Jenith
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Samsung entered the Android smartphone market in 2009 with the launch of the Galaxy I7500. While it couldn’t attract a lot of buyers, the South Korean firm gained immense traction the next year with the Galaxy S, a legendary phone that had features people hadn't seen before.
Since then, the company’s plan was to offer phones with the most powerful hardware and the highest number of software features. That strategy worked out quite well for Samsung for a time, and it certainly made me buy my first smartphone, the Galaxy S II.
However, over the past few years, Chinese brands have been giving Samsung fierce competition in terms of on-paper specifications. Their flagship phones have higher peak brightness, bigger sensors, larger batteries, faster charging, and so on. Will that entice me to buy a Chinese smartphone? Well, absolutely not, and here’s why.
The first thing most people do after buying a phone is to get a case and a screen protector. Many reputed accessory brands, including Caseology, Casetify, Elago, ESR, Nillkin, Otterbox, Pelican, Raptic, Ringke, Spigen, Speck, Supcase, and UAG, make cases and screen protectors for Samsung’s phones.
That means you have a wide range of accessories to choose from. These are high quality cases, so when you pop your Galaxy S or Galaxy Z series phones into them, the phone not only looks good but also feels great in the hand. Of course, these accessories also offer robust protection to costly phones.
In comparison, very few reputed brands offer accessories to phones from Chinese brands, at least in India where I live. And the brands that offer accessories for Chinese phones only offer a limited choice. So, getting the case that suits your taste would be harder.
Some phones won't have any case from reputed accessory brands. So, you would be forced to buy generic cases that are usually low-quality with a rough finish and cheap looks. In many cases, the power button is too hard to press, and the case has unwanted text (such as Autofocus) or patterns.
That means despite getting a premium phone, it could look and feel cheap due to inferior cases. They may also not have good protection. If you use the phone without a case, you may risk damage. That's why I will always go for a Samsung phone with slightly inferior specifications as they have a richer collection of accessories rather than a high-specced phone with a cheap case, because slightly inferior specifications won't affect me as much as using an ugly case.
Chinese brands have come a long way in designing custom skins for their Android phones. However, none of those customisations look as organised, polished, and sophisticated as One UI, which is also more feature-rich and customizable. Most people who don't agree haven't used phones with One UI in the long term. You have to use One UI for a considerable amount of time to know its value. Once you do, it is hard to go back to Chinese phones.
For instance, if you take one high-end Galaxy phone and a non-Galaxy Android phone of a similar price, the latter may have more RAM. However, when you use them, additional RAM might not make it noticeably faster than the Galaxy phone. Samsung's One UI will make the phone feel much better to use, though.
Samsung's phones also come features like DeX, which can turn your monitor/TV into a desktop. Then there are tools like Good Lock that lets you customize the device to a greater degree. Samsung even offers the highest number of major OS upgrades and security updates, allowing you to use your phone for longer. Yes, sometimes Samsung could delay major updates (like One UI 7.0), but it is usually at the forefront of software updates.
If you are looking at smartwatches or wireless earbuds, Samsung offers one of the best products. If you choose to go with Galaxy Watches or Galaxy Buds, they work the best with Galaxy phones. For example, Galaxy Watch's blood pressure and ECG functionality officially works only with Samsung phones.
Samsung also offers better after-sales than most rivals. Plus, Galaxy devices are available in more countries than most competitors in the Android segment. It means if you buy a Galaxy phone in one country and are visiting another region, chances are that you can find Samsung's service centre there if you need it. That may not be the case with phones from Chinese brands. Samsung's phones also have a higher resale value.
Most points that I mentioned here apply only to high-end phones. In the more affordable smartphone market, especially in the entry-level segment, Chinese smartphones offer way better hardware than Samsung's devices. As such, they perform faster and last longer on a single charge. In day-to-day usage, you may find the faster performance of Chinese phones much more beneficial than Samsung's more polished software.
However, if you want a high-end device with cutting-edge technology, excellent software, and lots of high-quality accessories, Samsung's phones are the way to go. Yes, they may not offer specs as good as Chinese phones, but slightly better specifications won't make those devices feel better than Galaxy S or Galaxy Z devices.
The post Here’s why I choose Samsung’s flagship phones over the Chinese ones appeared first on imeisource.
Since then, the company’s plan was to offer phones with the most powerful hardware and the highest number of software features. That strategy worked out quite well for Samsung for a time, and it certainly made me buy my first smartphone, the Galaxy S II.
However, over the past few years, Chinese brands have been giving Samsung fierce competition in terms of on-paper specifications. Their flagship phones have higher peak brightness, bigger sensors, larger batteries, faster charging, and so on. Will that entice me to buy a Chinese smartphone? Well, absolutely not, and here’s why.
1. Range and quality of accessories (cases and screen protectors)
The first thing most people do after buying a phone is to get a case and a screen protector. Many reputed accessory brands, including Caseology, Casetify, Elago, ESR, Nillkin, Otterbox, Pelican, Raptic, Ringke, Spigen, Speck, Supcase, and UAG, make cases and screen protectors for Samsung’s phones.
That means you have a wide range of accessories to choose from. These are high quality cases, so when you pop your Galaxy S or Galaxy Z series phones into them, the phone not only looks good but also feels great in the hand. Of course, these accessories also offer robust protection to costly phones.
In comparison, very few reputed brands offer accessories to phones from Chinese brands, at least in India where I live. And the brands that offer accessories for Chinese phones only offer a limited choice. So, getting the case that suits your taste would be harder.
Some phones won't have any case from reputed accessory brands. So, you would be forced to buy generic cases that are usually low-quality with a rough finish and cheap looks. In many cases, the power button is too hard to press, and the case has unwanted text (such as Autofocus) or patterns.
That means despite getting a premium phone, it could look and feel cheap due to inferior cases. They may also not have good protection. If you use the phone without a case, you may risk damage. That's why I will always go for a Samsung phone with slightly inferior specifications as they have a richer collection of accessories rather than a high-specced phone with a cheap case, because slightly inferior specifications won't affect me as much as using an ugly case.
2. Better software, longer updates, and more customization
Chinese brands have come a long way in designing custom skins for their Android phones. However, none of those customisations look as organised, polished, and sophisticated as One UI, which is also more feature-rich and customizable. Most people who don't agree haven't used phones with One UI in the long term. You have to use One UI for a considerable amount of time to know its value. Once you do, it is hard to go back to Chinese phones.
For instance, if you take one high-end Galaxy phone and a non-Galaxy Android phone of a similar price, the latter may have more RAM. However, when you use them, additional RAM might not make it noticeably faster than the Galaxy phone. Samsung's One UI will make the phone feel much better to use, though.
Samsung's phones also come features like DeX, which can turn your monitor/TV into a desktop. Then there are tools like Good Lock that lets you customize the device to a greater degree. Samsung even offers the highest number of major OS upgrades and security updates, allowing you to use your phone for longer. Yes, sometimes Samsung could delay major updates (like One UI 7.0), but it is usually at the forefront of software updates.
3. Ecosystem and other factors
If you are looking at smartwatches or wireless earbuds, Samsung offers one of the best products. If you choose to go with Galaxy Watches or Galaxy Buds, they work the best with Galaxy phones. For example, Galaxy Watch's blood pressure and ECG functionality officially works only with Samsung phones.
Samsung also offers better after-sales than most rivals. Plus, Galaxy devices are available in more countries than most competitors in the Android segment. It means if you buy a Galaxy phone in one country and are visiting another region, chances are that you can find Samsung's service centre there if you need it. That may not be the case with phones from Chinese brands. Samsung's phones also have a higher resale value.
Most points that I mentioned here apply only to high-end phones. In the more affordable smartphone market, especially in the entry-level segment, Chinese smartphones offer way better hardware than Samsung's devices. As such, they perform faster and last longer on a single charge. In day-to-day usage, you may find the faster performance of Chinese phones much more beneficial than Samsung's more polished software.
However, if you want a high-end device with cutting-edge technology, excellent software, and lots of high-quality accessories, Samsung's phones are the way to go. Yes, they may not offer specs as good as Chinese phones, but slightly better specifications won't make those devices feel better than Galaxy S or Galaxy Z devices.
The post Here’s why I choose Samsung’s flagship phones over the Chinese ones appeared first on imeisource.