MKBHD sinks the Galaxy S8 in less then six minutes

by Volker Weber

Samsung makes great components and terrible copycat software, then combines them in their devices. Will they ever learn?

Comments

Samsung makes great hardware. But regarding software, they don't give a shit.

The Galaxy S7 has a great display, an excellent camera and a very good battery life. And wireless charging.

But then there is Android...
I don't even mind that it just got Android 7.0 in March, even though there already was Android 7.1.1 available.
But now we have April. And the Galaxy S7 is still on the January 2017 security patch level (checked for updates just 5 minutes ago). This is unacceptable. Shame on you Samsung.

And shame on me for buying a Samsung smartphone. This is definitely a mistake i made only once in my life (even though i'm extremely happy with my Gear S3, which i got before the Galaxy S7).

Manfred Wiktorin, 2017-04-06

On my list of things to whine about smartphones, having a choice in assistant software is not in the top items.
Battery life, screen durability, yes. Options & competition, no.

Craig Wiseman, 2017-04-06

Trying to set the tone with "whine"? Marques is not a whiny type.

Piling on software has a price. Somebody has to pay for it (hint: Samsung customer), it clogs up your story, it makes the phone more complicated and it makes it harder to carry the platform forward. Samsung has tried for years to duplicate Google services and they failed every single time.

Volker Weber, 2017-04-06

Competition makes things better for consumers. Apple is certainly not innovating at the rate it used to and challenging Google, especially in the AI/Assistant area.
Samsung doesn't have to win, ever, for it to be an overall benefit to the market.

Craig Wiseman, 2017-04-06

I have no idea why you bring Apple to the table. Let's stick with Samsung.

Name five Samsung pieces of software that sparked innovation.

Volker Weber, 2017-04-06

I bring Apple up because I tend to look at the smartphone market overall, and there are two handset leaders (by far): Apple and Samsung, and two platform leaders, Apple and Google.
Competition moves this (and any market) forward.
WebOS failed, yet had a significant impact on what other vendors did with their software and hardware.
Making Bixby do things that Siri and GA don't helps the users of all platforms.


Craig Wiseman, 2017-04-06

Bixby does not even work in my language, Craig. But you are missing the point:

Name five Samsung pieces of software that sparked innovation.

Volker Weber, 2017-04-06

Regarding Samsung and software, I clearly agree and do not understand, why they are still trying. The answer might be their fear to become a dumb pipe. Well, Samsung, good news, that ship has sailed, you already ARE a pipe, albeit a good one.

People are buying Samsung products for the hardware, the software efforts are by now rather putting customers off. 'Bixby' and a locked, dedicated button on such a delicate device like the S8 are really unbelieveably... Well, stupid. They had rather invested the ressources in placing the fingerprint reader where it belongs. Several things here that would not have gone through C level at Apple, e.g..

I agree about the weird cases - what did they think?

However IMO 'sink' is a little exaggerated.

Hubert Stettner, 2017-04-06

We agree that a point is being missed.

Craig Wiseman, 2017-04-06

I really hated this bloatware when I was still on Android - but by reading comments there was one good reason for this we should keep in mind:

In some countries (and big ones like China) there is no access to Google Play and its apps. Of course they could make a separate version for these countries and stop clogging up phones where Google Apps are freely available and offer them as an option.

Bernd Schuster, 2017-04-07

That looks like a typical forum discussion argument. Remember ChatON? Samsung is trying to break free from Google and that is why you get two of each app.

Volker Weber, 2017-04-07

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