Forced Degradation of User Experience in the A Series

[Neollu]

The A Series is Samsung's mid-range and budget smartphone lineup.
The A Series is sold at a lower price compared to the S Series, with differences in chipset performance, RAM, waterproofing/dust resistance, and display specifications, setting it apart from the S Series.

Recent A Series models have seen improved software optimization, making them generally an excellent lineup in terms of value for money.

However, there is a notable issue with the A Series.
Despite having sufficient chipset and GPU performance, the software intentionally hampers the user experience.

There are two representative examples: Lack of Real-Time Blur Support and Lack of High-End Animations.

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1. Lack of Real-Time Blur Support

Real-time blur is an effect where the background behind elements like the notification panel or quick settings becomes blurred in real-time to match the actual screen.

This real-time blur requires some GPU performance, and on devices with poor GPU performance, it could cause significant slowdowns. Using this as an excuse, Samsung has completely excluded real-time blur from the One UI installed on A Series devices.

However, the GPU performance of recent A Series models is sufficient to implement real-time blur.
Here’s how you can confirm this:

• On an A Series device, open the Google Messages app. While scrolling, tap the "New Message" icon in the bottom right corner. You’ll notice that the scrolling continues smoothly with the blur effect applied—this is real-time blur, and it’s incredibly smooth.
• Install the One UI 7 Calendar app on an A Series device, open it, and while scrolling, press and hold the "Add Event" button in the bottom right corner. Again, you’ll see the blur effect applied during scrolling, which works smoothly.

Additionally, when you install third-party apps that utilize real-time blur within the app, the effect operates smoothly without performance degradation.

Given that these devices are clearly capable of handling real-time blur, it seems unlikely that Samsung is unaware of this. Could it be a deliberate strategy to degrade the user experience on the A Series in order to push more sales of the S Series?

If real-time blur implementation becomes difficult during high RAM usage or intensive tasks, wouldn’t it be better to adopt a system where the blur effect is applied depending on resource availability, such as RAM and system load?

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2. Lack of High-End Animations

Anyone who has used both the S Series and A Series will notice this difference.
The animations on the S Series are high-end, while those on the A Series are low-end and fast.

The animations on the A Series are designed to consume minimal system resources. They don’t match the display’s corner curvature, run as quickly as possible, and use fewer frames.

While this might seem like it helps the phone run more smoothly, it doesn’t.
On the contrary, the attempt to reduce frames results in choppy visuals, giving the impression of lag. Additionally, because the animations don’t follow the display’s corner curvature, the system resources are consumed during the transformation from rectangular to rounded corners, causing further lag.

Even the GPUs equipped in models like the A35 or A55 (Quantum 5) are sufficient to handle high-end animations.
If performance concerns arise, wouldn’t it be better to at least give users the option to enable or disable these animations?

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The A Series is still a valuable Galaxy smartphone, purchased with money like any other device.
Rather than deliberately compromising the user experience to sell more S Series devices, wouldn’t it align better with the A Series’ identity and price point to maximize its potential within reasonable limits?

Honestly, cost-cutting has already been sufficiently applied in areas like bezels, displays, cameras, build quality, durability, communication, chipsets, and RAM.
It seems unnecessary to take this approach with the software as well.

[Oxford]

So what you're saying is that you want a Bentley for the price of a Chevrolet, is that correct? Budget phones are budget for a reason.

[Neollu]

The opinion is that, even though cost-cutting measures have already been sufficiently applied in other areas to adjust the price, it is not right to intentionally withhold support for features that are not inherently impossible to implement in the software, merely to degrade the user experience.

[realaud]

You seem to feel that Samsung decided to degrade *your* experience in order to force you into a higher priced model.  They did not degrade the experience; they made the higher end models a better experience for those willing to pay for the features they want.

[Userminime]

Bentley has ADDED features that Chevrolet doesn't. Doesn't mean that Chevrolet minimize their features because it's not a Bentley.

[realaud]

Correct. Just like Samsung saves the best ADDED features for the high-end phones.  Chevrolet can add the features and charge more, but then they wouldn't be the everyman's car. If you are on a budget, you get budget features and, naturally, stuff will be left out.  Samsung potentially can use the same hardware and processors in every single phone, but that does not mean that they will give all the features to all the phones. You want more features; you pay for them.  You want a faster processor; you pay for it. You want more storage; you pay for it. That's also why they have the S24, S24+ & S24 Ultra - features. There's the base model, the model with extras and the model with maximum features.

Don't buy a phone if it doesn't have/doesn't do what you want. If there are features you MUST have, pay for the upgrade. whose fault is it you didn't do the research before purchase?

[Userminime]

The customer wasn't asking for ADDED feature. I think he was addressing feature already on the phone. You're so busy playing defense you're not hearing him.

[realaud]

No, they were asking for an enhancement that is available on higher end phones, and claiming Samsung was deliberately degrading the experience. The feature may be available on the budget phone, but not at the quality they would like. An enhanced experience is reserved for the higher end only on any product. Doesn't mean their experience was degraded, just means the other experience was enhanced. There is a difference in meaning between the two statements. Literacy is a gift.

[realaud]

There is a reason they are budget minded phones.  You don't get all of the features of the high-end line.  One has to compare features when searching for a phone and decide what they are willing to give up for the price point they want.  I prefer not to pay for features I don't need or use.  If these features are important to *you*, you would have to decide if the price point of the higher end phones is worth paying to have these features available.  

[usermzeJaY3BsM]

Just because YOU think a feature SHOULD work with specific hardware does not mean it does.  Samsung tests the hardware with the software, and if a limitation is discovered, they will likely not support it on that device.  While the hardware might theoretically support something does not mean that it can support this with all of the other things going on at the same time.  You mention that the blurring works in a third-party program on the device, perhaps they implement it in a way Samsung is not.

You do not get to determine what features are and what features are not available on the devices Samsung creates, they do, and I will bet that this is done for a reason.