Unless you have more recent info (please correct me in that case), that's not quite correct. Last I heard was that Samsung's promise has been 4 years of updates [1].
I recognize Samsung as being well clear of the rest of the pack of Android vendors. Other Android vendors are outright negligent, whereas Samsung seems to generally try to fight their bad incentives and come up with some decency.
Where I think Samsung falls short is execution. Samsung is fundamentally a hardware company and their software has always been mediocre in my view, even to this day. In terms of security updates they promise less than Google, they promise fewer and slower updates than Google (quarterly software updates for some devices / late in the lifecycle still makes older devices an afterthought!), and I trust their promise to execute on their promise less than Google.
Finally, Samsung devices don't have nearly the same support for third party privacy friendly OSes than Pixel devices do - you're stuck with Samsung's (warning: personal opinion) rather tasteless take on what Android should be, and have no real other options.
> Where I think Samsung falls short is execution. Samsung is fundamentally a hardware company and their software has always been mediocre in my view, even to this day.
I disagree. I really like Samsung's take on Android and appreciate features like Dex. With some first-party software from the company, they also make Android extremely customizable. The long tail of Android features that exist only on Samsung devices would probably surprise you. OneUI is a pretty clean take on Android styling.
> In terms of security updates they promise less than Google, they promise fewer and slower updates than Google
I'm getting monthly updates on my somewhat older devices. Not just security updates but full on Samsung software updates. I just got a bunch of new features on tablet this week including quicker multi-tasking, better window docking, etc.
> The long tail of Android features that exist only on Samsung devices would probably surprise you.
We have different tastes in phones, which is okay. I wouldn't really normally respond to this, but I think this quote highlights _why_ our tastes differ.
"Having more features" is not a selling point to me, it's probably the opposite. I want a simple OS with a strong set of core features, with a small selection of apps relevant to me. Smartphones have been reasonably mature products for a lot of years at this point, I know what I want from them.
That's why Samsung is quite unappealing to me despite their best efforts - I have owned and used multiple Samsung devices in the past. They're trying to give you everything and the kitchen sink, wow you with a bunch of features. Don't bother me with that stuff, I just want something more basic - software wise, at least.
We might not have different tastes just different ways of achieving them. My phone is setup to be very minimalist and Samsung has a lot of features to make possible.
One small example, I've removed all the Android indicator icons on top of the screen that are always on/same for me (alarm, network, volume state, battery, NFC, Bluetooth, etc).
Admittedly I love features but I don't feel like having more features necessarily interferes with minimalism of day to day use. I've used certain features only once or twice but I was glad they were there at time.
I used to believe Samsung's additions were all bloat. After using one, I know prefer the customizations, the additional side gestures, and edge panels. Dex is nice and I have Linux installed so I can use the phone like a computer when I connect it to my usbc huh. It's extended the functionality massively and blown me away. However Google's software is better IMHO regarding updates.
I really love what Samsung is doing with their note-line software wise. There're just so many integrations and little nooks integrated deeply within their Note-specific Android version that are all just actually useful in their own right.
I'm a huge fan of operating my phone with styluses in general, but I think Samsung is the only Android vendor (other than Apple with their pencil) that actually cares about the benefits of adding a stylus to a phone/tablet.
For instance, last week I discovered that you can annotate your calendar with the S-pen. Your annotations stick to your calendar like post-its would to a computer. At first I thought I was drawing on a _picture_ of the calendar application view, but I was writing inside of the app itself.
Samsung's Note os is full of these niche-but-useful-when-you-actually–need-or-want-them kind of features.
Taking macro photos of that little insect on a hard to reach life in the forest? You can point it right where you need it with your right hand while you snap pictures with your pen in the other. It's a neat little remote.
Use your phone for presentations? The pen is your clicker to go through your slides.
Like keeping a digital journal with handwriting? Samsung's (and Google's too) keyboard has great handwriting recognition built-in. Nobody except me seems to use it, but it's actually great!
Need to quickly quickly take a note to make sure you won't forget to do that one important thing? Take out your pen while phone is locked and you can write on your screen directly, this is saved instantly to your device.
Samsung has clearly put a lot of thought into this over the years. The integration is excellent and is available in places where you would never expect it.
TL;DR: I like my note, not only is the hardware great, the software is great too
I recognize Samsung as being well clear of the rest of the pack of Android vendors. Other Android vendors are outright negligent, whereas Samsung seems to generally try to fight their bad incentives and come up with some decency.
Where I think Samsung falls short is execution. Samsung is fundamentally a hardware company and their software has always been mediocre in my view, even to this day. In terms of security updates they promise less than Google, they promise fewer and slower updates than Google (quarterly software updates for some devices / late in the lifecycle still makes older devices an afterthought!), and I trust their promise to execute on their promise less than Google.
Finally, Samsung devices don't have nearly the same support for third party privacy friendly OSes than Pixel devices do - you're stuck with Samsung's (warning: personal opinion) rather tasteless take on what Android should be, and have no real other options.
[1]: https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-takes-galaxy-securit...
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