Goodbye forever Samsung...switched to a Pixel 4!

I live in Dubai and we get the Exynos SoC (processor) for the Samsung Galaxy devices just like the UK and Europe unlike the ones which are sold in the US/Korea that have the awesome Snapdragon SoC. I've come to think of this as the norm and never bothered. Over the years I did notice in reviews when they say the battery life was awesome which for me was never the case, even after putting most of the apps into deep sleep, the battery life was horrid specifically the standby time (again with nothing in the background and most apps automatic syncing off such as Facebook which I replaced by an even lighter version called Metal Pro and Twitter which I replaced with Fenix 2, etc).

This year though, the gap between Exynos vs. Snapdragon has widened so much it's like you bought a completely different and inferior phone for the same freakin' super expensive price.

I was lured into the trap of pre-ordering to get my free Galaxy Buds+ which are awesome by the way and are still the best wireless buds that I've used.

So I pre-ordered the Galaxy S20+ 5G 512GB/128GB RAM. Firstly, I was disappointed from the get-go, the camera was the same if not slightly worse than my previous Galaxy S10 and Note 10+. The pictures at night even with good lighting had a lot of noise, they just weren't as crisp which was later improved with software updates and luckily the + version doesn't have the horrible Auto Focus issues which the Ultra has and will never be completely fixed due to the hardware.

I've done multiple factory resets after each update too, but man the battery life, even with my moderate usage which is listening to streaming audio for about an hour and receiving only few WhatsApp Messages and 5 emails at max, I had to charge the phone twice a day! I could never trust this phone to go out if it wasn't at 100% charge. Very sad for a $1300 USD phone at this day and age.

My other gripe is with the built in apps and finally Samsung started displaying ads everywhere in their own apps especially the Galaxy Store. I'd open the Store, it'll show a big pop up ad in my face about some game, I'd press "Don't show again" but a few hours later, it would still show me that same ad! Pathetic!

Let alone the fact that I had to disable most built in apps by using Package Disable Pro (another thing you must do just to get rid of the bloatware and apps that you don't want since most cannot be disabled or uninstalled) as I didn't want to have Samsung Calendar, Notes, etc. when I prefer to use the Google Calendar or Google Keep for notes due to the seamless integration with the Google ecosystem and the ability to view and edit online.

I've owned every Samsung Galaxy phone and Note phone since the S4 and Note 4 mainly due to lack of choice here in Dubai. LG is no more available here, Motorola is very rare as well and their latest flagship is expensive and offers mediocre specs. The others we have are Xiaomi (crappy cameras and Chinese bloatware inside) or Oppo so basically I was stuck, either iPhone or Samsung.

I finally was able to sell my S20+ at a decent price and started researching what to get? I initially wanted to get the OnePlus 8 Pro but just before pulling the trigger, I checked some forums and see the problems with its screen when the phone brightness is low (screen crush they call it or color crush, whatever). I didn't want to spend $800 USD for a phone that I knew had issues from the get-go.

I was out of ideas, then finally I thought of the Pixel 4, every review I've seen on YouTube complained about 1 thing mainly, its battery life as it only has a 2800 mAH battery (I wanted the regular Pixel not the XL as I prefer smaller phones) but I had no choice at this point and just pulled the trigger.

First off, it's amazing to just be able to turn on a phone and *use* it, there was nothing to disable! and because it had a Snapdragon 855, it felt buttery smooth, way smoother than my S20+ with the Exynos SoC even when that was with a 120 hz screen and the Pixel 4 with a 90 hz screen.

The Google Assistant is awesome and night and day better than Bixby (which I had disabled always anyway) as it can actually understand you 90% of the time.

The camera even though lacks a wide angle lens, takes phenomenal photos, the quality is just insane thanks to Google Computational magic when it comes to taking photos and what I've noticed is that you can simply launch the cam and snap a photo, no need to stay still and focus like I had to do with the S20+ especially the bokeh effect (Portrait mode) is night and day better. It works every single time whereas with the S20+ I had to always manually tap on the subject to focus on it.

Finally, the battery life, I knew I was not gonna get decent battery life after watching the reviews but I am shocked that my usage hasn't changed, my apps are the same, but it lasted me the full day, I slept and woke up and the battery was still at 17% and that was a typical day streaming bluetooth via my Galaxy Buds+ for about 2 hours, watching YouTube, taking a couple of videos at the gym, and receiving about 10 emails and WhatsApp messages.

I am blown away by this phone and never thought the Pure Android experience is so good.

I could go on forever about the positive things or changes I noticed in Pure Android, but one of the other things I loved is it has a built in ability to stop spam SMS, it you type a name of a venue in the contacts app like a restaurant, even if that name wasn't on your contacts, it would still show you the name/number as if it was on your phone, it just pulls the results from Google search! That's insane!

Farewell Samsung! Enjoy shoving ads in your 1000+ USD phones/TVs and giving people inferior hardware and keep losing customers!

 

Agree with everything but wish they included a print scanner along with face unlock.

 

To be honest, I've had the in built screen fingerprint scanner on my S10, Note 10+, and S20+ and I hated it so freakin' much because it's so inaccurate. I want it to work every time but it has a mind of its own. sometimes you have to do it twice and when you need to quickly check your phone it gets aggravating when it's not working. The face unlock of the S20+ was also bad unlike the iPhone 11 Pro which worked every time. You had to be in good lighting and look directly at the screen for it to work. The Google Pixel 4 is just like the iPhone 11 Pro. Super fast and accurate face unlock that works 100% even if it was pitch dark as it's using lasers.

Speaking of fingerprint scanners, I also hated the rear mounted ones on the S9. The one I liked most was on the S10e which was on the side, that was 100% accurate and easy to reach as well but on the Pixel 4 I don't miss the FPS one bit.

 

@kojack

Here is a picture I took in a not so brightly lit room with my Pixel 4:

 

+1 Agree with that! Samsung Exynos doesn't even come close to Snapdragon 855 version in terms of battery life, network performance and all-round usage. Even SD710 can beat the top Exynos in terms of daily usage w/o lags, better battery and network performance.
I found this package which uses shell scripts to remove OEM bloatware on most phones (some entries are experimental, so take a adb backup). https://gitlab.com/W1nst0n/universal-android-debloater
I have a Nokia HMD mobile 8.1 marketed as Stock Android but after several months after A10 upgrade and numerous battery life was crappier and absolutely gets hot to touch and barely usable. Took me 4-5 months of research and came across few debloaters tools that work in Linux and Windows and few days, I used the above tool with most telemetry from Nokia/evenwell removed(Only kept stock camera) and battery life was back to normal and even fast charging was restored. Nokia HMD forum were laughing at me and others when complained about the issues. Then I thought, I should have spent 200$ extra to get Pixel 3a XL where community support is so strong and doesn't kick out people when they complain! Even Nokia Camera has become worst after update and currently using GCam 7.3 for daily usage and which does all heavy lifting to produce best images no matter what the lighting condition is!
Spartan: Samsung India has another app called Samsung People where they data mine your usage and you get coupons or rewards. Its present on M series and A series having OneUI 2.x.
So, I'm waiting for P4a or P5 since Pixel 4 face unlock doesn't work in India due to security concerns since it will interfere with military hardware.
Sometimes one best lens and software can produce best images rather than having 3 or 4 better lens w/ worst SW.

Oh and one more thing, Go to Apps and permission and disallow Usage access for most apps excluding Google Play services, AR services and SD Maid Pro(if you use one) to save great amount of battery life! Make sure Show System apps is ticked or selected to disable usage access to BT w/o your knowledge. Your theoretical SOT after these tweaks could be 7-8 hrs on Wifi all day (VoWiFi for calling) OR 4-5hrs with constant LTE usage with portable hotspot.

 

What game was the cat playing? Ha ha.

 

the cat plays ABZU

 

I still can't find any android device that is as good as iphone. Apple really has the polish on their phones. Even more so now with the upcoming 14.

 

Apple smartphones may have nice hardware, but software-wise I still see iOS as a nightmare, although it definitely improved over the years. Since I mostly use smartphone for work, my requirements may be different. Regardless, for me the journey of actually using any smartphone starts with flashing LineageOS and rooting the device.

 

What phone do you use bro?

 

I see the exact opposite. If you have to install another OS right from the get go, then that entire phone is a nightmare. Rooting, roms and other OS's NEVER run as smooth as iOS. I have been down that road many times. Gave up bought another iphone when the 6s came out and never looked back. I would love to have windows phone again, but not happening.

 

I switch back and forth from iOS and Android every year.

They both have their pros and cons. This year is iOS year. I owned Note 9/10+ and Flip Z during my Android fix last year.

I will say overall from a stability and "just works" standpoint, iOS has been better for me.

Android, however, has that customization and feature set that iOS doesn't have.

My favorite OS was Windows Mobile (the OG one not Windows Phone).

@Spartan why didn't you import a Snapdragon model in the first place? I've only owned the Snapdragon variants. I have owned every single Note phone except 7 and every single iPhone except 5 series. I think I prefer Samsung when I am using a Android device, although I agree lately they've been kinda annoying more.

 

For work, I still use an ancient Xiaomi Mi Max.

Android & iOS are very much locked down by design. For starters, one can't run a proper firewall without rooting Android / jailbreaking iOS. Last time I checked, Apple still didn't fix iOS VPN bypass bug, which is unacceptable.

Then, there is the issue that jailbreaking iOS is much more painful than rooting Android, causing problems with updates - also unacceptable. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I admit that iPhones may provide smooth(er) experience for basic functionality, but as is often the case with other Apple tech, the very moment user wants to access some more advanced functionality, they are royally screwed have to jump through hoops at best, or give up on their idea completely at worst. As an example, iPhones don't allow to record phone calls without using some third-party service - not just an app but a service, with appropriate confidentiality concerns - which is simply outrageous.

Sometimes they do, more often they don't. When switching to newer Android versions, stability and sometimes even functionality go out the window until it's polished - but the same can be said about many stock ROM updates that are pushed half-baked. With LineageOS, the device does get all the latest security patches unlike stock ROMs, which is important in my scenario.

 

1) It is not available locally so I'd have to import one which would cost more than the already staggering price of the current Samsung Galaxy S20 phones.
2) You would have no warranty here as Samsung Dubai will not touch anything not sold here locally, they would tell me to send the phone to the US
3) Samsung Pay doesn't work for the Snapdragon variant in Dubai
4) It still has Samsung ads everywhere like the Galaxy Store and whatnot.
5) I am not going to support a company like Samsung ever again, not with a single penny. They did so many customers wrong with this discrimination of Exynos vs Snapdragon

After you use a Pixel and see how the Pure Android is, you will NEVER use a Samsung.

 

While that may be true for iOS, but if you don't have an Apple computer (MacBook or desktop) then the experience is not so great.

For me, I like organizing my photos into folders, each folder contains sub-folders with dates and whatnot. If you import your photos from a Windows PC to the iPhone, the folder structure/hierarchy is lost and they all go into one big basket called Imported Photos. Good luck trying to locate a photo of a specific occasion/date you wanna share with someone. The only way to organize them on the phone is to manually create albums which are not really folders but just pointers to the original photo location. BUT if you have a MacOS computer then it's easy:
How to import folder hierarchies into Apple Photos

 

I've used the Google Nexus devices before and I used CyanongenMod on few older devices, so I know stock Android quite well.

It's a nice experience, but only until recently has it been like that. Lots of newer features coming to Android were already there on Samsung phones. This is the one thing I liked about Samsung.

Yeah the whole Snapdragon vs Eqxynos thing sucks, even more so that colors of phones are limited by region.

Really really stupid things like this is what keeps me going back to iPhones, but the enthusiast side of me always wants to try out the new toys LOL

 

I grew out of the "i gotta tweak my computers/phones" stage so none of the root / overclock / jailbreak stuff interest me anymore. I am more of a does this do everything I want and to may satisfaction. The iphone and iPad do this in spades. My dell notebook does 85 percent of what I really want to do on my pc. I piss true pen support and battery life can ALWAYS be better. But for me, I want my devices to work right out of the box. If you have to flash crap/OS builds on it before it runs smoothly or correctly, that means it's JUNK.

 

Not everyone has the same requirements. Some people genuinely need extra functionality on their smartphones that is not offered by modern smartphone operating systems out of the box anymore. I'd like to remind that Nokia N900 & N9/50 ran full-blown Linux back in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Some smartphones still run Linux, but the experience is usually half-backed, and mobile-friendly app availability very much lacking - thus running rooted and cleaned Android provides much better experience despite its obvious limitations, due to developed app ecosystem alone.

 

Even 4G/LTE bands are configured differently! I don't think Snapdragon version on S20 play well with Etisalat. My dad had a S7 UAE edition and 99% Indian carriers didn't support out of the box for 4 yrs until I flashed Indian CSC version to 4G/LTE for the first in 4 yrs.
Options like these force you to switch to iPhone/Pixel which works globally no matter which model you get.

 

You just reenforced my point. Yes phones can run Linux, however it's always "half baked". Just as most every Rom I have ever tried. There were always issues. With my iPhone, I take it off charge, use it all day for everything I need, and put it on charge again at the end of the day. Lots of battery life, every app available etc.

 

You missed my point entirely. Smartphones used to run Linux just fine and provide decent experience a decade ago. Now the experience is half-baked - but it wasn't always this way.

 

Even iOS shares a partial codebase of Linux just like OS X.
Considering the fact that iPhones are expensive and has good vertical integration with hardware and software the experience will be good. With Android, except Pixel no one has greater HW/SW harmony so naturally your experience will have variance.

 

Rumor | Samsung alleged to completely ditch the Snapdragon 875 in favor of the Exynos 1000 on the Galaxy S21 series
Samsung is expected to launch its next generation of Galaxy S flagships, the S21 series, sometime in Q1 2021. New information, however, claims that all the Galaxy S21 phones will feature Samsung's in-house Exynos 1000 chipset instead of having some Snapdragon 875-powered models as is typical.

 

So instead of fixing the disaster they made for half their customers, now they wanna give that garbage SoC to everyone! Great!

 

The only thing I like from Samsung is their ssd's and ram chips. Have only had iTOY's. Before that Nokia.

 

Yes, but we were talking about now. I do agree that before iPhone, Linux worked decently.

 

Face unlock is cool when accurate, and Google seems to do it best with Project Soli. I still feel like it's a feature only a few people asked for though, and now it's mandatory because the iPhones have it. The downsides are cost, omission of a regular fingerprint scanner, and larger bezels/slightly smaller batteries. I still prefer a regular fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone, as introduced by LG. It's comfortable to use and has the added benefit of being able to pull down the notification shade through a swipe, which is a feature I really want my next phone to also have because I use it a lot. Recent Pixel 5 renders, that are supposedly based based on leaked schematics (large pinch of salt), sees the fingerprint scanner making a return and the bezels turning small and symmetrical. Fingers crossed.

Your take on Samsung's current state seems to mirror mine. Samsung does a lot of great things, but them spending a ton of money on advertising their cameras instead of fixing their stagnant state, especially in low-light photography, is off-putting. As is the international models being left with Exynos along with Samsung's interpretation of Android. Let's hope they manage to return to former glory – they still make the best displays and the Note series has been a technological marvel. The way the Note 7 pushed boundries was really impressive, but we all know how that story had an unfortunate twist.

Google's incorportation of portrait mode in the Pixel 4 is a major upgrade in terms of accuracy, and while their digital zoom is impressive, the camera innovation I would really like to see is 5x or greater optical zoom through a periscope lens. Unfortunately, only Chinese companies are implementing it at this time (Huawei P40 Pro+, Oppo Find X2 Pro, Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite Zoom Edition, and Xiaomi CC10 Pro). I say unfortunately because I enjoy the Pixel software experience. LineageOS on Snapdragon phones can be decent too, but every major update takes a while to reach a polished state.

 

Good riddance Samsung S series! They will use AMD GPU and will say Exynos is faster than QComm. People might start buying if they include A14 with AMD GPU.

Now you can save time by not having S21 or beyond in checklist and enjoy Pixel 5 or iPhone 12.

What about display? Your iphone X has Samsung OLED. I prefer Samsung OLED with Cool Color profile like LG/Apple phones ships with. Samsung Adaptive Color bleeds my eyes and can't look at it for longer when brightness is too high.

 

I have seen the new iPhone mockups. The new 12 is smaller than my 8. I'm all in for that asap.

 

I don't think iphone 8 feels old aside from huge bezels. I hope Apple gives tri-camera setup in all iphone 12 series.

 

I still love my 8 too. But if I can get a smaller device, with bigger screen and even the dual iPhone camera setup in a 512gb model, shut up and take my money.

 

pixel still doing it ?

 

Loving the more I use it. Every few days I discover a new feature. Although it might be small, but it's very handy.

Example, you add a new contact or try to edit a contact. In the Address Field, the moment you start typing a location or street address, it actually pulls up suggestions from Google Maps and you can tap on the location and it would link that location to that contact so if you were to tap on his address in the future, it would take you straight to Google Maps and start navigating.

Another one, if you are in the Address book/Phone app and start to enter a restaurant name or any venue (ie. McDonald's) but you don't actually have that contact. It would still show you the contact name/number as it would pull it straight from Google search so you don't need to spend extra time searching for that number that you thought you had saved.

The Always on display can detect when you are not near by and turn off. The moment it senses you are in the vicinity of the phone, it turns back on! (to save battery)

Definitely jumping on the Pixel 5 when it releases soon.

 

Yeah, seems like a cool device.

 

Will be getting Pixel 4a when its officially released in India.
Do you see Ambient EQ, Ambient Display/AoD(Always on display), Screen Attention and Lift To check features consume more battery whilst on a table?
Do you have working VoWifi and VoLTE on Etisalat?

 

I keep wanting to move to android for the integration with windows and "your phone". But every phone I like, I watch the speed comparsions to my phone or the se and say NOPE. There is just so much lag from android phones. I am spoiled by apple and their optimization. If anything I will just use a surface duo with my bluetooth headset as my phone.

 

Which phones are you looking at? Android phones and iPhones are almost similar minus AXX ARM SoC and Snapdragon/Exynos/Mediatek.
If you're telling about UI micro-stutters I've seen them on both iPhones and Androids.
If you want best first party Android experience there's only Pixel phone and its developer friendly and has all bells/whistles to make custom ROM/BL Unlock etc...
If you don't have Pixel Phones, just get iPhones.

 

I am talking about overall slowness plus jittering while scrolling etc. Samsung is terrible, the pixels I used have been terrible (never tried the 4). the only android device that I thought was on par with the apple in terms of speed and overall OS snappiness (nice word hey?) was the huawei p30 pro. That was a sweet device.

 

Thank you so much for this! Your post reminded me that it is possible to speed up or completely disable whatsoever all the annoying Android animations in the Developer Options - of which I totally forgot! My Android smartphones are way snappier now!

On side note, I also manually adjust Smallest Width in Developer Options to push UI scaling far beyond stock options and fit more stuff on the screen.

 

I am thinking about just buying an A71 just to use the microsoft Your Phone features. I want to see what it's all about without tossing crap loads of money into a samsung phone when I am probably going to buy the duo in the next little while. There's no work around I can find to link my samsung tablet to do the same thing.

 

Better to jump off your balcony than investing on Samsung OneUI which has now deeper hooks to data mining and other stuffs which can't be debloated w/o ruining S(c)amsung Pay and other stuffs!

 

I use accessibility option to disable animations system-wide.
My colleagues were testing a website on mobile device which used FF mobile and only I had it. They were shocked to see website animations weren't working and were looking at me and I asked what happened? They said they designed a website with complex animations which took more time since it was mobile/tablet optimized and animations weren't working. Oh.. I said I disabled all animations and after I enabled animations they were happy and said I was a rare person who disabled all animations just for raw speed.

 

Dont care about data mining etc. Samsung pay is fine by me or google pay. I can use either. I want the connectivity with windows 10. I am not willing to shell our 1000s on a samsung phone I will however toss 350 bucks at them to play with it. I have a samsung cheap tab a 8 and I like it.

 

It's best to use a magisk module to adjust the animations to a very low number rather than turn them off because off can break a few random things, not common but it happens. I'd also recommend going into developer and forcing 90 at all times; makes very little difference in battery life but the snappiness is much appreciated. As to the iphone it's an answer to a question I never asked. I demand customization, want everything just so, and don't want anyone telling me how to use my equipment. I've not had the slightest problem with android "just working" and now if anything it's faster than Mrs Krabs I device and more useful; she often wants to borrow mine to do something hers doesn't do as well.

Pixels don't bullet point well but in actual use they're great; I always find myself going back to them. I'm thinking about getting the Z fold 2 now though, I'm a bit of a c-lut when it comes to my devices, just love getting the latest and greatest. That said I'll probably be back to a pixel device before too long, Samsung always manages to annoy me in the long run.

 

@kojack @Vasudev

Gotta love owning a Pixel! First to get updates! Just downloading this right now!

 

Bloody ***k. Damn...My device software is broken after Android 10.....
Pixel 4a is not available yet in India!
Post your SOT before/after Android 11 dirty upgrade and Clean install using factory image using adb fastboot and flash_all.bat scripts. Good luck!

 

I would not dirty flash if using a factory image going to 11, lots of people are already having problems doing that and they should have known better as it's a bad idea in general to dirty flash a major update although it works great for the monthlies.

 

The Pixels have already seen plenty of leaks, but the 5 has now leaked more extensively with official renders.


https://9to5google.com/2020/09/22/pixel-5-render-leak/

It's great to see Google finally comitting to 4K60p video and hopefully improved video capabilities in general. For photography, I'm not sure how big a jump we can except for the main camera, with the Sony IMX363 set to make a return and Google having lost Marc Levoy , their chief camera engineer, to Adobe. Then there's the Snapdragon 765G, which is a smart decision in today's economical climate, but ultimately imposes certain limitations, such as no more than 1080p for the display due to its higher refresh rate. Overall, the Pixel 5 will probably deliver a strong user experience, but how big of an upgrade it is compared to the Pixel 4 remains to be seen.

 

I believe Android 11 removing 4K video file size limit is what made 4K60 possible.
I do commend Google and Sony since Google is asking Sony to make their IMX363 with lower F stop and few tweaks. And seeing similar phone design language for 4a, 4a 5G and Pixel 5/5s will make users feel happy about their purchase.

 

I am liking the 5. fingerprint scanner again, THANK YOU GOOGLE. I only wish they jumped on board with MS and provided the same integration as samsung.