Samsung is making reasonably good smartphones and it manages to stay relevant in the market, regardless of fierce competition from Apple and other device manufacturers at Far East. Samsung has a lot of contributions in making the Android smartphone market like what it is today. In fact, some of the iPhone design elements could be seen as a response to what Samsung has introduced with their earlier devices. Samsung devices are decent in terms of innovation, design and hardware performance. It’s a leading brand in the Android market, but there are improvements that Samsung should implement to make its devices stay relevant. While you’re here, check out some cool Android apps for runners at runnerclick.com.
Optimize hardware specifications: Samsung devices are known for their great specs, especially for upper mid-range and high-end models. However, the same thing can’t be said for affordable mid-range and low-end devices. For around $200, you get a Samsung device with very mediocre hardware specs. Other manufacturers could offer better display, processor and RAM in the same price category. Unfortunately, TouchWiz sucks out a lot of RAM, so it will cause performance issues on devices with 2GB of RAM or less. This has prompted many users to run stock Android OS to regain lost performance.
Eliminate bloatware: Bloatware is a piece of software that no one or very few people ever use. Samsung devices come with plenty of pre-installed apps and most of them are pretty much useless for average phone users. Samsung Galaxy S6 is infamous for having 56 apps pre-installed, including popular instant messaging and social media apps. In reality, not everyone uses social media and instant messaging. They will eat up internal storage space and when running on the background, they will slow down the smartphone.
Improve user interface: TouchWiz UI was originally an excellent skin to improve the interface of older Android versions. But with time, Android has improved and since the Lollipop, Android actually has more fluid interface. As Google is working on future Android versions, the overall experience with TouchWiz is rather mediocre, despite recent revamps. Samsung should work harder to improve the interface, instead of using the same design over and over. In fact, Xiaomi is doing better with its smoother interface and they don’t sideload Google apps clones.
Improve phone design: Samsung S9 and S9 Plus are beautiful-looking devices. However, other phone manufacturers have copied the traditional Samsung designs, since years ago. Mid-range devices have mostly similar design and look quite the same, especially if you see the A-series and J-series. The biggest differences are just screen size, material quality and internal hardware configuration.
Release more updates: Compared to Apple, Samsung appears to be careless about releasing software updates. Software updates are often released for flagship models and rarely for mid-range devices. If you have a budget Samsung Android smartphone, then you are screwed. Samsung doesn’t consider that it’s worth the effort to fully support their cheaper devices. As comparison, Xiaomi and OnePlus are known for their speedy software updates. When asked why it takes a long time for them to update their devices, Samsung always says that they must customize the operating system. It’s kind of a lame excuse, because Xiaomi also uses heavily modified UI, that runs better than TouchWiz. If you plan to buy a low-end device and want to get regular updates, then you should get a device from other manufacturers.
In many cases, Samsung smartphones have improved, but there are still rooms for improvement. With the fierce competition from Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo, Samsung will need to work harder to continue leading the Android market. You can pick up some great Samsung phones at great price over at Fonehouse.
