this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2025
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I switched from a Pixel to a Samsung and I would like to inform you that Samsung is bullshit. The phone is nice and all but I'm always fighting the software. Google Pixel software stays out of your way and occasionally helps you.
As a Pixel 6 Pro user who occasionally has to interact with the Samsung devices my parents use, holy moly I don't know how anybody puts up with this. We're talking fullscreen advertisement lockscreen bloatware that can be disabled but not uninstalled, added to the phone out of nowhere with a recent update. The worst android keyboard I've ever used in my life. A UI and all of Samsung's versions of existing apps that I'm constantly fighting just to use the phone. It's ridiculous. I genuinely don't know how anyone can run a Samsung device without installing a custom ROM or something it's actually insane.
None of that comes activated by default. Sure, there are some dark patterns that trick people into activating bullshit. But anyone with half a brain and a minimum attention span not rotten yet by social media will click no on those prompts. Once disabled at the first startup, Samsung doesn't bother you ever again. You can uninstall every single Samsung app and substitute with your favorite, no issue. This includes all Google apps, except play services because of Google.
As for ads and uninstallable bloat, it's probably a carrier version. Those do get bloated and get ads. But otherwise, the international unlocked versions don't show any ads at all. I've never seen an ad in my S25 phone and use nearly all Foss apps. The phone has never refused to uninstall anything. The effort to do that is pretty minimum, no tech knowledge required. Just learn to say no to software, it's not rocket science. People got conditioned to saying yes to every prompt just to make it go away. This is how they get you. But it is not mandatory or out of your power to disable that stuff.
And for the UI, it's a subjective matter of taste. I've never liked any of the alternative launchers either, they all suck in some minor way that breaks their gimmick. OneUI is fine and perfectly functional, it even has more customization and QoL features than stock launcher and other truly bullshit launchers like Xiaomi's.
I've not run into any of these issues....but as I went from iPhone to samsung perhaps its all just a matter of perspective. Perhaps the Pixel is superior.
I check each year what the reviews are saying and the Samsung always seem to edge out on top for what I want - a large device (i get the Ultra) with a premium build and great camera. I also have a samsung watch so the integrations work quite nicely. I found the google wallet on the watch constantly asked for my pin while the samsung wallet only would the first time since I put it on. Oh and you have to unlock your device to use Google Wallet as your travel payment...with samsung wallet I can just tap and go which is much more preferable to me as it means my eyes are up and paying attention to my world, not looking at my phone unlocking it.
I’m another happy Pixel 6 Pro user. I use GrapheneOS so my phone doesn’t have adware (or Google for that matter).
Great battery life, beautiful 120hz display, quality cameras. The only bad thing is replacing the battery isn’t easy (though I’m not having issues with the original battery yet)
I totally agree with Samsung being bullshit. As for how people can accept that, well, it's probably the only ecosystem they know. My experience is anecdotal, but I've been to parts of the world where it's iPhone vs Samsung. Like, USB-c is a Samsung plug. So, just as people get attached to the iPhone UI, regardless of model, people do the same with Samsung.
Speaking of bullshit, has anyone elseatched Pixel's deletion of the back button? While I've been conditioned on how it works, there's still a number of app swipes that turn into "back" commands instead.
I miss the Nexus lineup.