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Thanks for joining us here in our new home, so happy to have big names help to validate it!
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the watches, it feels like the 5 was kind of an incremental upgrade, and it's looking like 6 might be similar, anything that's not captured on the spec sheet that makes it a worthwhile upgrade?
What are you thinking of upgrading from? I've seen a lot of people say a similar thing about the Fold 5 versus the Fold 4 but it's worth noting that most people don't upgrade their devices every year so the target audience likely isn't people like us.
For sure! I'm actually just in the market for watches in general, I love the ticwatch dual display (but don't love that my tichwatch pro 3's software is.. collecting dust on the proverbial shelf..) but the samsung watches always seemed so spiffy and clean! So you'd say overall we're still pretty incremental then in terms of meaningful changes from the watch 4?
I also actually daily drive the TicWatch Pro 3! I know Mobvoi is working on a Wear OS 3 update for the watch, but it's still in private beta and probably won't roll out soon for regular users.
I'm personally interested in the Watch 6 because it runs Wear OS 4 based on Android 13 out of the box and thus has access to a bunch of Wear OS apps I currently can't get on my TicWatch lol.
Questions to both (or either)
Does any device presented today feel like a meaningful upgrade? I can't remember the last time everything was so incremental. Even the bigger outer screen on the Flip 5 is just that, bigger screen. It's still a limited set of widgets, only this time bigger. How much difference does that make?
Is the s-pen case for the Fold 5 actually something that's usable? Or does it make the whole device an unwieldy brick?
Does the dock with up to 4 recent apps on the Fold 5 feel more useful and convenient, or rather overwhelming and cluttered?
What color variants do you see there for all those devices? Which do you like the most?
Through the Multistar Good Lock module you'll be able to run any app on the cover screen, so I would say the Flip 5 cover screen is indeed a big upgrade. (If you're the kind of person to use Lemmy then you're probably comfortable with installing/sideloading Good Lock.)
Didn't get to get this but will ask tomorrow if we can get our hands on it
My first impression is that the taskbar felt cluttered with 4 recents apps but fortunately in settings you can choose how many recents to show.
Didn't really get a chance to appreciate the colors, sorry! Was more focused on stuff like the hinge, crease, software, etc
Appreciate the answers, and can definitely understand colors were the least of your interest haha. But since you did mention "hinge, crease, software", I'm going to ask about that (if you don't mind). In MKBHD's video I noticed the foldable a don't really open fully flat. More like 179.5Β°. Is that camera distortion, or maybe a faulty device that Marques had a hands-on with? Or is it just a drawback of the hinges with teardrop creasing display, just like is the case with the Pixel Fold?
It definitely looks like it opens completely flat to me, like 180 degrees.
Would love to see a detailed response especially to #1.
My first question for @FragmentedChicken is, are you able to comment? Welcome to Lemdro.id!
Another question now, how do the hinges in the new foldables feel? We've had some good competition in that space so I'm hoping we see some refinement from Samsung this year. Which of the two would you most like to daily drive?
I'm also curious about this. I wonder whether there seem to be any noticeable durability improvements as well.
It's going to be hard to answer this based only on a 1 hour demo period (split between all the different devices) but it's something we can answer after getting to use the devices for a bit.
I hear the foldables are now also flavoured and lickable! Please confirm when you get the chance.
Wtf my phone won't turn on anymore after I licked it wat do?
Haven't had the Fold 5 for long enough to really comment on the hinge durability but I'm not worried about hinge right now though.
As for which device I want to daily drive, I'm most looking forward to using the Z Fold 5 since I do a lot of work on my phone and I think I'll take advantage of the multitasking capabilities.
Are there still pre-applied screen protectors on the foldables and can you still see the edge of the protector?
Hmm didn't check for that on the demo units but I'll check the unit I'll get and will ask about the other device as well.
I don't see a screen protector on the outer display but there is one on the inner display (Fold 5)
Iβm really interested in the tab s9 series. Anything stand out to you such as performance or screen quality? I really want to get another Android tablet to replace my old tab s6 but I really want something more performant for the money.
We will probably have to wait until review units go out for performance, but I'm interested in hearing about their first impressions on touch responsiveness and display quality!
This is what I'm interested in too. I have a tab S7+ but would prefer a smaller form factor with a great screen.
Will Samsung ever rethink Knox and allow custom roms without losing warranty coverage and negatively affect resale value? What about allowing banking apps to work again if you go back to the default rom?
Highly unlikely. The root/ROM community has always been a small niche - and these days, it's even smaller that it has ever been. Such a minor audience means nothing for Samsung.
It's pretty unfortunate. I'd love to see some regulations put into place that would ensure the option for unlockable bootloaders. North American devices are stick without the option in the first place :(.
Unlockable bootloaders aren't a big issue - you can buy devices with unlockable bootloaders in NA, depending on your carrier - the bigger problem these days is the likes of SafteyNet and KNOX, which makes it a pain to live with an unlocked bootloader. What we really need is a change in thinking that an unlocked bootloader doesn't necessarily mean a device is insecure, and instead of not giving the user a choice and locking them out, they should pass on the responsibility to the user. Eg, a banking app could make a user accept an agreement that the bank will not be held responsible for any hacking related losses etc, instead of straight up prevent the app from running. For this, Google needs to take the lead - they were the ones who introduced SafteyNet and caused this whole mess in the first place. Once Google takes the lead, Samsung and other manufacturers could follow, and the dev ecosystem will follow too. But I'm afraid it's all a bit too late now, the best one could do, as an individual, is to boycott apps which use the likes of SafteyNet, leave bad reviews, complain to the CEO etc, but all this is unlikely to have any impact, given that we root/ROM users are a small minority.
I should clarify I'm referring to Samsung and their flagships. I bought my S23 Ultra directly from Samsung Canada and unfortunately can't unlock the bootloader.
Why in some countries they sell their devices with unlockable bootloaders and in other countries they don't? I can't make sense of doing such a thing
It is worth mentioning that google does allow for re locking the bootloader on their Pixel line up on custom ROMs and unlike Samsung they did not put a fuse in the Pixels that explodes to permanently disable the device's TEE and its security hardware
Very very unlikely, don't get your hopes up.
It's an interesting question this and whether Samsung is willing to use GSI's / DSU.
Last time I checked that was a negative?
Most OEMs aren't willing to preload Google's AVB keys for their GSIs. DSU is only really supposed to be used by app developers (and even then most app devs don't know it even exists or use it) which is why most OEMs don't bother with it.
I highly doubt it unless there is constant pressure put on them to do so because Knox at this point has been set in stone, only a niche minority still discusses it (us) and talk about it
Is there anything that stands out about the new phones (performance/battery/interface) that makes them a clearly superior product compared to last year's models?
Would love to get that Tab S9, but it's way too expensive for my current budget.
Me too! With those specs it'd be better than my current laptop, but it's also probably twice as an expensive as my laptop