Samsung's tricksy midrange teasers want your flagship catch

Samsung has shown a muscular response to the mortal threat of cheap Chinese rivals and long phone replacement cycles by packing its mid-tier phones with the exotic novelties of much pricier flagships. The seventh model of its range was unveiled yesterday, embodying the aggressive new move – and it's certainly the most eye- …

[Dave 126]

First thought was:

I would like this rotating camera for just one reason: double tapping the power button would (could) never launch the selfie camera. On several occasions I've double tapped my phone's power button to take a snap of a bird, only to find the dammed thing has launched the selfie camera and the bird has flown off before I can switch to the main camera. This irritating behaviour could be fixed by software, but there's no sign Samsung are planning on it.

Edit: to add: the costs of this design (mechanical wear, water and dust ingress) outweigh any benefit for me.

[Kubla Cant]

Re: First thought was:

Funnily enough, I never, ever feel the need to take a selfie. I suppose I'm some kind of freak. I'm annoyed and baffled when I try to use my phone camera and I see myself on the screen.

[JohnFen]

Re: First thought was:

If you're a freak, you're not the only one. I don't think I've ever taken a selfie.

[JohnFen]

Does your phone offer this?

"Come back to us, Samsung pleads"

If your phone allows me to replace the ROM, has a user-replaceable battery, an audio jack and an SD card slot, then we can talk. Otherwise, it's not going to happen.

[Waseem Alkurdi]

Re: Does your phone offer this?

And no Knox Warranty Void. And an unlockable bootloader on Qualcomm variants.

[digitalwolf]

Re: Does your phone offer this?

So True :p

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Does your phone offer this?

Have Samsung removed all the bloated crapware they consistently ram onto their devices and which cannot be removed unless you root the thing and install a custom ROM?

No?

Not interested then.

[Scott 26]

"(The J series competes at below $250 in emerging markets)"

sigh - the J5 is my work-supplied phone....

[gbru2606]

Oh dear. It's a good phone for pensioners. Cheap bright OLED screens. They're everywhere in the UK though. I don't know if that says anything broad about the declining spending power of Briton's - or not.

[Mike Lewis]

The A80 ditches both headphone jack...

I stopped reading at that point.

[juice]

Re: The A80 ditches both headphone jack...

To be fair, that may be an artefact of the volume of space needed for the sliding mechanism, rather than a business decision; having the slider and a headphone jack would have meant compromising on battery life.

[the Jim bloke]

that Samsung's brand and support infrastructure still counts for something

Their "support infrastructure" is why I moved away.

There were many negative attractants mentioned in the article, Samsung is showing it is still competitive in the great mobile manufacturers race to someplace consumers arent interested in.

[tiggity]

Am I an outlier?

As I really am not bothered about more and more random camera gadgets

I do however like standard headphones (so a jack needed)

I like to paly music on my phone and so store lots of music on SD cards (change the one in teh phoneoften)

I need to be able to remove a battery (both for when battery near EOL and in cases when phone throws a mega wobbly and a full power off often fixes that) as EOL battery should not mena a new phone purchase needed.

I do like a decent sized battery and phne that is performant but does not burn through battery (so essentially low power usage display - assuming stuff like disabling GPS, bluetooth etc. (when not needed) and ensuring a lack of always on "busy" apps enabled)

I want the bare minimum apps preinstalled on my phone (just enough for basic functionality), I will add what I need, and I especially do not want pre-installed dross included as "system" apps that I cannot remove

Decent waterproofing would be good, as UK weather is keen on precipitation

[Is It Me]

Re: Am I an outlier?

I agree with the waterproofing, especially after I went for a swim with my current phone in my shorts pocket and the waterproofing meant that it is still working 8 months after I picked it back up of the bottom of a swimming pool

[Scott Pedigo]

Doesn't Replaceable Battery Mean Crap Waterproofing?

I like my Samsung Galaxy 7edge because:

- doesn't have the fingerprint sensor on the back

- does allow a memory card

- is somewhat waterproof (I ruined a Galaxy 2 back in the day by swimming with it)

- has quick wireless charging (I love it putting it in a cradle rather than plugging in a cable)

It's probably already difficult to make the phone waterproof while still leaving a USB port, headphone jack, and SIM / memory card slot. If the whole back came off easily to allow a battery replacement, I can imagine that it would be hard to keep water from leaking around the edge.

I also have had horrible experience with obtaining a replacement battery for my ASUS ROG laptop. ASUS doesn't supply them. The ones for sale on Amazon etc. are cheaply made pieces of crap that either don't work at all, hold about 20 minutes of charge if they do work, and give up the ghost completely after 11 months into the 1 year guarantee.

If the desire for a replacement battery is more because of running out of juice during the day than extending the life of the phone, then one of those external batteries is probably a better alternative. I have one about the size of the phone itself that can charge up the phone 4 times, and can be used with any phone that has a UBS charger connection.

So if you have an old(er) phone and there is no longer an official replacement battery from the OEM, I'm wondering it getting a quality replacement is possible. If not, then the battery replacement feature trade-off versus waterproofing looks even worse.

[Nupurvaidya]

I still think Xiaomi series is very good as compared to the samsung series. Xiaomi is way more cheaper and has many options to have fun with. Samsung has additional two or three more features than the Xiaomi series and their price is much higher than Xiaomi's .

[Cavehomme_]

...and Xiaomi's receive frequent OS updates as well as having a sandboxed zone for private stuff and apps.

[Trollslayer]

Catch?

Not cash?

[digitalwolf]

Looks Fun ..But..

Samsung have released some good phones in low end and mid range this year. A80 looks cool, but how versatile that can be... Rotating camera, Sliding phone, Flip phone.... They are cool in looks but using those phones i didn't feel Long Last feel.

[MJI]

I hate them

Work phones on contract.

So effing bossy it is unbelievable.

Keeps restarting stuff I NEVER use even after force stopping it. I want to run what I want!

Its replacement is still in its box, tempted to see if I can get a straight swap for say a Motorola or any other sensible phone.

[Tikimon]

Eyes on the damn market please

My impression these days is that tech companies look at only two things when designing products. What do they have the capability for, and what is the competition doing? Capability because if you don't have a Five-Eyes camera, you can't include it on your phones. But then it comes down to "what has Apple and Samsung done?"

Correct focus: what does the TARGET MARKET want? Why do these dickheads never ask US? Did millions of us beg and plead for a big black dead zone on the screen? Did we angrily demand edge-to-edge screens so we can accidentally trigger things? Did any of us demand to be released from removable-battery hell, saved from the horror and agony of a headphone jack? Hell no we did not, but that's what the stupid industry keeps throwing at us.

It's a huge disconnect, ignoring consumer wants to copy The Other Guy because they don't know any better than to imitate each other's misguided design choices. I sneer when I hear the word "innovation" tossed around, there's so little of it to actually be found.

[PaulR79]

Midrange = how much??

"It's priced at €649"

That is where I stopped paying attention and came to the comments. That used to be top of the range most expensive version cost a few years ago. If that is midrange then there is no way I will ever buy past bottom / budget range. I got a Pocophone F1 last year and it cost me about £320 for a 6GB RAM, 128GB storage version which has a Snapdragon 845 CPU, 4000mAh battery and a hybrid dual-SIM / SIM + SD card slot. Oh, it also has a headphone socket. Aside from the price and specs I was most surprised to see regular security and version updates with my phone currently sitting on the 1st February security patch for Android 9.

I'm sure I sound like an ad but I can't speak highly enough about the phone especially at that price. It really makes you wonder what Samsung and Apple do to charge over twice as much for basically the same specs.

[Anonymous Coward]

No sale

My Lumia 950XL still doing the biz here.