Hello, dear readers, today we will talk about systematic mistakes that companies have repeated from year to year.
I, like many of you, have a certain nostalgia for the old days. And although I do not think that smartphones were better before, the grass is greener, etc., nevertheless, from time to time I remember the actions of various companies. And so, today I decided to share with you my observations of their behavior and the mistakes they make.
Samsung
Samsung's two main concerns in the smartphone and tablet segment are design and TouchWiz. The design includes both body materials and the overall appearance. And TouchWiz was annoying with its slowdowns and cartoonish appearance.
In Galaxy S2, the problem with materials was solved, but in S3 / S4 they again returned to glossy plastic.
But Galaxy Note 3/4 and Galaxy S5 have finally got back covers made of practical plastic, stylized as leather.
As for the slowdowns, in the same S5 they finally disappeared, and TouchWiz has become more concise and simple.
In terms of design, the Alpha line can be called progress, I can only hope that the experience will be transferred from it to the new flagships. Plus, Eldar Murtazin noted that the new versions of TouchWiz will be even more similar to the stock Android 5.0.
HTC
Like Samsung, the company HTC is plagued by two issues – battery life and camera. Remember HTC Desire HD, a large (by those standards) smartphone with a funny-capacity battery – 1200 mAh! As the owner, I remember very well what tricks I had to go to in order to extend the battery life of the device: the brightness is no higher than 25%, all synchronizations are disabled, the screen is not turned on again.
The situation did not change over time, in HTC One X the battery life was just as mediocre, and although the camera began to shoot faster, its quality was still inferior to the same Galaxy S3. Moreover, there was also a drawback in the form of a missing memory card, because of which many did not consider the wonderful HTC One S as a purchase.
And now with the release of HTC One, the situation with battery life returned to normal, plus Sense began to work much faster, only the company took it into its head to experiment with ultrapixels. You all know the result very well.
Sony
I think many will agree with me that for a long time displays were Sony's problem. Although, it would seem, there should be no overlaps here – huge experience in the production of televisions, a large staff of engineers, etc. Indeed, in the homeland of the company, in Japan, the devices with displays were all right. But for some reason, models with screens of inferior quality were imported to Europe, remember the same Sony Xperia Z. A faded TN-matrix, which pretty much spoils the impression of an excellent smartphone. In addition to this, they began to save on the oleophobic coating, instead of gluing protective films, as a result, the finger slipped on the display much worse.
Fortunately, the situation is now gradually improving, in particular, the displays in the Xperia Z3, Z3 Compact and Z3 Compact Tablet are quite good for themselves.
LG
I do not often test the company's smartphones LG, so I turned to Artem Lutfullin. He noted that their smartphones often lack design. After a little thought, I agreed with Artem. Take, for example, the beautiful LG G2: thin body, small bezels around the display, great shell, but a glossy back and a complete lack of design. And even their Optimus UI, although functional, does not look very nice. In general, the original design is what is missing LG.
Conclusion
In the column, I did not write about Lenovo and Huawei, since it is still difficult to distinguish any negative trends from them, both companies have grown noticeably over the past couple of years, and all the roughness from the year are getting better a year. I don't see any point in talking about Apple either, here any commentator will immediately name their shortcomings (high price, iTunes, lack of background work, etc.).
However, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that all four companies are gradually improving. For example, HTC One M9 will already have a camera with a normal resolution, Samsung has finally taken care of the design of its devices and shells, and Sony has begun to install normal screens in their devices. And even LG periodically tries to do something with the design of models, look at their L-series, in my opinion, it looks good. I hope that 2015 will become a global work on mistakes for companies and we will see good competitive flagships, the choice between which will never be obvious to the buyer.