Galaxy S22 has lost three times more value than the iPhone 13
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By BGR
When the Galaxy S22 series launched, we told you that the Galaxy S22 preorder deals were so good you had to check them out. The alternative was to wait for the Galaxy S22 price to drop to buy a better deal in the weeks that followed the release date.
With more than a month since preorders started, we’ve had a chance to learn more details about Samsung’s Galaxy S22 phones. And it turns out that the various controversies surrounding the phone make it a questionable purchase.
In what follows, I’ll cover four reasons why you shouldn’t buy the Galaxy S22, even when the price drops.
Don't Miss: Wednesday’s deals: $50 Echo Buds, secret Fire TV deal, Oral-B sale, Samsung monitors, more Should you buy the Galaxy S22?
The Galaxy S22 is one of the most anticipated phones of the year, something that can be said about any of its predecessors. And Samsung already registered record sales for the handset in Korea. But that was during preorders before all the problems came to light.
In what follows, we’ll highlight three significant controversies that hurt the Galaxy S22. Add to that the phone’s poor performance in durability tests, and you have at least four solid reasons not to buy a new Samsung flagship smartphone.
Galaxy S22 Ultra drop test: Camera damage. Image source: YouTube The glass breaks easily
The Galaxy S22 features a sturdy design, and we saw the phone survives all sorts of durability tests with ease. But the one area where the Galaxy S22 fails is accidental drops.
We saw a few drop tests so far, and the Galaxy S22 models shattered after just the first drop. The Galaxy S22 Ultra’s curved edges appear to be particularly prone to cracking.
That’s not to say other glass phones are any safer. And this isn’t such a big controversy. The iPhone 13 certainly isn’t shatter-proof, although it won’t break quite as easily.
You should know from the get-go that you will need protective gear with the Galaxy S22. All that Aluminum Armor and Victus Glass talk won’t do much to safeguard the phones against drops.
Galaxy S22 Ultra display supports 1Hz refresh rate. Image source: Samsung Samsung lied about the Galaxy S22 display refresh rate
Nobody forced Samsung to lie about the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus display specs in its announcement. But the company did it anyway. And it hasn’t exactly apologized.
As a reminder, Samsung initially said that the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus support dynamic refresh rates between 10-120Hz. That’s a great feature to have, as it helps the phones conserve battery life by intelligently lowering the refresh rate when full 120Hz support isn’t needed.
The truth is that the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus can only go as low as 48Hz. That’s still helpful, of course. However, it doesn’t change the fact that Samsung lied about the specs.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus smartphone. Image source: Samsung What 45W charging?
Buy a Galaxy S22 phone, and you won’t get a charger in the box. Samsung mocked Apple’s move a few years ago and then copied it anyway. Obviously.
That’s not a problem for most handset owners, as they probably have USB-C chargers at home that will work fine with the new device. But if you want to take advantage of the fastest charging speed on the Galaxy S22 Plus and Galaxy S22 Ultra, you will need a 45W charger.
You can buy a 45W charger from Samsung or a third party. Regardless of where you get it, tests have shown that 45W charging is a joke on the Galaxy S22 Plus and Ultra. That’s right, it appears as though Samsung lied yet again.
This is the kind of feature that looks great on paper. But in real-life tests, the phone spent about a minute recharging at top speeds. After that, it no longer charges at 45W.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone. Image source: Samsung The worst offense: Galaxy S22 app throttling
Say you’re willing to ignore all the Galaxy S22 issues noted above, and you’re determined to buy one of the three models. You should be aware of the big Galaxy S22 performance throttling issues.
The controversy is so significant that Samsung rushed to issue a fix and roll it out in Korea and Europe. Moreover, Samsung is facing lawsuits and investigations at home, and the company had to address the matter openly during its shareholders’ meeting earlier this week. Samsung apologized, but the damage was already done.
Also, the company said it didn’t cut Galaxy S22 costs at the time. Some speculated the phones had to reduce performance because they lack proper cooling.
Even with the fix in place for some regions, the throttling controversy is still worrying. We’ll have to wait a bit longer to understand what happens if you remove the throttling. The feature is meant to prevent overheating and battery drain. Does that mean you should expect these problems once you disable throttling?
The throttling problem nullifies all of Samsung’s marketing efforts that promote the speed and performance of the new phones. And benchmark tests already showed the Galaxy S22 can’t outperform the iPhone 13 series that was released last year.
Also, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S8 flagship tablets suffer from the same problem.
Galaxy A52 in black and Galaxy A72 in white. Image source: Samsung Do not buy the Galaxy S22
To recap, the Galaxy S22 isn’t as durable as we thought it would be. Samsung misled customers about the display specs on the cheaper models. The charging speed isn’t as fast as advertised even on the more expensive models. And the performance of all Galaxy S22 versions.
With all that in mind, there’s no reason to buy the Galaxy S22 right now. Not even after Samsung inevitably slashes prices in the coming weeks.
I will note that one can ignore these problems. You can buy accessories to protect the glass, just like any glass phone. You don’t need the display to go down to 10Hz. And 25W charging is fast enough for most people. Finally, the throttling fix might really solve the performance issues.
But people buying a Samsung flagship expect the best possible experience. It’s the principle of the matter. Dealing with all these issues is an aggravating headache when you spend so much money on the latest and greatest smartphone.
Just imagine what it would mean for the latest iPhone to disappoint buyers like this.
Galaxy S22/S22 Plus vs. Galaxy S22 Ultra reviews on Samsung.com as of March 16th. The Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and Ultra reviews on Samsung’s website seem to agree. These are three-star phones at best.
Instead of the Galaxy S22, you can look forward to the Galaxy A53 and A33 mid-rangers that can’t possibly disappoint. On the other hand, if the Galaxy S22 price drops to A53 levels before any trade-in offers and carrier deals, it might be worth revisiting.
The post 4 reasons not to buy Samsung’s Galaxy S22 even when the price drops appeared first on BGR.
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By STF News
Researchers from Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display (VD) Business have been declared winners of a Best Paper Award at the IEEE’s (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE 2021) for their technical paper entitled “Analyzing Images for Music Recommendation.”
ICCE is the flagship conference of the IEEE Consumer Technology Society (formerly the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society), held annually in conjunction with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, USA. A total of 190 research papers were accepted this year, with five finalists nominated for the virtual conference’s Best Paper Award. The competition consisted of video-recorded paper presentations and a live Q&A session, and just three papers were selected as winners.
“The work portrayed in this paper connects domains such as AI, UX and affective computing with the goal of providing an emotionally enriching user experience by bridging artworks and music in an unconventional manner,” said Anant Baijal, a Samsung Staff Engineer (Advanced R&D Group) and the lead author of the paper. “We propose a method that considers both an artwork’s style (classical, baroque, impressionist etc.) and the emotion it conveys (calm, joyful, mellow, etc.) to automatically curate music that is well-suited to accompany the image.”
The research highlighted in the paper is under review for possible commercialization in Samsung’s flagship products, including the recently announced Neo QLED TVs, along with lifestyle products such as The Frame. Currently, through Ambient Mode on QLED and Art Mode on The Frame, consumers can display pictures of their choice when they are not watching TV. The research team wants to take the user experience to the next level by giving consumers the option to play music that is curated based on automatic analysis of the image displayed on the screen. The results obtained from initial tests conducted during the research support the efficacy of the proposed approach.
“When a user uploads a picture, such as artwork or a photograph, our proprietary AI algorithms evaluate the image to recommend music through a user-subscribed music streaming provider,” added Baijal. “Future work on this technology would include integrating other parameters into the algorithm, such as the weather, time, geolocation and user activity, in addition to the image being displayed. We are designing the algorithm to be capable of adapting to individual users’ preferences.”
“At Samsung’s Advanced R&D Group, we’re continually striving to provide a more dynamic screen experience by developing innovative technologies that complement consumers’ ever-changing lifestyles,” said Dr. Danny Hyun, Corporate Vice President and Head of Advanced R&D Group at Samsung Electronics and a co-author of the paper.
The Advanced R&D Group’s research spans multidisciplinary areas such as AI, Big Data and connectivity, and the Group is also responsible for creating futuristic concepts and product prototypes. Multiple international patent applications covering the technology’s concept, components and user scenarios have been filed by Samsung Electronics.
Check out Samsung’s First Look 2021 event (highlights available here) for more details on the company’s vision for the future of screens, including its latest display innovations and 2021 product lineup.
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By BGR
It’s already April and Samsung hasn’t announced any new foldable phones this year. We would have expected the Galaxy Z Flip 2 successor by now, but that’s not the case. It’s still unclear what sort of seasonality to expect from Samsung’s foldable releases. Not to mention that 2021 will be a more challenging year for Samsung and other smartphone makers. The current chip shortage might convince Samsung to cancel the Galaxy Note line temporarily or even provide the company with the best excuse to discontinue it entirely.
Word on the street is that Samsung wants its foldable phones to replace the Note, and the company is looking to ramp up sales significantly. Before that can happen, Z Flip and Z Fold phones need to become more accessible, and Samsung is looking at ways to achieve that. The latest moves include expanding its extended trial program for foldable phones in some markets, and a significant price cut in others.
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The Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold are “old” devices by today’s standards, but they’re still more expensive than some of the best 2021 handsets with traditional screens that can’t fold. Samsung launched a promotion a few weeks ago that lets people try a Samsung foldable for 100 days before buying. The program, which expired on April 1st, had no equal in the industry. You can return a brand new device if you don’t like it, but you typically only have a couple of weeks to do it.
Interestingly, Samsung moved the deal to a different continent and shortened the trial window. UK buyers tempted by Samsung’s foldables will have 60 days to try them out. The deal is valid through June 22nd, SamMobile explains. Both the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and the Z Flip are covered, but buyers still have to pay for either handset. If they’re not happy with their purchase after 60 days, they’ll be refunded once the return is received.
The good news is that the Galaxy Z Fold just got a permanent £200 ($276) price cut in the region. The phone dropped from £1,799 ($2,487) to £1,599 ($2,210), which means the handset is just slightly more expensive than the Galaxy S21 Ultra or the Galaxy Z Flip 5G — the latter still costs £1,229 ($1,699) in the UK.
Samsung is also discounting the Z Fold 2’s price in its home market, where customers have access to an even better deal. According to local The Korea Bizwire, the price cut is permanent. The Z Fold 2 now costs 1.892 million won ($1,676) in South Korea, down from 2,398 won ($2,125). Samsung discontinued the Galaxy Z Flip last month in the region, which was priced at 1.349 million won ($1,195) instead of the original 1.65 million ($1,462) launch price.
The price drops are obviously intended to boost sales. At the same time, Xiaomi just shocked the industry with a high-end foldable handset that competes directly against the Galaxy Z Fold 2. The Mi Mix Fold has 2021 specs and a few novel features, but the handset has a much lower entry price, at 9,999 yuan ($1,523).
Samsung is expected to release at least a couple of new foldable handsets this year, featuring the latest available hardware. Previous rumors claimed that Samsung might launch a more affordable Galaxy Z device and a new dual-folding model that’s unlike anything Samsung has shown us before. As you can see below, long-time Samsung leaker Ice Universe is already teasing Samsung’s foldables on Twitter.
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