[iClaudiusX]

Even a brand new, unlocked, $1000 Samsung Galaxy S10 comes riddled with adware and spyware, some of it unremovable:

"There are apps from Flipboard and Spotify as well as a unremovable version of Facebook. McAfee Anti-virus is baked into the operating system as "security," and the Samsung Gallery app wants to share my location with Foursquare. The storage management settings, which is just a simple file-cleanup app, is "Powered by Qihoo 360," a Chinese security company. A caller-ID feature built into the phone app is provided by a company called "Hiya."

Once you run through setup and connect to Wi-Fi, the phone spawns an undismissable "Secure Wi-Fi" notification, which, it turns out, is an ad for McAfee VPN subscription service. I tried blocking the notification—it's not blockable—but it turns out you can open the advertisement, carefully consider subscribing to McAfee VPN, say "No," and then it will go away. Cool."

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/galaxy-s10-review-fo...

[tbrock]

I don't understand why folks subject themselves to this for $1000 when other options are available.

You don’t have to keep supporting Samsung by buying their phones. Get a pixel instead.

[sfifs]

Google branded hardware has a notorious reputation for problems about 1-1.5 year down the road. This has happened with every single Google device anyone in my family has ever owned and so we've basically stopped buying Google. Very few manufacturers apart from Samsung come close to Apple in terms of sheer hardware quality and service support and Apple OS's lack of customisability, pathetic camera and lack of 3.5mm jack completely rules it out for me. That's basically why I have paid a premium for Samsung over the years. I may look at Huawei too now that they appear to have significantly upped the hardware quality game.

Being virtually stock Android, pre-installed software is easily disabled (even FB) - the only major complaint is inability to assign Bixby button to something else without rooting.

[guelo]

I got an S10 because of the headphone jack and sd card slot. I uninstalled or disabled any software I didn't need pretty easily. I find it to be a fantastic phone.

[esalman]

> I don't understand why folks subject themselves to this for $1000 when other options are available.

After my "flagship" HTC10 became unusable within 2 years because of battery issues, I was in the market for a new phone. But I was determined to not spend over $250. I ended up with Nokia 6.1. The only issue with it is that it is just a little slow because it uses snapdragon 435 (I think). However for the same reason it's battery lasts up to 2 days. Other stand-out features are unibody metal design, and Android One (meaning no bloatware). I bought it for only $180 from Best Buy after price match, and sold the HTC for $60 at decluttr.com. I think this is one of the best value purchase I ever made- up there with a Toyota Corolla.

[voltagex_]

If I wanted the best camera in a phone on the market, my choices were the Note 9 (before the Pixel 3, I think) or one of the iPhones. I have enough invested in the Google/Android ecosystem that moving would be painful, plus I'm not a fan of Apple.

[sizzle]

Do Google pixel phones offer an unadulterated, bloatware free Android experience?

[gilrain]

As long as you don’t consider bundled Google apps bloatware, yes.

[frankhorrigan]

Yes, that was always the draw of the Nexus and Pixel lines. "Vanilla Android." Really hope that's still the case, though I've switched back to iPhone for a number of reasons.

[robocat]

FYI I have a Nokia 7+ and it is fairly good for giving a pure Google experience ("Android One"), without being quite so expensive.

Also HMD Global seem to be reliable at giving the security updates OTA.

I haven't looked at the newer Nokia 7.1.

[fletchowns]

It was bad enough with the fucking Bixby button that can't be disabled on my Samsung S8 Active. Hearing about the S10 solidifies that my next phone will absolutely not be a Samsung. Which is a shame since the hardware is otherwise great.

[weq]

Bixby remapper has worked of me since i bought my S8

[dethac]

These criticisms exist because Samsung does not offer first-party solutions to things such as malware detection, location sharing, storage management, caller ID, VPN, music streaming, and news aggregation. It's unclear how exactly these services are being used (Samsung should be more clear on this front) and what parts of it are integrated (Samsung should be more clear here as well).

But, well, put it this way. If Google or Apple had offered first-party solutions to each of those services, would they be criticized for offering bloatware as well? No, probably not. So, is the issue here that the services aren't first-party (Spotify) or that they aren't from traditionally trustworthy sources (McAfee)? If it's the former, why does it matter? If it's the latter, then Samsung should be more clear about the extent of the influence of the other company, which they are not, but that shouldn't necessarily exclude them from collaborating.

Now, there are some key issues that should be criticized. Hard. A persistent notification? It's unforgivable. Facebook? The amount of tracking they can do makes them a threat to the device. It's basically spyware. It can be disabled, sure, but it shouldn't be enabled in the first place (except to enable Gear VR, I guess).

But really, can you trust any major tech company, considering programs like PRISM exist and are in operation? What differentiates Google from Apple when the device is still able to transmit whatever it wants to whoever it wants however it wants? Apple or Google may or may not be tracking some piece of data, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't being collected and tracked by someone. That the companies themselves don't happen to store the data that happens to be the very thing they make their money protecting and using? It's definitely better in that your data isn't being used for the company's profit, but is it really any better for privacy from, say, the government?

[wtracy]

> If Google or Apple had offered first-party solutions to each of those services, would they be criticized for offering bloatware as well?

The tech community seems to assume that software from Apple and Google will be well-thought-out and useful, and will be easy to dismiss if the user doesn't want it. The community seems to assume the opposite of anything from any other hardware company.

Honestly, those assumptions seem correct about 80% of the time.

[DoofusOfDeath]

Thanks for the warning. My Galaxy Note 4 is getting long in the tooth, and I've been considering moving to a new[ish] Galaxy. Now I'm not.

[LeoPanthera]

That's astounding

ly bad