Samsung Quality Control Failures Force Me to Switch to Pixel
I have been using a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE for over three years now, and although the phone is generally well, I no longer plan to stay part of the Samsung ecosystem. It’s time to change, and after having deliberated for months, I made the decision to go to one of the Pixel 10 models. This is why.
I am disappointed with the quality control of Samsung
I bought my S21 FE in August 2022 and I had not noticed any problem for a while.
But about a year and a half in possession of the handset, I noticed a gap formed between the rear panel and the rest of the device. A quick web search later, and I realized that it was a known defect in this model, some owners noticing the back to take off less than a year after buying the phone.
Worse still, it seems that several other Samsung phones suffer from the same problem, which is massive monitoring of quality control which should not occur even once, even less on several models. However, we are there.
The kicker is that I have the Snapdragon 888 version of the phone, which should not heat up as much as the Exynos 2100 variant. I do not play games on my phone, do not record long videos or excessive television shows. In other words, I do nothing that would result in the excessively examination of the device. Despite this, the back of my phone began to separate from the rest of the body, and over time, the problem is only worsening.
As you can see, the adhesive securing the rear panel to the rest of the phone almost completely failed. The rear panel is attached to the rest of the case only at the top and bottom, the sides will take off completely.
To add the insult to the injury, I asked myself for the local Samsung service to repair it, and they wanted to take care of reapplying the adhesive, even if my phone was still under warranty at the time. I refused to send the phone to be repaired and I decided to travel it for a few more years, then abandon Samsung for good. In other words, unless Liquid permeates the phone, which has not yet happened.
At least, I did not encounter the infamous green line problem …
Bloatware is still a problem on Samsung phones
Although Google messages are becoming the default email application on Samsung phones some time ago, and despite the fact that new Samsung phones have not included the Samsung Messages application for over a year now, my Galaxy S21 Fe has always has Samsung messages installed without any option to delete the application. Even the Android 15 update which has won this may not delete Samsung messages. The application is still there, and I cannot delete it, deactivate it only.
Samsung Messages is not the only useless Samsung application that resides in my application drawer. Samsung News, Samsung Store and Gaming Hub, three applications that I have never even opened, also resident on my phone, and I cannot delete any. The Android 15 update installed additional Bloatware, such as Ar Doodle and Deco Pic, that, fortunately, I was able to delete.
The phone hosts even more Bloatware that is not found in the application drawer. Tins like Samsung Pass, Galaxy Avatar and Avatar Editor (why would I need them?), Bixby and his entourage, Galaxy Themes, link to Windows, OneDrive (this one haunts me on my Android phone!), Samsung Cloud, Samsung Checkout and Samsung Kids.
I am sure that I have neglected, but even this (probably) incomplete list is worrying. Each of these applications occupies a storage space, and although I can deactivate most of the bloatware infecting my phone, I cannot delete it, which is crazy to see in 2025. I thought that Samsung reduced the amount of Bloatware that it piled up in its phones in relation to the famous days of the key, but I suppose that I was bad.
I was jaded by a UI
Although I cannot use Touchwiz for more than half an hour when I play with the galaxy phones of my friends of yesteryear, I find a user interface more than decent. I like his design, his performance and the selection of features, but after three years, I became jaded by him.
The recent update of the 7.0 user interface was not as transformative as I hoped. In fact, I don’t like the majority of the new features he has introduced.
The bar now is at best Meh (I don’t like having to press for reading controls when listening to music instead of having the available controls directly on the locking screen); I have been using a vertical application drawer for years thanks to Good Lock, and I have deactivated the functionality that separates the notifications and quick parameters as soon as I could because it adds only additional steps to access one or the other instead of being able to access the two with a single scanning down.
In other words, I was bored on a user interface. It is generally, but the recent series of new features does not do so for me at all. I fear that Samsung continues to introduce new changes only for change, not because new features really improve the overall experience of using a user interface. It’s time to move on.
I finally want to try the pixel experience
I designed the decision to move away from Samsung a few days after updating Android 15 and one UI 7. Since then, I had thought about the brand to kiss for months. The choice finally resisted nothing and Google, but after the release of the Nothing Phone 3, I decided to obtain the Pixel 10 base or the Pixel 10 Pro.
Do not get me wrong, the Nothing Phone 3 is a fairly accomplished Android handset with a unique look and a clean and original user interface. However, what finally influenced me to Google and Pixel was the battery in charge of functionalities (mainly) linked to the software that Pixel phones bring to the table.
I like what Google does with the user interface, the way it regularly brings new features to its phones independently of large Android updates in the form of features drops, and the fact that Pixel phones are the first to obtain new versions of Android. I want to try Pixelsnap, the first appropriate Magsafe alternative on an Android phone, and to know if all these AI features are on the left and right are worth it or not (probably not, but we will see).
There is also the fact that the G5 tensor is made on the 3 NMC process node of TSMC, which should lead to better thermal performance. I had the opportunity to play with a Pixel 8 Pro, and Boy, that this thing would become hot after only a few minutes of recording the 4K images. This does not bother me the reduced performance compared to the SOC Snapdragon, because I do not play games on my phone, and the overall performance and responsiveness remain almost perfect even on the combined of older pixels.
And well, if I find myself disappointed by the Pixel, I can sell it and buy a Nothing 3 phone without spending more money because it is more affordable than even the Pixel 10 base model. I have been on Android since early 2010, but in one way or another, I did not have Google phone; It’s time to change this.
There is one thing that I will lack of my current Samsung phone
Now, I don’t really like the Samsung applications ecosystem, but the company has one of the best applications I have ever used, Good Lock.
My Samsung S21 Fe was the first phone I did not use a personalized launcher, because Good Lock contains an extremely powerful collection of personalization options. Thanks to Good Lock, I changed the layout of my home screen, personalized icons, played with the arrangement and design of the application drawer, and I refined my phone during the three years of possession.
By far, the most precious characteristic of Good Lock is part of its sound assistant module which allowed me to modify the steps of the volume cursor to increase (or decrease) the volume by only 2%, corresponding to the granularity of the Windows volume control, allowing me to define the perfect volume level when you use headphones. While the Pixel peripherals have 25 steps of volume in total, it is still only half of what I use on my current phone (50 steps in total). I am slightly worried that the 25 stages of the pixel do not cut it, but we will see.
The only thing to do now is to decide which Pixel 10 model to get. The Pixel 10 base looks like a solid option, but I don’t like the fact that its camera sensors are a downgrading compared to Pixel 9, despite a telephoto lens. I will have to check more photos comparisons to decide, but right now, I am going to the Pixel 10 Pro. Whatever the choice, I can’t wait to finally use a Google phone; It has long been expected.
