I’ve been using a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE for more than three years now, and while the phone’s fine in general, I don’t plan to stay part of Samsung’s ecosystem any longer. It’s time for a change, and after deliberating for months, I’ve made a decision to switch to one of the Pixel 10 models. Here’s why.
I’m Disappointed With Samsung’s Quality Control
I purchased my S21 FE in August 2022, and I hadn’t noticed any issues for a while.
But about a year and a half into owning the handset, I had noticed a gap forming between the back panel and the rest of the device. One swift web search later, and I realized this is a known flaw of this model, with some owners noticing the back peeling off less than a year after buying the phone.
Worse still, it looks like multiple other Samsung phones suffer from the same issue, which is a massive quality control oversight that shouldn’t happen even once, let alone on multiple models. Yet here we are.
The kicker is that I own the Snapdragon 888 version of the phone, which shouldn’t heat as much as the Exynos 2100 variant. I don’t play games on my phone, don’t record lengthy videos, nor binge TV shows. In other words, I don’t do anything that would cause the device to heat up excessively. Despite that, the back of my phone started to separate from the rest of the body, and over time, the issue has only worsened.
As you can see, the adhesive securing the back panel to the rest of the phone has almost completely failed. The rear panel is attached to the rest of the housing only at the top and bottom, with the sides peeling away completely.
To add insult to injury, I had inquired with the local Samsung service about repairing it, and they wanted to charge me for reapplying the adhesive, even though my phone was still under warranty at the time. I refused to send the phone in for repair and decided to ride it out for a couple more years, then abandon Samsung for good. That is, unless liquid permeates the phone, which luckily hasn’t happened yet.
At least I haven’t encountered the infamous green line issue…
Bloatware Is Still an Issue on Samsung Phones
Despite Google Messages becoming the default messaging app on Samsung phones a while ago, and despite the fact that new Samsung phones haven’t included the Samsung Messages app for more than a year now, my Galaxy S21 FE still has Samsung Messages installed with no option to delete the app. Even the Android 15 update that landed this May didn’t delete Samsung Messages. The app’s still there, and I can’t remove it, only disable it.
Samsung Messages isn’t the only unnecessary Samsung app that resides in my app drawer. Samsung News, Samsung Store, and Gaming Hub, three apps I’ve never even opened, also reside on my phone, and I cannot delete any of them. The Android 15 update installed some extra bloatware, such as AR Doodle and Deco Pic, that, fortunately, I was able to delete.
The phone hosts even more bloatware not found in the app drawer. Stuff like Samsung Pass, Galaxy Avatar and Avatar Editor (why would I need these?), Bixby and its entourage, Galaxy Themes, Link to Windows, OneDrive (this one haunts me even on my Android phone!), Samsung Cloud, Samsung Checkout, and Samsung Kids.
I’m sure I’ve overlooked some, but even this (likely) incomplete list is worryingly long. Every single one of those apps takes up storage space, and while I can disable most bloatware infecting my phone, I can’t delete it, which is bonkers to see in 2025. I thought Samsung reduced the amount of bloatware it crammed into its phones compared to the infamous TouchWiz days, but I guess I was wrong.
I’ve Gotten Jaded by One UI
While I couldn’t use TouchWiz for more than half an hour when playing with my friends’ Galaxy phones of yore, I find One UI more than decent. I like its design, performance, and the selection of features, but after three years, I’ve gotten jaded by it.
The recent One UI 7.0 update wasn’t as transformative as I had hoped it would be. In fact, I’m not fond of the majority of the new features it introduced.
The Now Bar is meh at best (I don’t like having to tap it to get playback controls when listening to music instead of having the controls available directly on the lock screen); I’ve been using a vertical app drawer for years thanks to Good Lock, and I disabled the feature that separates notifications and quick settings as soon as I could since it only adds extra steps to access either one instead of being able to access both with one downward swipe.
In other words, I’ve gotten jaded on One UI. It’s fine in general, but the recent slew of new features doesn’t do it for me, at all. I fear Samsung will continue to introduce new changes just for the sake of change, not because new features actually improve the overall experience of using One UI. It’s time to move on.
I Want to Finally Try Out the Pixel Experience
I settled on the decision to move away from Samsung a few days after the Android 15 and One UI 7 update. Since then, I’d mulled over which brand to embrace next for months. The choice ultimately came down to Nothing and Google, but after the release of the Nothing Phone 3, I decided to either get the base Pixel 10 or the Pixel 10 Pro.
Don’t get me wrong, the Nothing Phone 3 is a quite accomplished Android handset with unique looks and clean and original UI. However, what ultimately swayed me towards Google and Pixel is the loaded stack of (mostly) software-related features Pixel phones bring to the table.
I like what Google’s doing with the UI, the way it regularly brings new features to its phones independently of major Android updates in the form of Feature Drops, and the fact that Pixel phones are the first to get new versions of Android. I want to try out Pixelsnap, the first proper MagSafe alternative on an Android phone, and to find out whether all those AI features Google is touting left and right are worth it or not (probably not, but we’ll see).
There’s also the fact that the Tensor G5 is made on TSMC’s 3nm process node, which should result in better thermal performance. I had a chance to play with a Pixel 8 Pro, and boy, would that thing get hot after only a few minutes of recording 4K footage. I don’t mind the reduced performance compared to Snapdragon SoCs since I don’t play games on my phone, and the overall performance and responsiveness remain near-perfect even on older Pixel handsets.
And hey, if I end up disappointed with the Pixel, I’ll be able to sell it and purchase a Nothing Phone 3 without spending extra cash since it’s more affordable than even the base Pixel 10 model. I’ve been on Android since early 2010, but somehow, I haven’t owned a Google phone; it’s time to change this.
There’s One Thing I’ll Miss From My Current Samsung Phone
Now, I don’t really like Samsung’s app ecosystem, but the company has one of the best apps I’ve ever used, Good Lock.
My Samsung S21 FE was the first phone I didn’t use a custom launcher with because Good Lock packs an immensely powerful collection of customization options. Thanks to Good Lock I changed my home screen layout, customized icons, played with the app drawer layout and design, and tweaked the heck out of my phone during the three years of owning it.
Hands down, the most valuable feature in Good Lock is part of its Sound Assistant module that allowed me to tweak the volume slider steps to increase (or decrease) volume by only 2%, matching the granularity of Windows volume control, finally allowing me to set the perfect volume level when using earbuds. While Pixel devices have 25 volume steps in total, that’s still only half of what I’m using on my current phone (50 steps in total). I’m slightly worried the Pixel’s 25 steps won’t cut it, but we’ll see.
The only thing left to do now is decide which Pixel 10 model to get. The base Pixel 10 looks like a solid option, but I don’t like the fact that its camera sensors are a downgrade compared to the Pixel 9, despite getting a telephoto lens. I’ll have to check more photo comparisons to decide, but right now, I’m gravitating towards the Pixel 10 Pro. Whichever I end up picking, I can’t wait to finally use a Google phone; it’s been long overdue.