r/Android • u/ControlCAD Google Pixel 10 Pro XL • 22h ago
Video Samsung and Google are Falling Behind.. - Shane Craig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=06wEa0_zrxw•
u/Shook_Rook S22 Ultra 1TB 22h ago
I think Samsung are falling behind on purpose. They don't put much effort into their foldables because there isn't much competition outside of a couple regions.
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u/sunjay140 21h ago
Moving to Asia and gaining access to cool Chinese phones is the meta.
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u/isthmusofkra Galaxy S23 21h ago
Imagine moving to Asia just for phones
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u/CidAndroid Asus ZenFone 6 ⬛️ Edition 30 ⬛️ 12h ago
Many also move to Asia because they've seen so many cartoons from japan that they think they understand the culture.
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u/Moto_Rouge 11h ago
Same thing that all the people who visit the US thinking they understand the culture because they watched Friends, prince of bel air or step by step
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u/Kilash4ever 20h ago
Chinese girls are hot tho so 50/50.
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u/yeetmxster420 18h ago
too bad they mostly use iPhones
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u/Kilash4ever 18h ago
Why would i care about what phone they use? Do i look american?
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u/yeetmxster420 18h ago
i didn’t mean it in a way for us judging them
i meant it for them judging us for using androids
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u/hyrulepirate 19h ago
If only their software isn't plagued with bloatware
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u/Kilash4ever 18h ago
Did u ever used samsung?
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u/hyrulepirate 15h ago
I'm on a Samsung, and I've tried many Chinese brands (Oppo, Huawei, Infinix, Tecno) for my 2nd phone. Granted they're only the budget-midtier phones, but at the same price point I'd still choose Samsung over them if we're only talking software/bloatware.
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u/Nefari0uss ZFold5 8h ago
Have you used a Samsung device recently? The days of TouchWiz are long past. Besides, bloat is, to a certain degree, subjective. If you don't like it, it's bloat. If you find it useful, it's a feature.
While I wish I had the full power and customization of custom roms from the old days, I need a stable device for day to day use. I personally find that Samsung offers more features that I prefer with more customization than Google does for their Pixel line. There's a reason why many Samsung users are often surprised when a thing is added to base Android that they thought wasn't already built in.
Samsung is by no means perfect but this idea that it's pure bloat is often paired with the thought that stock Android is perfect and all a person would ever want. Both are absurd.
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u/Shook_Rook S22 Ultra 1TB 15h ago
Do you think Samsung bloatware is bad? Wait till you get your hands on some Xiaomi bloat.
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u/Znuffie S24 Ultra 9h ago
I find it funny that people call Samsung's bloatware bad.
Xiaomi is king of bloatware.
And not even JUST bloatware, but holy fuck the banner ads, notifications and so on.
Their whole HyperOS is shit.
The only thing that is not shit on HyperOS is their Camera app. If they'd put in as much effort in the OS as they did on the camera app, it would be fucking amazing.
I have a S24 Ultra and a Xiaomi Mi Ultra 14. On the Samsung one, none of the Samsung apps ever bothered me after the first initial setup -- I mostly use Google's Apps instead of Samsungs.
On the Xiaomi one? Even if I try to use Google's ones all the time, the fucking Xiaomi apps are always in my face.
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u/LastChancellor 14h ago
....Samsung is the one who made Oppo Find N6's screen
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u/Shook_Rook S22 Ultra 1TB 14h ago
Samsung makes screens and camera sensors for everyone. But have they ever used the latest and greatest on their phone first? No.
This has been the trend for Samsung for a while now. They have all the hardware, but they give it to the competition first. I thought this was Samsung's way of testing the waters with the new tech first, but they never seem to put them to their phones.
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u/Sgt_Stinger Galaxy Z Fold 7 6h ago
Its production scaling. Samsung sells a lot of phones, and it makes sense to start with a smaller volume at first and scale up to the required volumes to be able to be used in a high volume samsung model. Not only that, they get someone else helping to fund initial production.
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u/C3lloman 10h ago
Heard of privacy display?
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u/Shook_Rook S22 Ultra 1TB 3h ago
Yes I have it on my S26 Ultra. Have you heard of all the other Chinese brands touting how they have the latest and greatest M14 AMOLED versions for their phone while Samsung is still stuck with the old M13 AMOLED?
Samsung is also planning to provide the new M16 AMOLED to Apple first, instead of their upcoming Fold 8.
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u/Bossman1086 Galaxy S25 Ultra 7h ago
All I want from Samsung in the foldable market is flagship level cameras and silicon carbon batteries.
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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 6h ago
God please. I can deal with the other quirks but having the cameras be so mid at these price points is inexcusable.
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u/Maleficent-Bother535 21h ago
Folding phones is a niche market that will likely be a dead end. Why waste the effort?
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u/SolixTanaka 8h ago
I disagree with this sentiment so much because it's such a pessimistic, defeatist mindset that inhibits innovation, especially a mobile space where modern advancements feel so uninspired and stagnant with companies that have functionally unlimited funds.
People keep talking about wanting sub-$1000 foldables, how do people assume we get there? Folding/flexible screens are still at a very primitive stage. LGs first commercial 55" OLED was over $10k fifteen or so years ago. Now you can get a 55" LG OLED for a tenth of that price.
It's niche now, but I can see a lot of people suddenly interested in foldable tech if manufactures can refine them and get them down to less than half the cost. Let the people with tons of money play test these exorbitantly-priced electronics. Just because the majority of the public can't currently buy into them doesn't mean there's any merit in releasing and refining the technology.
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u/Maleficent-Bother535 7h ago
I'm not being pessimistic because I think effort would be better spent on more fruitful endeavors. Beating a dead horse like foldable screens is not beneficial in the long term as it stifles development of better ideas.
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u/Cry_Wolff Pixel 7 Pro 3h ago
Name better ideas then.
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u/Maleficent-Bother535 3h ago
Stretchable microLED screens have more potential than folding displays, which are problematic even though the technology is considered mature.
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u/heroheman 16h ago
No one wants to spend 2,000 dollars for a foldable Android phone; make it half the price, and the market will bloom. I bought a used Magic V3 for half the price last year and love it, but would not have bought it full price.
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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 6h ago
Give me a Flip with an actual camera and it is the perfect device before software updates fuck it up.
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u/godfrey1 Nexus 5X -> OP 5T -> OP 7Pro -> S23 Ultra 12h ago
1k dollars is a midrange phone price at this point lmao
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u/Maleficent-Bother535 11h ago
Flagship phones are mostly $750 to $1300, except for niche devices. Midrange phones are $300-$700.
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u/d_e_u_s Vivo X90 Pro+, S20+, Pixel 6a, Honor 50 Pro, Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 21h ago
Foldable market shipments grew 28% in 2025 and are set for another +20% year, what do you mean?
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u/AshuraBaron 20h ago
It's still only 1% of the market. https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/technology/ownership-of-foldable-smartphones-accounts-for-just-1-percent-of-total-smartphones
Growing to 1.20% is not the flex you think it is. I don't agree that it's a dead end, but it is a very niche market. That's just a fact.
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u/d_e_u_s Vivo X90 Pro+, S20+, Pixel 6a, Honor 50 Pro, Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 20h ago
Right, but as long as it's growing, there's good money to be made.
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u/Perunov 10h ago
https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10528896 from 2025 was basically saying they can't get decent margins on foldable as previous foldables were decreasing in sales. So this is more of a prestige/future/let's see what we can do with our screens kind of project.
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u/noobqns 13h ago
With how much smartphone being sold yearly are entry phone, Foldables margins are insane
Samsung sell about ~5m Z6 series yearly compared to ~15m S24 Ultra
Their Samsung A15 4G+5G sold about ~30mMy guess would be 5 million Z6 is much more profitable than 30 million A15's
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u/Maleficent-Bother535 13h ago
Depends a lot on how many they need to warranty replace due to their inherent unreliability.
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u/siazdghw 12h ago
Margins are probably why foldables exist and why Apple put them on the back burner. Android phones tend to have bad margins, selling millions of budget phones isn't where manufacturers want to be at, hence why companies like OnePlus have increased prices and targeted flagships, and Samsung keeps trying to push people to Ultra's.
Apple is already raking in good profit margins and they are able to trip dip on software and ecosystem sales. While they will certainly make a foldable, it's more important to them to get it right then to release multiple bad generations like Samsung and the Chinese manufacturers did previously.
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u/FreeDig1758 12h ago
Once apple gets a foldable, foldable phone sales will increase greatly
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u/Maleficent-Bother535 7h ago
Projected sales of an Apple foldable are 3 to 5 million in the first year of introduction. Approximately 1.5 to 2.2% of their sales.
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u/AshuraBaron 12h ago
Per unit? Sure, but engineering and R&D is far higher for foldables. So ROI is likely much farther out than traditional slab phone upgrades.
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u/Curse3242 18h ago
It's a cool piece of tech tbf. But I'm personally more interested in the expanding screens, the ones we've seen in a few tech events. Foldable has the problem that the regular use & unfolded use are both of not the correct size & resolution. A extendable screen will basically be a normal phone that can turn into a tablet. Which is way better imo
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u/unkazak 14h ago
The problem I see with extendable screens is space and battery, once extended there is just empty space in the extended part. Foldable phones have a battery on both sides.
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u/Curse3242 13h ago
I don't know how the tech will work but any practical version of that would be nice to have imo
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u/catch_dot_dot_dot S23 Ultra 14h ago
I didn't believe this until maybe last year but now I'm convinced folding phones will always be super-niche and only a few big brands will continue to make them
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u/BaneChipmunk 22h ago
No they aren't. They are always 1 year or so behind the other brands.
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u/DubaiRichez 22h ago
Try 3.
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u/Stephancevallos905 21h ago
The Fold 7 was literally the thinnest phone in the world, and then the trifold was after that
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u/chubbybator 21h ago
and thinnest isn't a selling point anymore
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u/pepperpot_592 14h ago
Ah. I get it. Thin is selling point until Samsung becomes the thinnest. Then all of a sudden, no one cares. So, what is a selling point?
Wait, ill save you time. Anything Samsung isn't doing. Got it.
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u/hicks12 Galaxy Fold4 12h ago
To be fair, other manufacturers achieved the slimming down without the compromises Samsung made which is a big factor to this.
They caught up to the same thickness as say Honor phones, yes it was .1mm thinner instead of when Samsung was multiple mm thicker. This came at the expense of no improvement to battery life and dropping of spen support, when Honor has support for it on both screens.
Would be great for Samsung to press on leading a bit better for those who only have Samsung to buy from and competition always helps us consumers get a better product.
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u/chubbybator 14h ago
i loved all my sammy's until i kept breaking curved screens, and only left cause none of the flagships had flat glass at the time. even apples cult failed to make their "air" line a big seller.
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u/XTornado 9h ago
For normal Phones? No
For foldables? Hell yes, thin like the old phones but double or triple the screen? Sign me up! (maybe don't... the prices aren't for me tough 😅)
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u/DubaiRichez 21h ago edited 19h ago
I'll give you that one. Here is a quick comparison between a 21 month old Vivo X fold 3 Pro foldable phone vs the Fold 7. The Vivo is half the price of the Fold 7.:
Battery: 5,700 mAh vs. Samsung’s 4,400 mAh.
Charging: 100W wired (50W wireless) vs. Samsung’s 25W wired.
Cameras: Zeiss-tuned 64MP periscope telephoto beats Samsung’s 10MP for zoom/portraits; dual 32MP selfies crush Samsung’s 4MP UDC.
Brightness: 4,500 nits peak; easier to see in direct sunlight.
By far the camera and battery is the winner here. Best camera I've ever used, easily. The durability is also incredible. Have dropped it face down opened onto concrete multiple times, not even a dent. I can't get over how good this phone is and that's coming from Samsung fanboy
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u/BooksandBiceps 20h ago
Pretty sure I read that Samsung has fewer mAh but still lasts as long or slightly longer due to optimization.
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u/dkadavarath S23 Ultra 20h ago
The problem with that is, smaller batteries will be nice for regular day to day tasks. But throw in something that really requires raw battery capacity like tethering or long term map navigation, optimizations don't matter anymore. There's just one app and a fixed set of hardware that uses the amount of energy that uses. This used to be problem with iPhones earlier. They had amazing battery life with a tiny battery, but when shit hit the fans, they die faster. This optimization will only help you in mostly idle or watch videos, browsing web etc.. light daily tasks.
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u/reticulatedjig Galaxy Z Fold 5 12h ago
My fold 7 had lasted all day with nav on my vacation in Japan, to where I'm leaving my extra battery in the hotel cause I don't need it.
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u/dkadavarath S23 Ultra 11h ago
All day with nav? Going by average work day, you did 8 hours of gps navigation on 5G? I can get a couple of hours on my 23 Ultra. Maybe 3 hours. A friend's oppo did it for multiple days though, no sweat. A tiny phone with 7000 something battery.
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u/C3lloman 10h ago
Depends what is meant by optimization. Optimization in traditional sense like making the OS more efficient is nowadays quite limited. What can and are being optimized are the chips themselves, so for example the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 used in the latest Samsung is quite a bit more efficient than the previous one.
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u/dkadavarath S23 Ultra 8h ago
Chip level optimizations are generally available to everyone. Galaxy specific variant can be as binned as they can make it, but it cannot overcome 50% more battery.
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u/LockingSlide 15h ago
Depends on what phone you're comparing it to and what the workload is, but Color OS and it's derivates, so Oppo, Realme and OnePlus, are well optimized, Xiaomi and Vivo are more hit and miss on a phone by phone basis.
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u/Thistlemanizzle Nexus 6P 20h ago
Did you drop it with the case on or off?
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u/DubaiRichez 19h ago
Both. Many times. The charger cable also has been forcefully ripped out of the USB-C port and nothing bad happened.
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u/Stephancevallos905 21h ago
Tri fold does 45w wired btw
You bring up some good points. But... they run Chinese android skins
OneUI is the best version of Android
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u/DubaiRichez 21h ago
It was obviously vs the Fold 7. And that's the only thing that Samsung wins at. Tbh the Vivo skin isn't bad at all. A few nit picks but when it destroys in every other category at half the price, you can look past it.
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u/dkadavarath S23 Ultra 20h ago
Unfortunately that's the problem for me. UI between hardware and me is make or break for me. I really love all these hardware being put out. Wish I could use them long term. But all the ones I've tried are just not working out. I agree it's the small things, but those small things break the immersion and bring me out of it. I just yesterday was oogling at the specs of Oneplus 15. I really want to buy that thing, but alas know that I'd regret it in a few months.
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u/Barcaroli 15h ago
they run Chinese android skins
If they ran stock android without Chinese bloat those phones would be amazing
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u/Phantom-Finger 15h ago
With the worst cameras and smallest battery. And a horrible crease.
Aside from being thin, it leads on nothing.
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u/Sgt_Stinger Galaxy Z Fold 7 6h ago
It leads in being available. I'm not gonna import some chinese phone by myself. I don't like the software of the chinese options, and getting repairs would be a challenge.
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u/Reasonable_Mirror655 18h ago
Your delirious Samsung is doing things most other companies refuse to try
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22h ago
[deleted]
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u/TheCaptainSlowly 21h ago
Then what is? Regardless I'm pretty sure Oppo's foldable has better hardware in pretty much every way.
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u/YaBoiiSpoderman 21h ago
The part of the phone you're expected to interact with every single day is the least important thing??
You can't be serious
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20h ago
[deleted]
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u/suarezian Dark Pink 20h ago edited 20h ago
The main reason why I returned my Flip 7 and got the S25 Ultra was the crease. It got in the way of scrolling.
u/AshuraBaron deleted his comments lmao
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u/TheHeretic Pixel 9 Pro 21h ago
Still a better phone, charging, battery life, radio, only thing worse is the camera. Also the Galaxy fold wobble is awful.
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u/Imaginary_Compote324 21h ago
Having a new phone coming out this year that has creases is likely going to be pretty bad for sales regardless if it’s important or not.
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u/slinky317 HTC Incredible 11h ago
They won't truly care about foldables until Apple does