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Am I being silly still self boycotting Samsung?

RedDeliciousPinkLady

RedDeliciousPinkLady

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 26, 2018
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Our old (2010) 42" Vizio is starting to show signs of degradation (an occasional pixel thin vertical line will show up in the same spot, and the menu shuttle skips occasionally when selecting inputs. Anyway...

We're in the market for a new TV and everything seems to be "smart" these days. We've always valued originality or at least innovation very highly in my family and I drank the cool-aid gulp by gulp in the old days when Steve Jobs was still around and still haven't owned any Samsung products.

How dumb am I being by still boycotting them intentionally? asking for a friend, in the event I'm being super dumb. ;p
 
You can boycott whoever you want. It's not like the companies will do anything about it, because it won't catch on :confused:
(It never does.)

As for the Smart TV dilemma, yes, there are a lot of Smart TVs out there. Some are good, others... speak for themselves. If you want one, make sure it doesn't sneak in stuff like menu advertisements and permanent, obsolete buttons that lead to a discontinued service. (One of my old Vizio remotes for my 2010s Vizio has a button that's supposed to bring you straight to Hulu. But, it uses an outdated UI and doesn't work. Bummer.)

Don't want a smart TV and want one that just listens to your orders without any "backtalk"? There are plenty of unintelligent TVs out there, I'm surprised you haven't found them.
 
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Samsung is banned from our house. After a known since 2006 defect with their dryers that make them break every few months after the 1st year. Washing machine rusted out after 4 years. Dish washer sprang a leak at 4 years beacuse its drain pump inlet deformed. Refrigerator's ice maker chewed itself to bits at 3 years and then flooded the freezer.

I didn't have to boycott, Samsung removed themselves from my house in the 5 years we lived here. The only thing left that didn't destroy itself was the 65" TV and I didn't want the house to burn down so I took it out to the curb and got a cheap crappy brand 75" from Costco.

Samsung is the worst.
 
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tebruno99 said:
Samsung is banned from our house. After a known since 2006 defect with their dryers that make them break every few months after the 1st year. Washing machine rusted out after 4 years. Dish washer sprang a leak at 4 years beacuse its drain pump inlet deformed. Refrigerator's ice maker chewed itself to bits at 3 years and then flooded the freezer.

I didn't have to boycott, Samsung removed themselves from my house in the 5 years we lived here. The only thing left that didn't destroy itself was the 65" TV and I didn't want the house to burn down so I took it out to the curb and got a cheap crappy brand 75" from Costco.

Samsung is the worst.
Click to expand...

And then you talk to someone else who has a Samsung fridge they purchased in 2005 that is still working (in the garage now), washer/dryer that was purchased in 2014/15 that are both still working (I did replace a heating unit in the dryer once), a 65" KS8000 TV (2016 or '17), a range in 2018ish and a second fridge in 2019ish that are all still working just fine. Knock on wood.

I love the Samsung TV we have mostly because it's source selection is incredibly quick. For instance, I can be streaming ESPN on the AppleTV, then switch the TV's input to CBS on the antenna, and back to the AppleTV in under a second per change. We have a Hisense TV, and it takes several long seconds to change from one to the next.

If you're worried about the TV tracking you, disconnect it from WiFi after it goes through its setup process (or blacklist it's MAC address on your router), and just use an AppleTV for streaming content (sounds like you're an Apple guy anyway).
 
My wife and I refuse to purchase any Samsung appliances due to my in-law’s having to replace their Samsung washer and dry, plus their oven and dishwasher went. All within a couple years of the appliances being purchased.

We have Samsung TV’s throughout our house, but none of them are connected to the internet as we have ATV’s connected to each one.

Pretty much TV’s are the only items we’ll purchase from Samsung at this point.
 
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Why does appreciating Apple products mean that you can't own other brands? I mean, I wouldn't ever own a Samsung phone however my Samsung Frame TV is the most amazing TV I have ever owned.
 
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Samsung is a big company. There are a couple component division exceptions but in general Samdung over markets/sells their product's capability and their marketing trumps engineering. So they end up selling products that have great specs but because they over stress the components to be able to advertise those specs, they tend to break quickly. Sometimes they get away with it, sometimes not. They always sacrifice picture/sound accuracy and quality for flashy presentation, video that looks great to the clueless/naive. Then their bots flood the web with great reviews, and spend a lot of money on social media, finding threads like this one and posting glowing reviews.

I avoid their products as a rule as their deceiving marketing approach just rubs me the wrong way. I'd much rather buy products that have more attention to engineering detail. Oh Oh, a couple guys in Samdung hats are at the front door.... gotta go.. :)
 
You don't need to buy a smart TV except most of the time you'll get a TV with a better picture as well.
The sad truth about smart TVs is that very quickly you find the apps don't update or a new service arrives and your TV doesn't support the app. I'm thinking of TVs I've owned that wouldn't support either Disney or Apple TV+
So you can buy a cheap, dumb TV with a good picture and have all the smart stuff on an Apple TV or a Firestick. Personally, I love the Firestick I always buy them with the option for no advertising (maybe you can't do that where you are?) and they update regularly and work perfectly. You can pick one up for about $40 I think- on sale. The 4K ones are the most fluid.
I won't tell you want to do with Samsung if you don't like them but I haven't found them to be bad quality myself.
They are more intrusive with advertising than the Firesticks are though. You must set up a profile and they do send you rubbish on start up. You can disable it but it re-enenables. I think everyone is sending you rubbish these days.
I would say the 2 best makes at the moment are LG and Samsung but the LG remotes and menus are more difficult to use.
I would say the best ever were the Panasonic plasma TVs- or the Pioneer they were based on. The picture was really special.
 
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You should be aware that not even Apple is boycotting Samsung, as they massively rely on them as a supplier. And they did even more so when Steve was around.
So if you want to 100% boycott Samsung, you should avoid a lot of Apple products and you'd have to buy Chinese alternatives instead.
Chinese manufacturers qualify as Samsung opponents a lot more than Apple does.
 
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RedDeliciousPinkLady said:
Our old (2010) 42" Vizio is starting to show signs of degradation (an occasional pixel thin vertical line will show up in the same spot, and the menu shuttle skips occasionally when selecting inputs. Anyway...

We're in the market for a new TV and everything seems to be "smart" these days. We've always valued originality or at least innovation very highly in my family and I drank the cool-aid gulp by gulp in the old days when Steve Jobs was still around and still haven't owned any Samsung products.

How dumb am I being by still boycotting them intentionally? asking for a friend, in the event I'm being super dumb. ;p
Click to expand...
Samsung TVs are not good. The display panel, yes great, the design also Ist sleek and nice. But: I have the MU8009 55“ and mounted that one on the wall via vesa. Now this pos is bending. I‘m an engineer and thought about that while I was buying it, but thought how clever they were and may have thought this trough with reinforcements. no. Also the software update made the TV worse and if you hook it up to the internet, you get ads. Yes. ADs!! In the operating system. Like if you buy a fridge and someone builds in a Pepsi sign that lights up ever now and then. I never allowed Samsung to get money for my attention. They simply take it. Unplugged it from the internet. Also, it never got Apple TV even tough it was just last years gen.
Buy a Panasonic.
 
I wouldn't buy a Samsung TV right now because they don't support Dolby Vision. That said I do have an older 1080p Samsung TV that still gets some use in the basement. It was our main TV until a few years ago when we upgraded to 4K and it's still working great even though it is over 10 years old.

I also have Samsung monitors that are great.
 
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Samsung's home appliances are trash, that is common knowledge - the reason they end up in so many homes is they come with a ton of features for a low price and are promoted and on sale often. But the monitors and TVs are just fine, these are totally different divisions, the only thing they got in common is the logo on the front.

The smart tvs all have drawbacks, I liked the LG TVs for the webOS but that's now dated and many apps don't run on it. There is Android TV which in theory is great, except that many TVs have underpowered hardware which makes it tedious to use. I haven't found a TV that didn't annoy me, so I replaced the last TV with a big computer monitor (VA quantum dot, HDR10) that has plenty inputs and use AppleTV, a HTPC, Plex, and so on.
 
From my experience, every Samsung TV I've owned has died within 2-3 years (usually from backlight failure). The LG I have now has already surpassed 5, with no signs of stopping.
 
Shhhhhhhhhh little secret, iPhones have Samsung displays.
When Steve was alive the iPhone used Samsung processors.
If you buy Apple products, you are literally not boycotting Samsung, you’re doing the opposite
 
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Lounge vibes 05 said:
Shhhhhhhhhh little secret, iPhones have Samsung displays.
When Steve was alive the iPhone used Samsung processors.
If you buy Apple products, you are literally not boycotting Samsung, you’re doing the opposite
Click to expand...
Shhh, there are actually only a handful of companies in the world that make TV display panels.
It's so expensive to sent the plants up and the quality has to be extremely good otherwise costs are almost infinite. You only need one error in a display to trash it.
 
Ruggy said:
You don't need to buy a smart TV except most of the time you'll get a TV with a better picture as well.
The sad truth about smart TVs is that very quickly you find the apps don't update or a new service arrives and your TV doesn't support the app. I'm thinking of TVs I've owned that wouldn't support either Disney or Apple TV+
So you can buy a cheap, dumb TV with a good picture and have all the smart stuff on an Apple TV or a Firestick. Personally, I love the Firestick I always buy them with the option for no advertising (maybe you can't do that where you are?) and they update regularly and work perfectly. You can pick one up for about $40 I think- on sale. The 4K ones are the most fluid.
I won't tell you want to do with Samsung if you don't like them but I haven't found them to be bad quality myself.
They are more intrusive with advertising than the Firesticks are though. You must set up a profile and they do send you rubbish on start up. You can disable it but it re-enenables. I think everyone is sending you rubbish these days.
I would say the 2 best makes at the moment are LG and Samsung but the LG remotes and menus are more difficult to use.
I would say the best ever were the Panasonic plasma TVs- or the Pioneer they were based on. The picture was really special.
Click to expand...
Yes, Pioneer Kuro (Japanese for ‘black’) was a lovely screen. I did get a 4K Samsung TV, tempted by the higher resolution, but was instantly disappointed by the blacks in comparison. It’s not nice when you’re watching a space movie and the space background has a noticeable grey tinge to it. The Kuro, by contrast, was as black as the blackest bit of coal in a deep black coalmine.
 
You can’t disable Samsung tv updates if you want to use it as a Smart tv.
Dont make my mistake, stay away from them.

Just like Apple - matter of time when SW will be requiring too much cpu % or SW will be badly compiled and your TV might slow down.

I also started to receive ads there… in recommendation of certain tv apps.
 
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Samsung's display division is great. I won't touch the rest including the tv's.

I once called their customer service about a new ssd's of theirs that wouldn't boot from a clone (the good 'ol days).
They told me it was Apple's fault. I informed them that a new Silicon Power ssd I'd just bought was able to boot from the same clone. Their response "it's Apple's fault".
 
stradify said:
Samsung's display division is great. I won't touch the rest including the tv's.

I once called their customer service about a new ssd's of theirs that wouldn't boot from a clone (the good 'ol days).
They told me it was Apple's fault. I informed them that a new Silicon Power ssd I'd just bought was able to boot from the same clone. Their response "it's Apple's fault".
Click to expand...
I have heard of lots of people having issues with Samsung SSDs in MacBooks. I had a 17 inch MacBook Pro that would not even see the SSD at all but it worked fine in my PC
 
RedDeliciousPinkLady said:
Our old (2010) 42" Vizio is starting to show signs of degradation (an occasional pixel thin vertical line will show up in the same spot, and the menu shuttle skips occasionally when selecting inputs. Anyway...

We're in the market for a new TV and everything seems to be "smart" these days. We've always valued originality or at least innovation very highly in my family and I drank the cool-aid gulp by gulp in the old days when Steve Jobs was still around and still haven't owned any Samsung products.

How dumb am I being by still boycotting them intentionally? asking for a friend, in the event I'm being super dumb. ;p
Click to expand...
I have had good luck with Samsung TVs but have similar concerns as you. In my case, it is related to not trusting that Samsung cares about my privacy. So, I use them as dumb TVs and never allow them access to the network.
 
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