3 Things Samsung Needs To Address With The Galaxy Note 9
Samsung is still riding high on the release of the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, but it'll be fall before you know it, and that means a new Galaxy Note. The S-series phone always sets the stage for the Galaxy Note refresh, so we can make some educated guesses what Samsung is going to do with that phone. However, there are several larger issues I think Samsung needs to address if it wants to stay on top.
Stop punting on biometrics
Unlocking your phone with a password is so old-fashioned, and Samsung was one of the first Android OEMs to offer fingerprint sensors on its phones. However, it has since been surpassed by phones with much, much better fingerprint sensors, and its attempt to copy Apple's Face ID on the Galaxy S9 fell far short. Put simply: Samsung is behind on biometrics.
The "Intelligent Unlock" feature of the GS9 really illustrates the point. It uses iris scanning and face unlock, but it's painfully slow. The face unlock feature just uses the front-facing camera, so it isn't very secure. It won't allow access to features like Samsung Pay—you still need irises or a password for that. The iris scanner has such a narrow field of view that it's just awkward to use. If Samsung wants Face ID, it needs to include additional hardware to make it happen in a secure and speedy way.
The fingerprint sensor will be in a better spot on the Note 9 (either below the camera or in the display, if you believe the latest rumors). That's great, but it needs to be faster, too. There's no reason a phone that costs half as much should be so much faster to unlock.
Take updates seriously
We live in a dangerous online world, and no piece of software is perfect. Google issues security patches for Android every month, but it's up to individual OEMs to roll those out. Samsung said it would commit to monthly patches a few years back in the wake of the Stage Fright vulnerability. It has yet to live up to that promise, though. Phones will go months between security patches, and larger system updates take much longer.
I don't want to imply Samsung isn't trying. Rolling out phone updates is tricky, and Samsung may have just promised more than it could deliver. Samsung treats its carrier partners with kid gloves, which is why it certifies unlocked device updates on all compatible networks. This causes delays, but it makes sure none of Samsung's partners get upset. The users sure do get upset, though. It's time for Samsung to realize that as the largest Android OEM, it has a responsibility to deploy updates in a timely fashion.
The Note 9 will ship with Oreo, so it'll support Project Treble's modular updates. I can only hope Samsung uses this as an opportunity to throw its weight around and tell carriers it's going to push updates through faster and more consistently.
Fix Bixby
I know Samsung has high hopes for Bixby, but more than a year after we got our first look at the service, it's still essentially useless. The Bixby Home panel rarely surfaces anything useful that you couldn't get in a myriad of other ways, and the voice controls are limited. If you want to find a feature in Samsung's labyrinthian menus, sure, Bixby Voice might save you some time. Otherwise, it's not even in the same ballpark as Google Assistant.
Samsung even has a physical Bixby button on its current phones, and I'm sure it'll be on the Note 9 as well. If Samsung wants to continue making it easy to trigger Bixby with that button (sometimes too easy), Bixby needs to be worth triggering. Alternatively, Samsung might want to think about making it easier to remap that button to do something else. There are various apps in the Play Store that change the button's function, but they're all hacks that regularly break.
One thing is certain: If Samsung doesn't fix Bixby in time for the Note 9, it's at risk of becoming another S Voice.
">Samsung is still riding high on the release of the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, but it'll be fall before you know it, and that means a new Galaxy Note. The S-series phone always sets the stage for the Galaxy Note refresh, so we can make some educated guesses what Samsung is going to do with that phone. However, there are several larger issues I think Samsung needs to address if it wants to stay on top.
Stop punting on biometrics
Unlocking your phone with a password is so old-fashioned, and Samsung was one of the first Android OEMs to offer fingerprint sensors on its phones. However, it has since been surpassed by phones with much, much better fingerprint sensors, and its attempt to copy Apple's Face ID on the Galaxy S9 fell far short. Put simply: Samsung is behind on biometrics.
The "Intelligent Unlock" feature of the GS9 really illustrates the point. It uses iris scanning and face unlock, but it's painfully slow. The face unlock feature just uses the front-facing camera, so it isn't very secure. It won't allow access to features like Samsung Pay—you still need irises or a password for that. The iris scanner has such a narrow field of view that it's just awkward to use. If Samsung wants Face ID, it needs to include additional hardware to make it happen in a secure and speedy way.
The fingerprint sensor will be in a better spot on the Note 9 (either below the camera or in the display, if you believe the latest rumors). That's great, but it needs to be faster, too. There's no reason a phone that costs half as much should be so much faster to unlock.
Take updates seriously
We live in a dangerous online world, and no piece of software is perfect. Google issues security patches for Android every month, but it's up to individual OEMs to roll those out. Samsung said it would commit to monthly patches a few years back in the wake of the Stage Fright vulnerability. It has yet to live up to that promise, though. Phones will go months between security patches, and larger system updates take much longer.
I don't want to imply Samsung isn't trying. Rolling out phone updates is tricky, and Samsung may have just promised more than it could deliver. Samsung treats its carrier partners with kid gloves, which is why it certifies unlocked device updates on all compatible networks. This causes delays, but it makes sure none of Samsung's partners get upset. The users sure do get upset, though. It's time for Samsung to realize that as the largest Android OEM, it has a responsibility to deploy updates in a timely fashion.
The Note 9 will ship with Oreo, so it'll support Project Treble's modular updates. I can only hope Samsung uses this as an opportunity to throw its weight around and tell carriers it's going to push updates through faster and more consistently.
Fix Bixby
I know Samsung has high hopes for Bixby, but more than a year after we got our first look at the service, it's still essentially useless. The Bixby Home panel rarely surfaces anything useful that you couldn't get in a myriad of other ways, and the voice controls are limited. If you want to find a feature in Samsung's labyrinthian menus, sure, Bixby Voice might save you some time. Otherwise, it's not even in the same ballpark as Google Assistant.
Samsung even has a physical Bixby button on its current phones, and I'm sure it'll be on the Note 9 as well. If Samsung wants to continue making it easy to trigger Bixby with that button (sometimes too easy), Bixby needs to be worth triggering. Alternatively, Samsung might want to think about making it easier to remap that button to do something else. There are various apps in the Play Store that change the button's function, but they're all hacks that regularly break.
One thing is certain: If Samsung doesn't fix Bixby in time for the Note 9, it's at risk of becoming another S Voice.
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