I hate Samsung

2026 July 20

My history with Samsung #

My first real smartphone was a Samsung Galaxy Ace. It was a nice device, although the battery died quickly. Luckily, back then, you could just buy a new battery and replace it in five seconds.

After using an iPhone 4S for some time, I found my way back to Android on a Galaxy S5, which was nice as well, especially since loading custom ROMs was pretty easy thanks to Odin. After that I moved on to other manufacturers like LG and OnePlus.

Back then, I was rather positive toward Samsung. However, that started to fade when they started to push heavily towards their own Galaxy Store and basically required me to sign into a Samsung account in addition to my Google account. I also never really liked One UI.

Despite that, I bought a Galaxy Watch4 Classic after it was released, since the Watch4 generation was the first one to use Google’s Wear OS instead of Tizen OS. That made me hopeful that it would have less Samsung bullshittery. But boy, was I wrong.

Using the watch #

I was using a OnePlus 6 when I first got the watch.

Setup #

While the initial setup was quite easy and straightforward, issues started appearing down the line.

I vaguely remember having issues after signing in to my Samsung account - the app wasn’t receiving the data. It started working after I used a Chromium-based browser.

Backup #

The first issue was that I couldn’t back up the watch’s data. Samsung uses its own app for that, but I never managed to get it working. But thank you, Samsung, for always reminding me that I hadn’t enabled a backup for my watch.

Software Update #

Then the first software update was released, but I couldn’t install it using the phone. The only way I managed to download and install it was to disconnect the watch from my phone, connect the watch directly to Wi-Fi, and then start the update. Okay, that was something I was okay with doing, since it wasn’t that much of a hassle.

However, after the update, the watch wouldn’t recognize my phone anymore. It wouldn’t connect, and when I tried to connect it manually, it said I had to reset the watch. So I had no other option but to do that.

Switching Phones #

At some point, I broke the screen on my OnePlus 6, and it was starting to show its age, so I was ready for a replacement. Although the newer model had already been released, I decided to go for the OnePlus 9 Pro because I got a good deal.

Since the watch had already had problems reconnecting to the same phone after a software update, I expected to have to reset it again. To my surprise, the watch offered a feature for switching phones. If only it would work.

I followed the instructions, but it didn’t work. I suspected that not having backups enabled - which, mind you, also didn’t work - was the problem.

Well, so I reset the watch once again. And I was notified that it wasn’t backed up and that I would lose all my settings and stuff if I reset it once again.

Pause #

After using the watch for two to three years, I got annoyed with it. Not because of the watch itself, but rather because of the underlying issue with smartwatches: constant notifications and always being connected. While I got around that by disabling basically all notifications, I used fewer and fewer of the watch’s features, which made me prefer a classic, non-smart watch. So I stopped using it until recently.

The final nail #

Using the watch was a rather positive experience, despite the issue with updates. The UI was quite nice, I didn’t have major performance problems, and the physical bezel was nice to use.

In the time I owned this watch, Samsung continued to enshittificate its products more and more, while also facing other major controversies, further worsening my opinion of the company.

Recently, I wanted to use the watch again, so I went through setup once more. Connecting it and completing the initial setup were straightforward. Then the issues started appearing again: I wanted to download another watch face, but I got a message saying I had to sign in to my Samsung account. Okay, nothing new - been there, done that. So I went to Settings to sign in. It opened the browser on my phone. I signed in, the site closed, and I was back in Settings… but nothing happened. Okay, maybe it was an issue with the browser, since I’d already had that happen to me, but no, it didn’t help. I tried all the usual stuff, but the login wouldn’t be saved in the app or on the watch.

Okay, I thought. Well, maybe I could use the health features, since that was the main reason I wanted to use it again. But when I opened the ECG app, I was greeted by a message saying that I needed a Samsung phone for it to work. That made me realize that the Samsung Health Monitor features require a Samsung phone.

This deepened my disdain for Samsung and its products. One could argue that I should’ve done more research and checked whether the watch would work before buying it, or that I should’ve expected this since Samsung is becoming the Apple of Android. NO!

I won’t accept that. Samsung phones were once among the easiest to install a custom ROM on. They also played a major role in advancing Android. But their shitty business decisions and overall enshittification brought us to this.

I despise Samsung and its products, and I stay away from them as much as possible.

Update #

I discovered the SHM Mod Project, which I wanted to try out. Since my watch was still running One UI 6, I could apply the mod. So I started installing everything and got really far, only to be greeted by an input field in the developer options of the Samsung Health app requiring me to enter a Samsung-issued developer key.

I was this close to getting it to work, but alas, the app had obviously been updated and now required this developer key. The instructions for the mod didn’t mention that this key was needed.

So here I am now, using the watch again after updating it to One UI 8 - there was no point in keeping it on the old version - with only basic health metrics and no way to use the watch’s full potential without getting a Samsung phone. As if that would ever happen.