[corvette72778]

Enough said. I don't see myself ever buying another Samsung again. I've upgraded every year to a Samsung (excluding 2015 S6/Note 5 year). I'll be keeping my Note 20 Ultra for a very long time it seems like. Good thing I got the 512GB. At the time I thought it was stupid to pay extra when I upgrade every year anyways. Looking back it's looking like a brilliant choice.

R.I.P Samsung.

[GrooveRite]

Yeah my brother told me it had no sd card. I told him, try and pick up an N20U quick!!!!!

[fuzzylumpkin]

It is probably frustrating if you use this stuff, but it does kinda feel similar to complaining that your new LG G1 OLED TV doesn't have a built in VCR or any SCART sockets...

If you don't want Samsung phones anymore that's fine. But I doubt you'll find micro SD or MST elsewhere, either.

[buzzy3970]

LG Pay uses MST. Obviously the bank support isn't a widely as Samsung pay, but it's kinda odd for them to spend so much money buying the technology only for them to dump it a few years later.

It is probably frustrating if you use this stuff, but it does kinda feel similar to complaining that your new LG G1 OLED TV doesn't have a built in VCR or any SCART sockets...

If you don't want Samsung phones anymore that's fine. But I doubt you'll find micro SD or MST elsewhere, either.

[donm527]

Yeah my brother told me it had no sd card. I told him, try and pick up an N20U quick!!!!!

MST was he best when I bought my Note 8 and was the reason Samsung Pay worked so well where NFC was still lacking everywhere so was my go to pay method.

Now I use Google Pay as my primary for over last year. NFC is now is everywhere but once in a rare while when it’s not working, I quickly swipe up having SP on standby and MST comes through.

Understandable but too bad. If I get a Sammy in the future I won’t even use SP.

gone with the removeable battery, headphone jack, SD card slot and IR blaster.

[corvette72778]

MST was he best when I bought my Note 8 and was the reason Samsung Pay worked so well where NFC was still lacking everywhere so was my go to pay method.

Now I use Google Pay as my primary for over last year. NFC is now is everywhere but once in a rare while when it’s not working, I quickly swipe up having SP on standby and MST comes through.

Understandable but too bad. If I get a Sammy in the future I won’t even use SP.

gone with the removeable battery, headphone jack, SD card slot and IR blaster.

The post office and MANY other places don't have NFC terminals.

[me just saying]

there are several nfc terminals in my area that tends to have issues so when nfc fails, mst don't. I guess I will keep my note 10+ a bit longer than planned. Then when I got to get a new phone, I will switch to google pay. no reason for samsung to keep track of payment history since google already does.

This time around samsung really did a number on the phones, no charger, no mst, less ram, no sdcard slot and more.

[J Dubbs]

there are several nfc terminals in my area that tends to have issues so when nfc fails, mst don't. I guess I will keep my note 10+ a bit longer than planned. Then when I got to get a new phone, I will switch to google pay. no reason for samsung to keep track of payment history since google already does.

This time around samsung really did a number on the phones, no charger, no mst, less ram, no sdcard slot and more.

Samsucks... and I'm not sure why people keep spending a mortgage payment on their flagship phones Isn't there better ways that money could be spent? Especially with the current economic problems happening around the world right now?

[fuzzylumpkin]

there are several nfc terminals in my area that tends to have issues so when nfc fails, mst don't. I guess I will keep my note 10+ a bit longer than planned. Then when I got to get a new phone, I will switch to google pay. no reason for samsung to keep track of payment history since google already does.

This time around samsung really did a number on the phones, no charger, no mst, less ram, no sdcard slot and more.

The RAM and storage choices have been weird for a couple of years... Remember being able to get a terabyte on the S10+?

But it's just the S21 plus with lower RAM, the ultra is 12 or 16. 12 is double what's in my S10e, so it's a big upgrade.

[criminal_bg]

some people might say internal storage and cloud storage is good enough but some of jus still like having memory cards, i have had phones fail completely with no way to recover information from it, so i never rely only on internal storage. thus why i mus has expandable storage as an option, thats why i never went for a Pixel phone, as good as the pictures are with it.
so if this is the way samsung will be moving, then its gonna be sad, having to switch to a diff brand. hmm, might have to get that Note 20 Ultra, something tells me samsung gon pull that same no sd card stunt for the Note 21, sigh

[buzzy3970]

That's what's some are failing to realize. Nfc is unreliable in some places. Case in point there's this T-Mobile store I go to where they use their ipads to take mobile payments. I've heard on more than one occasion of customers complaining about Apple pay not working with the nfc system on the mobile payment device, but anytime I'm in there I pay on the same system using Samsung pay with no issue. Also love being able to use my phone at drive thru atms that don't have nfc(which does seem to be less now). I've been coaching myself to be ok with the removal of the sd card slot, but this is a bigger blow. One that now makes me question my usual upgrade to both the S series and Note series. I may just end up keeping my S20 Ultra wait to see what the fold 3 and note will have in store.

there are several nfc terminals in my area that tends to have issues so when nfc fails, mst don't. I guess I will keep my note 10+ a bit longer than planned. Then when I got to get a new phone, I will switch to google pay. no reason for samsung to keep track of payment history since google already does.

This time around samsung really did a number on the phones, no charger, no mst, less ram, no sdcard slot and more.

[Gary02468]

If manufacturers catered to every slow-to-adapt customer who insists on keeping obsolete features for new devices, we'd have floppy drives on all our phones. Features cost money to develop and manufacture and maintain, and they take up space, so old features have to be abandoned in order to free up resources for new ones. The vast majority of customers are ok with Samsung's engineering tradeoffs, and those who aren't can of course stay with their older devices, or find other products that are better suited to their needs.

[fuzzylumpkin]

If manufacturers catered to every slow-to-adapt customer who insists on keeping obsolete features for new devices, we'd have floppy drives on all our phones. Features cost money to develop and manufacture and maintain, and they take up space, so old features have to be abandoned in order to free up resources for new ones. The vast majority of customers are ok with Samsung's engineering tradeoffs, and those who aren't can of course stay with their older devices, or find other products that are better suited to their needs.

MST actually uses similar technology to floppy disc drives...

And the thing is, it's useful in exactly one market. Magnetic stripes became obsolete in the UK in 2003. It should be unacceptable for any shop to only accept payment through a 60 year old technology that has been obsolete for nearly 2 decades in most of the world.

[buzzy3970]

Antiquated or not Samsung just shot themselves in the foot once again since there's nothing unique now that separates them from other payment systems. With google pay new reward features it's making more and more sense to transition to them where it's not phone dependent. This is the saddest I've been with a galaxy launch in years.

[criminal_bg]

If manufacturers catered to every slow-to-adapt customer who insists on keeping obsolete features for new devices, we'd have floppy drives on all our phones. Features cost money to develop and manufacture and maintain, and they take up space, so old features have to be abandoned in order to free up resources for new ones. The vast majority of customers are ok with Samsung's engineering tradeoffs, and those who aren't can of course stay with their older devices, or find other products that are better suited to their needs.

you mus be referring to the payment stuff, bcuz no way an sd card for expandable storage is considered obsolete stuff. these companies think they doing good but in actual fact they are jus losing customers. but every person have their own choice to make.

[corvette72778]

MST was he best when I bought my Note 8 and was the reason Samsung Pay worked so well where NFC was still lacking everywhere so was my go to pay method.

Now I use Google Pay as my primary for over last year. NFC is now is everywhere but once in a rare while when it’s not working, I quickly swipe up having SP on standby and MST comes through.

Understandable but too bad. If I get a Sammy in the future I won’t even use SP.

gone with the removeable battery, headphone jack, SD card slot and IR blaster.

NFC isn't everywhere

[corvette72778]

If manufacturers catered to every slow-to-adapt customer who insists on keeping obsolete features for new devices, we'd have floppy drives on all our phones. Features cost money to develop and manufacture and maintain, and they take up space, so old features have to be abandoned in order to free up resources for new ones. The vast majority of customers are ok with Samsung's engineering tradeoffs, and those who aren't can of course stay with their older devices, or find other products that are better suited to their needs.

It's not about slow to adapt consumers. Consumers use what works best. In the case of wireless payments, NFC doesn't work at a lot of places but MST works at 99.9% of places. MST is better.

This is just a case of Samsung cutting costs to offset the very high cost of of 5G. All manufacturers are cost cutting in response to Qualcomms pricing for 5G particularly the high end chips.

Now if you want to make the argument that a lot of naive customers don't use wiress payments you can. But MST works better than NFC.

[buzzy3970]

Exactly and some places that do have NFC enabled machines don't have the feature enabled.

NFC isn't everywhere

[fuzzylumpkin]

Antiquated or not Samsung just shot themselves in the foot once again since there's nothing unique now that separates them from other payment systems. With google pay new reward features it's making more and more sense to transition to them where it's not phone dependent. This is the saddest I've been with a galaxy launch in years.

I'm not sure they shot themselves in the foot... It's big news in an Android forum full of tech heads, but I wonder if Jo Public actually gives a damn.

Don't forget, Samsung knows exactly how many people use MST and how often they use it. If it was actually the killer app you think, it would still be there.

[buzzy3970]

They don't always know what consumers want or use. Let's not forget the note 5 and S6 series clear indication that they've been known to back peddle, but I won't continue to cry about all the things they've removed on this model. Will just keep looking and see if I still want to give them my business or start investing in another ecosystem.

I'm not sure they shot themselves in the foot... It's big news in an Android forum full of tech heads, but I wonder if Jo Public actually gives a damn.

Don't forget, Samsung knows exactly how many people use MST and how often they use it. If it was actually the killer app you think, it would still be there.

[Nakrohtap]

First, it was the removable batteries, then the IR blaster, now it's the MST.
While losing features sucks, they are catering to the masses. NFC is more widespread and "nearly" everywhere. Some people won't like it. But, they will still sell lots of phones.

[Gary02468]

NFC isn't everywhere

Of course. State-of-the-art devices often depend on up-to-date infrastructure, so those devices may not yet be appropriate for customers who don't have the infrastructure yet. When Samsung first offered MST a few years ago, I found it very useful and entertaining; it was one of the best features of my phone and watch. But it's now been about a year since the last time I needed to use it anywhere.

no way an sd card for expandable storage is considered obsolete stuff

It is. The new approach is to depend on 5G speed and cloud storage, using on-board memory as only a cache. Again, the needed infrastructure isn't everywhere yet, but the leading-edge devices rely on it already.

[me just saying]

If manufacturers catered to every slow-to-adapt customer who insists on keeping obsolete features for new devices, we'd have floppy drives on all our phones. Features cost money to develop and manufacture and maintain, and they take up space, so old features have to be abandoned in order to free up resources for new ones. The vast majority of customers are ok with Samsung's engineering tradeoffs, and those who aren't can of course stay with their older devices, or find other products that are better suited to their needs.

usually the newer tech is backwards compatible or provide the same feature/service. for example, you talked about floppies, Storage was never eliminated like mst.

[me just saying]

I was at a Loves truck stop a little while ago picking up some snacks, try paying using nfc (watch) but kept getting an error that said wrong pin number. It did not evern ask for a pin. Had to pull the phone and use mst. For my usage, mst is more reliable than nfc. nfc fumbles a lot.

[corvette72778]

Of course. State-of-the-art devices often depend on up-to-date infrastructure, so those devices may not yet be appropriate for customers who don't have the infrastructure yet. When Samsung first offered MST a few years ago, I found it very useful and entertaining; it was one of the best features of my phone and watch. But it's now been about a year since the last time I needed to use it anywhere.


It is. The new approach is to depend on 5G speed and cloud storage, using on-board memory as only a cache. Again, the needed infrastructure isn't everywhere yet, but the leading-edge devices rely on it already.

NFC is everywhere in an ideal world
NFC is not everywhere in the real world. Go to your local post office and see for yourself. Too many examples of NFC not widespread.

Cloud storage is dependant upon internet speed which may not be good in a lot of places. Either way there is longer access time vs local access.
Cloud storage has a recurring subscription cost to it. Kind of annoying especially when you have over 500GB. Amazon and other cloud services are making a fortune off of this.