Samsung, like Apple and Google, needs to equip its midrangers with more powerful chips

Now that Apple and Google are using powerful chips in their mid-range and budget handsets, it looks like Samsung should do the same.

Note: This article may contain personal opinions of the author. So maybe not everyone agrees.

In 2016, Apple unveiled its first mid-range phone, the iPhone SE. If we want to judge this phone by the standards and standards of that time, no words other than "the best midrange in history" come to mind. At the time, the iPhone SE looked like Apple's flagships and also had very high processing power, even better than the Android flagships, let alone compared to other mid-range devices. Here are a few things to keep in mind about the iPhone SE:

• At a time when iPhones were priced astronomically, the $ 400 iPhone SE was named the cheapest iOS phone. It caught a lot of attention.
• The iPhone SE, as a $ 400 medium, captured good images and excellent video quality. So that it could even be considered better than a series of Android flagships. The main reason for this was that Apple also used its extraordinary video recording capabilities in the design of the phone's camera, resulting in a supernatural midrange.
• The iPhone SE is significantly different from other The handsets on the market were smaller. Even the iPhones of that time were bigger than this phone. In other words, you could not find a product that was smaller than this phone. But as mentioned, by the standards of the time, this small size did not look too bad.
• The iPhone SE uses the powerful A9 chip (the flagship processor of the time) as the beating heart. . The same chip that was used in the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus to give us a new concept of processing power in mid-range phones.

We said all this to reach a conclusion ; Apple's performance in building a powerful mid-range phone was and still is great. Although the American company has a series of misconceptions that have caused the iPhone SE 2022 not to sell well at all, but in general, we see the same mentality that exists in the construction of the company's flagship, in the construction of the iPhone SE; Powerful, fast, equipped with a great camera and smooth operating system with good capabilities and long-term software support. It was used and the second attempt in this field, like the first time, was very successful. The iPhone SE 2020 became the eighth best-selling phone in the world last year, with Cook and Apple team making the most of the creative idea. An idea that no company dared to implement.

Of course, Google did this in the Pixel 6A to make it the first phone after the iPhone SE to use the same flagship chip used in more powerful handsets from that series, but at a more reasonable price and in the mid-range, will hit the market. This raises the question of why Samsung is not doing this. Why does the Korean company use mid-range chips in its mid-range handsets and not equip at least some of them with powerful and flagship chips?

This question is exactly the main idea of this text, which we will try to address the disadvantages below. Let's not pay for it by a big company like Samsung. An idea that could really strengthen the Korean company's position as the largest company in the field of smartphone production, than we see now.

iPhone SE 2016 and 2020 and 2022; Apple has shown how to build durable media

in 2022, a phone that was made six years ago It really can't work well. But if you have such an expectation from a product, you should definitely come to Apple. Because the company's phones are the only phones on the market that with amazing performance in software and hardware coordination can continue to work for years without slowing down the user. It is true! Their performance is much slower than it was six years ago, and we do not deny that, but they are still fast enough to meet our needs. It is interesting to know that many of these slowdowns are not due to the wear and tear of the phone, but intentionally and by the manufacturer so that the phone can have new software capacity and capabilities and bring a good experience for users.

Now let's imagine which mid-range iPhone SE, which launched in 2016, can be launched in 2022 without any problems and with acceptable speed. To work? Personally, I have a Galaxy J7 2016 that does not perform very badly. But compared to the iPhone SE, it is really weaker, and in areas such as the camera and display, its performance is not at all satisfactory. Concerning the continuous moments, which of course I do not need to explain.

In short, we must say that Apple's exceptional performance in creating coordination between hardware and software, smooth and optimal operating system, extremely high processing power and most importantly, Long-term software support is one of the reasons why a low-cost, mid-range iPhone like the SE can become so popular and maintain its good performance over time. The same policies were applied to the iPhone SE 2020 and 2022, but Apple made one mistake in the 2022 model, which was to launch products that fit the needs of a few years ago, not this year and later. Because whoever buys a smartphone does not think only of that year, and we do not want a smartphone in 2023 or 2024 that has lost half of the front panel due to large margins.

Google Pixel 6A; The emergence of the first Android application modeled after Apple

Of course, we do not mean that the Pixel 6 is similar to a phone Apple has. In fact, we want to say that the mentality that Google had in making this phone was similar to what Apple had in making the SE series. Products similar to the Pixel 6 flagships with the same processing power, the same software support time, and the same great software experience.

This move by Google was very interesting and, of course, surprising. Few Android companies have ever equipped their mid-range phone with a powerful chip. Of course, Google itself has launched some great mid-range phones in the past. For example, Pixel 3A, Pixel 4A and 5A; But it was interesting that he used a tensor chip in the new midrange. Because Google has filled the chip with advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to transform the quality of photography and video recording of its flagships. Now we see that this chip is used in an intermediate, which we are really happy about.

Although you might say to yourself, is the tensor a flagship chip at all? In response, we must say both no and yes! We say no because compared to the powerful flagships on the market like the A15, the Snapdragon 8 generation 1, the Dimension 9000 or the Exynos 2200, this chip has nothing to say. Not only that, it is also weaker than the chips of the previous generation. But we say yes because that was all that Google had in its pocket. Google no longer has a more powerful chip than the Tensor, so we should call it Google's flagship. As soon as the chip is considered a flagship for the manufacturer and we see it used in a mid-range phone, it shows that Google has decided to adopt the Apple mentality. With these interpretations, the 6A Pixel can be described in the following two sentences:

• Google's first mid-range phone, which uses the flagship chip of the same year, and is reasonably priced.
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• The first flagship phone with a flagship chip that, although weaker in processing than other powerful handsets, performs much better than other midrangers.

The Pixel 6A could be a great achievement for Google And he considered the world of Android, which could pave the way for other companies as well. Of course, by this we mean other companies, often Samsung. The company that tops the table in terms of phone sales but has not yet produced an intermediary that can be enjoyed for years for its high quality hardware and software.

Galaxy A53 and A33; Fast and valuable, but

Samsung, but in order to improve the user experience of working with its phones, support time He increased them to four years (for flag bearers and midgets). On the other hand, the release speed of the Android update has also increased significantly for the Korean company's phones. The companies had not yet released Android 12 for their flagships, and the process of releasing updates for Samsung intermediates had begun.

In 2022, three very valuable phones, namely Galaxy A53, Galaxy A33 and Galaxy A73, were unveiled. And they went to the market. The Galaxy A53 and A33 use a chip (Exynos 1280) that can be considered a relatively powerful chip. Along with the chip, a 120Hz display, a 5,000mAh battery, good cameras, four- and five-year software and security support, and much more made many of the reviewers of these handsets users looking for a more enjoyable work experience, but They do not have much budget to offer. But after a while we realized that their hardware performance in the price range that Samsung had in mind is their big disadvantage.

Although the Galaxy A53 5G with its Exynos 1280 chip performs well, it does. Heavy work is not even as powerful as last year's Galaxy A52s, which saw the Snapdragon 778G as the beating heart. Several light years between it and some phones like the Pixel 6A and iPhone SE 2022, there is a gap in terms of hardware power. Naturally, such a product loses a lot of power after two or three years, and after the update period, its use may be more nerve-wracking.

Samsung fills its phones with a lot of software capabilities. In fact, it can be said that Samsung is doing the exact opposite of the policy pursued by Apple. Apple tries to make the operating system as powerful and fluid as possible so that the user can work with the phone for a few years without any problems, but Samsung tries to attract users with the many capabilities that it puts inside the phone and not Hardware power.

Judge for yourself; With the A15 chip, the iPhone SE outperformed the Exynos 1280 by 135% in terms of processing and 100% in terms of graphics in tests and benchmarks. But this is not bad news because SE is from the world of iPhones. Among Android phones, we have the Pixel 6A, which is 50% more powerful than the Galaxy A53 in terms of processor and 75% in terms of graphics.

You might say that this is nonsense, and the benchmark is always different from the real world. But there have been various reports from Reddit and Twitter users and even the XDA (XDA Developers) website community that these phones slow down under heavy pressure, resulting in opening the camera, taking photos, navigating the phone menu, and logging in. . This is not at all strange considering the countless capabilities of One UI 4.1, because it is safe to say that iOS and the Android Stoke user interface in the Pixel 6A are not comparable to the Samsung interface in terms of software capabilities. This is exactly the problem, because when you make a product with this quality of software, you have to design the hardware in such a way that you can make the best use of these features, not every once in a while thinking about buying a better phone. Let's get newer.

The Galaxy A73 is an exception, but of course it covers its high value with its high price. Priced at around $ 500, it offers users a 108-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization, a 120Hz display, a powerful Snapdragon 778G chip, IP67 waterproof standard, and long-term software support. No mid-range device is really that good (even some economical flagships), and the Galaxy A73 can be an exception. A product that may still have a much weaker processor than the A15, but can meet the needs of users to do heavy work without lagging. The only problem is that the price of this phone, including the price of the charger that is not in the box, is a little more than $ 500.

Why Samsung does not produce a powerful mid-range phone like Apple and Google?

It seems that Samsung, like Apple and Google, is gradually trying to produce a powerful mid-range phone, but still quite satisfied with Do not do this. Because this company produces more mid-range phones than any other company, and if it wants to market a phone the size of the iPhone SE at a reasonable price, it will not be able to sell its other mid-range phones.

Some time ago We wrote an article with the theme that the Korean company is sacrificing the Galaxy A52s to sell the Galaxy A53. Many users reported Samsung's poor performance in optimizing the phone's software updates, saying that after receiving the new updates, the phone really slowed down. Samsung did not pay much attention to this issue either, but it seems that this problem is now somewhat solved.

The Galaxy A52s uses the Snapdragon 778G as the beating heart, and the charger is inside the box. As a result, users see no reason to prefer the Galaxy A53 other than a year of software updates. But where is the Snapdragon 778G and where is the Exynos 1280? Naturally, no one wants to enjoy several years with new updates, but a performance full of lag and trembling. On the one hand, hardware power is so important that it can not be ignored.

With these interpretations, Samsung does not seem to dare to produce powerful intermediaries at a reasonable price because of the taste of its users, although it can like Apple and Google, reduce their number and instead increase their quality to have more representatives each year among the best-selling phones. What Apple is doing, and it happens to be successful.

What are mid-range and budget phone users looking for?

When a mid-range smartphone is made, the manufacturer should know that its audience is millions of users from all over the world, each with different needs but relatively similar budgets. As a result, it has to create a unique balance between hardware, software and price. The iPhone SE has shown us that a $ 400 phone can be equipped with a unique chip, but on the other hand, it is disappointing in terms of design, battery life, screen quality, camera size and variety; Google It has a relatively good performance, but the market for its products is very limited and not everyone has access to them; Samsung is just looking for software features and it's completely out of the question.

No user needs a 2-megapixel macro camera that Samsung puts in their phones, no one wants a 2-megapixel camera for depth measurement, Sometimes even a 90 or 120 Hz display can not be attractive because the iPhones you see are the best-selling phones in the world every year, they are all 60 Hz.

If we think logically, we see that users of budget phones only want three things ; High durability, excellent hardware performance and reasonable price. Of course, not all of these are the size of a flagship phone. For example, if a camera is to be inside them, the same camera will capture good images and can have at least the possibility of macro and portrait photography, its battery can last at least 1 and a half days, the processor used if it is not flagship, at least like Apple chips are a weaker version of the more powerful model, and at the same time reasonably priced. I repeat, not all the good features are inside these phones, but the features are as good and practical as possible, not factors to empty the user's pocket.

The advantage of a more powerful processor is just the quick execution of applications And not the smooth operation of the phone; But with a more powerful processor, the phone can capture much better images. Among the shortcuts, there are few phones that shoot at 6A pixel size, because the tensor chip used in it, thanks to artificial intelligence algorithms, can change the quality of images. This requires the power that is provided by a tensor.

In video recording, too, thanks to a powerful chip, extraordinary results can be achieved. For example, the A15 chip used in the iPhone SE 2022 helps the phone pull everything out of its old 12-megapixel camera. Still, it's not as good as Apple's cheapest iPhone 13 flagship, but it's really good compared to other mid-range devices. Improve

Whether we like it or not, Apple is in the world of smartphones and makes great phones . Users' expectations are also rising day by day with Apple phones. They say if Apple and Google can make products that last for a few years, why not Samsung? Ultimately, this talk results in Samsung's inability to build a powerful and durable phone. Therefore, it seems that it is time for the Korean company to stop producing all these low-quality intermediaries and, for once, put the slogan "less and better" at the top of its agenda. There are three reasons why Samsung should do this despite its current policy:

• Users need these powerful and inexpensive handsets.
• All current reports The longevity of phones indicates that users hold their phones longer and are reluctant to sell them.
• They are good mid-range phones like the Pixel 6A that can distract users from Samsung phones. And pull towards themselves. Because Google Representation is a more valuable intermediary than Samsung branded handsets, except for one year less software updates, which may be more in the future.

With all these interpretations, it should not be denied that Samsung also has some very valuable intermediaries in the market. For example, the same Galaxy A73 5G that was unveiled and launched this year. Also, the new intermediaries of this company can be updated to the new Android for up to 4 years and receive a security update for up to 5 years. This possibility is not seen in any other Android application. Add IP67 waterproof and optical image stabilization support to long-term software support to see what valuable handsets we're dealing with. We hope that Samsung will cover this weakness in the future because it can attract more fans. Of course, our hope is not necessarily that the Korean company will remain the world's top smartphone maker; Rather, we know that Samsung has an incredible ability to make smartphones, and if it wants to take advantage of this ability, it will definitely make great phones.

What do you think about this? Do you agree that Samsung should behave like Apple and Google in making mid-range phones?

Source: PhoneArena