[silversmith]

Could it be that it's a US-specific thing? My last three phones have been EU-sold Samsung S series, and the only things I'd consider "third party bloat" were pre-installed versions of Facebook and MS Office, both easily removable.

The Samsung replacement apps is down to personal preference, I find them easier to use than Google "originals".

Having casually interacted with phones from other brands, I consider Samsung among the best Android options as far as software and UX goes.

[morsch]

This was in Germany, so no. It's probably a midrange vs flagship thing, or it has gotten worse over time. I had an S10 and I don't remember it being so bad.

[almostnormal]

Enterprise edition, maybe? The keyboard itself does not seem to have a privacy policy ("about" shows intellectual properties and open source licenses), but the voice-input has. Third-party options are disabled by default.

But even with everything disabled (predictive text, spell checker (as may be obvious reading this), ...), it does cause network traffic.

Any login-data ever used can now be considered leaked. Great.

[numpad0]

I think it's sales channel dependent. Most carrier locked phones run carrier tailored OS that often include bloatware. Unlocked phones and/or phones sold in rights conscious regions would contain less.

I've used couple carrier branded phones, that `pm list` commands I posted in a different comment returns literally more than dozen of com.carrier.carriertrademark packages.

[morsch]

This was a retail (unlocked, non-carrier) phone in Europe. The sales channel was Amazon.

[rightbyte]

It is not an US thing. You got a "Bixby" button right? You can't remap it to something usefull. There should be a gesture to swipe up "Samsung Pay", etc.

[mFixman]

I was able to remap my Bixby button on my previous Samsung Phones. I usually put it to Google search and double click to the camera.

The newer phones (since ~2019) don't have Bixby, and Google Pay launches automatically when touching an NFC posnet.

[rightbyte]

You can if you accept the Samsung Bixby ToS. Or did you find a way around that?

[Flex247A]

I don't think it's US specific. Have faced a similar situation with the last two budget phones I bought in India.