[HN Gopher] We're ending our Samsung collaboration
___________________________________________________________________
We're ending our Samsung collaboration
Author : skilled
Score : 248 points
Date : 2024-05-23 15:41 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.ifixit.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.ifixit.com)
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| Well that's disappointing from Samsung. But I'm glad iFixit
| actually followed through and decided it wasn't working out,
| rather than just declaring victory and walking away.
|
| You've also gotta think that surely they notified Samsung before
| the announcement and gave them some time to try to salvage the
| arrangement before ending it. The fact that Samsung _didn 't_
| suggests it's really not high on their priorities list, even with
| the expected PR backlash.
| wepple wrote:
| Unfortunately, I highly doubt there will be any material PR
| backlash.
|
| Ask 100 Samsung owners on the street how the ifixit repair
| ability relationship impacts them, and 99 will ask what ifixit
| is, and what repairability means. The other one is too stoned
| to answer.
| santoshalper wrote:
| The Right to Repair people remind me a lot of the Free Software
| people. Which is to say, fundamentally correct, but struggling to
| get consumers to care enough to influence purchasing decisions.
|
| I don't have the answer to this, but somehow getting consumers to
| factor in repairability is going to be key to creating the kind
| of leverage that can drive real change in the industry.
| Gigachad wrote:
| IMO phones are the area I care about repair the least. By the
| time the phone is 5~ years old, I'm going to want the new one
| anyway. Where repairs would be much more useful is general
| household appliances where the model 20 years ago was just as
| good if not better than the one today. I'm never going to want
| to upgrade my blender, but when the plastic parts snap, I want
| it to be easy to get a replacement.
| Retric wrote:
| With a phone from 5 years ago sure it's feeling its age, but
| that number keeps going up as the functional differences
| between each phone generation shrinks.
|
| Replacing the battery on year 3 makes a huge difference in
| how long you would want to keep a phone around for.
| dylan604 wrote:
| And if the maker offers a free service to replace the
| battery with the purchase, I'm okay with it. Would it be
| nice to remove the battery to keep "them" from listening?
| Probably, but "they" are still listening through the TV,
| the laptops, and that chip in the back of my mouth so, meh
| catlikesshrimp wrote:
| TV (fixed) the laptops (fixed), and that chip in the back
| of my mouth so (erm...)
|
| I still failed because some moron gifted an echo 5 to
| someone who refuses to let it go.
| BizarreByte wrote:
| I have a Windows Phone and it's a decade old. Very outside
| the norm to still use it, but phones can last a long time
| from a hardware perspective if they're allowed too.
|
| My 830's saving grace has been the ease of changing
| batteries. If the battery was internal I'd have tossed it
| years ago.
| BozeWolf wrote:
| Does it still get software updates? Not just the apps,
| but also the operating system. If not, you definitely
| should not use it anymore.
|
| Not only because of security issues in software, but also
| because of possibly revoked certificates. And newer,
| safer, web protocols. Also strange if your bank still
| supports it.
|
| Hardware might be fine when it comes to being speedy
| enough, but may also have issues.A digital device still
| working is just not good enough anymore.
| BizarreByte wrote:
| It doesn't get updates, but I'm not overly concerned.
| It's running WP10 and security would be a bigger concern
| if any apps supported it to begin with.
|
| I don't bank on my phone beyond checking my balance with
| SMS. If I need to actually move money around I'd rather
| do it on my computer.
|
| The phone is used for calling, texting, mp3s, the
| weather, the calendar/reminders, and very occasional
| maps. I do have my gmail setup via imap with is probably
| the biggest risk I actually take.
|
| I've written half a dozen of my own programs for specific
| things I need, but otherwise there's nothing installed.
|
| I know there's some risk but I'm well aware of it and
| accept it.
| rcMgD2BwE72F wrote:
| I just replace a OnePlus6T from 2018 with a brand new Pixel
| 8 and I regret it.
|
| The 6T had the latest LineageOS and the P8 has GrapheneOS.
| Both have the latest Android but there's nothing on the
| Pixel that's better than the OnePlus.
|
| 6 years and no noticeable differences in terms of battery,
| performance, screen, ergonomy, etc.
|
| I should have stuck with the old one but I was convinced
| things were still progressing. My bad.
| Rinzler89 wrote:
| To be fair the OnePlus 6T was an actual flagship of its
| time while the pixel 8 isn't. It's more of a midrange
| phone.
| Dylan16807 wrote:
| It launched at $549. So basically the same price after
| inflation. If the tier of the Pixel is lower, that's a
| problem not an excuse.
| Rinzler89 wrote:
| I'm talking about flagship HW, not price. Price can be
| whatever it has nothing to do with the HW.
| catlikesshrimp wrote:
| I just want to add that security updates do matter.
|
| I agree with everything.
| toast0 wrote:
| Replacing the battery on a phone would make sense if it was
| easy to do. But I can't get reasonable phones with a back
| that comes off intentionally to replace a modular battery.
| Which means I'm paying someone to unglue the back, replace
| the battery, and reglue the back. Their time costs money,
| so I'm thinking ~ $50 for the battery and ~ $50 for their
| time, plus my time to get there and back and wait, and I'm
| halfway to a $200 phone that's going to be way better than
| my 3 year old $200 phone.
|
| I don't like how disposable everything is, but labor costs
| to repair are huge. I just got rid of a van because of a
| failed head gasket, because it's too much work to get to
| the not that expensive part.
| Retric wrote:
| I find the time it takes to swap to a new phone is
| significantly longer than the time it takes to get a new
| battery. Making a battery swap a net time save.
| pcdoodle wrote:
| I'd love it if iPhone SE 2016 still got updates. I don't care
| about the speed, just want Voice/SMS/Music run banking and
| other low consumption apps.
|
| It's still my dedicated MP3 player.
| timoth wrote:
| It does. But not beyond iOS 15. Most recent update: 15.8.2
| a couple of months ago. Personally I'm really impressed
| that Apple is still supporting an 8-year-old phone and it's
| probably the main thing that has been tempting me to jump
| ship from Android for a while. (Though it seems like
| Android might be better on this in future.)
| jasonlotito wrote:
| You'd be in the minority I think. Judging by the number of
| phone screen repair shops and what not I see, phone repair is
| one of the things that people really want. And that's just
| screen repairs, and not the numerous other things people
| generally talk about getting fixed.
|
| On the flip side, you are the first person I know of talking
| about about repairing your blender, and I've never seen a
| blender repair shop. Larger home appliances, sure, but
| blenders?
|
| I'm not saying you are wrong to prioritize these things. Just
| pointing out that you are an outlier.
| Domenic_S wrote:
| Small appliance repair is/used to be a thing, remember TV
| repair shops? Vacuum repair shops I still see around
| occasionally.
|
| Problem is people buy a $25 hamilton beach blender that
| doesn't make any financial sense to repair but makes huge
| amounts of sense as an initial purchase. If you buy a $500
| vitamix, you can keep it running forever with new parts,
| but that's the same price as 20 of the cheap blender. And
| blender technology isn't really advancing at a huge rate
| compared to, say, cell phones.
| ska wrote:
| > And blender technology isn't really advancing at a huge
| rate
|
| That's part of it, but also the vitamix and hamilton
| beach really have quite different capabilities. For most
| peoples usage, it doesn't matter much, but the vitamix
| (at least the core one) show their commercial kitchen
| background.
|
| The real problem is that there isn't anything much
| between the $25 one and the $350 one. From a technical
| point of view, there isn't any reason someone couldn't
| produce a $90 one that was robust and repairable but less
| powerful etc. than the vitamix. I dont' think i've ever
| seen one - if you do find a $90 one it's essentially the
| $25 one in a fancier looking shell.
|
| The market, as they say, has spoken. In most cases you
| are better off going for commercial suppliers if you want
| longer life, repairability, etc., but often the only
| things on offer there are way overkill for e.g. a home
| kitchen.
|
| Small appliance repair is alive and well in parts of the
| world where it is easy to access parts supply close to
| the source (i.e. you are paying roughly small batch
| wholesale prices).
| Gigachad wrote:
| Phone screens are pretty easy to repair though. You just
| drop it off at the Apple Store and they do it for you. Yes
| it's expensive, but the screen is the biggest and probably
| the hardest to manufacture part on the phone so it's going
| to be expensive.
|
| Yeah it would be nice if Apple provided in depth repair
| guides and sold individual chips for cheaper repairs, but
| realistically I don't think it's going to change all that
| much vs other product categories.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| > Yes it's expensive, but the screen is the biggest and
| probably the hardest to manufacture part on the phone so
| it's going to be expensive.
|
| If it weren't glued in place and if they wouldn't tie
| Face ID components _to the goddamn screen_ , it would be
| far less expensive. I managed to break my iPhone 12
| Mini's screen in a freak incident - the protection glass
| is intact, but it shattered below it, right over the left
| Face ID illuminator.
|
| A new display + glass would clock in at 60-100EUR plus
| maybe half an hour of time to do the replacement - but
| that would break FaceID as the components are paired for
| whatever reason. Apple's quote is 279EUR. What a fucking
| joke!
| Tijdreiziger wrote:
| The mainboard and FaceID sensor are paired so you can't
| 'trick' the phone into letting you in with a dummy FaceID
| sensor.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| That makes sense but why is this shit glued to the
| screen? Every other phone has the camera, proximity
| sensor and whatever installed in the main body or at
| least makes it trivial to take off from the old screen
| and replace in a new one.
|
| Also... why is there any need for the FaceID sensor to be
| paired? It's two LEDs illuminating the face from
| different angles in infrared so the camera can create a
| depth map. None of that needs a secure connection.
| bitwize wrote:
| It makes the phone parts next to worthless on the
| secondhand market, making it not worthwhile to steal the
| phone and sell it for parts.
|
| Hector Martin has some nice rants about right-to-repair
| zealots and their lack of understanding as to why Apple
| made the decisions they did.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| I agree with the zealots but there could be better ways -
| for one, make the replacement screens "unpaired" by
| default, maybe using a WORM to store keys, so people (or
| repair shops) could still repair their phones with legit
| replacement screens while "second hand" aka parted-out
| displays would still be impeded.
| sudosysgen wrote:
| I can assure you that stolen iPhones absolutely aren't
| worthless. They are sent to various places where
| extremely technically sophisticated groups are still able
| to make at least 200$, sometimes much more, from a stolen
| iPhone, which isn't much less than what it used to be
| worth. In fact, phone thieves in many places only ever
| made about 50-100$ from a stolen high end phone.
|
| Phone theft is a billion dollar industry, and as Apple
| tries to lock down parts, thieves adapted by forming far
| more efficient logistics and by centralizing value
| extraction from stolen phones. Apple's tactics haven't so
| far made a big impact to a phone thief's incentives, and
| I don't see it happening in the near future either.
| Dylan16807 wrote:
| The complaint is that it's tied to the screen, not the
| mainboard.
|
| Pairing sensor and mainboard is fine as long as I can
| reset it when I reset the phone.
| JohnFen wrote:
| > you are the first person I know of talking about about
| repairing your blender, and I've never seen a blender
| repair shop
|
| In my town, there are several repair shops that fix small
| appliances such as blenders. I've never used them, because
| I fix my small appliances myself.
|
| I can't stand throwing away machines that can be fixed and
| put back into service. It seems so utterly wasteful.
| CodeWriter23 wrote:
| You can get 5 years of usable battery discharge/recharge out
| of a phone, kudos to you!
| mey wrote:
| The primary reason I replaced my Pixel 4a was it going EoL
| for security updates. The battery did get replaced once,
| and it brought it back to life. I don't want a halo device,
| I want something that is secure, functional, repairable and
| cheap enough that if this portable slab of glass explodes I
| am not that sad. The primary reason I replaced my device
| with a Pixel 8 is for the 7 years of security updates.
|
| Going from the 4a to the 8? Barely noticed a change in
| functionality.
| sumtechguy wrote:
| I went from a galaxy s5 to s22. About 10 years in diff.
| The functionality for me is nearly identical. Speed the
| s22 is much snappier I guess. But not something I care
| much about. I only replaced it because the touch screen
| started acting up and security updates were non-existent.
| I was able to keep the thing going for so long precisely
| because I could swap out that battery easily. To replace
| the newer ones involves a heat gun and a suction cup. And
| as jerryrigeverything says 'glass is glass'.
| r00fus wrote:
| I used to be like this, but I don't sell my old phones, I
| hand them down - and I'd love to be able to get parts for the
| iPhones 6,8 and XR when they go off the wagon.
| JohnFen wrote:
| > By the time the phone is 5~ years old, I'm going to want
| the new one anyway.
|
| Fair enough. But there are also a fair number of people who,
| like myself, would be pretty irritated to have to replace
| their phone after only 5 years.
| ornornor wrote:
| Maybe a five year old phone isn't good enough for you, but it
| might be for someone else. But if the screen can't be
| repaired or the battery replaced, it will end up as ewaste
| somewhere in a poor country polluting the world's air and
| soil/water.
| berkes wrote:
| Which is why everyone should care about the right-to-
| repair.
|
| A phone that can be repaired, is worth something. For
| ewaste you get EUR0 (some recycler may get a few bucks from
| rare materials). For a phone that can have a second life,
| you might get some EUR100. This is one reason why people
| love iPhones: their value, second hand, remains rather
| high.
| sersi wrote:
| The problem is that to be able to make a purchasing decision
| toward repairability there must be actual choices that offer
| better repairability.
|
| That doesn't seem to be the case for phones unfortunately.
| realusername wrote:
| How would consumers know anyways, it's pretty hard to purchase
| on repairability even us as experts.
| wyldfire wrote:
| > Which is to say, fundamentally correct, but struggling to get
| consumers to care enough to influence purchasing decisions.
|
| You're right that customers don't care about Free software and
| yet it won. Free software has moved from a niche to dominating
| the software marketplace. The linux kernel, GNU coreutils, gcc,
| binutils - these are amazingly popular and keep getting ported
| to new platforms. And of course, Open Source software is yet
| more popular still.
| em-bee wrote:
| Free Software won because almost everyone, especially
| businesses can benefit from it. who is going to benefit from
| right to repair besides consumers and small repair shops?
| schrijver wrote:
| While right to repair is in part about getting consumers to
| care it is just as much about getting regulators to care. They
| can do things like force the availability of replacement parts
| etc.
|
| The right to repair movement seems to have its effects in the
| EU, with a 'right to repair' directive adopted by the EU
| parliament. Of course it still needs to be implemented into
| national legislations and the devil will be in the details...
| it shows the impact though.
|
| https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20240419IP...
| WheatMillington wrote:
| I feel alone on HN for not caring about repairability at all on
| phones. I use a phone for ~3 years and replace it. I'd rather
| have a phone that's slimmer and smaller, than repairable or
| user-servicable.
| drcongo wrote:
| Samsung should never be trusted for anything.
| ThrowawayTestr wrote:
| My S22 is pretty great.
| ziml77 wrote:
| My S24 was returned in a week. Damn thing couldn't even
| handle showing the mission selection map in Warcraft Rumble.
| It lagged noticeably behind my finger when dragged around.
| The Galaxy Watch 6 I got alongside it was even worse for
| performance. And the clash between Samsung's ecosystem and
| Google's ecosystem felt terrible. I still want to try coming
| back to Android from Apple's ecosystem, but next time it
| won't be through Samsung.
| ThrowawayTestr wrote:
| Sounds like a defective unit.
| drpossum wrote:
| Samsung is just consistently frustrating. Their hardware for
| consumer electronics ( _not_ appliances) is generally pretty good
| in my experience, but the attitudes they take towards their
| customers via this planned obsolescence and software /dark
| pattern "shove it down your throat and you better like it"
| hostile crap.
|
| I've fundamentally had to change how I work with my phone because
| of garbage like "just save all the clipboard history, too bad if
| you don't want that" and "here you'd better like a dedicated
| button to Bixby" and now "LOOK WE HAVE AI NOW ON YOUR PHONE" as
| well as being one of the most egregious in the TV data thieving.
| catlikesshrimp wrote:
| >> "just save all the clipboard history, too bad if you don't
| want that"
|
| I feel your pain. If you accept a bandaid: change the samsung
| keyboard to a FOSS keyboard without internet connectivity. The
| clipboard still exists, at least you can't see it.
|
| A better bandaid would be tasker to flush the keyboard
| everytime you copy something
| drpossum wrote:
| That's mostly what I did, yes. This is helpful advice.
| Password managers like Android Keepass also have non-
| clipboard functionality in keyboards they provide.
| spondylosaurus wrote:
| Do newer models not let you remap the "Bixby button" to
| something else? On my Note 10 I changed it to open the camera,
| but... it's a Note 10 from 2020, so that may have changed
| since.
| Iulioh wrote:
| S23 ultra here
|
| You can totally remap it
|
| You can use another keyboard
|
| You have to look very hard to find the AI (the only use i
| have for it is delete some objects from a photo and that
| takes a few tries)
|
| You can literally solve everything in a few minutes
| rschiavone wrote:
| What if I don't want to deal with these problems in the
| first place
| Iulioh wrote:
| Buy another phone?
|
| Buy an iPhone and you don't have to ever wonder if you
| CAN change something
| sudosysgen wrote:
| They're not problems. It's a customizable device to this
| extent, and you have preferences, so just change the
| settings. The alternative is that you cannot do anything
| about it.
| spondylosaurus wrote:
| Glad to know they didn't remove the customizable button
| then :) I plan on squeezing as much life out of my Note 10
| as I can but I know its number will come soon enough.
| eichin wrote:
| Two other data points: I had the note 9, and the button
| wasn't customizable (you could disable the app and tweak
| some other things to keep the button from _doing_
| anything, but you couldn 't remap it, that was new in the
| note 10.) And having upgraded to the S24 ultra... there's
| no button any more, just power + volume. (As shipped, the
| power button does some bixby nonsense, but it's a couple
| of clicks to make it do power again, and camera on
| double-click, like it did on all of the previous models.)
| colordrops wrote:
| I stopped buying Samsung phones a while ago when they made them
| impossible to unlock and install custom roms.
| hnburnsy wrote:
| You can still remove all the Samsung crap, install your
| favorite launcher, and use Fdroid. This is what I do and
| couldn't be happier with a debloated Note.
|
| https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
| jp191919 wrote:
| This is exactly why I have a Pixel now
| keyringlight wrote:
| My impression is this is gradually going by the wayside for
| all brands, and that's not just on the manufacturer support
| side but also the breadth of custom roms available to
| different brands/models. The exception is if you get a Pixel
| which has 'top tier' support for custom roms and then there's
| a sharp falloff. Past that point you're into "your mileage
| may vary" territory with how much feature support is retained
| or degraded by the rom, and if you're bothered if banking
| apps require a phone with play integrity or playing hide and
| seek to pretend it's unaltered.
|
| This is likely just my perspective, but it seems that there's
| less to be gained from custom roms in recent years anyway as
| smartphones have matured and the rated of change has slowed.
| Plus there has been a trend among some brands to offer longer
| OS support lifecycles, of which Samsung seems to be one of
| the best for android.
| Zambyte wrote:
| Smartphones in my life are gradually going by the wayside
| at a similar rate. I don't have time for computers that
| fight me by design.
| JohnFen wrote:
| > My impression is this is gradually going by the wayside
| for all brands
|
| That's my impression as well, and is precisely why my
| current smartphone will be my last smartphone.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Only in the US it seems. Non-US models usually have no issue
| with bootloader unlocking and the custom ROM scene is usually
| pretty active.
|
| It may trip an e-fuse though, causing some features to be
| disabled forever. But unfortunately that's the direction
| Android has taken over the years. Getting stuff like banking
| to work on a non-stock phone is getting more and more
| annoying, even for the most hacker-friendly phones. I have
| stopped with custom ROMs, too much hassle for a daily driver,
| smartphones are not fun anymore, they are more like
| appliances than general purpose computers.
| themadturk wrote:
| I left Android for Apple precisely because I could not stop
| myself from playing with custom ROMs. I had too many better
| things to do with my life. Android was fine, but iOS is less
| distracting.
| bigmattystyles wrote:
| Side question, are Samsung Electronics and Samsung Appliances
| really like 2 different companies under a Samsung umbrella in
| SK or are they actually the same company with employees being
| able to be assigned / move from group to group? Same question
| for LG I suppose.
| pjerem wrote:
| Samsung is a gigantic conglomerate of hundreds of companies.
| They also make cars, houses, entertainment, healthcare
| services, chemicals and of course, yes, shipbuilding.
|
| In the occidental world, we only see a small portion of the
| iceberg.
|
| So I'd say it's pretty unlikely that employees are frequently
| assigned from group to group. Maybe it's possible as a big
| career change but even that seems unlikely.
| komadori wrote:
| When I visited South Korea some years ago, I took a
| delightful photograph of bag of Samsung-branded kimchi.
| ytdytvhxgydvhh wrote:
| I wonder if it would go well with some Volkswagen
| sausage.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_currywurst
| alephnerd wrote:
| You mean Bibigo?
| adolph wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol
|
| _A chaebol (UK: /'tSeIb@l, 'tSeIbal/ CHAY-b@l, CHAY-bol,
| US: /'tSeIboUl, 'dZeb@l/ CHAY-bohl, JEB-@l;[3] Korean:
| jaebeol [tceb^l] i, lit. 'rich family' or 'financial
| clique') is a large industrial South Korean conglomerate
| run and controlled by an individual or family. A chaebol
| often consists of multiple diversified affiliates,
| controlled by a person or group. Several dozen large South
| Korean family-controlled corporate groups fall under this
| definition. The term first appeared in English text in
| 1972._
|
| _The intensity and extent of market concentration became
| evident as 80% of the country 's GDP is derived from
| chaebols. The largest of the group, Samsung, exports 20% of
| South Korea's goods and services alone. Although no longer
| financially supported by the government, these firms have
| attained economies of scale on such a massive level that it
| is extremely difficult for a startup or small or medium
| enterprise (SME) to surmount the high barriers to entry._
| moritzwarhier wrote:
| Similar to LG, is that correct?
|
| I have no clue that's why I'm asking.
| alephnerd wrote:
| Yep. It's a Chaebol.
|
| Antitrust really isn't a thing in Asia, so horizontal and
| vertical integration is extremely common.
|
| Most Asian countries based their corporate structures on
| Japan's Zaibatsus and Keiretsus.
| deaddodo wrote:
| LG and Samsung are separate chaebols.
| alephnerd wrote:
| Ik. OP asked if it's "similar" to LG and I explained why
| - because it's a Chaebol like LG, Lotte, CJ (used to be
| part of Samsung), Hyundai, etc.
|
| Similar =/= Same
| deaddodo wrote:
| Ah, I misread it because it's a common misconception. My
| apologies!
| alephnerd wrote:
| No worries! Kinda surprised that people would assume LG
| and Samsung are the same company
| deaddodo wrote:
| No, they are both competitive chaebols (a Korean form of
| conglomerate).
| moritzwarhier wrote:
| Yes with "similar" I did not mean that they were part of
| one entity.
|
| I was just thinking about them being large and strongly
| present in many different business sectors.
|
| So a conglomerate I guess. Thanks
| deaddodo wrote:
| > They also make cars
|
| Not anymore, Samsung Motors is now a part of Renault.
| Samsung retains a minority share of the operation.
| gohma231 wrote:
| As someone that prefers Android, it really is hard to pick a
| new phone...
|
| * Apple: You're getting iOS. Take it or leave it.
|
| * Google: OK hardware (maybe that's being generous). iFixit
| parts available. Hopefully you can make 911 calls in an
| emergency [1].
|
| * Samsung: Great hardware. Good luck getting something repaired
| if you need it though. OK software.
|
| * Everyone else: You get maybe two years of security updates.
|
| [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37714579
| voidfunc wrote:
| I basically seem to waffle back and forth between Pixel or
| Galaxy phones depending on the year.
|
| I wanted to like iPhone bit I tried it for a 2y period and it
| was just too different and I ended up going back to Android.
| aleph_minus_one wrote:
| > * Everyone else: You get maybe two years of security
| updates.
|
| Fairphone attempts to deliver (also security) updates for
| quite a long time.
| jkossen wrote:
| Bought a Fairphone very recently, it's a bit thick, but other
| than that, it's supported for a long time and repairable. And
| it seems to work just fine :-)
| Syonyk wrote:
| Or ditch the smartphone entirely, get some variety of robust
| dumbphone, and work that out in your life.
|
| I have a Sonim XP3+, running Android 11 Go, I think, but it's
| just a rugged dumbphone. Waterproof, drop resistant up to
| some very reasonable distance, and "generally indestructible"
| for most reasonable and quite a few unreasonable values of
| that term.
|
| It's good for calls, and texting. And the occasional hotspot
| use. I carry a decade old laptop for other stuff I need, and
| use the car's GPS if needed, though since giving up on
| smartphone maps some while ago, my internal navigation is way
| better than it used to be.
|
| Irritatingly, US carriers all went to VoLTE at about the same
| time, turning quite a few perfectly good older devices into
| ewaste, but I'm hopeful VoLTE works for a long while, and I
| have a decade or so before I have to think about a cell phone
| again.
|
| And, yes, I _know_ that "I couldn't possibly do that for..."
| reason lists are long. Try it. If nobody resists "having a
| modern smartphone and being willing to install any random app
| someplace demands you install," that will be the future we
| get. I can't even scan QR codes. Life is good!
| babypuncher wrote:
| I've never met an in-car GPS navigation system that was
| half as good as what I get with Google or Apple Maps
| through CarPlay.
|
| And these days car manufacturers are starting to charge a
| subscription service for it. GM is even going as far as to
| take CarPlay out of their new cars just to push customers
| to that subscription.
| Syonyk wrote:
| I honestly don't really care. I don't use it much. I'm
| far more likely to bring a (paper) notebook with
| directions, and that's been working well for me with
| overview maps beforehand. Yes, it's exercising mental
| stuff I hadn't used in a while, but it's been worth the
| effort and occasional "... wait, where am I?" to regain
| those skills, I think.
|
| I've considered pretty hard picking up a standalone
| TomTom unit to have newer maps on - the car's maps are a
| decade old and this is at least occasionally a problem
| finding newer subdivisions, but I can get close to where
| I need to be and follow my hand-written directions the
| rest of the way.
|
| New cars are... a problem. I don't _want_ (rather,
| "won't buy") a "connected car" sort of thing unless I can
| disable the cell modem entirely before I leave the lot. I
| do not want a cell phone on wheels, and this is
| unfortunately what the automakers seem to have decided to
| ship, complete with "Buggy? Don't worry, we'll patch it
| later!"
|
| I'm probably good for about a decade on the current fleet
| before this becomes a pressing issue, and at that point,
| hopefully either the absurdity will have subsided, or
| I'll just do my own work on older vehicles or an EV
| conversion on some classic chassis. Toyota, at least,
| seems to have a path for "Seriously, turn off the cell
| modem..." and a few other cars have a fuse you can pull
| to kill the cell modem and a few other things. I don't
| mind if I kill Bluetooth, as long as there's an aux-in I
| can hook something up to (even if that's a little
| standalone BT receiver as I have in the car now).
| 5e92cb50239222b wrote:
| Xiaomi claims five years of security updates for upper range
| models that came out last year. Specifically I am thinking
| about Xiaomi 13T which a couple of my friends use. Their
| newer phones no longer allow unlocking the bootloader,
| though.
|
| I've been using a five year old hand-me-down 9T and it was
| recently updated to Android 14 with security patch from May
| this year. (Thanks to Lineage, of course -- the official
| support ended in 2021).
| bildiba wrote:
| I switched from Samsung Galaxy (first S, then S3) to OnePlus
| years back, and I've been a happy camper.
|
| I currently have an OnePlus 9, I've heard no so good (compared
| to previous) reviews of their newer models, but I'll cross that
| bridge when I get there. My current phone has been running
| great for multiple years, minimal bloatware, would recommend.
| ot1138 wrote:
| I have a recent OnePlus and it's been excellent. I like it
| even more than the older ones I had, which is directionally
| quite different than my experience with Apple and Samsung.
| valiant55 wrote:
| Yeah, I'm honestly afraid to buy a new phone with all the
| horror stories. I still have my OnePlus 6T, Oxygen is fine
| but it seems like the ROM scene isn't what it use to be.
| warble wrote:
| I have the 10 pro and although the camera is definitely an
| improvement over the 5 I used to own, the overall performance
| is about the same. I still have my 5, and use it a lot for
| POS stuff and it's great still. I even have a OnePlus 1
| around and it still works decently although it struggles a
| little with some apps. That's a TEN year old phone.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| I bought a Motorola G73 5G a few months ago, paid $160 for
| the 256GB variant including 25% VAT.
|
| Compared to my primary phone, Samsung S21, it's a ridiculous
| amount of phone for the money.
|
| But I find the default Google apps to be quite limited
| compared to Samsungs offerings. Google's calculator app has
| no unit conversion and a very bare-bones "scientific" mode.
| Google's file app has no way to search for files containing
| special characters, while Samsung's can do that just fine by
| using \ to escape the character.
|
| I don't have a SIM in the Motorola as I just use it around
| the house, other is "work phone", so haven't tested the phone
| and messaging parts yet, but I recall Samsung were better
| there too several years ago when my SO had a Sony or
| something phone.
|
| But yeah, seriously considering getting something else next
| time around.
| xandrius wrote:
| Exactly the same. I had to install a script which overwrites my
| clipboard completely twice a day. I just hate having all the
| stuff I copied there forever...
|
| And I went ahead and deleted any unwanted apps via adb, at
| least that was smoother than I expected.
|
| After that the phone is actually nicely usable.
| utensil4778 wrote:
| Making the _power button_ a dedicated physical hotkey for Bixby
| is one of the most egregious things I 've ever seen on a phone.
| not_your_vase wrote:
| Sure, Samsung is bad, but not sure why iFixit pretends to be the
| embodiment of right to repair. In my opinion they have harmed the
| cause more than anything else: instead of actual repair material
| (like schematics or low/high level servicing manuals) they are
| selling half-devices. And whoever supplies those half devices is
| called the repairability-king of the day. Neither Nokia, nor any
| other of their partners are any better. Fairy dust all around,
| without actual repairability :(
|
| (But I guess it works for everyone: iFixit gets sales, $BRAND
| gets positive PR. And the customer gets some feel good news. Not
| actual repairability, but almost as good, I guess)
| islewis wrote:
| > In my opinion they have harmed the cause more than anything
| else: instead of actual repair material (like schematics or
| low/high level servicing manuals)
|
| Not sure I understand this take.
|
| $BRAND's role is to sell devices. IFixit's role is to make
| repairs more accessible to the average Joe. Obviously for more
| tech-literate device owners this might not be needed, but
| everyone else it is.
|
| The incentives for this dynamic are pretty confusing
| (understandably). $BRAND and IFixit need to work together for
| repairability to work, but companies don't really have a strong
| business incentive to do this outside of regulation.
|
| Obviously nothing about this dynamic is perfect, but the claim
| that IFixit harms the push for more repairable devices just
| isn't correct.
| advisedwang wrote:
| Products are simply built in a way that true low level repairs
| are impractical (ie: more expensive than replacing the device),
| and replacing bulk components is the only viable option. iFixit
| advocates for better repairability that would make individual
| component repair processes viable.
|
| iFixit is not really about hobbyists doing tinkering repairs.
| It's for consumers who want more out of their devices and
| business in the repair ecosystem. That is the bulk of the
| community and iFixit doesn't have an obligation leave room in
| the conversation for others.
| cherioo wrote:
| There are several way different groups are viewing right to
| repair
|
| Consumer: right to repair means fixing my broken display will be
| a DIY job for $50? Sweet!
|
| Repair shop: right to repair means I can source a display from
| lowest bidder, charge $150 for broken screen, and make $120 in
| profit? Let's go!
|
| Apple: right to repair means you must buy $275 display module to
| fix a broken display. So we can keep some nice nice profit.
|
| Samsung seems to be there with Apple. Looking at the price of
| display module I am worried iFixit is also there with Apple. And
| iFixit and Samsung couldn't find a good split on who gets to keep
| the profits.
|
| It is crazy that an iPhone display module from iFixit appears to
| cost more than Apple 1st party repair.
| kevingadd wrote:
| Based on the post, the high price of parts from iFixit was
| Samsung's fault.
| Iulioh wrote:
| And to be fair high end samsung phones have the best display
| in the market, period.
|
| I would really dubt thwt they sell the best stuff to Apple
| (possible but...)
| throwaway48476 wrote:
| Apple only uses old cheap technology. They resisted putting
| OLEDs in the iPhone for many years.
| epakai wrote:
| The high price is probably just reality. Samsung's display
| assemblies have always been expensive. I've seen the real
| inventory values back in the Note 6 era, and the component
| cost at repair time. Repair services were probably getting a
| few dollars from their markup. I'm not even sure the the
| consumer facing part of their repair operations was
| profitable. It seemed like most of the focus was on bulk
| refurbishment where they rebuilt hundreds of $model at once.
|
| Building a 500ppi 120Hz AMOLED display with a hole punched in
| it, and bonded perfectly to fancy glass is just expensive.
| EasyMark wrote:
| i think the point is that you start with repairability from
| the start, otherwise you are just reverse engineering how
| to take it apart.
| newaccount74 wrote:
| iFixit parts are expensive because they offer top notch service
| and quality control, at least in my experience. I bought a
| couple of parts from them, and was always very happy. The fix
| kits are fantastic. Once a package was lost, they just sent it
| again (i ended up receiving it twice).
|
| I've bought parts from other websites, and while they were
| cheaper, they were not always good quality. A battery seemed to
| have way less capacity than the oem part, screwdriver bits were
| so soft they broke on first use, etc.
|
| It sucks that spare parts are so expensive. All those supply
| chain optimisations don't work if you need to keep parts
| stocked all over the world....
| nebula8804 wrote:
| This is obviously anecdotal: I keep wanting to support iFixit
| and I still come back to them despite their increased cost +
| shipping compared to Amazon because I believe in good QC from
| a reputable company and I believe in their mission.
|
| Unfortunately I have been burned twice. First iPod batteries:
| They seems like they are sitting around forever and are of
| the same quality as what you'd find on Amazon (they look the
| same as well).
|
| Secondly I was super excited for their magnetic mat with
| marker. All the youtubers were promoting it and I snatched it
| up despite it seeming quite pricy for what you get. The
| marker failed after 1-2 uses. In both the iPod battery +
| marker case, they were willing to ship replacements but it
| takes time and is a hassle and by then the enthusiasm is
| gone. I walked away thinking _what did I pay extra for?_
|
| Also after using their toolkits for a while, I don't consider
| their tools top tier quality anymore, just middle of the road
| and does not seem worth the price (maybe during their black
| friday deals it is more palatable).
| the_biot wrote:
| I've had the same impression, unfortunately. You have to
| like them because of their dedication to the mission, and
| they've achieved a lot. But I bought a laptop battery from
| them that didn't last long at all, and (at least at first)
| their bit sets stripped themselves on first use, and the
| spudgers might as well have been made out of butter.
| xnyan wrote:
| > Looking at the price of display module I am worried iFixit is
| also there with Apple
|
| They mentioned in the article that one of the reasons they
| ended the partnership with Samsung was over the high cost of
| repair parts.
| rPlayer6554 wrote:
| Thank you for standing up to Samsung. I was extremely
| disappointed that A. Ifixit didn't have even charging ports in
| stock B. If they did they would be basically the same price as
| having someone replace it. C. All official and licensed repair
| spots must replace _all_ components if they even replace one. I
| have a cracked screen and don't care, but it would have driven
| the price up to 1/3 or 1/2 the cost of the device. I would have
| just bought a new one.
|
| I ended up having to get it repaired at some sketch mall shop.
| epakai wrote:
| Samsung had existing repair partnerships. Many were run by other
| Koreans, and very much had the feeling of a big family run
| conglomerate. Of course iFixit is going to get the short end of
| the stick unless they're providing real value to Samsung.
|
| For Samsung, repair services are valuable to keep carrier
| customers happy so that the carriers keep pushing their phones.
| External repair services don't have that tie in. They probably
| even reduce sales of new phones. iFixit's partnership just
| doesn't offer the same value proposition.
| mrgoldenbrown wrote:
| Then why did Samsung pretend they wanted this to happen?
| newaccount74 wrote:
| Presumably someone from marketing said "we should make our
| phones more repairable than the competition" and after the
| program was announced someone from finance said "making
| phones repairable is too expensive and selling parts isn't
| making us money"
| hi-v-rocknroll wrote:
| Ostensible collaboration to frustrate DIY R2R.
|
| My friend's independent, non-certified cell phone and laptop
| repair business is suffering greatly due to the lack of
| availability of reasonably-priced repair parts or any repair
| parts, especially screen assemblies for flagship phones.
| voidwtf wrote:
| My partner has a Samsung phone with the curved/wrap around edge
| screen. The screen is cracked. She's been trying to get it
| replaced for months, but none of the "Samsung approved" repair
| shops around here can get a screen. Apparently they have screens
| meant for the same phone in different colors, but do not have the
| screen for her phone color. Samsung WILL NOT allow them to use a
| screen from a different color of the same phone, despite being a
| working part. Samsung has provided no ETA when the part will be
| available. This is the kind of problem that shouldn't exist.
| Would love it if our legislators would tell manufacturers to
| shove it, and if they want to be the exclusive source for parts
| that the parts must be sold at some limited/reasonable profit
| percentage and if they're not available they should not be able
| to limit the availability or function of 3rd party parts.
| will1am wrote:
| Your frustration with the situation is completely
| understandable
| Workaccount2 wrote:
| What gets me the most is that the refusal to sell a different
| color screen is probably the result of some insane delusions
| about brand representation.
| LouisSayers wrote:
| Same with charging an apple mouse - like they can't stand the
| idea of having a cable sticking out of it while being used.
| burnte wrote:
| They're fine with that, but there's no room for the port on
| the top end of the mouse and they won't alter the design in
| order to fit a port there, and don't want the cable
| sticking out of the side, so they just screw the user and
| hurt the function.
| mrlongroots wrote:
| I swore to never buy Samsung after an ordeal with their
| warranty repair. Some of the data pins on its USB port wore
| out, so my Android Auto and fast charging became extremely
| flaky. It was still under warranty so I took it to their
| authorized repair centres. They did not have a fast charger and
| showed me that the standard charging was working, and refused
| to admit a problem. Finally I mailed it to Samsung, and they
| said that the display needed to be replaced because of some
| water damage (it worked perfectly fine!) as well.
|
| Finally I got some local electronics repair guy to just solder
| a new USB port onto the circuit board and that fixed
| everything. But never buying their phones again.
| cjk2 wrote:
| Samsung love to kill their brand.
|
| Bought a Samsung washing machine. Completely died in 2 months.
| Their third party repairer wrote it off and said it'd be a
| month wait for a new one. Several frustrating phone calls and 3
| months later no washing machine. Retailer bounced me back to
| the repairer.
|
| So fuck them all. Chargeback. I will never buy Samsung again.
|
| Edit: also three colleagues bought iPhone 15 Pro phones this
| time round after Samsung last time. Don't know what happened
| there but you don't make a switch like that unless you dislike
| what you had that bad.
| MeteorMarc wrote:
| "It's with a heavy wrench that we have decided ..." Nice pun when
| originating from a repair shop!
| unstyledcontent wrote:
| Glad I just had my Samsung repaired last week by ifixit. I
| replaced the screen which cost $340. Price for the repair felt a
| bit like extortion but I needed my phone and it was the least
| painful option. I could have mailed it into Samsung to have the
| repair done for $200 but who has that kind of flexibility?
| RachelF wrote:
| There's a economic reason mobile phone manufacturers don't want
| you to repair the phone - they prefer you to buy a new one.
| speckx wrote:
| My last Samsung monitor was great, and it still is. The new one's
| screen died about a week after I got it. I had better luck
| returning it to the local store than dealing with Samsung
| support. The replacement, however, had the same issue about two
| weeks later. I feel like Smansung has a monitor quality control
| issue. I didn't even bother dealing with Samsung support.
| Instead, I gave up and returned it to the local store for a
| refund.
| cjk2 wrote:
| I can't wait until they end their recently announced Lenovo
| collaboration on the same grounds. Absolutely fucking awful
| vendor in the last few years. Shipping dead batteries, not even
| shipping anything and having little to no parts stock. And at
| least here the NBD service is worthless.
| eth0up wrote:
| I've been 'anti' Samsung for 15 years and generally don't think
| of the brand. Someone recently gave me a SM-T670 tablet (View)
| which had lolipop on it. I don't think it ever received a
| significant update. Well, I tossed LineageOS on it and while it
| provides some improvements, notably de-ghoulgle and Samsung
| bloat, the ROM was last updated in 2022 and I'm pretty sure never
| again.
|
| The only thing I say about Samsung positively, is that they are
| capable of, but not necessarily committed to, building good
| hardware. Unfortunately they are the epitome of planned
| obsolescence and however nice their products may or may not be,
| they prefer the shortest life possible.
|
| Samsung sucks.
| scott_joe wrote:
| It's honestly not surprising. Sometimes initiatives from well
| meaning employees can be given the green light because they're
| low enough in the company to avoid attention but high enough to
| get a director's sponsorship. But as soon as the employee begins
| to get Legal or someone at a VP involved and they'll have to eat
| the loss on sales, it's killed. 80% of a company's money goes to
| driving "sales or savings", the rest goes to "keeping the lights
| on." Being responsive for anything that impacts sales in the
| negative is a huge deal for everyone in their chain of command.
| scarlehoff wrote:
| I have a Samsung phone because it is the only brand with a stylus
| in its flagships, but I, too, would like to end my collaboration
| with them.
| fallinditch wrote:
| I had thought that phone manufacturers were coming around to the
| concept of repairability, so this is bad news. I've had a few
| Samsung phones and never had any problems. My S22 Ultra is over 3
| years old now and still an excellent performer. I thought I'll
| have to change the battery this year - but after checking the
| instructions I changed my mind, crazy complicated.
| tonetegeatinst wrote:
| Last 2 phones were Samsung. I got sick of the stock apps being
| put on the phone so I finally got a pixel running grapheme os
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-05-23 23:00 UTC)