Samsung just needs to shut the fuck up. They're worse than Apple by a fucking mile. They make fun of them for something then turn around and do it next month. Fuck off with this shit. They removed the headphone jack, the charger from the box and the SD card slot. Samsung sucks more than Apple.
And you can't unlock their boot loaders. You must suffer their changes to Android, their assistant, their UI, their spyware, and bloatware. You don't own the device.
Maybe I should've specified that it was unlocked via the official "OEM Unlock" switch provided by Samsung. Yes, there are Samsung phones that can be unlocked, though you're right, many cannot be (usually US versions).
I'm going out on a limb here and guessing that Samsung is shipping two wildly different software packages to americans and europeans because none of what you stated is a problem on my end (aside maybe spyware)
Yes, and up to not long ago, also completely different hardware (exynos vs snapdragon). US samsung devices usually cannot be bootloader unlocked. Rest of the world usually can. No idea why.
Maybe like apple, it promised to give your data to the US government and you can probably bypass that if you unlock your bootloader. It is one thing to bend to the goverment pressure but it is a whole another level of fucked up level of shit to take away any means of escaping from it looks at apple and samsung
You can root/jailbreak both apple and samsung, but that would massively downgrade the phone security and make it vulurnable to hackers. So that must be avoided if you have bank apps, creditcards, or important and sensitive data on phone (who doesn't)
Apple copy Samsung too, Apple just has good marketing and gives random names to standard tech to make it sound like its something amazing you should care about.
Samsung wanted to sell wireless buds too, so they also removed the 3.5mm port. At least their SD card slot stuck around for a bit longer. They could release a true flagship if they wanted with a 3.5mm port and an SD card slot, but why would they when millions of people buy their phones each year anyway?
Both are shitty in their own ways, but at least Samsung is Android.
Is removing the charger from the box such a bad thing? I've already got a box full of them in addition to the ones scattered around the house and with how many electronic devices we use I doubt that is a uncommon position to be in
That was a good change. I'd argue even removing the cable would be a good change. Less e-waste (even though releasing phones every year is e-waste enough).
The bad thing was Apple then selling a charger at extortionate prices, you didnt have to buy theirs though.
Xiaome did remove the charger from some of their phones, but they offered it as a free addition on their website for those who need it. For fucking free. I would have been ok with it if Apple or Samsung did that.
Apple's issue was they timed it around a shift to USB-C chargers. Their argument was everyone already had plenty of chargers, but no one had the new ones (well, some people did obviously but they hadn't gotten it with a previous iPhone). That's why they cop so much flak over it.
I agree that conceptually it's a good change, they just picked a bastard of a time to do it (one could argue that was deliberate of course).
It is a bad thing as it happened just at a transitional period in chargers. If it was just another USB A connector, then it wouldn't have been an issue. But we are now in the transition of USB C chargers and most people don't have a "box of them".
Newer devices are advertising that they have ever faster charging options, but these need the newer USB C connectors to reach these advertised speeds, which as I mentioned, most people don't already have. So you are stuck buying another thing to use what they were advertised as having.
The problem is, these new phones often have new speed charging protocols that only work best with their own charger, basically forcing you to pay more to get the charger if you want to utilize speed charging unless you already have a new-ish charger from that manufacturer.