Samsung has always been ahead of Apple

[Abazigal]

Spot on. For me, the day Apple stopped being “Late but right” was when they finally gave us an App Drawer called App Library. It’s a mess and had been for 4 years now. And hasn’t been updated to fix how stupid it is.

Years later, now we have app theming, yay. But not all apps change.

Hmm, the day App Library was made available in iOS 14, I changed my homescreen to just one page (with 2 sets of Siri Shortcuts) and have been using App Library / spotlight to locate and launch whatever app I want to use.

It’s also been extremely handy on the iPad as it allows me to launch any app into split-screen mode.

Love the feature and don’t see myself going back.

 

[ralph_sws]

apple vs Samsung

 

[bushman4]

Unfortunately Apple has diversified into too many areas. Now that people are demanding more it seems like Apple has fallen behind

 

[drrich2]

For sake of argument, let's say Samsung is often ahead of Apple where smartphones are concerned. How much does that matter?

Several years ago, my then boss, previously an iPhone user, showed me an Android phone that was foldable. He praised the Android side as being more 'innovative.' I looked at his phone and concluded 'I don't want my phone to do that.' He valued innovation for its own sake; I didn't care unless they were innovating something I wanted.

If you want the greatest variety of features and combinations on offer, and you're heavily into hardware exclusives, you might be happier in the Android phone and Windows PC world. So many companies make Android phones, you'll have a much greater range to choose from. There are some many Windows PCs that there'll be a lot of niche software available just for Windows.

But...Apple products and the Apple ecosystem often offer a kind of 'slick factor,' a polished, aesthetically pleasing interface experience that is distinctive. I'm not talking about the build quality of the Apple Studio Display or how thin the old 27" iMacs got to be, I'm not really into the 'industrial artwork hardware' thing. I'm talking more about the subjective experience of interacting with it.

And yes, the counter argument is that the consumer experience within the Apple ecosystem is a more constrained experience. Something I sometimes find very frustrating. But there is a trade-off. I want internal SSD bays for installing much cheaper 3rd party SSDs in desktop computers!

And sometimes that ecosystem matters. We're discussing this on MacRumors; is there a SamsungRumors site? Samsung is a reputable big brand maker of a wide variety of things, but does Samsung have the brand power and prestige of Apple? Samsung makes one of the Android phones; Apple makes the iPhone.

For many people, if Apple makes a product that's a good fit for your wants and needs, it's a comfortable, enjoyable and pretty simple place to settle in.

And if you are a very technical sort who loves to tinker and customize, and wants the most unconstrained experience possible with the widest variety of app.s...maybe it's not your thing.

And to be fair, Apple is a leader at times - Thunderbolt 5 adoption! It was only pretty recently that Snapdragon-based Windows notebooks offered the Windows PC world advantages akin to Apple Silicon processors, and that split the PC market into x86 and ARM variants of Windows with very good but not perfect cross-compatibility, and then Intel's Lunar Lake muddied the waters further...is it ARM benefits with x86 compatibility?

I'm glad have choice, because it seems no computing platform choice is right for everybody.

 

[MasterMaCanada59]

Hey,
I've been watching old phone reviews, because YouTube recommends me those and I've realised that Samsung and other manufacturers have always been ahead Apple and even the comments point that out. I didn't even know that

I didn't know that it was possible back in 2013. I literally thought such things started coming out in 2020 thanks to Apple's MagSafe and I thought that wireless charging was a "new thing".

And there are many many other examples.
I don't know why YouTube started recommending me old stuff, sometimes I get tech reviews from even 15 years ago and I get also videos like "Mac OS X Lion Review" that was uploaded in 2011 and has 500 views etc.
Interesting.
I know flip phones are pretty common these days too and Apple still hasn't done that, but flip phones are something I see every single day. Proves that people want smaller phones that fit in their pockets.

It's interesting really.

Another clickbait cr#p.

 

[surferfb]

This thread 🤣

 

[MacCheetah3]

This thread 🤣

View attachment 2480709

Scene is the same for the Windows argument. We don’t care and are (mostly) enjoying what we got. For whatever reason, the other side always wants to bring things up and compare. It’s as if they aren’t actually enjoying what they have. 🤔😉😆

With that said, I think, the overall keyboard layout is better on Samsung UI/Android than iOS.

 

[drrich2]

I think the large majority of smartphone users shopping for a phone are concerned about whether it has the features they want now, not which company offered those features first a decade ago.

It's historically interesting to some enthusiasts who got when first, but to the majority of users, the question is rather 'Who has what I want now?'

And once you're in one ecosystem or the other, with paid app.s and familiarity with the platform, switching back and forth sounds onerous.

Richard.

 

[sarcasticgamer]

This literally adds nothing to a website covering mostly Apple news😂

 

[jamezr]

This thread 🤣

View attachment 2480709

and yet all the apple fans participating in this thread.....

 

[Cervisia]

Absolutely, but I wasn't talking about perference, nor were the people I was responding to. Facts don't care about your preference.

PS: I was a former blind loyalist. Believed all the talking points.

I was an Apple hater, not because of their products, but because of the "blind loyalist fans". Then I got fed up with Google, gave iphone a chance, and would never go back. And I don't really care about features you've mentioned in your previous post.

 

[Cervisia]

The main feature users want is a powerful and energy efficient CPU and GPU. That’s where the most advanced innovations are and nobody touches Apple here. They are years behind in the mobile processor space.

Every other feature is considered easy work.

Energy efficient? Yes. Powerful? Not really. Would be nice if the safari tab wouldn't reload just because I've switched to another one for a minute though.

 

[Zito Abroad]

Wow, they actually went there. Lol.
Samsung=KL
Apple=Drake

These comparison are on every platform. Regardless, I must repeat my coping mantra, "Daddy, err I mean, Apple's late but they get it right."

Seriously though, all the examples running rampant on the interweebs keep getting more bloody hilarious by the second. Lol

 

[Sezel]

Im my experience, Samsung is akin to German cars while Apple's philosophy follows Toyota.

True. For example Japanese bikes offer very less as compared to a KTM or Aprilia, but they are reliable and just works just like Apple.

 

[TechRunner]

I used Android exclusively for over a decade before switching to a 16 PM late last year. I had two Samsung phones during that time, one of which (Galaxy Note 4) is one of my favorite phones ever. I would not say that Samsung has ALWAYS been ahead of Apple.

 

[RSB96]

I have iPhone, Pixel and a Galaxy Fold 6.

I enjoy all 3 equally. Each has a unique and differentiating feature.

The iPhone in the end is my primary personal device. I have the entire Apple ecosystem, the Apple Watch Ultra seems better to me than the Android Watches (I tried a Galaxy Watch 6 and I'm not entirely sold on it), the AirPods I really like because of how easily they connect with the rest of Apple's devices. However, the iPhone, being a great phone, I find it boring as of today. Apple Intelligence has not yet arrived in Europe and the magic erase feature on the Mac (which is the only AI thing we have in Europe), is pretty bad compared to Samsung or Google's results. There are things about iOS that to this day I find pointless, like the lack of a clipboard, something that in my use I find very useful and that Apple would have very easy to implement using iCloud and have it sync across all their products, like the universal clipboard, but more advanced.

The iPad still strikes me as a better product than an Android tablet, having a Galaxy Tab S10. Both are exceptional, but the software on Android for tablets feels weaker, not One UI itself, but the apps. One UI is much more capable (with DeX and without) than iPadOS in terms of multitasking management, but the quality of third-party apps meant to take advantage of these devices are noticeably better on the iPad.

As for computers, I still prefer macOS to Windows. The Surface is a great device, but Windows still has things that are very irritating to me.

Getting back to phones, just because I find the iPhone boring doesn't imply that what's out there isn't as well. The S25 Ultra is a great device, but it's still an evolution of the S23U? S23U?

The Pixel 9 Pro has a new form factor, but compared to the 7 and 8 is not that it has changed significantly, beyond the AI.

The iPhone design-wise has been pretty much the same since the 12 Pro (11 Pro on the back). What's new about it? A button and AI.

AI is now the “wow” factor and is more of an “intangible” selling point than a real one, while the hardware we can enjoy has been stagnant for several years (I don't care which manufacturer, Samsung, Google and Apple are more or less even in that regard).

Which Samsung has been innovative in certain aspects? I do consider it. It was one of the first to give a larger form factor, one of the first to eliminate the frames to make them all screen, curved screens that gave an impressive aesthetic to the phone (and which to me did not seem as uncomfortable as some said), had cameras with variable aperture (something that is now rumored for the iPhone 18), iris reader, the Spen, the folding, and that only at the hardware level. But Apple has also launched impressive things, besides the first iPhone, the App Store, the retina display, Touch ID (what was there before in phones was lousy and unintuitive, Samsung had it but you had to slide your finger and it worked badly), 64bit chip, 3DTouch (DEP), Haptic Engine, the iPhone X with FaceID and uniform bezels (something that Android did not have until relatively recently), and the current iPhone video capabilities that are still the reference.

In software One UI allows you to do pretty much whatever you want, it takes your time to customize it as you want, but as a purely productivity tool I find it far superior to the iPhone and iOS. iOS has lost its “simplicity”, but despite being a complex system, I find that complexity is for visual things, not productive. The interface in some ways has lost is to cohesion and “perfection” in the UI elements that made iOS stand out ahead of Android (although it is still better in that sense). One UI in the latest versions has taken many things from iOS at the visual level, but iOS should copy from One UI many of the things it has at the productivity level, especially for the iPad.

What do I want to say? That all manufacturers do fantastic things, and that arguing who is better and worse is an empty discussion. Some excel in some things and others in others. As of today Samsung and Apple are equally boring to their audience, with minimal hardware upgrades and betting all on AI. I don't think one or the other is better, each has its strengths and weaknesses. On a personal level I like to use Apple's ecosystem more, but on a professional level Android gives me a better experience and greater productivity.

 

[uacd]

Yes, ahead. But behind. Lemme explain.

I had Galaxy S10+ and it was basically my first flagship Android phone. It had 3 cameras which was a novel thing back in 2019, Apple had released only in September. And yeah I sold Samsung. Because they never learn.

Curved screen was never cool. I couldn’t type a single message on S10, it was a nightmare.

Also in terms of speed it was slow. I could not run Minecraft on it in 60fps. When playing games like Asphalt the phone overheated. GTA San Andreas smh had stutterings. How come is that? The games were already ancient and ran perfectly on any of my iPhones ever since the 5. Android is still a joke in terms of gaming.

While cameras were good, those were limited. Only the main camera had RAW capture feature, telephoto and UW could not. Paired with already unbearable watercolor-like noise reduction, photos were only good in good lighting conditions. I liked them but somehow those looked a bit unnatural to me, Samsung was already ahead of Apple in terms of overprocessing, “big win”, but who asked for that? I didn’t.

Will I buy new Galaxy S25? Nope. They didn’t learn. Even my s10+ looked more beautiful than this slate with disk-shaped cameras. Yeah even same looking iPhones look better than that, not even saying that they actually work better even with the worst operating system ever - iOS 18

 

[Ctrlos]

I never quite understood the arguement that the iPhone is in some way 'boring'. I think it exposes a lack of design education, quite frankly.

I'd strongly argue that the design of the iPhone is in fact a classic, like a Porsche 911 or a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife. Or to put it another way nobody picks up a Fork, a Lego Brick or dons a pair of Aviators and suggests somebody change it.

The iPhone only seems dull because it is the markets default idea of what a smartphone should look like. Its why every other manufacturer sticks so close to Apple's DNA and why wacky, fringe ideas (like the Microsoft Duo) always fail. Move too far away and you will become commercially ostracized.

 

[RSB96]

I never quite understood the arguement that the iPhone is in some way 'boring'. I think it exposes a lack of design education, quite frankly.

I'd strongly argue that the design of the iPhone is in fact a classic, like a Porsche 911 or a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife. Or to put it another way nobody picks up a Fork, a Lego Brick or dons a pair of Aviators and suggests somebody change it.

The iPhone only seems dull because it is the markets default idea of what a smartphone should look like. Its why every other manufacturer sticks so close to Apple's DNA and why wacky, fringe ideas (like the Microsoft Duo) always fail. Move too far away and you will become commercially ostracized.

Apple has always been the one that has imposed how things should be look on a technological level.

Smartphones, computers, tablets, everything has been replicated endlessly in the competition. The glass of the iPhone 4, the profiled bezels of the iPhone 5, the rounded designs of the 6, the notch and camera of the iPhone X and the triangular design of the cameras of the 11 Pro onwards.

I consider the iPhone to have a good design, but maintaining the same rear aesthetics for 6 years makes it look somewhat worn out, just like the S25 seems to me.

I like and horrify what I see of Apple's new design in equal measure. I like it because the design of the Google Pixel 9 seems perfect to me. But it horrifies me because Apple now follows the trends of others, instead of setting them.

 

[cnnyy20p]

I has been know that majority of smartphones innovations are created outside of Apple. Apple however are known for maturing existing innovations.

 

[jamezr]

I has been know that majority of smartphones innovations are created outside of Apple. Apple however are known for maturing existing innovations.

There is a lot of truth to what you said ..... But not so much the last couple of years.
Look at AI and the smartphone industry. Tim Cook said the iphone 16 was built with AI from the ground up. Yet not all feature were available when it launched. Not all features are available in all countries.

They were late to get onboard with AI.
They did not implement AI better than other phones like Google and Samsung. They are so far behind they might ever be able to catch up.

 

[cjsuk]

Im my experience, Samsung is akin to German cars while Apple's philosophy follows Toyota.

If the German car is the Trabant, then yes I agree.

 

[Ctrlos]

Apple has always been the one that has imposed how things should be look on a technological level.

Smartphones, computers, tablets, everything has been replicated endlessly in the competition. The glass of the iPhone 4, the profiled bezels of the iPhone 5, the rounded designs of the 6, the notch and camera of the iPhone X and the triangular design of the cameras of the 11 Pro onwards.

I consider the iPhone to have a good design, but maintaining the same rear aesthetics for 6 years makes it look somewhat worn out, just like the S25 seems to me.

I like and horrify what I see of Apple's new design in equal measure. I like it because the design of the Google Pixel 9 seems perfect to me. But it horrifies me because Apple now follows the trends of others, instead of setting them.

It’s not that I see the S25 Ultra as worn out, more the most utterly generic phone out there. An iPhone is still recognisable as an iPhone; how does the S25U stand out against Android competitors like the cheaper and better looking OnePlus 13?

 

[PsykX]

Apple Intelligence is late, but it's because they did it right. Sure. Absolute joke. Lol

It's late - it's not right - but in the long run I'm very confident Apple will get it right.
They're a few years behind for sure - but in 2 years from now, you won't be able to tell.

 

[Gengar]

Definitely not in design, I fear.