I just read this and realized that it even happened, as I only briefly went through Tomshardware and they didn't even bother covering the event!
These Notes are essentially the S20+ and a cut-down S20 Ultra in more rectangular bodies and with a stylus. My opinion of the S20 lineups isn't good, and these don't seem to have improved on anything? Essentially the same chipset, essentially the same cameras (with a minor downgrade on the Ultra), also ridiculous price, also come with a stand-alone and power hungry "5G-ish" modem, and they still have the selfie camera cutout for that matter. Since there aren't any improvements in the camera department, they will fall further behind the best camera phones, which is sad considering they were once the undisputed leader.
To be fair I was never considering the Note series, as I prefer the S series, but these appear to be just clones of the worst S series devices of their time to date. They are not only uninteresting from the tech perspective, I don't think they have any mainstream appeal, and the value proposition is horrible too, so Samsung's mobile division will struggle further as their sales numbers plummet even further down.
I'm personally not into Android tablets anymore - the displays are great, but Android just doesn't do tablets that could be in any way competitive with the iPads. The performance isn't there and the ecosystem is almost non-existent. The experience is in no way comparable to that of the iPad.
I really don't like the design or the shape of these new Buds. I can't imagine these being anywhere as comfortable as the original Buds or the Buds+.
So I guess a short answer would be that they had nothing that could win me over.
Also, congrats on the TV purchase, and the sound bar! That's a very expensive but great TV. How are you liking it?
Yeah after reading a bit more, I feel the same. More of the same. The 5G radio is an industry issue; that's the drawback of dealing with Qualcomm. But the pricing is a Samsung issue and one they could fix, but they won't. Android provides the value for many over iOS, but nothing that Samsung does warrants the premium. Still, Samsung thinks they're on-par with Apple and its iPhone in terms of clout, and they just aren't. But they'll still charge those iPhone prices. I have yet to use an S20 Ultra, or whichever one has the 120hz screen. I do use it on my iPad Pro but I'm sure there's a caveat where it doesn't always display at 120hz, but I do remember reading that it was important for the use of the Apple Pencil, in particular when it comes to writing. It's nice when scrolling but I did read that the 120hz will affect battery life big time. On a tablet, it may be less noticeable but on a phone? With 5G? I imagine that's a big battery life sacrifice for the S20 users.
The Buds seem to be nice, especially for Android users that won't fully enjoy the features of the Air Pods on Android. Also, the price of Air Pods. But, again, I think Samsung thinks they have something that goes toe-to-toe with Apple's offerings, when it simply doesn't. At least in terms of sales and brand recognition, people know the Air Pods and will likely get those regardless of if the Buds, or any other wireless earbuds, sound better for less. These new Buds are $179, if I remember correctly. I haven't read anything on comfort but I was reminded of the Pixel Buds that were released about two months ago and I haven't heard a thing about them since. Samsung is still more recognizable than Google's Pixel products, but still miles behind Apple's name and popularity. Those should not be $180, even if they're worth that much, if Samsung is trying to get them in to more hands of Android users while competing with the Air Pods hype.
i share the same thoughts on Android tablets. Tablets were supposed to be "dead" 5+ years ago but iPad sales are still chugging along. Whether they end up really replacing laptops is another discussion, but lots of students and businesses are adopting the use of the iPad for getting tasks done within their field and I don't see many places trading the price/value that an Android tablet may offer over the iPad for the integration of iOS in to businesses and their IT. Apple just has that segment locked down and I can only hope they keep improving and innovating and don't start resting on their laurels because of their monopoly on tablets.
The TV is good. Haven't watched it all that much, maybe a few hours a week since we're all out of the house during the day. Parents still watch shitty 480p Indian broadcasts over Sling TV. My sister and I have been watching random movies here and there and they look great. And sound great; the bass is unlike something we've experienced before and since we're not in an apartment, we can turn it all the way up and rattle the house without worrying about neighbors lol. So while we stream movies in 4K, our live TV from Hulu is still 1080p, I believe, so it's nothing magical there.
My sister games on it occasionally, but she has a Switch so it's maxed out at 1080p. I don't plan on getting a console, at least not anytime soon, but I think the Xbox One X, or whichever one can output 4K would be the real test for gaming and to show off what the TV can do. I think the PS5 and next Xbox come out soon? I read a lot of questions on the OLED subreddit where people ask for purchasing advice and take in to consideration the next gen of consoles. I've been out of gaming for so long so I never pay attention to HDMI 2.1, which is the big thing right now, and Free and G Sync capabilities. I may try playing some dinky game like DOTA on it with an eGPU but again I don't play that much anymore but I am curious to see just how much better it would look on OLED.
Your picture of your OLED monitor reminded me, again, of the pitfalls of OLED and burn-in but I still see a lot of people looking to get 55" or even 65" screens for what they call "PC gaming." I'm sure it doesn't matter whether it's a PC or Xbox or PS4 and that having the HUD from a game can burn-in, but I still picture someone sitting like 5 feet from a 55 or 65" screen with their laptop playing COD lol. I don't know how they do that. I know you had a proper OLED monitor that was probably in the normal range of sizes for a monitor but I don't get people buying even the 48" OLEDs for PC gaming because I still picture it as being mounted to a wall in front of a desk and playing on a huge screen relative to the distance from the screen to play PC games.
I did connect my Sony XM3s to the TV but I then realized I have no idea about audio codecs and which ones it supports and if I could get some form of Atmos using them. I searched the Sony subs for answers but I couldn't find a clear answer on it. I'm still chasing that Atmos sound lol. Even if it may not be as big of a deal as people make it out to be and our living room not able to support it due to high ceilings. I'll still try via headphones. Our Galaxies support it, though. There is an option to enable Atmos sound on my S10 but I'm not sure if that requires headphones or if their are upward firing speakers on the phone itself. I doubt it, though.
Also, Google has discontinued the Pixel 4 already. Google, amirite?
