Hello Samsung, Please tell me why do you hate us so much???
I have been your smartphone user since the days of S2, in the past the experience was smooth and when there is a new release, you think of upgrading but these days I am rather thinking of switching brands.
For some of us, the decision to upgrade is made after 2 big steps: 1. Experience with the current model 2. Advertised improvement on the new model.
Here is basically where the problem is: a) You are removing useful features to favor carriers' needs.
i) Factory unlocked phones "U1" came with ESIM features disabled, the primary reason for choosing this particular phone was dual sim capability. Now after purchase, I learned that these features are only enabled through certain carriers. ii) After S7, the feature for SMS block by phrase is removed, resulting in me receiving 20+ spam SMS daily. In the S7 days, I could just use this feature and filter SMS that I don't need, nowadays I have to tell people to avoid sending me an urgent SMS because I can easily miss them due to having an inbox full of useless SMS. iii) Now primary sim is primary for all (SMS, Calls, and data) making the secondary sim useless. In the past, it was easy to select which sim does what which was very useful. On top of that, the dial now makes sure you click more than 2 buttons for calling a number using a secondary sim.
b) Additional unnecessary forced notifications. While a secure folder is useful, I don't need to put a password every time the phone boots even when I clearly don't want to interact with any application inside the secure folder. Those notifications are very annoying and pose a security risk as they create a situation for a user to access a secure folder even when they primarily do not need to. I can make your phone switch off then there is a chance of you exposing your secure folder credentials.
c) Hardware failures. Both, my S4 and S7 are basically still functional only with expected reduced battery life (both) but the N20 has a water drop (coming and going away randomly), and recently a pink vertical line on the display came without even dropping a phone or exposing the phone in harsh condition, the line just magically appeared while texting.
While I appreciate the improvement you are making in dex, camera, and others. I want to remind you that the dialer app and the SMS app are the basic applications that a phone user is going to need and will probably use most of the time and so far what you are doing is making these 2 apps hard to use. While you are treating us this way, your competitors are growing, and improving the user experience of their customers. Sometimes it is easy to attract people to you and very hard to keep them.
For the first time in my life, I am seriously considering moving away from your smartphones. I have minimum expectations of you addressing anything I mentioned.
Same problem, no damage to phone, yet after the latest update vertical pink lines suddenly appeared. My phone is only a year and a few months old, so only recently out of warranty. I've used Samsung for years but now I'm forced to consider other options if the quality of their products is going downhill with no corporate acknowledgment of their defects.
