Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsAndroid fan never using Samsung again
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2021
After a 7 year hiatus from Android, I was excited to return. I "upgraded" from an iPhone 6s to this one (Z Flip3 5g), and was very excited to have a new, working, phone.
Issues:
1. Bloatware!!! This is the reason I'm returning the Flip3 in favor of keeping my "ancient" 6s; Samsung sells a $1000+ dollar phone, and offensively installs over 100 apps (this is a lower bound; see "remove flip3 bloatware" on Google for more info on just HOW bad it is!) and libraries which shouldn't be on the phone. The phone comes with "Samsung TV Plus", OneDrive, Microsoft office (but no subscription?), LinkedIn, "Samsung Free", the list goes on and on. If you uninstall these apps, they reappear after a few minutes (!!!). Some of the more concerning of these is "space saving" apps which you can't uninstall, which have access to everything on your phone, and which have been observed sending sensitive information over regular http (ie plaintext; viewable to anyone) to the "360" company in China. This company is notorious in China for data misuse, and none of the data sent has anything to do with "saving space"??
Quite frankly, this is disgusting and egregious. I gave you over a thousand dollars for you to give brilliantly engineered state of the art hardware, and then ruin it for me by trying a few extra bucks on the side?!
2. This isn't a "flip" phone. You can't actually FLIP the phone open or closed! The hinge is quite stiff and requires two hands, or CAREFULLY, one hand. I worry about dropping it when folding it open or closed, and I'm a 6'2" guy with large hands. Finally, I don't understand why the phone folds?? Folded closed, it's awkwardly thick in my pocket even without a case. You can do some cool multitasking, but the controls for that are clunky.
I love Samsung as a hardware company; I closely follow their ingenuity in display manufacture, I follow the chips they produce, and I admire the technology they create, but what they're doing with their phones is an insult to the customer, full stop.
It's a shame too, as the hardware and engineering in this phone is incredible, but Samsung makes sure you'll never get a chance to enjoy it.