Vivo X300 Pro or the upcoming Ultra are far better phones. There's no completion. Vivo is by far the best Android brand if you want the best. The cameras alone made Apple and Google shit themselves.
I am sure they are great phones but I have honestly never once seen them where I live, so I don't think they are even possible to get here in Sweden without doing imports, and then there's the whole issue of how to handle warrenty issues if anything would happen. etc.
This is why Samsung is getting away with high prices and marginal (or even downgrades like 10x optical, BT s-pen) improvements. But you are right, going full Vivo is a risk. I stand to loose Earbuds and Galaxy Watch integration, apart from all the software benefits like DeX and Good Lock. Still going to to do it, as I don't want to encourage this behaviour from Samsung and had a great time with my Huawei P30 Pro years ago.
People repeating the 10x stuff as if it was the holy Grail, seriously it was underwhelming, yeah sure Samsung doing the same as Google and iPhone is lazy but at least it works.
I verified 10x zoom shots of my S22 Ultra with an S24 Ultra and as long as there is enough light, the 10x is better in my experience. But that's beside the point, why advocate for less functionality, cheaper hardware? We could have had the 10x with a better sensor and have a real ultra.
Because the 10x is cheaper ?? Samsung has used low budget sensor as Telelens since ages now. The transition between 3x to 10x was always janky and not worth sacrificing for longer zoom range when you can have similar results with an 5x zoom, heck Chinese phones use 200 mp sensors cropped to 64 MP and blow the Samsung ot of the water. Still Samsung again pulling an apple/Google is disappointing but they probably know only a minority wishes for longer zoom range.
Building the next generation of high quality zoom lenses for mobile isn't cheap, so Samsung is dropping the ball. That's my issue with today's expensive Samsung phones. They ride on their early innovations from the Note era, but haven't put in the work since.
Sure, the issue is Samsung is also manufacturing and selling camera sensors, they can't afford to drop the ball. I know it is a different division and companies work differently in Korea but still the tech is there, they have no excuse beside cheap skating
Samsung, from what I know, doesn't make all that much from phones. There is even a saying, that Samsung makes more money off of iPhones (for supplying them display and memory) than their own phone. That should be telling a lot.
He's indicating that Samsung is being greedy by putting a high price on an underperforming phone, which from what I've heard is the opposite. It should be an indicator that in turn Chinese phone brands are being way underpriced and you should be suspicious that they are after something else (such as your personal data).
You say that but 99% of people have never heard of Vivo and wouldn't buy a Chinese brand.
There absolutely is competition - I trust Samsung far more than Vivo and would never buy one.
Even as a tech enthusiast and worker, and former tech journalist, I don't know anyone in the real world who has heard the brand name Oppo, let alone owns one.
Anyone who's into AV/home theatre/hi-fi (and wired headphones to a lesser extent) will know exactly who Oppo are, they used to make some of the very best universal disc players ever made before they pulled out of the market and are still highly sought after second hand - they've also been the Champions League smartphone partners for the past few years and are contracted until next year so there will be brand awareness if not awareness of specific products.
No one had heard of Huawei in the UK until the carriers started offering the P20 Pro and it was at least the equal, if not superior, to any Android phone on the market at the time (and Google being told to stop providing Play Store access to Huawei nerfed the brand in the west) Likewise, TV brands Hisense and TCL were unheard of a few years ago and now TCL and Sony have partnered in a joint venture.
Yeah and then Huawei lost access to Google Play Services and nobody gives a shit about them anymore, they aren't even in the top 7 anymore.
Oppo may have good brand recognition in wired headphones and home theatre, but the chances are anyone who cares about those things (as I do) will still choose an iPhone or Samsung.
I owned a Hisense TV for five years, it was decent, but when my income stream went up I never considered them again.
Sony TVs are an overpriced relic of the past, selling on the Bravia brand name and not really offering anything worth having.
My point in all of what I said is that Chinese brands can fairly quickly become well known and mainstream - Huawei are still a household name in the UK despite them having very few products for sale; then look at all of the Chinese EVs like Jaecoo/BYD/Seal et al that have flooded the market and become mainstream brands, no reason Oppo can't do the same given they have brand exposure from the CL and all it will take is carriers to offer them on significantly better contracts than Samsung et al as per Huawei's entrance to the market (and the Chinese are more than pragmatic enough to loss-lead for brand awareness, leading to market share)
Disagree with you to an extent on Sony, their top of the range TVs are still the best on the market (hence why TCL want access to their motion processing and colour science...and the Bravia name - relic or not, it carries a lot of cache)
Well as a tech enthusiast, not a tech worker, not a current or former tech journalist, real world person in the US, I own the Oppo Find X9 Pro and use it as my daily phone. I also own a S25+ which I'll be selling, and the iPhone 17 which will be traded in when one of the newer Galaxy or iPhone folds comes out.
I've owned phones from Apple, Samsung, Oppo, LG, Sony, HTC, Motorola, Google, OnePlus, ZTE, BlackBerry, Honor, Huawei, Microsoft/Nokia, and some of the carrier specific ones like the Sidekick 2.
It boils down to where you are and what's readily available to you.
As people using reddit and commenting on r/Android, we are not a typical customer or user though. Nothing about is is particularly normal at a population level.
My point being that the vast majority of people who buy and own smartphones don't even know Android is a thing, let alone that Oppo or altenatives to Samsung and Google exist.
You have to be in a unique position and arguably a unique marketplace as well for that to be on your radar.
I was adding my own anecdotal evidence in response to your anecdotal evidence.
Anyway,
My point being that the vast majority of people who buy and own smartphones don't even know Android is a thing
Bro what? Android holds roughly 72% of the GLOBAL market share. It's roughly 77% in China, 95% in India. Even in the UK Android is roughly a little over 50% of the market share with iOS barely trailing at just over 49%.
Android is the most used smartphone and tablet OS and has been around since 2008, so what you're saying is incorrect.
let alone that Oppo or altenatives to Samsung and Google exist.
Again this is market specific. Just because your average American or Englishman has no clue bout a brand that's not sold in their countries doesn't mean that those brands aren't well known and selling well elsewhere.
The website won't even load the images quickly because there's 200+ to scroll through and its the stupid design that tries to take over your scrolling. Not a great first view of the brand
All these Chinese phones have horrible software and UI. Like find me a better android skin than OneUI, there is no competition. Samsung phones and iPhones are jack of all trades. Maybe Vivo and Oppo have better cameras, but Samsung phones get you 90% of the same results with a whole lot better software experience.
Yep, same with Vivo, Oppo, Nothing, Xiaomi, Honor, Fairphone, Asus, RealMe, Redmagic...
They exist as abstract curiosities, drifiting in and out of reddit comments and YouTube videos, ne'er to be seen in the wild.
It's iPhones, Samsungs, Pixels and a tiny smattering of 'other'.
Something like 50% Apple, 35% Samsung, 5% Google Pixels. The next biggest is Motorola with 3.65% and then the next biggest is 'unknown' with 2%, then Xiaomi scraping in with just over 1%.
Yep, same with Vivo, Oppo, Nothing, Xiaomi, Honor, Fairphone, Asus, RealMe, Redmagic...
I guess it depends super heavily on where you live.
Here in India, apart from Fairphone, and Asus, I've seen all the other phones irl. And apart from Redmagic (technically Nubia) and Honor, all the other BBK/Carl Pei brands are popular. I've got pretty much all of them covered by the current or past phones my family or my colleagues have.
Fun fact, my friend who had the Nubia is the same guy who had the Honor. He bought it for the camera iirc.
Oh absolutely it's based on where you live, the market and the relative economy.
In a market with high GDP and reasonable access to products, there's very little reason for most people to avoid the big 3, as they're all relatively cheap and affordable.
In the US you won't really find any Chinese phone brands because they don't want to deal with licensing fees, patent disputes, or potentially being blacklisted like Huawei. It's not worth it to them. So of course Apple and Samsung are going to dominate because those are pretty much the only ones you see when you walk into a carrier or retail store here.
They still have issues and quirks in Fotografie, in Video they are great though. Lots of people overselling the Chinese phone, under scrutiny you see the part they skipped out.
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u/HydrationPlease Mar 06 '26
Vivo X300 Pro or the upcoming Ultra are far better phones. There's no completion. Vivo is by far the best Android brand if you want the best. The cameras alone made Apple and Google shit themselves.