[the_snooze]

Does anyone know why their software is just so so bad? I have Samsung phones for testing and development work, and I don't understand why anyone would ever use these things. They're loaded down with so much half-assed knockoff shovelware of common services, some of which have ads, and nearly all of which keep issuing out useless notifications.

It's like Samsung forgot that phones serve people, not the other way around. Samsung software is just so damn needy and won't get out of the way.

And it's not like these things are cheap either! The user is very much a paying customer, not a freeloader who's a product to be sold to other businesses.

[_fat_santa]

The problem as I see it, Samsung wanted to carve out a piece of Android to create their own experience. They wanted to be like Apple and Google and have their own first party apps.

The problem is that Android already comes with all these first party apps so you just end up with duplication. This problem is only further compounded by the carrier having their hand in the cookie jar and having their own first party apps.

From this all you end up with is massive app duplication on your phone and every app fighting to be your choice. I remember buying an S7 from Verizon years back, it had 3 dialers, 3 messaging apps, and 4 web browsers.

Dialers: Verizon Dialer, Samsung Dialer, Android Dialer.

Messaging: Verizon Message, Samsung Messages, Android Messages

Web Browser: Verizon Web, Samsung Web, Chrome, <3rd party browser added by Samsung>, <3rd party browser added by Verizon>

[w1nk]

I think you're giving them too much credit by saying they're attempting to create their own experience. I don't believe that's the motivation at all. I don't see any reason to believe Verizon wants to improve the dialer or the messaging app in any way. They're building these things as data exfiltration applications. In the case of some of the apps you can't even remove them. It's absolutely disgusting to be honest.

[marcusjt]

I recommend running Universal Android Debloater [1] on all Samsung devices (I have 2 of them) plus other manufacturers are even worse (e.g. Xiaomi) and the same accept works wonders on them too.

[1] https://www.xda-developers.com/universal-android-debloater-u...

[TonyTrapp]

For what it's worth, even outside Android their software is horrible. Check out Samsung Magician, their SSD tool [0]. That UI just doesn't make any sense. Samsung is a hardware company (and they're great at that), can't remember any good software from them, ever.

[0] https://i.imgur.com/lbqdn8i.png

[nebula8804]

Seeing as how their Washing Machines self destruct, I don't think they may be that good at hardware either. Yeah its been a few years since we heard them in the news but I am hearing through the grapevine that they products still are poor quality(at least the appliances).

[1]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4ddIfgarPg

[bee_rider]

The tool works well enough, though.

They seem to be really bad at user experience stuff specifically.

In their defense, this is exactly how most engineers would run a company I think, haha. The only problem is that they are in literally every segment, including ones where usability is really important.

[rejectfinite]

That looks like the old interface.

Here it is on my machine, latest version

https://i.imgur.com/dg9JOr2.png

Not saying this is better :D

[TonyTrapp]

It's a screenshot from three years ago or so, it was just so bad that I had to keep it. And yeah, can't say that the new interface is an improvement. ;)

[duxup]

>Does anyone know why their software is just so so bad?

Is Samsung "good at software" at all?

I'm wondering if maybe Samsung's skill set as a company just doesn't include software / they don't have the people who know how to manage software development / products / teams and etc?

I remember ages ago I had a Samsung phone and their software started to trickle out and I thought "woah they're just getting started it seems, but they've got the money to get better". A few years later they hadn't improved at all, and were clearly going to push their own software and at that point I decided I was out...

[bee_rider]

Their hard drives are pretty reliable as far as I've seen, which would seem to indicate that they don't regularly mess up the drivers I guess.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

I assume you mean the on-disk firmware. The "drivers" would normally be software provided by the OS, and is protocol- not vendor-specific.

[bee_rider]

Indeed I do. Good point!

[screye]

Is it bad though ? I honestly have no clue where people are seeing ads. Their base apps are all 1:1 better than Google's and replacing their launcher with Nova is so trivial that I wouldn't even consider that modification. Bixby is shitty, but I insta disable it and keep Google assistant on instead.

Thr UI itself feels mature and fast. I never run into problems with lagging and I practically run my phone (zfold3) on battery saver all the time. (I don't need to, it just doesn't seem to have any cons for me, so might as well)

Their camera app is great and split screen is executed much better than Google. Dex and pen support are pretty much exclusive to Samsung.

Maybe the nonflagship experience is terrible. But their flagship experience for me has been stellar.

[goosedragons]

I've been happy with my A51. I haven't even bothered to change the stock launcher. It lets me organize the app drawer alphabetically which is basically all I care about. The email client is decent and there's no ads I see. The Galaxy store has ads but that's insanely easy to ignore. The phone is admittedly not the fastest but I only notice that in the occasional game. The features I do care about like the screen, NFC, SD card slot all work great. Often the faster cheaper phones skimp on the screen and always leave out NFC.

And yeah split screen is better than stock.

[thevagrant]

I find their phones OK when new but I have a feeling at the 2 year mark they turn off software optimizations in an android update. I have no proof but the speed of the device degrades significantly. It goes from nice and fast to _adequate_ speed but not snappy smooth and always with irritating lag on some basic functions like keyboard. (my experience with flagship Galaxy S / Note series)

Sure enough, the current year model is blazingly fast with same apps installed, even when the specs are not very different... speed lasts until that 2 year mark comes.

[elp]

This is what no competition gives you. The Huaweis are much better, and were starting to eat into Samsung's business, but without the Google services its hard no for most people including me.

[sdoering]

I still use my old Pixel2 as my work phone from my employer. The reason?

I can only select Samsung devices as mobile phones from my employer.

I just won't.

[fomine3]

Samsung tend to install bloats, but also there's a history that stock Android lacks features and Samsung implement it and ported to AOSP. I still miss some big features on AOSP that available on OneUI/MIUI/whatever.

[mardifoufs]

One UI is pretty good. Probably the best version of android especially w.r.t consistency. But yes the camera software is... okay at best. The sensors are great but the software processing makes it impossible to have iPhone-tier pictures. The only other problem with One UI is that it often has one google app and one samsung app for doing the same thing, but I guess that's just necessary due to google policy.

The galaxy store is useless too, but the new optional samsung apps that you can get from there can be awesome. The Sound Assistant app has been a game changer and it's only available on the galaxy store

[bpfrh]

About why somebody would buy it:

for me it was a combination of having a normal audiojack, smaller form factor(s9) and pricing.

I did buy the phone after it was already out for a year or two and was cheaper...

Software is ok for me, but I don't use anything from samsung except for the mail app and clock, so it is not like I would notice.

[mschuster91]

Agreed. The problem is, the competition is worse... basically only with Samsung and Google you have the assurance that you'll get firmware updates for a reasonable amount of time, and Google's palette of devices is limited.

[bee_rider]

Suspicion: Samsung sees itself as a hardware and component company first, and doesn't prioritize the quality of these user-facing apps.

[lotsofpulp]

> Does anyone know why their software is just so so bad?

I have never heard of any software developer in the US aspiring to work at Samsung. I assume their pay to quality of life at work ratio is pretty bad.