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Hey guys it’s Greg with Apple Explained.
And today I want to talk about Samsung.
They tend to be the topic of my rants during live streams, which happen every Saturday
at 8PM eastern time, by the way.
But it’s for a good reason.
Samsung takes a much different approach to their products than Apple, which leads them
to include really gimmicky features in their products that typically don’t improve the
user experience.
So in this video I’m going to give examples of these gimmicks, and explain why Samsung
loves including them.
If you want to help decide which topics I cover in future videos, make sure you’re
subscribed, and voting polls like this one will show up in your mobile activity feed.
Alright now including gimmicks in devices like the Galaxy smartphone is probably my
biggest pet peeve about Samsung, and it has everything to do with how they prioritize
a product’s sales pitch over its user experience.
Now what do I mean by that?
Well, when tech companies create a smartphone, they’re under a lot of pressure to differentiate
it from the competition as much as possible.
That way, they can simply show the customer a sales page which features all the unique
and “innovative” features their smartphone has, but other smartphones don’t have.
It’s a common practice by many manufacturers that may sound like a good sales strategy,
but often backfires in the long run.
And Samsung is the perfect example of this.
They introduced a feature back in 2013 called “Air View.”
Where users could simply hover their finger over an app or link and preview that content
without tapping.
A great feature to include on a sales page since it sounds very futuristic and cool,
but in practice, turned out to be a disappointment.
Mainly because the hovering action wasn’t any quicker than tapping, and the feature
wasn’t supported by very many apps.
Leading to a confusing, inconsistent experience for users.
Air View was later buried in the Galaxy smartphone’s settings, and eventually removed altogether.
Then there was the Galaxy Beam Projector smartphone.
Which allowed users to project movies and images onto a wall up to 50 inches in size.
And while critics did compliment the projection quality, they noted that including the feature
came at a huge cost to the smartphone itself.
Since it didn’t provide a satisfactory experience like other devices on the market.
Then there was the Galaxy’s Smart Scrolling feature which allowed users to move web pages
up and down by tracking their head movement.
And again, the feature sounded very futuristic to smartphone customers.
But once they got the phone in their hand and tried using the feature for themselves,
it became clear that smart scrolling was unreliable, slow, and inconvenient compared to simply
using your finger.
Then there’s probably my favorite example which was the Iris Scanner first included
on the Galaxy S8.
Samsung introduced the feature as the most secure form of biometric security they’d
ever created.
And then, right after they showed off Iris Scanning on stage, they introduced facial
recognition, which they claimed “allows you to get into your phone really quickly.”
Which implied iris scanning would be slower, but perhaps more secure.
Then they mentioned that the S8 would still include a finger print scanner which was moved
to the back of the device.
Finally, the presenter bragged that the S8 offered users the most options for security
than any other smartphone.
Which again, customers found very appealing.
After all, a device that has more features and capabilities than another must mean it’s
superior, right?
Well, that’s not necessarily the case.
Because when the Galaxy S8 finally hit the market, articles flooded the internet detailing
just how insecure its new Iris Scanner was.
With hackers breaching the device with just a few hundred dollars worth of equipment.
Also, it was revealed that the S8’s facial recognition could be fooled by simply printing
out a photo and holding it up to the camera.
And when it came to the fingerprint scanner, it turned out to be the most secure and quickest
way to unlock the device, except that it’s placement on the back of the phone next to
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Now, after testing out all of the Galaxy S8’s biometric security methods, Dan Seifert from
The Verge wrote, “it shouldn’t be this difficult to figure out a simple task such
as unlocking your phone and we hope that Samsung uses a better design for its next device.”
And I think that’s the perfect of example of Samsung’s flawed approach to creating
products.
They claimed that all of the S8’s biometric methods were secure and convenient, but it
turned out that none of them were.
So while customers could choose which method they liked best, all three methods were poorly
executed.
So the question becomes, would you prefer to choose which way your device disappoints
you, or would you rather be stuck with one option that actually works as advertised.
Because on the other hand, Apple released the iPhone X the same year as the Galaxy S8.
And it featured facial recognition as it’s only biometric security method, except it
was actually more secure than a fingerprint scanner, and worked more reliably than the
S8’s iris and facial scanning.
It’s also worth pointing out that the facial recognition technology introduced with the
iPhone X is still being used on today’s iPhone 11.
Whereas the S8’s iris scanning technology was removed beginning with the Galaxy S10.
And I think it’s worth investigating why Samsung has consistently included gimmicky
features in their smartphones that turn out to be useless for most customers and later
removed.
Well, I think the answer is pretty simple.
It’s because Samsung prefers to create products that are easier to market, rather than easier
to use.
And this flawed approach begins in the very early stages of product development.
When Apple’s creating an iPhone, they don’t go to their research and development team
and ask what new technology is available to use.
They always start with the user experience, and explore what could be done to make using
an iPhone even easier and more enjoyable.
From there, Apple carefully chooses new technologies that would enhance the user experience.
Whereas Samsung will happily cram any new technology into a Galaxy phone as possible,
whether or not it makes the device objectively better or more enjoyable for customers.
Because from their perspective, it doesn’t matter what users do with their phones after
the purchase.
All that matters is selling the phone in the first place.
So Samsung users are left to decide which features on their new Galaxy phone are actually
worth using, and which ones aren’t worth the trouble since they were just carelessly
thrown in to try and capture a few extra sales.
Whereas Apple users are never burdened with that responsibility.
They can expect their iPhones to be optimized out of the box with the right combination
of features and technology that produce the most fluid, seamless, and enjoyable user experience
possible.
And I don’t expect Samsung’s reliance on gimmicks to end anytime soon.
One of their most recent smartphones, the $1,400 Galaxy S20 Ultra, features a 100x digital
zoom camera system that’s already been labeled as a gimmick.
And when it comes to the Galaxy Fold, Ron Amadeo from ARS Technia wrote, “During the
initial announcement of the phone, Samsung said the device would be "a powerful smartphone
and a revolutionary tablet," and the Fold is remarkably terrible at being either of
those things.
Samsung may have delayed the phone to put Band-Aids on the show-stopping design problems,
but the overall product still shows a lack of thought and consideration for how actual
people will want to use a device like this.”
So, until Samsung begins caring about their customers more than their marketing department,
I’m sticking with Apple.
Alright guys if you enjoyed my thoughts on Samsung, don’t forget to like and subscribe,
and I’ll see you in the next video.