Why was Samsung galaxy s5 discontinued? I sold Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara © Getty Images

Tuesday, July 30th is celebrated International Friendship Day 2019. On this holiday, it is customary to remind your friends how much you love them - to give gifts and souvenirs, to show your attention.

Also on Friendship Day 2019 editorial tochka.net invites you to find out who Hollywood stars are friends with. Despite their recognition and popularity, they are ordinary people who need such simple things as friendship And Love.

It is not strange that Hollywood celebrities often find their girlfriends and friends in the circle of the same star colleagues - often meetings of kindred spirits take place on the set of films.

Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara

The girls met on the set of the film "Beauties on the Run." Reese often remembers how Sophia walked into the hotel and everyone around her “wrangled their necks” turning to look at her. After filming, during the promotional tour, the actresses became even closer and often published funny selfies together on their Instagram. The wedding took place in November 2015 Sofia Vergara with Joe Manganiello, to which the artist, of course, invited her friend.

New old

If you put the Galaxy S8+, S9+, Note 8 and Note 9 in a row, then figuring out which is which is almost impossible. The only more or less obvious change is the relocation of the fingerprint scanner. Now it is located under the camera module and it has become much more convenient to reach it (if this is even applicable to a smartphone with a 6.4-inch screen).

Then you can go into the wilds and start looking for very minor changes. The edges of the case were made angular, the camera module was painted in the color of the rear panel, and the bottom frame became a little smaller. But at the same time, the screen diagonal increased from 6.3 to 6.4 inches. Thickness changed from 8.6 to 8.8 millimeters, width - from 74.8 to 76.4, height - from 162.5 to 161.9, weight - from 195 to 201 grams. Do you feel the greatness of the changes? We can go further by talking about how the SIM card tray has changed, but we’ll do without that.

The screen, it feels, remains the same as in the S9 - aspect ratio 18.5 to 9, resolution 2K (1440x2960 pixels), occupies 84 percent of the front panel. However, nothing better has come out since then, so there are no problems with this. It has amazing minimum and maximum brightness values, although text is a bit difficult to read in direct sunlight. The Always On Display and Edge panel functions have not changed at all.

For protection, a fingerprint sensor, a face scanner and an iris scanner are available. On the first, everything is clear - at the moment this is one of the best sensors that works quickly and accurately. With smart scanning, which is a combination of a face and iris scanner, everything is a little more complicated. The phone determines the unlocking method depending on external conditions: in normal light the face scanner works, in bad light the iris scanner works. In the first case it happens instantly, and in the second it takes one or two seconds. This is all in theory, but in reality, the unlocking time usually reaches several seconds, because the phone constantly requires you to take off your glasses, then get closer to the camera, then move away from it. It's much easier to put your finger on the fingerprint scanner.

The case still has a separate button for the Bixby voice assistant, but it still doesn’t work in Russian. In addition, since the release of S8, there have been a lot of opportunities to reassign it to anything, for example, to launch Alice.

1 /10

The cameras haven't changed either. The main one consists of two 12-megapixel modules, one of which has a variable aperture with f/1.5 and f/2.4 values and optical stabilization, like in the Galaxy S9. The software has been slightly changed, making the frames more contrasty, but without the acidic colors, as in other Samsung smartphones. Thanks to this, portrait mode has also significantly improved. But when shooting in the dark, everything remained the same.

The only new feature is Intelligent Scene Detection. That is, the smartphone itself tries to determine what the user is trying to shoot and slightly changes the camera presets. So far this works with a lot of complaints and is quite slow, so it’s easier to disable the function.

Super-slow-mo recording, as well as Selfiemoji, are present and are also one-time features. With super slow motion, the smartphone can record a short video at 960 frames per second, but only at 720p. In daylight you can still try to shoot a good video, but with the slightest deterioration in light, the final result becomes scary to look at.

What's new?

There's not much new in the Note 9. Firstly, it received new hardware: an eight-core Exynos 9810 and as many as 8 gigabytes of RAM in the top version (only 6 in the minimum). Everything works smoothly and much faster than on the S9. Also, the top version has 512 gigabytes of internal memory and supports memory cards up to 512 gigabytes. Thus, the total space can be increased to terabytes. This is enough for almost 30 thousand photos, which is clearly excessive.

Another point of pride for Samsung is its 4,000 milliamp-hour battery. Considering complaints about the autonomy of the company's past smartphones, the decision is the right one. Moreover, the thickness and weight have remained virtually unchanged. With such a reserve, the phone is enough for a full day of heavy work, or for two days of more moderate use. We can only believe that the story of the Galaxy Note 7 will not repeat itself, where they also experimented with battery capacity and announced unprecedented operating time for the smartphone.

The principle of operation of Samsung DeX has been changed and to turn a smartphone into a PC, a simple adapter from USB Type-C to HDMI is enough. Now you don’t need special stands with a fan, since the smartphone has a new cooling system and does not overheat.

And finally, the “most important thing”: the new S Pen stylus. Only with the eighth version of the smartphone did it receive Bluetooth and can now work as a remote control. By default, it can control the camera (take pictures and change the front one from the main one), play music, launch various applications, flip through photos in the gallery and during presentations.

It sounds interesting at first, but in everyday life it’s inconvenient to use the stylus as a remote control (and it’s strange). The S Pen only lasts 30 minutes on a charge, so you won't be able to carry it in your pocket all the time. It is very difficult to imagine a situation in which such a stylus remote control might be needed at all. There is nothing to say about using the stylus for its intended purpose - writing short notes and adding inscriptions to photographs - because everything works as before.

***

From the text above it may seem that the Galaxy Note 9 turned out to be bad, but this is not so. Note 9 is an excellent smartphone with the best specifications, perfect build, good camera and so on. But now there is not a single reason to take it, especially for 70-90 thousand rubles. Stylus remote control with Bluetooth, seriously? Convenient location of the fingerprint scanner? A great move from Samsung - first put it in the most inappropriate place, and then fix everything, supposedly “listening to the audience.” Possibility to install up to a terabyte of memory? Even on a computer, such space is difficult to fill.

And these are not all complaints against Samsung - the company is doing everything it can in a world where the most “significant” breakthroughs were the frameless screen and the abandonment of the mini-jack. Other manufacturers are also just trying to fill the information field with noise, passing off retractable cameras and “unibrow” as innovations.

Over the past two years, a huge number of good devices have been released that easily outshine the Note 9. First of all, in price, of course. For Samsung fans there is Note 8 for 35 thousand and S9 for 40-45 thousand, for fans of pure Android - Pixel 2 for 45 thousand, for photography lovers - Huawei P20 Pro for the same 45 thousand and many other worthy devices. In general, for the price of Note 9 you can buy at least two current smartphones, which will be inferior to it only in the absence of a stylus with Bluetooth. Samsung also understands this, because it was not for nothing that the company stopped production and removed Note 8 from sale.

A couple of months ago I bought a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge new for 30 thousand rubles. Although this is not the latest, it is still quite a relevant flagship. And for such a price, this is generally an excellent offer. 2 months have passed since then, I sold my “gnusmas” and breathed a sigh of relief. And here's why.

We renew for a year, no further

Once again I was convinced that OS updates can be installed while you have the most current gadget from the company in your hands. As soon as the new flagship is released and the next update arrives, we begin to partisan. This firmware will not bring anything good.

My S7 Edge is mercilessly slow. Applications, menu sections, switching between tasks - a smartphone is ALWAYS thought of! I feel like I’m using some kind of Redmi 3S, and not a top-end device from the global electronics giant. Disgrace!

What I mean is that while the gadget was relevant, that is, throughout 2016, it did not slow down, everything worked as expected. And with the latest updates, everyone has forgotten about optimization. And I'm sure no one is doing this on purpose (it's not Apple). Simply optimizing software for last year’s devices is a matter of “whatever happens.” If we have time, it’s good; if we don’t have time, it’s even better. The user swears, suffers and goes to the salon to buy a current flagship. He’s “so used to Samsungs.” There is no need to step on the same rake, let’s use our brains.

Brief summary of my experience:

If you have a current flagship from Samsung, then we stop updating immediately after the release of the new generation.
If you have the latest generation iPhone, you can update +1 year after the release of the new generation. You can't go any further.

Thus, the normal operation period of devices from Samsung is 1 year, from Apple – 2 years. This is also confirmed by depreciation.

Bought for one price, sold for another

The golden rule of the secondary gadget market. I bought the device new, left the store with it, sell it as used, subtracting 25% from the price of the new one.

It works great with iPhone and even Samsung. It’s just that an Apple smartphone holds its price for the first six months, while a top-end device from South Korea lasts a maximum of a couple of months.

For example, adequate offers for sale on the secondary market began to appear only in February after the September release. With the official price of 53 thousand rubles, on some Avito you could get a seven for 35 thousand.

After the release on March 29, with a price tag of 55 thousand rubles, already in early July you could get it for the same 35 thousand rubles. There are plenty of offers and they are not in demand. The thing is that the price tag for gray versions starts from 38 thousand rubles apiece. For the new flagship. What's the point of buying it used?

Are device owners who bought them at full price upset? Yes!

What's wrong with my S7 Edge? Nothing. I can't sell it even for 25 thousand. No one needs it at all, and this is against the backdrop of the fact that the iPhone 6S can easily be sold for the same money.

Brakes. Always and everywhere!

I thought the device was slowing down in energy saving mode. Well, this is when you reduce the standard resolution to Full HD, background processes are limited, Always On Display does not work, and so on. I turned on full power, but left the resolution low: fewer pixels - more speed. It's logical after all. Whatever the case!

The smartphone is still slow. And nothing can be done about it. Although no, you can do a hard reset every month, constantly transfer files to your computer, and then, maybe, if you’re lucky, the smartphone will start working as expected.

But wait! Why did I spend 30 kilo rubles on all this pandemonium? I could buy a Xiaomi Redmi 4 Pro for 8 thousand rubles and, most interestingly, not have such problems. And this despite all the gluttony of their proprietary MIUI shell.

Not frequent, but stable glitches

For example, just a couple of days ago the following happened. I went to the Google Play Store to update all the apps on my smartphone (auto-update is disabled), but I couldn't do it. Why? The "Update All" button simply didn't work.

Of course, I thought it was some kind of store glitch, I went to the main screen and killed all the processes. Did it help? Not even once!

Now the Play Store icon on the desktop has stopped clicking. But this is not the end.

I rebooted my smartphone, re-opened the store, was about to click on the “Update all” button and guess what happened. Nothing! She didn't press again. The video below is proof.

Disgusting signal quality

The S7 Edge only lives near the windows in my house. So the signal, at least a little, passes through the walls.

Yes, the walls are not the thinnest, but wait. I still have the same question. Why does a gadget for 500 bucks work the same as some Cubot for 80 from China and without normal support for LTE frequencies?

All this could be attributed to the fact that I have a gray device intended for the UAE market. However, I went to the official website of Samsung in the Emirates and there is full support for all the frequencies I need. Even more than necessary. However, the smartphone still catches the network extremely poorly.

More to come. I left the house, Wi-Fi turned off, in theory the smartphone should switch to cellular data and, of course, it does. True, only EDGE lights up on the screen. In order for the seven to switch to 4G in the city center, where the coverage is ideal, you need to move away from all buildings and stand on the street for 3-4 minutes. Then the system will realize that the cellular network coverage is reliable and you can safely switch to at least H+.

And then I go to Pyaterochka, go to the cereal department, which is located deep in the building, and the situation repeats itself. Rebooting or turning on/off flight mode helps. I do this at least twice a day. Every day! For your 500 dollars.

Second SIM card for the view

Not only does the device have a weak cellular network signal, but there is practically no cellular network on the second SIM card. As soon as you enter the room, the smartphone falls into a deep vacuum. And it doesn’t accept calls, and it only takes a few minutes to make a call from it.

Thank you that at least the first SIM card works on EDGE. But we must pay tribute, the system honestly shows the complete absence of sticks in the notification line.

Oleophobic coating - none

I once read another article by Eldar Murtazin, where he talked about how the oleophobic coating wears off after a month, so there’s no need to have any illusions about this. I thought this was complete stupidity, because I had never encountered anything like this. On any smartphone, even a budget one, oleophobia lasts for at least six months. That's what I thought until I started using a Samsung smartphone.

Really! The protective coating on the glass of my S7 Edge peeled off after three weeks. In three! Weeks! Karl!!!1

And in your opinion, this is a flagship smartphone, which last year was sold for 50 thousand rubles apiece?

But there are also advantages...

What's good about the S7 Edge is its cameras. He still shoots great! Very cool!

It was only in 2017 that many manufacturers caught up with the quality of photography and video that Samsung had already had for a year. This is what I remember primarily about Huawei and them. By the way, it’s a good device for such and such a price. Unless, of course, the design bothers you.

Moreover! Many competitors from the Chinese market still cannot match the photo quality of our seven. Including Xiaomi with their Mi6, and, oh my God, even . Yes, now I will cause righteous anger among fans of the brand, but this is true.

And these are not just words. Take a look at the photos I managed to get from the camera of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.

The only ones that beat my smartphone are Google Pixel and . In the latter case, again Google intervened. This is not advertised anywhere, but I am sure that the Taiwanese, without Google, would not be able to make such a camera, or rather, write such advanced software for it.

I also really like Samsung Pay. The contactless payment system works even with old terminals, which no competitor can boast of. Well, maybe... True, there is one BUT - the service only works in South Korea, and even then, not everywhere.

All! This is where the advantages of the smartphone end.

Brief summary

Let's summarize what I wasn't happy with about the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge:

he slows down
buggy almost the same as the “Chinese” for 150 bucks
Poor cellular signal
has a very poor oleophobic coating (erases after 3 weeks)
quickly loses value - then you won’t sell it

All these disadvantages greatly outweigh one single advantage - the excellent quality of photo and video shooting. That's why I sold my S7 Edge. Now again “in active search”.

Last year, Samsung released the unsuccessful Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, which eventually had to be withdrawn from sale due to very serious problems with the battery. This led to the fact that the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphone, released at the end of 2015, remained the flagship of its line for another year. Only this year it gave up its role to the Galaxy Note 8 model, which is obscenely expensive in Russia - 69,990 rubles.

However, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphone, even now, two years after its release on the market, shows its best side, which all its owners will definitely confirm. It is capable of taking stunning photos, delivering excellent sound quality, and also delighting with its beautiful AMOLED screen, impressive battery life and other equally interesting features, one of which is the NFC module. Thanks to the latter, the phone can be used to pay for purchases through the Samsung Pay payment system, which has been operating in Russia for more than a year.

Most recently, Samsung discontinued the Galaxy Note 5, concentrating all its efforts on the newer model, so Russian stores are trying to sell out all stocks of this mobile device as soon as possible, and for this they have reduced the price of the phone. Due to this, over the past few weeks, the 2015 flagship has fallen dramatically in price in Russia, thanks to which it is already more than twice as cheap as the Galaxy Note 8 model.

The Galaxy Note 5 smartphone is now being sold in Russia at a price of 25,890 rubles, and several colors are available for buyers to choose from - gold, black and a couple more that are exclusive. For this amount of money, the buyer gets his hands on a mobile device equipped with a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels (QHD), an 8-core Exynos 7420 processor with a clock frequency of 2.1 GHz, and a Mali graphics accelerator. T760MP8, 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of permanent flash memory, 16 MP main and 5 MP front cameras, as well as a 3000 mAh battery with support for fast charging.

Otherwise, this device boasts a microUSB connector, the usual 3.5 mm audio jack for connecting headphones, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 LE and NFC modules, as well as a stylish glass case, a fingerprint scanner in the Home button and a proprietary stylus S Pen. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 will never be cheaper in Russia, since now all Russian stores sell it almost at cost. Then, at the beginning of 2018, it will simply disappear from sale, as all buyers will have bought it.