Skip to main content

Samsung’s botched Bixby rollout stopped me from buying the Galaxy S8

Samsung’s botched Bixby rollout stopped me from buying the Galaxy S8

You can’t really go wrong with any of the major flagship releases in 2017. The HTC U11, LG G6, and Samsung Galaxy S8 all bring something different to the table, and none of them really fall short in any key areas. Plus, at least for the U11 and S8, HTC and Samsung have both included new and unique features in their handsets to help them stand out from the crowd. The U11’s Edge Sense is super handy (and it’s only going to get better over time), and the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, if I’m being totally honest, are two of the most beautiful smartphones ever made.
Okay, so beauty is subjective, but it’s hard denying that Samsung put a lot of effort into making these smartphones look and feel futuristic. From the Infinity Display on the front, to the smooth aluminium frame, to the way light reflects off the back of the phone, using a Galaxy S8 just feels different from using other smartphones… which is why I was heavily contemplating buying one when it first launched.
More specifically, I’d have to agree with Lanh when I say that the Galaxy S8 Plus fits the bill for me. I want something with a bigger screen, but something that’s a little more manageable than a gigantic device such as the Huawei Mate 9.

Maybe I just have trust issues

I don’t have a ton of extra money to spend on new smartphones for myself, so I need to make sure the ones I do buy with my personal funds are the right ones for me. And on the surface, the Galaxy S8 Plus is the smartphone for me.
The problem is, Samsung lost my trust this year with its botched Bixby rollout.
We’ve covered Samsung’s Bixby woes extensively in the past, so I’m not going to go too in depth here. If you need a refresher however, here’s a short history of Samsung’s Bixby:
Looking at the timeline above, a couple things are clear: Samsung is trying to be as transparent as possible when it comes to Bixby delays, and the company seems to be working hard on making Bixby Voice as accurate as it can without delaying it too much longer. It’s not in the company’s best interest to ship a half-baked product to millions of users just to reach a deadline. So, the longer we wait, the better Bixby Voice will be when it finally gets here. Glass half full, folks.
Samsung completely overpromised and underdelivered with the launch of Bixby on the S8 line
That’s the good news, anyway. The bad news is that Samsung completely overpromised and underdelivered with the launch of Bixby on the S8 line. In doing so, burned this bridge. The Jimmy Bridge.
Not releasing Bixby Voice at launch was a slap in the face to Galaxy S8 buyers, but the fact that it’s still not available has me worried. It’s now July, over two months after the S8 first went on sale, and voice control is still not here. This has me worried for a few reasons. For starters, Samsung already has a poor reputation for delivering software updates much slower than others. The unlocked Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, for instance, didn’t receive their Android Nougat updates until about 260 days after Nougat was first released. That’s… not acceptable. Prior to that, I don’t think any Galaxy S6 user would necessarily vouch for Samsung’s speediness when it came to the Marshmallow update, either.
I know software updates are an entirely different ballgame compared to building an entire personal voice assistant, but it seems like Samsung is so slow at software development that it just can’t compete with how quickly other OEMs can deliver new updated software.

 

Comments

Post a Comment