Samsung is by far the world’s most popular Android smartphone maker, but it has struggled with success with its flagship Galaxy S phones in recent years. Its sales fell a bit last year with the Galaxy S10, and numbers fell with the Galaxy S20 2020.
Meanwhile, Apple has reportedly recorded pre-sale numbers for the iPhone 12 that more than doubled last year’s mobile. It is clear that Samsung could learn from Apple. We present five ideas that Samsung could steal from the iPhone 12.
1. Realistic flagship price
While you can spend $ 1,509 / MXN $ 35,499 on a new iPhone 12, that’s the price of the Pro Max plus premium with 512 GB of storage. If you don’t want to spend that much, the cheaper versions are just as good. You don’t miss a thing with the $ 1,159 / MXN $ 27,499 iPhone 12 Pro, and the non-Pro models are almost as powerful.
On the other side is Samsung. The Galaxy S20 Ultra launched with a starting price of $ 1,359 / MXN $ 29,999 earlier in the year, and the cheaper versions of the S20 offered a much less impressive camera setup.
And what about the Note 20 Ultra at $ 1,299 / MXN $ 33,999? To save you some money, you could go for the non-Ultra version with a worse camera, simpler build, no SD card slot for $ 959 / MXN $ 26,999. Do you see the problem?
Consumers shouldn’t feel like they’re making a mortgage payment to get the “right version” of Samsung’s latest phone. Apple’s phones are objectively expensive, but they can be a bit cheaper than Samsung’s.
It’s an easy thing to fix, and we’ve seen Samsung move in the right direction before by eliminating the Samsung tax. The S20 Fan Edition model is pretty much as good as other S20 phones, but it costs just $ 650 / MXN $ 16,999. That’s a realistic price tag for the cheapest model in its flagship lineup, like Apple’s entry-level iPhone 12 mini.
2. Better build quality
I’m saying as someone who strongly prefers Android over iOS and has been writing why for years for a decade: the iPhone 12 has the best build quality of all the others. smartphone. The only Android that comes close is Samsung, but not close enough.
When you pick up an iPhone 12, you can see all the attention to the smallest details. The meeting between glass and metal, the touch of the buttons, the aluminum of the Pro models, the haptic precision … all are a tribute to quality industrial design.
Samsung mobiles give a good feeling, but not so good. Even the $ 809 / MXN $ 19,999 iPhone 12 mini is an incredibly luxurious item. Can the same be said with any Android mobile at this price?
A $ 1,299 / MXN $ 33,999 Samsung phone like the Note 20 Ultra should look the same premium than an iPhone, but this is not currently the case. We know Samsung has the capacity and the money to compete with Apple if they want to.
Just look at the Z Fold 2’s hinge, which is an engineering marvel. It is time for them to focus on these skills when creating phones that are both feature rich and physically beautiful, like the iPhone 12.
3. Stop participating in the megapixel race
Samsung overfitted the Galaxy S20 Ultra with a 108 MP main camera that should have set it apart from any competitor, but it’s nothing special. And it only remained decent when it reappeared on the Note 20 Ultra. Samsung focused so much on its specs that it ruled out other improvements to the camera.
Instead, the iPhone 12 Pro has a 12 MP main camera, and in most cases it manages to take better photos. Not everyone agrees, but after trying both, I think the iPhone 12 generally takes better photos than a high-end Samsung phone.
The megapixel race ended years ago, and Apple is proof of that, but Samsung seems to have misunderstood. Now the important thing is the computer processing of the images.
Apple’s Deep Fusion Engine has dramatically improved image quality, and Samsung can’t compete with Equipment. It’s time to focus on what’s really worth it.
4. Remove the charger (listen to me!)
Apple decided to take the AC adapter out of the box on its latest phones and, despite the controversy, it was a good idea, something Samsung should copy. This would end up being a good idea despite being a minor inconvenience for the customer.
By taking the charger out of the box, Samsung would save a bit of money, of course, but it would also reduce its production of e-waste. Samsung would make fewer chargers and the mobile packaging would be smaller and more efficient to ship.
You’d be surprised how much smaller the iPhone 12’s case is than previous devices that came with the charger.
Anyone who has used an Android phone for years will have a battery of USB-C chargers, and unlike other Android manufacturers, Samsung hasn’t put all of its efforts into improving its charging speeds.
Now that USB-C is more and more common, we should stop expecting our phones to give us this. Equipment. There are some great adapters from other brands that offer USB Power Delivery, and they’re surprisingly inexpensive.
So no, you don’t necessarily need the charger that came in the box.
5. make a really good little mobile
Cell phones are getting bigger and bigger, but there are a surprising number of people who want small cell phones. Now they also want them to be good.
There has been a lot of buzz around the $ 809 / MXN $ 19,999 iPhone 12 mini. This device has a 5.4 “screen in a body quite similar to the 4” iPhone 5. Plus, it has roughly the same specs as the $ 1,159 / MXN $ 27,499 iPhone 12 Pro, including the blazingly fast A14 chip.
Samsung should follow Apple’s lead and give people what they want. Small mobiles are less popular than large ones, so they tend to have fewer features and lower specs.
Apple can offer us a small mobile premium because you have a strong supply chain and can add a model that doesn’t cost a fortune. Samsung is the only Android manufacturer at this level. If anyone can make a good compact cell phone with Android, it’s Samsung.
You might also be interested in the comparison published on Macworld.es: iPhone 12 vs. Android.
Original article published in PCWorld US.
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