> Every time I try to save money by avoiding Apple I end up paying far more for it in jank, lost time, and frustration. I hate how shit my other options are in nearly all of Apple's product categories
This was me recently. Our old TV broke so I bought a new Samsung at Costco. The setup process was ominous: they want you to sign away all of your data to whoever they choose to sell it to, and the only way to get it on the Wi-Fi was to use their setup app which refuses to let you configure the TV unless you give it background high-precision location tracking permission. They lie about that being needed to configure Wi-Fi in response to negative reviews.
I set it up before uninstalling the phone app, and fired up Disney+ for my son. Mission accomplished!
He makes it like 5 minutes in to Finding Nemo and complains because it’s doing jerky 1-2 fps slideshow mode any time the scene has much motion at all.
We switch to Netflix. Same problem.
Maybe it’s our normally very reliable Wi-Fi? Nope, everything works great on his iPad and that can even AirPlay to the TV flawlessly. Also it downloaded its software updates at like 500Mbps according to the Eero app so it seems like it would have to be a very selective network problem.
The most likely explanation is that Samsung sells 4K TVs with processors which can’t reliably keep up with a complex 4K stream.
I see where this is going, and factory reset the TV before blocking it on the Wi-Fi. It’s a beautiful display and I don’t want it turning into e-waste so time to solve problems the American way by shopping. Amazon delivered an Apple TV early the next morning and it’s everything Samsung wants to be when they grow up: the UI is designed by professionals and noticeably more responsive, the setup process is painless, and it can play 4K in any app flawlessly.
Now, I know that this is because Samsung put the equivalent of something like a decade-old phone SoC in there while Apple is using an A14 which is basically laptop-class and costs considerably more, but if they want to save money on their BOM they shouldn’t advertise things on the side of the box when their hardware doesn’t support it.
