Analysts: Samsung's sales of high-end phones at their lowest levels yet

27 March 2017
Samsung's B and C teams had to save the day after the Galaxy Note7 dropped the ball.

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  • D
  • AnonD-1385
  • ri0
  • 30 Mar 2017

Anonymous, 29 Mar 2017He is wrong though. By lollipop release (one year after S5'... moreThe S5 screen trumps the S4 screen. It's sharper and brighter and also gives you better sunlight legibility.

The S5 with Lollipop may have not been very impressive performance wise (though I never really had a problem with it give for the call log getting slow in the long run) but Marshmallow is an excellent improvement and makes the S5 much faster than it ever was. Not to mention battery life.

The S5 simply outdoes the S4 with Marshmallow upgrade. The fingerprint under Marshmallow is a lot better too. You can swipe even faster before and the accuracy is much higher.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • JbI
    • 29 Mar 2017

    AnonD-1385, 29 Mar 2017To SAVOR: I totally agree with you. The S5 is superior o... moreHe is wrong though. By lollipop release (one year after S5's release) the phone was already dead slow and very much not flagship like. S4 lived two year with flagship like performance, its 1080p screen still looks excellent. S5 was the first bad flagship, S6 was downright worse though.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • JbI
      • 29 Mar 2017

      AnonD-1385, 29 Mar 2017Somebody said that the larger bezels in the S5 was due to t... moreThat's false . Sharp was doing water resistance with tiny bezels for years. It's cheap engineering.

        • k
        • kalpa108
        • rKa
        • 29 Mar 2017

        Samsung hi end devices are not selling? Could it be because they don't listen to their fans and customer?
        In a drive for sleek and waterproof they keep on annoying us by insisting on non changeable or replaceable batteries Why?
        Look at the billions saved had this simple battery option been there in the Note 7! Now looking towards previews of the Note 8 I see the same mistake. Incredible! EVERY NOTE and hi end Samsung phone I've used needs a battery replacement; this Note 4 is on its third battery now.
        I won't be replacing this phone with another top end Samsung until this option returns.
        Samsung- wake up!

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          • AnonD-1385
          • ri0
          • 29 Mar 2017

          Savor, 28 Mar 2017During their heyday, Sony was kinda overrated. I found Pana... moreTo SAVOR:

          I totally agree with you. The S5 is superior over the S4 even if the upgrades aren't plentiful like the S4 over the S3. The S5 surpasses the S6 and S7 as well in terms of features.

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            • AnonD-1385
            • ri0
            • 29 Mar 2017

            Anonymous, 27 Mar 2017Actually that's not a coincidence. S4 was the last top ... moreSomebody said that the larger bezels in the S5 was due to the water resistance. It's not much bigger compared to S4.

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              • AnonD-1385
              • ri0
              • 29 Mar 2017

              Anonymous, 28 Mar 2017S5 was where the downward spiral started. The first to upgr... moreI bashed the S5 before owning one. I learnt the hard way never to judge a book by it's cover.

              The S5 is an amazing device and the sales own went downhill that year due to the cheaper offerings from Chinese manufacturers with similar specifications. This was reported all over how could you miss it. I have used every one of the S series and the S5 is certainly the best and most feature rich. When the S2, S3 and S4 were selling like hot bread, the Chinese phones weren't mainstream yet.

              During the S5 era these cheaper offerings started popping up in everybody's faces. For many consumers they thought twice about spending $700 when they could basically get the same phone for half that price.

              The fingerprint sensor use to be tricky at first but Marshmallow made it a whole lot better.

              For the record there's an S5 with 3GB RAM it's called G906S.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • JbI
                • 28 Mar 2017

                Anonymous, 27 Mar 2017SONY is the King of Flagship beaSts!!! Buys a Sony cel... moreThis is true in neither sales, specs or general popularity of the brand. Only in tech sites do I find such a fervent support for Sony. I guess it's some paid campaign from Sony to turn around their bad sales years, still it doesn't make much sense to cheer for Sony even if you're paid for it. They're neither innovative, nor do they push any major envelope. They're quite conservative for an IT company, and despite their failing sales they keep on the same route.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • JbI
                  • 28 Mar 2017

                  Savor, 28 Mar 2017During their heyday, Sony was kinda overrated. I found Pana... moreS5 was where the downward spiral started. The first to upgrade things that matter less.

                  The camera upgrade was decent and worthwhile and possibly the gpu (for a handful), *but*

                  The fingertip sensor was bad and mostly a gimmick by that point
                  Not really waterprood. Splash proof, but S4 was actually that too in practice
                  Overclocked SD600 to SD801. Smallest SoC upgrade ever (previously were adding cores like crazy, often almost doubling performance) This only added 20% more in performance
                  The most important feature for every day performance (RAM) stayed the same.
                  Battery life was *actually* only a tiny bit better (software upgrades helped S4's)
                  Same screen (to be fair it was consuming less and had slightly better colors)

                  It also lost one-handedness that S4 was boasting about by adding considerably bigger bezels, effectively becoming the first trully big Galaxy S.


                  How disastrus S5 was was seen in both sales (first Galaxy S to sell less than its presecession by quite a bit)
                  And longevity (it's literally the Galaxy S that was trashed faster than any other, it became second rate in both performance and features just a year after its release, by 2 years it was so slow that you *had* to install AOSP Rom to make the performance sufferable).

                  Also it's the first galaxy to introduce the least used gimmick that Samsung ever introduced the heartbeat sensor. Literally just an extra component that only a strong minority uses.


                  S5 was clearly the start of the end no matter how you look at it (specs, longevity, sales). I am very surprised that anyone would defend it. It's when Samsung started cutting corners (it only became worse with S6) and people *immediately* took notice by "rewarding" them with less sales. It's not a matter of preferences either. It's right there, staring at your face , hard numbers (the specs, the sales, how fast it became irrelevant).

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                    • AnonD-654322
                    • f3d
                    • 28 Mar 2017

                    AnonD-227943, 27 Mar 2017Samsung,the next HTC.. Both fail to listen to their buyers... moreWrong Nokia died but cause no one wants to use a tscreen ex Nokia CEO

                      • S
                      • Savor
                      • Ibx
                      • 28 Mar 2017

                      Anonymous, 27 Mar 2017SONY is the King of Flagship beaSts!!! Buys a Sony cel... moreDuring their heyday, Sony was kinda overrated. I found Panasonic to be more durable. I know people who own Panasonic products from the 1990's that still works. Panasonic was more reliable generally than Sony.

                      Sony only became underrated thanks to Samsung (former B-player) surpassing them and making Sony the forgotten one. Nokia and Motorola was the Panasonic of mobile back then with super durable products.

                      I disagree with another poster that the S4 was the biggest update for the S-series. I believe the Galaxy S5 was better but was clearly underrated.

                      Snapdragon 600 to 801
                      Far superior battery life
                      ISOCELL technology
                      Heart rate monitor
                      Fingerprint scanner
                      Water/dust-resistance
                      No glossy, Hyperglaze plastic
                      Last to have removable battery

                      2014 was the year for Lollipop/Material Design, a significant Android update. Like the LG G5, the Samsung Galaxy S5 was simply maligned for its build quality and design but was far more practical in real life usage which went beyond the fancy promo shots.

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                        • Nautilis
                        • 39x
                        • 28 Mar 2017

                        Anonymous, 27 Mar 2017SONY is the King of Flagship beaSts!!! Buys a Sony cel... moreSony.....? Lol lol lol, You never go hack to the competition???

                        Well as I write this I'm using a Sony Z5, Yes it was to replace the S6 edge I had.
                        The Z5 is dull and boring and made of the finest grade plastic! For a Flagship at the time of purchase it was overpriced and it's depreciation in value was astronomical, 6 months after purchase it was worth a third of its market value!

                        Go back to the competition I hear you say to right I will! Bye bye Sony!

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                          • Anonymous
                          • v0q
                          • 28 Mar 2017

                          Sooner, the biggest treat for Apple would be the Chinese Phones. (e.g. Huawei,Mi,HTC)

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • uq5
                            • 28 Mar 2017

                            It's because samsung fans don't buy enough flagship..

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • JbI
                              • 28 Mar 2017

                              Someone Else, 27 Mar 2017The reasons why Samsung and other popular Android phone man... more1) This is nonsense. BlackBerry , Nokia, Ericsson , Motorola were all household names. They all went down, some harder than others. The tech industry is not soft like the clothing industry, it's the apex of human artifacts . You have to compete else you go down eventually. Iphones are actually good products for the amount of time they have been up , they are not just household names.

                              2) Chinese innovate more. Mi Mix alone posted three firsts in a single stroke. Oppo is innovating in the camera department for years (double front camera lately, used to have a back camera that turns into a front camera). ZTE had the live bezels, where you basically use the bezels in place of physical buttons. Plenty of companies adding mammoth batteries in relativEly tiny bodies which requires a lot of innovation... you're basically not paying attention, consumers do and high end sales of Chinese phones are actually on the rise (as opposed to Samsung's)

                              3) Lack of support is the only issue in the west. Not so in countries like India, Vietnam, even Russia lately. Brick and mortar stores are the past for sales though. Evidenced by the hype built around OnePlus phone even in the west. Once support comes overs in the west en masse, it's game over for the old players.

                              4) Samsung "flagships" don't sell because they're not really flagships. They're scarcely differentiating themselves these days. Samsung dropped the ball and is killing their very own cash cow. You can't gut the S series, yet that's exactly what they do by using dissapointing specs. Samsung built her reputation by being the best specs as opposed to Apple's "best software". They're trying to outApple, Apple. They will fail. Apple has the tradition of a software company, they'll always make wonders with software. A hardware company like Samsung has an almost opposite tradition. They picked the wrong fight to fight...

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                                • Anonymous
                                • PTc
                                • 27 Mar 2017

                                AnonD-1825, 27 Mar 2017And the downhill going to be hard and long. This really sho... moreReally shows the problem with android??? Only If you are company selling android phones. If you are buying a phone this is a massive benefit to the customer. It means there is way more competition so you have a lot more options and get better phones for cheaper.

                                  • S
                                  • Savor
                                  • Ibx
                                  • 27 Mar 2017

                                  JordanBaby, 27 Mar 2017HTC One M8 never received Nougat update. T-Mobile editors c... moreOk.

                                  Samsung is going down. That's good. Using four phones right now. Two on my hip and the other two inside the glove compartment. I go to a place to pick up food where it has BAD SIGNAL, and my Dasher app freezes with the S7 edge and One M7.

                                  The latter should be expected because it is ancient. I use the Pixel and it goes to the menu screen I need to view. I really don't care for sexy looking devices. These aren't expensive cars or women. We won't be making love to them if they have a beautiful design.

                                  Usability and reliability should be top priorities for practical users. I repeat, my Pixel and G5 can be ugly as sin to many folks here with hideous rear designs (which we hardly look at) and ugly bezels but their usability tops it for me. Fast, fluid, doesn't hang.

                                  Disgruntled S7 edge owner here. Don't understand the hype with curved displays or VR. Only planning to keep mine for water-resistant but hate the hanging and lag.

                                    I personally wouldnt take $800 or $900 and buy a Samsung. If I'm going to spend that much money I'm honestly better off with an iPhone. With apple you have actual stores you can go to and have your problems sorted out in the same day.

                                      Savor, 27 Mar 2017The og Moto X packed 4.7" and was smaller than 130mm in hei... moreHTC One M8 never received Nougat update. T-Mobile editors corrected this with the update
                                      http://www.theandroidsoul.com/breaking-htc-one-m8-is-getting-android-7-0-nougat-update-t-mobile-will-be-rolling-it-out-soon/

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • Ibx
                                        • 27 Mar 2017

                                        SONY is the King of Flagship beaSts!!!

                                        Buys a Sony cell people and you will Never goes back to the competition! Haha

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