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Samsung Overtakes Apple for Top Smartphone Customer Satisfaction

These customer satisfaction polls are just that- polls.

Example question:
How many stars would you give for overall experience?
(1-5)

There’s so much fuzzy leeway in the answers available that a final percentage difference from numerous pollsters of 2% is absolutely meaningless.
 
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Tim Jobs the 2nd said:
It'll probably get me excommunicated by both sides but I own and like both Samsung and Apple products
Click to expand...
I've owned products from both brands as well -- but that's where the parallel ends.

Samsung is clearly stronger in some departments than in others. I had a Samsung refrigerator that failed within the first month after purchase... and their tech support was anything but helpful. I now have a refrigerator from another brand, and will not be buying any other Samsung appliances, ever.

That said: I would imagine that cellphones fall into one of those stronger departments, for them.
 
  1. Missed calls notifications not going away when you open the contacts and see the missed call. Eventually it will after back and forth several times
  2. Screen flickering
  3. Grey boxes flicker when i tap + in messages and then take a photo --> send the photo. It acts like im spam highlighting invisible text with a grey box. Sometimes displays near the back icon as well
  4. Slow responsiveness to certain commands
  5. Either I'm getting older or the keyboard keeps getting worse
  6. Useless features counteracting the "iOS is easy" and just causes more bugs
  7. swipe down to search has lag when pulling up the keyboard
16 pro max
Did I miss anything?
 
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For me it's OPPO > Samsung > Apple. How times have changed. I used to be the biggest Apple fanboy in my family and group of friends. Owning everything from the first iPod to iPhone 16 Pro but mixing it up since has been a great decision
 
nt5672 said:
This is no surprise, Apple lives in its own Karen like isolated world where Apple engineers think they know what's best for all. But with Jobs gone, that vision about bettering the world is also gone. Now the whole strategy is to be a good Cook like currency counter.

Like Apple, even a broken clock is right twice a day, but Apple is getting worse and worse each month.

Someday my hope is that Apple starts listening to its users and developers, or gets a new visionary in the leadership role.
Click to expand...
Almost like the people on this message board who complain about anything/everything Apple does/releases. Apple isn't making products for the crazy fringe of customers who make up a very very very very small portion of their customers, they are targeting the masses who want the Apple ecosystem and easy to learn/use products. It's that simple.

I have always said, if you don't like Apple hardware or software, buy a product from a competitor. If enough people did that and it impacted Apple's bottom line, maybe they would be forced to change.
 
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now i see it said:
These customer satisfaction polls are just that- polls.

Example question:
How many stars would you give for overall experience?
(1-5)

There’s so much fuzzy leeway in the answers available that a final percentage difference from numerous pollsters of 2% is absolutely meaningless.
Click to expand...
There are statistics calculations that can determine how reliable a metric is. Aggregated over many responses, it tells an accurate picture. Especially the YoY comparison, where you have the same people providing lower metrics. That's telling.

Spock said:
I believe it, probably in part but how awful iOS 26 has been. It is the first iOS update that has ever made me consider a switch to Android.
Click to expand...
Same. I switched from a 17 back to a 13 mini running iOS 18 (mini gang) so I'm happy as a clam, right now. But I understand the reality that the 13 mini isn't sustainable long term. The Samsung A07 is $99 and while I wouldn't want to use it as a daily phone, it's certainly cheap enough for me to start playing with Android for the first time in about a decade, and see what apps I would need to replace if I went down that route.
 
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Spock said:
I believe it, probably in part but how awful iOS 26 has been. It is the first iOS update that has ever made me consider a switch to Android.
Click to expand...
iOS 26 is annoying, but I also strongly disliked a bunch of their other updates, going way back to the worst offender, iOS7 (Forstall/Jobs iOS6 was peak iOS for me). The really big deal for me is the ads in maps.

I have deleted maps before in a fit of rage with Siri, but Siri is heavily integrated with the maps app and I soon added it back. It's kinda hard to use iOS without using Apple Maps in some form. I don't even use Maps that often, not even weekly, but it's more of a camel's nose in the tent thing with ads. If Apple starts giving up ground on user privacy and intrusive ads in its ecosystem, why not just go Android at that point?

That and just general stagnation with Apple. If it ain't broke, dont' fix it, but they have done a whole bunch of iterations on their operating system without any great change in functionality for years now. Then the failed car and TV projects, and the glasses that seem like a failure (though that may be too soon to tell). Meanwhile you've got Chinese phones with 8,000 mAH batteries and 100MP cameras (I know a lot of that is marketing exaggeration but they have leapfrogged Apple in hardware).
 
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slippery-pete said:
Almost like the people on this message board who complain about anything/everything Apple does/releases. Apple isn't making products for the crazy fringe of customers who make up a very very very very small portion of their customers, they are targeting the masses who what the Apple ecosystem and easy to learn/use products. It's that simple.

I have always said, if you don't like Apple hardware or software, buy a product from a competitor. If enough people did that and it impacted Apple's bottom line, maybe the would be forced to change.
Click to expand...
Apple hardware isn't the issue. The customer satisfaction issue is with the software which is sub par for a trillion dollar company.
 
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If Apple focuses on delivering what they promised and more - they will get back the first place.

Fix bugs, work on more languages support for Siri (Polish, long due), work on new features for the ecosystem and overall stability.
 
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gummybear2026 said:
Apple hardware isn't the issue. The customer satisfaction issue is with the software which is sub par for a trillion dollar company.
Click to expand...
That's why I specifically said "hardware of software". BTW, the scores are still pretty damn high from a customer satisfaction standpoint.

Same as my original point. If you have an issue with their software, buy a product from a competitor with software that meets your needs, if enough people spoke with their wallet...Apple might be forced to change.
 
Overall, I've been considerably less satisfied with Apple in recent years. Too many gimmicks like "Genmoji", too few bug fixes.

"Hide and show menu bar" doesn't work properly, for God's sake! It used to work but in recent years, on a daily basis, moving the cursor to the top of the screen fails to reveal the menu bar.

Another bug I'm sick of is how it re-syncs a bunch of songs in my Apple Music library EVERY time I sync the phone. Not all of them, just a bunch. On that note, I sync over 10Gbps USB-C and, yet, it somehow doesn't copy files anywhere near 10Gbps - it is left in the dust compared to an old 2.5" SSD in a $8, 5Gbps SATA enclosure from Amazon.

I guess market research showed that Soccer Moms in Range Rovers prefer to syncing over WiFi. Suddenly it's old fashioned to copy hundreds of GB of data using a cable. It is literally faster for me to copy files from Mac->External SSD->iPhone using 5Gbps (twice the copying at half the speed!) than it is to copy directly from Mac->iPhone. And, yes, I've checked System Info to make sure it's negotiating the full 10Gbps speed when the phone is connected because, surprise, it occasionally shows up as 480Mbps (randomly, using the same USB-4 cable I always use).

Anyone here sync a few hundred gig over WiFi? It takes like...an hour. Plus significant battery drain unless you plug it in (which mostly defeats the purpose of WiFi sync, to state the obvious). Or use 30W Qi and WiFi sync simultaneously and fry your phone from both ends.
 
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For me the poor typing and gesture navigation system ruin the phone experience for me. I'll be back on Android if Apple can't resolve these things. It absolutely blows my mind that Apple STILL hasn't figured out how to offer an on screen navigation bar yet after all these years. Then again it could be related to the fact that their staff can't figure out how to fix the typing/keyboard experience either. I'm thinking they don't have the qualified staff to do either of these things, that is the only possible explanation I can think of.
 
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I switched back to iPhone from Samsung mainly because of the pre-installed Facebook app on Samsung devices. To properly restrict its access to other apps, I had to follow online guides and change permissions one by one. Other than that, I actually liked Samsung phones.

I also had very good experiences with Samsung’s repair service. I replaced broken screens on two different Galaxy models, and both times Samsung also replaced the battery and back panel. When my Galaxy Watch got water damage from showering with it, Samsung refunded me even though the warranty had already expired.

Now I’m sitting with two pairs of AirPods Pro 2 that are not working properly, and Apple can’t really help because the warranty is over. One pair has developed a crackling sound, while the other suddenly stopped working altogether.

As I mentioned before, Samsung’s phone app is still much better than the iPhone’s. Apple recently added T9 contact search, which is good, but something as simple as deleting all call logs from one contact is still unnecessarily complicated on iPhone — you have to remove them one by one. On Samsung, it only takes a few seconds.

With the EU pushing Apple to open up its ecosystem more, I may eventually be able to use non-Apple products without losing the convenience that currently keeps many people tied to Apple’s ecosystem.
 
slippery-pete said:
That's why I specifically said "hardware of software". BTW, the scores are still pretty damn high from a customer satisfaction standpoint.

Same as my original point. If you have an issue with their software, buy a product from a competitor with software that meets your needs, if enough people spoke with their wallet...Apple might be forced to change.
Click to expand...
If Apple downgrades the iPhone 18 then I will consider switching to Android.

Apple's innovation in the iPhone space has gotten stale.
 
Well deserved. Samsung crushed it with the Fold 7/S2x Ultra series.

To my surprise, after years on Apple, I got a chance to use Android on a decent Samsung device at work and the OS is very stable, very fluid. To be fair I did some housekeeping on the device but still, compared to the keyboard performance on my Pro Max, its night and day. Which is wild.

Competition is good.
 
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Tim Jobs the 2nd said:
It'll probably get me excommunicated by both sides but I own and like both Samsung and Apple products
Click to expand...
Same here. I have an M9 and Galaxy Buds Pro 4, both are very nice.
Moonjumper said:
Liquid Glass could have a lot to do with this. Usability has dropped significantly, even when making all the changes Settings allows.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Not a fan of Liquid Glass and my keyboard has tanked to the degree that I have given up on editing things that I have typed.
 
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