for this and refuse to work if it’s not passing. Google Pay is one of the more well-known examples. Some other banking apps will also check for it. Oddly enough, Pokemon Go also used to (not sure if it still does).

              • virtualbriefcase@lemm.ee
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                2 years ago

                Ah, sorry, yeah potentially. I’ve heard that banking apps won’t work most of the time (but usually just use the web any way so can’t confirm). Though oddly if you wanted to use Google Play on Grapheme it works perfectly fine, so maybe not.

      • Prox@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Not the OP, but I went with Moto instead. They’re slim, with minimal junk (2-3 Moto utility apps that aren’t terrible, no Facebook or similar), they work as well as my Samsung phones (if not better), and my first one outlasted the network it was running on (AT&T older G-series network).

      • drathvedro@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        Whatever is most popular under $200. Unless you game or use your phone to take photos a lot, it will do just fine, there’s not much to be added to justify any additional costs. Ironically, most phones in that category would be Samsungs.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          But a more expensive phone will last you longer until it gets completely outdated because of its’ performance, therefore you replace it less often and generate less e-waste.

          I know that person said Apple (6-7 years of software updates!) is out of the question, but nearly all higher-end Androids get good custom ROM support and can be kept running for years after the OEM stops supporting it.

          For just under $200 (in my country anyway - we have 20% sales tax, you might get something better in the US for the same money) I can get a Galaxy A14 with a Mediatek MT6769, a SoC built on an ancient 12nm node, which might be cheap, but will have much less performance per watt than a 7 or 8 series Snapdragon on a 4nm node.

        • BackStabbath@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          I’ve had several phones under $200 over the years. One thing’s been common. The stuff that sucks is the stuff that’s not clear from the specs. It’s the fact that something or the other just doesn’t work that well. I’ve had bad proximity sensors, bad gps, rather poor ram management (still there on my more expensive Samsung). It’s not the chip or the cameras that bother me, it’s the stuff like the quality of the sensors, wifi, bluetooth etc. After my last $200 phone, I bought a Samsung galaxy s20 FE 1.5 years after it launched. Soooooo much better than anything I’ve had in terms of consistency and not letting me down on the daily. So my motto is going to be old flagship, rather than new mid-ranger. And if I can afford it, new flagship I guess.

      • arc@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        I think OnePlus, Motorola or Pixel but really you’d have to check reviews since any phone of including this shit if they wanted. Networks do it too so it is important to buy a SIM free phone if possible as the first precaution.

      • Gamey@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        A refurbished Pixel or older refurbished OnePlus, they have great third party software support so you can just throw Lineage or /e/OS on there and never worry about crappy software and/or bloatware again!

      • Poudlardo@jlai.lu
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        2 years ago

        I installed e/OS/ on my Samsung s8+, best decision of my smartphone user life. Fast os, no ads, no crapware, no tracking, no preinstalled bullshit

        • MrShankles@reddthat.com
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          2 years ago

          Does “visual voicemail” still work when using e/OS/? I bought an unlocked Samsung a few years ago, but it’s apparently an issue to get visual voicemail working. Not sure if it’s only an ATT problem, (like they’re just being dicks about me not buying my phone through them), but I gave up cause it wasn’t worth my time. I just don’t really check my voicemail anymore cause I’m too lazy to call it, but I wouldn’t mind having it back if it’s a quick fix