Samsung's Android

[Morq]

So I enjoy s7 for about a month now and I wonder why not a single review i read ( and I read quite a few) mentioned in what state Samsungs take on Android 6 is.
It took me few days to notice some of the problems it may have, are the reviewers nowadays not test phones at all but just spit out a wall of text or its just me being unlucky?
Starting with - I have a Nexus 6 with stock android, and using S7 I can see how really samsung screwed android.

One by one comparison:

Stock: When changing volume you can turn on silent mode
Samsung: Nop

Stock: You can turn silent mode, change how long it will work and stuff, with few easy to reach button presses.
Samsung: Turning silent mode options crashes it. Required cache wiping to fix, although some people reported it not helping them. - Seriously, a new, top notch, flagship requiring cache wipe out of the box to have its features working bug free? Also it does not let you change stuff hassle-free. You can only setup 'silent hours', but I did not manage to find option to silence the phone for an hour for instance.

Stock: If you woke up and have alarm coming soon you can dismiss it instantly with single click. This will disable only >incoming alert< while keeping it on for another time. (So for instance if you woke up at 6:55 with alarm at 7, you can disable it, it will not ring at 7 this day but will on any other day)
Samsung: Nop, no option for that, you have to disable alarm entirely.

Samsung only oditites that never happened with Stock Android:
Samsung: half of my wallpaper disappeared yesterday for no reason o.o

Despite having auto brightness and color settings off, screen still changes brightness/contrast when light level change around it. Odd.

Constant harassement from 'Screen overlay detected'.

It does not scan for folders correctly, I need to manually put an image to a folder for it to register and be visible, in google photo auto backup options for instance.
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=azNSTFJHOS1lalpUMk9ZRkwtenZCVnJZWTFJM2JR

I know those are little things, but when you pay what you do (and for me, living in Poland, it's even worse than most of you - it's +20% tax and much smaller salary than average Joe from USA) you would expect everything to shine and work out of a box, it should embrace all the goodies android gives, but instead you get some sick underdeveloped phone that stands out only with the camera, nothing else. What is more - why not a single reviewer mentioned them? It was just full of praise and technical detail without anyone really focusing on the damn system itself.

Ah ya and the camera - as much as I enjoy it, I would love to have access to stock camera, mostly due to HDR+ mode, which gives amazing photos on N6, should be even better on S7.

 

[chanchan05]

1. Long pressing the volume keys can set the phone to vibrate. Silent mode is also available on the dropdown menu. Just tap the sound icon once for vibrate, another for silent.

2. Probably just your phone. No problems on mine that needs cache reset or whatever. What you want kinda sounds like the Shush app.

3. Sounds convenient. Will I be using it? Probably not. I've been using Samsung for years and never thought of going to alarm and disabling it if I woke up early. I tend to forget it. I just swipe it off when it rings. I do use Timely nowadays for my alarm clock since Samsung removed the Smart Wake option and replaced it with a gradually increasing volume. Timely does have that. I noticed it appears on the notification bar saying that it has an upcoming alarm, would I like to dismiss it.

Little things yes, probably why the reviewers didn't mention them and they know you can get an app for it. Would the lack of such features deter me from buying an S7? No. Basically most reviewers probably didn't mention it because in general, it's not likely going to have any big impact on the sales of the phone. There is also a difference between what you expect a phone to have, and what others do. Or the manufacturers or the software engineers.

That's the whole point of Android, choice. You can choose to use what you want.

 

[Morq]

1. Long pressing the volume keys can set the phone to vibrate. Silent mode is also available on the dropdown menu. Just tap the sound icon once for vibrate, another for silent.

2. Probably just your phone. No problems on mine that needs cache reset or whatever. What you want kinda sounds like the Shush app.

3. Sounds convenient. Will I be using it? Probably not. I've been using Samsung for years and never thought of going to alarm and disabling it if I woke up early. I tend to forget it. I just swipe it off when it rings. I do use Timely nowadays for my alarm clock since Samsung removed the Smart Wake option and replaced it with a gradually increasing volume. Timely does have that. I noticed it appears on the notification bar saying that it has an upcoming alarm, would I like to dismiss it.

Little things yes, probably why the reviewers didn't mention them and they know you can get an app for it. Would the lack of such features deter me from buying an S7? No. Basically most reviewers probably didn't mention it because in general, it's not likely going to have any big impact on the sales of the phone. There is also a difference between what you expect a phone to have, and what others do. Or the manufacturers or the software engineers.

That's the whole point of Android, choice. You can choose to use what you want.

I'll make longer reply when I'm back home, but there is one point I would like to address now - android is about choice you say, but it is not true. There is no choice, you can choose manufacturer and be with their vision of android but there is little you can change once you have made the pick. If I want stock android on Samsung I can do it, but I will loose features, I guess I could install Samsung's android somehow but again it would be very flawed.
The only way to choose android and have a working os is to go with manufacturer you like most, that's hardly a choice and one of few flaws of the Android. Not to mention you will void your warrant by doing so - such Pro choice policy.
Ofc you can install skins and stuff but that's just looks, I'm about functionality and features.
Not everything can be fixed with apps - for instance, there is no way to have a hdr+ mode from stock camera on my Samsung nor any other camera app providers that one particular mode for me. And no its not what hdr does, hdr+ is a amazing heavy image processing thing developed by Google that can really make wonders with medicare cameras, like N6 ones, and I would just love to see how it works with decent cameras like those or S7.

 

[chanchan05]

I'll make longer reply when I'm back home, but there is one point I would like to address now - android is about choice you say, but it is not true. There is no choice, you can choose manufacturer and be with their vision of android but there is little you can change once you have made the pick. If I want stock android on Samsung I can do it, but I will loose features, I guess I could install Samsung's android somehow but again it would be very flawed.
The only way to choose android and have a working os is to go with manufacturer you like most, that's hardly a choice and one of few flaws of the Android. Not to mention you will void your warrant by doing so - such Pro choice policy.
Ofc you can install skins and stuff but that's just looks, I'm about functionality and features.
Not everything can be fixed with apps - for instance, there is no way to have a hdr+ mode from stock camera on my Samsung nor any other camera app providers that one particular mode for me. And no its not what hdr does, hdr+ is a amazing heavy image processing thing developed by Google that can really make wonders with medicare cameras, like N6 ones, and I would just love to see how it works with decent cameras like those or S7.

Yes you do have a choice, but as an end user your choices are limited. A programmer has a lot more. You can always root the phone to get what you want. There are several camera apps on the Play Store with a lot of functionality that trumps even the features of both Samsung and Nexus cameras (Camera FV has a long list of features). And you can bring features that aren't on regular Android. That's why the root community is there, with their various Xposed modules.

 

[Not Quite Right]

You can download the Stock Google Clock at the play store & the Stock Camera apk can be downloaded and sideloaded without a problem. Uh whats the problem again?

 

[chanchan05]

You can download the Stock Google Clock at the play store & the Stock Camera apk can be downloaded and sideloaded without a problem. Uh whats the problem again?

Oooh. I didn't know there was a lollipop camera apk available.

And just checked the Google clock app. It did have dismiss feature the OP wanted. But Timely is still better. But I liked how the Google clock looked. But the Samsung app looked better still. Simpler.

 

[Morq]

Thanks guys for all the replies, I like that we got the discussion rolling. I also understand most of us here on the forum are Samsung fans (it is S7 subforum after all d'oh), I also am not entirely hating the phone - I do like it, however I also notice things Samsung has messed up with their android and that are not that easy to fix up (also might help me find replacement apps that actually work). Before I address topics raised quick sidenote - my finger scanner button just got a nasty scratch, no idea where from... sigh
I have also updated all the problems I have with its android so far in the first post.

Also one more thing to show that Samsung does not really have their **** together when it comes for android, to the list I postead above I would add that I get harrased by 'screen overly detected'(check link below) whenever I install some app (today had it from Chrome and some Camera app). Something I have >never had< in my nexuses. I have to disable facebook messanger's ability to stay on top of screen to be able to install and use some applications. Quick google shows I am not the only one. Guess something to do with Samsung's incompetence, TouchWiz and new permission model.
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=bjNJdWV2UjktOEdPSjh1OWVaSDFQVVZQd21WSmFB


Chanchan5:
@Silencing the phone:
yes I know of this, it's just slower than it is in stock android which requires much less clicking. My point here is, why do Samsung reinvents wheel (And fails to do so better than stock), when it is already well-integrated into android? Guess it actually required work on Samsungs side to make it less appealing..

@Needing to wipe-cache to get settings working:
Unfortunately this is not my issue only, I am glad you have it working, I am also somewhat lucky to have it fixed easily with quick cache wipe, unfortunately some people are not as lucky. Quick google search on 'samsung s7 do not distrub setting crash' gives 47000 hits and lots of people complaining on not being able to fix it. I do my homework well most of the time before getting all salty and complainy. My point here being that Samsung did not release ready version of android together with newest Smartphone and I am really surprised noone else noticed anything during their reviews.

@Convininent alarms:
Aye it is very convinient for me as I am one of the people who need 10 alarms 5 minutes aparat to have any chance of waking up. I usualy wake up around 3-4 so being able to swipe them away was very useful. This issue however is fixed thanks to Not Quite Right, so writing all that wasn't really time wasted as I at least got that functionality up and running

@About having a choice:
Still a lot of choices are limited, even for programmers. Look at camera for instance, camera is huge thing for me (that's why I have decided to pick up S7 after all), I know all of the major camera apps out there, however S7s camera pro mode has basically everything that FV got but in a neater package, also it has better access to the hardware and does stuff faster. Fact is S7 camera is so good it does really great job 9/10 times on auto, that one time requiring pro mode. However Nexuses had HDR+ mode, there's even an article about math involved in that mode, but surprice - it is nowhere to be found but Nexuses. I even downloaded newest camera apk as Not Quite Right suggested and guess what? It is not there, I have the very same app on my N6 and there is HDR+ button on top, yet it is nowhere to be found at S7 and I have no idea why. And with this, I am unable to test the feature which could be really amazing (if it turns somewhat mediocre N6 camera into solid thing even in low light then I can only imagine what it could do with S7s optics).
Rooting the phone is not giving you a choice in my opinion - having to root the phone to get the features is something that in my opinion actually limits your options. Loosing warrant when doing so, limits even more.
I am well aware of xposed, as I said I do have N6 and I did quite a bit of fiddling with it.


Not Quite Right:
Big cheers for the Stock Google Clock, it does what I wanted Unfortunately Stock Camera apk doesn't do anything for me as explained above.

 

[chanchan05]

Do you have a SnapDragon or Exynos? It's weird. I have multiple overlays active (Twilight, Facebook, Floatify), and none of them block installs. Well Twlight does but there's a setting toggle to allow for that since it's a known issue.

1. I guess it's a culture thing. Asians, like the people designing Samsung in Korea, prefer to put stuff in vibrate rather than silence. At least based on experience. Many Asian designed devices from China put vibrate at easier to reach than full silence. A long press of the volume key is faster than most ways to get to vibrate. Going silence is harder though.

.
2. 47000 cases vs 40million sold. That's actually an excellent ratio. When you produce 40million of something, there's bound to be a few hundred thousand lemons.

3. That boils down to no phone is perfect. Samsung felt their own HDR is enough, but you prefer the Nexus HDR.

 

[Morq]

Every phone is different, but what Samsung did is plainly stupid. Even besides not having features stock have (hdr+, better ergonomics), it seems they actually put effort into breaking the android. Every single thing I pointed out here works flawless on stock android, yet is more or less broken on samsung.
Makes me wonder if they employ person whose only job is to reinvent features in a way they are worse or/and broken compared to stock..

 

[chanchan05]

I think the problem here is you seem to think that the apps Google makes for their devices go hand in hand with the OS. They do not. The Google Clock app and the Camera are not part of the OS. They are separate stand alone apps which happen to be just something Google also made. Samsung does not necessarily receive an Android copy replete with all the stock Google apps. There's a reason why only Nexus devices have HDR+ and it could simply be because it was not made available outside Google. You yourself said that HDR+ can only be found on Nexus. Wouldn't you think LG or HTC, or even Huawei would take advantage of it if it was available to them? The most likely answer is that Google did not make the feature part of Android itself, but rather just their own camera app, which is not necessarily given to the manufacturers as well.

The apps are not part of Android. Whether or not they are given to the manufacturers as well is questionable, but based on evidence, it appears they are not. So basically any new feature Google puts on their apps do not necessarily mean it's going to all Android phones.

 

[Golfdriver97]

I have a Note 5, not an S7. What I hate with a passion is the fact that Samsung sets a default when you choose an action. There is no Just Once/Always option. True, there is an app called Better Open with in Play, that gives you a choice again, but the way Samsung did it is just plain stupid.

 

[chanchan05]

I have a Note 5, not an S7. What I hate with a passion is the fact that Samsung sets a default when you choose an action. There is no Just Once/Always option. True, there is an app called Better Open with in Play, that gives you a choice again, but the way Samsung did it is just plain stupid.

Now this is an actual OS complaint and not an app problem. No idea honestly how to send them feedback properly.

Then again though, I'm one of those people not bothered by this.

 

[cdigga101]

The ota June update for international 930F now has the just once or always options for setting defaults. Settings-applications-default applications-default app selection, then select ask before setting default apps.

 

[mayconvert]

touchwiz and all of the added features and function provided by samsung, to me, are awesome,
When I use raw android, im like, what? I can change that? WHat? there is no setting for that ?
Touchwiz is awesome. Sell it and get a 6P. Personally I can't stand boring vanilla android. I will take a samsung phone Any day over a nexus.

 

[Alanhd]

One point bugs me from your earlier post, you say android on the S7 is not about choice, your stuck with what Samsung wants to give you. This is true about any OS. You might like other choices better but unless you Root and rewrite your still stuck with it.