back to article Samsung Note10+ torn apart to expose three 5G antennas: One has to pick up something

Samsung's latest and greatest Note10+ smartphone has been prodded and probed by the teardown twiddlers at iFixit. The verdict isn't great: repairing it could be worse but it could also be a whole lot better too. The victim in question was the 5G version with a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen (rocking a resolution of 3,040 x 1,440 …

  1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Again glued in place, the powerpack is a 16.56Wh unit

    Fuck me, at least 5 times the size found on most phones and bigger than many powerbanks! I can imagine that being enough of a reason for some boffins. At around 1000 charge cycles per battery they should last a good few years.

    1. MiguelC Silver badge

      You're just confusing units... usually phone batteries are publicized in mAh, not Wh. In Samsung's Note10+ case, it's a 4300 mAh battery. Good, but not extraordinary.

      Go here for a discussion on the subject, if you want.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Thanks for the correction! Still, imagine a phone with a 15Ah battery!

    2. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Units

      Eh? It's similar to many phones. 16.56 Wh at 5v is 3312mAh.

      My ten quid 10,000 mAh power bank charges my phone around 3 times.

      EDIT: I just used the figure of 5v for the calculation, clearly the actual voltage is different since Miguel has given us the quoted capacity of roughly 4000 mAh. Bigger than most phones, but not wildly so.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Units

        LiON batteries are typically 3.7v.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Coat

          Re: Units

          LiON cells are typically 3.7v.

          FTFY. No Charge.

          1. Mark Exclamation

            Re: Units

            I see what you did there...!

            1. Warm Braw

              Re: Units

              It's just a potential difference of interpretation...

          2. MyffyW Silver badge

            Re: Units

            Shocking.

            1. Stevie

              Re: Units

              WTF.

              1. Stevie

                Re: Units

                Nonononono, Mr Downvoter.

                Read again with the context of the thread foremost in your mind and an O level textbook on physics open to the introduction to electrical units page.

  2. NoneSuch Silver badge
    WTF?

    Make them repairable...

    Samsung could lead the industry in hosting replaceable and MODIFYABLE phone parts. Would open up a world of possibilities for those who like to tinker, especially some of the artsy type iFanboi.

    Just make it clear mods and non-sanctioned repairs void ye olde warranty and Bob is indeed your uncle.

    Besides, reducing customer choice is TM Apple Inc.

    1. Ian Joyner Bronze badge

      Re: Make them repairable...

      "Besides, reducing customer choice is TM Apple Inc."

      In one sense you are correct, but I fear not in the way you mean. Ridiculous choice is what the market people want to give you – keep the consumer confused. Apple did that in the 1990s until Jobs came back and reduced choice to a table with four cells. He identified what people need, not what they think they want.

      “I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent it.” Thomas Edison

      Note he says “needs” not “wants”.

      1. Dagg Silver badge

        Re: Make them repairable...

        He identified what people need, not what they think they want.

        Nah, he created something then made some people think they needed it. In fact must have it new shiny shiny...

        1. ArrZarr Silver badge
          Unhappy

          Re: Make them repairable...

          Nah, he took something that somebody else had invented and then marketed the hell out of it until everybody thought it was his invention..

      2. Adelio

        Re: Make them repairable...

        All that space and not enough to fit a headphone socket!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Make them repairable...

      Sadly, every phone maker who has tried modular/replaceable/repairable rather than thinner/shinier has ended up losing a shitload of money. As a consequence they have all concluded that the 'demand' for that sort of thing is just internet bullshit.

      Feel free to invest a few hundred million of your own money in proving them wrong.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Make them repairable...

        Or invest a couple of quid getting a cheaper phone else where, or using iFixit to repair it. You sound as if you know something. Sadly you don't.

        In the countries these are made, where the tools and expertise exist, people piecemeal the repair all day long, even in a Mcdonalds as a "repair while you eat" mobile service.

        The reason they lock it down, is because (here in the west) we eat up the scams and cons as marks for overpriced and unfair practices. That and they are afraid of (the easy) repair services and tinkerers stealing "profit".

    3. vtcodger Silver badge

      Re: Make them repairable...

      Samsung could lead the industry in hosting replaceable and MODIFYABLE phone parts.

      I'm sure they could. But you might want to contemplate the impact on the interval between future phone sales if one peddles hardware that can actually be fixed.

    4. ColonelDare

      Re: Make them repairable...

      Something like this?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Typical Corporate Greed

    They have taken a big leaf out of Apple arrogance and took it a step further, thereby ensuring compulsory upgrade cycles are maintained and sheeple will have no choice but to pay. And repairs? Another gouging opportunity ensured.

    Headphone jack removed. Whats the point? Less is more?

    Wankers all.

    Thank the Chinese for reasonabaly priced and equally good hardware, without the rip off shenanigans.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Typical Corporate Greed

      They're worse, iPhones have had much higher repairability scores than Samsung Galaxy S / Galaxy Note for years.

      1. Jamesit

        Re: Typical Corporate Greed

        I recall seeing iPhone repair scores of around 0 to 3 and Samsung higher than that.

        1. Jamesit

          Re: Typical Corporate Greed

          I was wrong, iPhone has been around 6 and Samsung has been around 4!! I thought Apple was the least repairable oops.

        2. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: Typical Corporate Greed

          Battery replacement on an iPhone is a 10 minute DIY job.

          1. royprime

            Re: Typical Corporate Greed

            Yup, but now your icrap device will tell now moan at you if you replace the battery yourself.

            https://www.wired.com/story/apple-iphone-battery-service-alerts/

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Typical Corporate Greed

              It doesn't "moan at you", it puts up that screen if you go deep into settings to look at battery performance. Where today it can tell you some stats about the battery, it won't try if it can't confirm the replacement is a brand new 'official' battery.

              You can hardly fault them for that, how do they know if the clone battery you bought for half price has the same max charge, same cycle lifetime, etc. of the batteries Apple sells. Maybe they are just as good, or even better, the problem is there is no way for your iPhone to know so those statistics would be meaningless.

    2. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

      Re: Typical Corporate Greed

      The downside of the Chinese phones is that they usually don't support all of the US LTE bands. Every time some TV channels move, there's a new LTE band that your phone doesn't support. There are several low GHz bands for fast urban bandwidth, the 700-800 MHz bands for indoor penetration, and 600-700 MHz bands for ultra-long range. If that's not confusing enough, they are usually aggregated together. GSM coverage is no longer a priority so you'll need VoLTE working for each carrier.

    3. Ian Joyner Bronze badge

      Re: Typical Corporate Greed

      "They have taken a big leaf out of Apple arrogance"

      Right, Samsung steals from Apple. But arrogance. Apple broke the arrogance of the computer industry. IBM and then Microsoft's arrogance (the arrogance that says when you start up an application, it takes over the whole screen). The arrogance of 'boffins' – well it is still around. With Apple you have far less dependence on support people. Of course those same boffins and support people don't like that and they put it around it is Apple's arrogance, not their own.

      "Headphone jack removed."

      You don't need a headphone jack, so it was removed. To support old devices, they included an adaptor. I use it all the time. It does what is needed. Saying otherwise is just spreading FUD.

      1. heyrick Silver badge

        Re: Typical Corporate Greed

        "You don't need a headphone jack"

        You might not.

        I do. I use it all the time.

        Additional benefits - can charge the device at the same time, connector is less fragile than any incarnation of USB, don't need to consider also charging my headphones or the sometimes weird sound quality of Bluetooth...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Typical Corporate Greed

        "You don't need a headphone jack, so it was removed. To support old devices, they included an adaptor. I use it all the time."

        Then YOU do need a headphone jack.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Typical Corporate Greed

          Plus the adaptor is nearly the size of the phone... for a headphone jack!

        2. Ian Joyner Bronze badge

          Re: Typical Corporate Greed

          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Typical Corporate Greed

          "You don't need a headphone jack, so it was removed. To support old devices, they included an adaptor. I use it all the time."

          Then YOU do need a headphone jack.<<

          No, I told you I don't, and why I and others don't. This headphone jack thing is just a typical anti-Apple beat up.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Typical Corporate Greed

            Give it up. This site is (Almost) full of hatred towards Apple. In the eyes of many here they are the personification of Evil or the Devil Incarnate.

            I suspect that a good number of those naysayers actually have some Apple kit but are too ashamed to admit it here.

            It takes all sorts to make a world.

            1. Cavehomme_
              FAIL

              Re: Typical Corporate Greed

              Erm, I don't hate Apple

              I bought one a couple of years ago after a decade of Android / WP. Very nice phone too, the 6s+, love it. Build quality way better than any other phone I've owned. Great integration too...and I'm a Windows user not Mac.

              Anything newer than the 6, no headphone jack. I will not contemplate upgrading to a headphone jackless phone, doesn't matter who builds it, Apple, Samsung, anyone else for that matter.

              There, fixed your Apple hater assumptions, you're welcome.

              1. Danny 14

                Re: Typical Corporate Greed

                I dont hate apple. I have a macbook to control my DMX lighting rig at work. We also have an apple device to control ipads, the ipads use software for children only available on ipads.

                We also used android devices and PCs. They are tools and we use whichever tool suits best. Headphone sockets are really useful, you can plug cheap headphones into them. Children break headphones (and jack sockets sometimes) and we dont have time to run round keeping bluetooth ones charged up. That and syncing 40 pairs of them becomes a pain.

          2. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge
            Facepalm

            Indecisive much?

            So you start by saying you don't need a jack, then that you use an adpator:

            You don't need a headphone jack, so it was removed. To support old devices, they included an adaptor. I use it all the time. It does what is needed.

            which means you do need a headphone jack, you're just accepting to use it via an adaptor.

            Then you reverse your position:

            No, I told you I don't, and why I and others don't. This headphone jack thing is just a typical anti-Apple beat up.

            Whether that jack is in the phone or the adaptor doesn't change squat.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Typical Corporate Greed

        You don't need [X], so it was removed. To support old devices, they included an adaptor. I use it all the time. It does what is needed. Saying otherwise is just spreading FUD.

        Replace X with a Brain.

        Seriously, you stated other people didn't "need" it with prove that you do use it and do "need" an adaptor for it.

        /facepalm

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Typical Corporate Greed

        > (the arrogance that says when you start up an application, it takes over the whole screen)

        You mean like an app on an iOS device? Or worse, a NOTIFICATION on an iOS device?

        1. doublelayer Silver badge

          Re: Typical Corporate Greed

          You don't need a headphone jack. I don't need one either. Probably few of the people posting here need one. But plenty of people posting here really want one, and base their purchasing decisions around that desire. I don't see why you have a problem with them when they complain about a lack of a feature they want. In my situation, the jack is sort of handy, but I don't really use it all that often. When my phone breaks and I need to replace it, I won't make a headphone socket a required feature. But why do you seem to have so much hatred for the connector or people who use it?

    4. Jedit Silver badge
      Joke

      "Thank the Chinese for reasonabaly priced and equally good hardware"

      Did you forget to add "Posted from my Huawei phone"? Or did they?

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Typical Corporate Greed

      Right, gluing the battery down to prevent phones from starting on fire is a bad thing.

      Only when you've got an Apple fanboi writing an article at least.

      1. heyrick Silver badge

        Re: Typical Corporate Greed

        "gluing the battery down to prevent phones from starting on fire is a bad thing"

        Uh... You have heard of the Galaxy Note 7, right?

        Perhaps it would have been simpler and more cost effective for everybody if the user could have their defective battery swapped out for a working replacement? Oh, wait, it's only the older devices (which rarely blew up - when is the last time you heard of an exploding Nokia feature phone?) that have easy to replace batteries.

        The only two justifications for glued in batteries are: able to design batteries in weird shapes to maximise use of available internal space, and built in obsolescence.

  4. MacroRodent
    Mushroom

    Ban nontreplaceable batteries

    This is something the EU legislators should pick up. Batteries wear down, so they should be use-replaceable in any device costing more than a 10€, using no more exotic tools than a screwdriver at most. Any device not complying with this will have an added 200% import duty...

    1. DCdave

      Re: Ban nontreplaceable batteries

      IIRC they went after electric toothbrush manufacturers for non-removable batteries, using recyclability laws as justification. At least one manufacturer responded by making the battery easy enough to remove, by breaking the holder and making the toothbrush unreceptive to new batteries. Actually on mine I didn't even manage to get the battery out according to the instructions without further attacks on the toothbrush. I assume phone manufacturers would be at least as slippery, and that's before you bring lobbyists into the picture.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
        Flame

        Re: Ban nontreplaceable batteries

        Better still ban electric toothbrushes, it's not as if the really improve dental hygiene. Instead they sit in their chargers all the time. The standby power-use is a bigger problem than whether the batteries can be replaced or not.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Ban nontreplaceable batteries

          Agreed. If your co-ordination is to bad you can't manage to clean your teeth properly with an ordinary toothbrush then dental hygeine is probably the least of your worries.

        2. vtcodger Silver badge

          Re: Ban nontreplaceable batteries

          Better still ban electric toothbrushes, it's not as if the really improve dental hygiene. Instead they sit in their chargers

          A lot of studies have shown that electric toothbrushes really do a modestly better job of cleaning than manual. Aside from which, a pair of AA cells (cost about 50 cents each from Amazon) will power a cheap electric toothbrush for 4 to 8 months. Why battery power? The brushes are portable. And I'm not a big fan of line voltage powered devices other than built-in lights and fans in bathrooms.

          1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

            Re: Ban nontreplaceable batteries

            A lot of studies have shown that electric toothbrushes really do a modestly better job of cleaning than manual

            Ie. minimal. They're a solution looking for a problem. There are so many other things to do first: clean your teeth regularly; use the right kind of brush for you and change it regularly; reducing sugary food and drinks (including fruit); don't smoke; getting enough fluoride either in the drinking water or naturally from things like tea (withour sugar, of course), etc. If you don't do that then difficult to see how an electric brush is going to help.

            Over four decades with my adult teeth and no fillings yet. Or am I just lucky?

    2. Martin an gof Silver badge

      Re: Ban nontreplaceable batteries

      Batteries wear down

      I suppose the question is, how quickly in relation to the lifespan of the device? I am still using a 5½ year old Moto G with the original battery. Yes, its capacity has reduced, but not by so much that I really need to think about replacing it just yet*.

      In the early days I could get 7 to 10 days of "standby" out of it (i.e. WiFi off, Bluetooth off, GPS off, calls and texts only). These days I get perhaps 5 to 7 standby, and I can still get a day out of it, sat in my pocket with GPS on and running OSMTracker. Without GPS but with WiFi and data on and Signal running in the background, a couple of days is not unexpected.

      Obviously I'm a "light user" - someone who uses their phone more will have put the battery through more charging cycles. A dead battery inside 2 years is a prime candidate to be replaced, but for a heavy user, 3 or 4 years seems enough - they are likely to want to replace the phone within that timescale anyway.

      But if the EU did mandate replaceable batteries, and better yet some kind of "standard" (of connector layout or maybe dimensions) so that third parties could more easily produce spares, I'd be all for it.

      No I am not going to mention the "B" word...

      M.

      *not because of the battery, anyway. However, I have cracked (the outer glass layer of) the screen - the first time I've ever done this to a phone**. To say I was kicking myself in the supermarket car park when it fell out of my pocket is an understatement as I really don't want to be looking for a new phone that is a: cheap and b: will run LineageOS (or similar) just yet.

      **that is, other than the chunky phone*** that fell off the roof of my car back in 199-something and was run over. The phone still worked, but the LCD was cracked and unusable

      ***that particular phone had a four-cell battery pack which could be replaced (should you so desire) with 4xAA batteries. They didn't fit well under the standard rear cover, but the mere fact that you could do it at all seemed forward-thinking at the time.

      1. MacroRodent

        Re: Ban nontreplaceable batteries

        Odd. Over the years I have needed to replace 3 smartphone batteries, on various phones. I wonder what causes the difference. Climate? in Helsinki winter the phone in my pocket sometimes gets quite cold.

        1. doublelayer Silver badge

          Re: Ban nontreplaceable batteries

          It could easily just be heavier use. If you do more things with your phone, you'll have used up the battery faster (I.E. it doesn't last as long even when new) and put it through more cycles because it kept getting discharged. It could also be that your phone is less power efficient than the one mentioned.

          While I'm entirely in favor of phones having more user-replaceable parts, I don't particularly care about anything other than the battery, and I don't care all that much about that either. I know people can replace other parts of phones, but all the devices I've seen this on have been somewhat unstable (E.G. replaced screen panels that don't really feel like staying firmly on the phone). For the battery, I'm really hoping that, after four years or so of use when I'd like a new battery, I can find someone who is making compatible batteries today, rather than shipping compatible ones they've had on the shelf since the release of the phone or releasing batteries that look like they'll probably work, and once they get shipped here individually, I can plug them into my phone I don't want to replace just yet and see if they really do.

          In purchasing a phone, I expect that, at some point, it will develop a serious mechanical problem. I could try to fix it or get someone more skilled with a soldering iron to help me, but I know that's likely to make the device function worse. That's why I try to go for cheapness. Modern cheapish Android phones are quite well-built, and I don't feel like I've lost much if it turns out that this one doesn't stay together as long as I hoped and I'll have to replace it after three years instead of six. I can't guarantee any reasonable lifetime of a device, but I can make it so that when the inevitable happens, I'm out much less than I might have been.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They lost me with the headphone jack.

    I know its old tech, but I'm surrounded by 3.5mm things still because they don't need batteries to make Bluetooth work.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Two things...

    Is that space enough for a headphone jack I see?

    And, interesting, other reports from "news/reviews" sites state a "capacitor" in the pen, yet an actual lithium battery is in there. Gah, can no one report correctly anymore?

  7. tallenglish
    Thumb Up

    I got mine yesterday.

    First impressions:

    The supplied usbc headphones are shite, they have as much bass as a choir boy getting fiddled by a priest, and they hurt to have them in for more than 30 minutes. Maybe I have the wrong kind of ears. But my £30 jvc headphone (3.5mm) wipe the floor quality wise compared to the supplied akg.

    The usbc is not universal, I purchased from amazon a usbc to 3.5mm headphone dongle before I got the phone that works on other androids thinking they would work on the Note10, it didnt, and Samsung neither supplied one or sell one that does. Looking now to see if there is one for the S10 as hopefully that will be compatible.

    Still bloatware, no LinkedIn this time, still Faceshite, and now Netflix (not to bugged at that as I have a subscription, but like facebook, no excuse for it being a uninstallable system app).

    One thing that got me, was the missing power button and the fact it doesnt say the front protector was supposed to be left on, took me 5 minutes to figure the bixby button is also power as well, sneaky way to get everyone to use that crap. I also pealed the screen protector off thinking it was just the initial plastic cover, like many did with the fold, just the note 10+ screen doesnt break if you do, you just wasted a perectly good screen protector.

    Major issue is false screen presses (if you dont have a case to protect the edged from side of your hand. So I see there are limits to just how much screen to body you can have before it has issues.

    Battery life is about 24h, and I am using it a lot with 9gag, firefox and outlook.

    Major pain in the ass is 2fa app, now I have to re-register all sites as it doesnt copy the current registrations over. Cant blame sammy for that one and I see the security reasons for it. But it is a right chore.

    Also depreciation on phones is as bad as cars, I got £200 rebate for my old Note8, given it cost a lot more and is only 2yo, that is a steep drop for what is still a decent phone.

    Overall though, the Note10+ is a good phone, Bixby is less anoying and in your face and far more useful with its new routines (automated scripting to set phone in different times/locations). Microsoft support is just "Your Phone" built in now, so no different to any other phone.

    I would agree with the 5G possible issues, I have about 1-2 bar at home (4G though), but on Note8 it was usually 3-4, still works for calls and text though, no dropouts.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I got mine yesterday.

      Nice write up, you've helped me decide never to return to Samsung.

      "Major pain in the ass is 2fa app, now I have to re-register all sites as it doesnt copy the current registrations over. Cant blame sammy for that one and I see the security reasons for it. But it is a right chore."

      I'll smugly remind myself that changing my iphones a couple of times (an ex Samsung user), the FTA all migrates across perfectly and saves a massive faff. Same wth everything else, all stored securely on Keychain...I hope.

  8. deadlockvictim

    Why buy a Samsung Note?

    Let me get this right: The new Samsung Note is for those who missed the exorbitant price of the iPhone, for those missed the incredible lack of repairability of the iPhone, for those who miss all of the ports that iPhones don't have, for those who feel that Apple software mollycoddles you too much, for those who want to feel the warm embrace of Google's slurp. The new Samsung-buyer says that this has been well through.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Why buy a Samsung Note?

      The Note was the first phone with a very large screen and a stylus was immediately popular with some people as a result and the first time Samsung led the way. The full-fat one comes with 256 GB and will take SD cards. Try that with an I-Phone.

      Not for me, but they do have their fans as was evinced in the reactions to the withdrawal of the Note 8.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why buy a Samsung Note?

        Reminder that Steve Jobs said big screened phones were useless and dumb, and that the 3 inches on the iPhone was enough for everyone.

  9. David Austin

    I thought non-expandable storage...

    ... was Apple's shtick.

    Disappointed they've removed that from the standard Note.

    1. Neal L

      Re: I thought non-expandable storage...

      OnePlus and Huawei also don't have expandable storage in their top models.

      1. John Bailey

        Re: I thought non-expandable storage...

        Sounds like a good reason to not buy them then.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I thought non-expandable storage...

      They come with what, 5x the storage of an Apple for the same price?

  10. Frank Marsh
    Coat

    Microphone jack?

    "Samsung has dumped the microphone jack...." In that case, I don't want one! If my phone can't provide phantom power to a studio-quality condenser mic, what good is it?

  11. Nate Amsden

    Note 3/4 was peak note (for me)

    Note 3 was my first Android phone, was my daily driver up until about 2 weeks ago(still works fine). Kept hoping newer Notes would get better, but after the Note 4 just a slow downward trend(towards form over function). I figured the Note 3 won't last forever so should jump at some point, it was getting slow in some cases. Never factory reset it after 6 years that may of sped it up again not sure but was worried it would not work after reset since it was old.

    I "upgraded" to an S8 Active which may be the last phone of it's kind ever to be made at this rate. Still a decent number of compromises compared to the Note 3, but it was (for me) the fewest compromises.

    Most important to me was: wireless charging, no glass back(which means plastic back I am fine with that), flat screen, normal bezels (S8 active is basically identical to note 3 for screen/body ratio at 75%). Replaceable batteries very important but not available. I replaced batteries in my Note 3s annually(just to keep them fresh). Trying to get all of those in one device is hard these days... the S8 Active is the closest I was able to come to. I was going to get the Motorola Z4(I think) which is similar I think but after much searching I was unable to find ANYONE that was selling the wireless charging back cover for it(new or used).

    Battery tip for android folks anyway - I bought a couple of new devices called Chargie, they run inline on a USB charging cable and communicate with an app on the phone to cut power to the charging at a user defined level(no root required). I set mine to 79%. It works quite well. Combined with Accubattery I hope I can significantly extend the life of the stock battery(which is rated at 95% capacity currently, given the phone is probably 2 years since it was manufactured I think that is decent). I do have several Samsung branded replacement batteries for S8 Active in case I need them.

    Android keeps removing features as well so I plan to avoid Android 9 completely on this device, as I was able to avoid Android 5 on my Note 3 for a good 4 years(still runs 4.4). I like security updates but keep me at the same major rev of the OS. I haven't had a known security incident on a computing device I operate since ~1992.

    I have a 2nd S8 active (both phones "never been used") as a backup.

    Been actively using the S8 Active since June on wifi, but only switched my main SIM over to it about 2 weeks ago.

    I hope this phone can last 6 years like the last one(never needed a repair), mostly because I really hate the direction the market has been going.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    5G is more marketing BS to reel in the suckers

    Yes, very fast download (upload, maybe not so much) speeds but as TFA says, walls - and other obstructiuons - are a problem. So much so in fact that you need to be pretty close or in clear line of site of a 5G base station for it to work at all. In which case you might just as well use a nearby wifi hotspot and save on your data charges.

    The fact that companies are trying to flog this zombie horse shows how desperate they are to shift ever more kit because they well know the market has stagnated and people are no longer prepared to pay silly money for an "upgrade" that is anything but.

  13. Welsh Skeptic

    I have read that because of 5G, Amey has felled 17,500 roadside trees in Sheffield. Could it be connected with the fact that they also have the contract to install 5G and trees unfortunately block the signals.

    I also read that the reason why removable batteries were ditched is because some people removed them when they wished not to be monitored or tracked.

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      why removable batteries were ditched

      Nothing to do with the obsession for more and more power in thinner and thinner devices?

    2. M.V. Lipvig Silver badge

      Why would anyone go through the trouble of removing batteries when turning the phone off and wrapping it in a couple of layers of heavy tinfoil does the same thing?

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