baka-dubbs

 

Bottom line: if you're buying a "5G" phone now or in the near future you are a) paying too much for a phone that will give you very ordinary LTE performance, b) paying too much in the future for "5G" service that might not even be a noticeable speed increase for you compared to advanced LTE, and c) isn't going to be available in most cities for years.

You and I agree on many points, I wouldn't buy anything with this first generation modem.  However, I beleive main difference with 5G sounds like massive latency reduction and more bandwidth for you spectrum.  If those are both achieved, it allows for potential advances outside of phone industry, more bandwidth availablility(ie, less congestion) as well as becoming a potential last mile broadband service.  So while I wouldn't hesitate to buy a phone right now without 5G, later this year or earlier next year when the X55 modem starts showing up I would rather "future proof", as I tend to hang on to my phones for around 3 years.

avon b7 said:

wallym said:

I think 5g is much further out than anyone thinks.  I remember 4g took forever to rollout.  5g requires so many more towers/access points, which means physically going and doing things, that it’s going to be a while before it means anything to anyone.

Industry thinking is the exact opposite. That 5G will roll out faster than any previous generation (government issues permitting).

Agree with the fast roll out, but this is the wrong modem and wrong type of 5G.  the X50 modem(from my understanding) only allows for the millimeter wavelength 5G bands.  This gives you the massive speeds, at the cost of terrible range(I think max of 200 yards).  The X55 modem I believe supports other bands, and will allow for much greater range(at the cost of some of the speed) and allows for building penetration.  I personally wouldn't buy a device until at least the X55 that comes out later this year, which supports both mm wavelength and the sub 6ghz bands, so you can get wider coverage and the ridiculous speeds in certain areas.  Basically, the currently available modem does support all 5G, and is already outdated.

Edit:  So, looking at Qualcomm's website, the X50 does support sub 6 bands, but not completely.  Its has half the supported standards of the X55, doesn't allow 5G/4G spectrum sharing and doesn't integrate the LTE modem.  IE, the X50 looks like a half baked product per Qualcomms own website(comparison towards the bottom)

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon-x50-5g-modem

corrections said:

baka-dubbs said:

 

So Apple isn't exactly endorsing Tizen as a platform. I've used a series of Samsung televisions over the past decade, including new Tizen models, and while their hardware is fine, their software is terrible: inscrutable UI, frustrating controls, and features that actually crash and require a reboot. A piece by Alexis C. Madrigal for the Atlantic agreed: "smart TVs are dumb."

Quite a bit of Hyperbole here.  Both Tizen and WebOS have some of the simplest controls going.  Press a button it brings up an app scroller, scroll left and right to select your app, done.  If that is "inscrutable", you should not be writing for a tech site.  I personally have a Vizio P series with an Apple TV 4K hooked up, and I would argue that Apples new remote is more "challenging" then Samsung's current setup.  My 70 year old parents have no issue navigating their Samsung QLED tv.  I get that you are anti anything thats not Apple, but at least stick to realistic criticism, like Samsung forcing adds through Tizen that are nearly impossible to deactivate, which was a main driver of me not buying them.  Or potential OLED burn in on LG's high end models if you frequently play games with HUD.   

EDIT:  As a side note, I agree that smart tv's are dumb(which is why I use an Apple Tv).  The "smart" portion of the tv typically doesn't age as well as the display, and consumers would be much better off with an Apple TV/Android Tv/Roku/ Fire TV, something they can upgrade at much less expense than the entire display.

Using Netflix on a Samsung TV is absolutely ridiculous. You have a layer of apps, then drop downs of options that open up other drop downs of horizontal menus, and then a vertical side menu of essential navigation controls that is mysterious and ridiculous to navigate. It's one of the stupidest things to exist. The other stuff is even worse, and I wouldn't bother trying to figure any of it out. It's like Samsung is just holding the door open for Apple to walk in.

Add in the forced ads and apps that popup and crash, which you can't delete because somebody is paying Samsung to force their installation, and yes, your parents deserve better. 

Samsung didn't develop the Netflix app, Netflix did.  They enable options to quick launch certain things, but you can literally just scroll to their app, click on it and you are in the app.  Yes, there are additional options available, but navigating isn't hard.  I am not arguing that the Samsung ecosystem is a good one, I am simply saying their UI is fairly intuitive. 

I was ready to break the AppleTV remote until I finally read about tapping the edges of the touchpad to move a single app/line.  Before that I was scrolling past everything and it was driving me crazy.  Every UI/interface is going to have learned behaviors that seem unintuitive until you are used to it. 

Soli said:

MacPro said:

Perhaps this is in anticipation of 5G interconnectivity and they will showcase a wide range of products from refrigerators to smartphones, all made by Samsung all communicating.  That's something Apple won't be able to do as easily.  

If they stock their store with large items like home applicancs I think they’ll fail. Those items are large, dont sell in great numbers, aren’t a major draw like CE, and would have logisticsl issues in a typical store like Apple uses.

i can see Samsung noting they have TV and home appliances, but I’d wager the focus will be on smartphones, headphones, tablets, PCs, and other CE.

Agreed, from warehousing, displaying and delivery, large appliances and even TV's take up a lot of space and not everyone has a car/truck that can fit a 65 inch tv.  They can currently rely on retailers for delivery and installation, so unless they partnered with a 3rd party I don't see that happening.  I think it will be focused on smaller CE devices.  I don't think they will provide the same level of support/repair capability that you get in an Apple Store, which leaves me wondering how they plan to differentiate from Best Buy, Fry's or any other big box store.

Anecdotal experience.  I have an Galaxy S8 through my work, and its not a bad phone.  Nice hardware, but it just falls short in some key ways.  The Bixby button is flat out terrible and you can't truly deactivate or reassign it and battery degradation and performance have really became an issue(device is close to two years old).  I would say it does 90% of things at a high level, but its just missing some of that final polishing I feel like you get with an Apple product. 

I'm officially old now, the idea of trying to type without tactile keys sounds horrific.  I would understand for a future ipad if they wanted to make it foldable, but I do not want a MacBook that doesn't have a legit keyboard.   Now if they could do a near seemless design with some form of raised keys built into the display(which I don't think is anywhere near feasible atm), then I would be interested.  But for my use case, on a work machine, I want a physical keyboard with raised keys.  I type slower on laptop keyboards with less depth as is.