I have been pretty happy with Galaxy S22 that I recently purchased, and yet, I find it surprising that my friend’s circle chose it over iPhones everytime to click pictures. This choice is driven by Samsung’s preference to make the pictures look better, clearer over Apple’s to make them look close to real. People who understand photography will always prefer the latter, the most of the mainstream will prefer the former. No surprise, some unknown Android devices keep winning the blind smartphone camera challenges that tech reviewers carry out, like one Marques Brownlee does.
A tangential thought, what do you call the folks that are not experts? The non-reviewers. The enthusiasts. Or the nerds? These are the folks that form the majority market, ones that most companies target. I always struggle to find a term that isn’t derogatory to either side. I at times call them common folks, but it doesn’t sound right to me. Neither does “normal” — that makes the tech enthusiasts, the group I belong to, non-normal? Again, doesn’t sound right. I recently heard someone call this section “muggles”. Yuck! Have people even read the books?
Anyway, back to my device selection. I have been part of the Apple ecosystem for a long time. When I recently switched to Android with a OnePlus device, I was worried that I may miss the benefits of the ecosystem. Well, I did. But not enough to make me go back to the Apple devices. With a Galaxy smartphone now, I had a chance to get back to an ecosystem of sorts again. Samsung has over the years build a viable alternative for each Apple device. A shameless copy initially, now all of them have an identity of their own. One such device is Galaxy Watch 4 which is different from Apple Watch, yet equally powerful when paired with a Galaxy smartphone. For the past week, I have been enjoying how both these devices work together. Samsung’s strategy looks to be working.
This post was sent as an introduction for this week’s issue of my weekly newsletter. I have realized the updates I begin my newsletter with every week get lost once it is out. So I intend to publish these as individual posts also.