Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that’s taken over our lives.
A dig at the Pixel 2? It seems so.
Samsung/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNETSamsung must have felt a touch of glee when reports surfaced that Google’s new phones might be running into problem or two.
When it comes to finer Android phones, Samsung has largely been dominant. Now, here comes Google, which owns the Android operating system, with a pair of highfalutin phones itself.
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Google’s new Pixel 2 and 2 XL phones have certainly generated admiration, particularly for their cameras. Now, it turns out, Google has cause for perspiration.
The devices seem to have visual issues.
First, some noticed the colors on the phone’s screen seemed muted. The screen had a bluish hue and blotchiness. Others began to observe screen burn-in.
The Pixels may well have great cameras. But the high-end excellence only goes so far if their screens make photos look like old Polaroids. That’s when the public starts moaning and groaning.
Here, for example, is a Reddit megathread on the subject.
It can’t be a coincidence, then, that Samsung has come out with a new ad touting the quality of the screens on all its Galaxy phones.
Please don’t get too excited. There are no jokes about Google, which the more combative might find a pity.
Instead, this hastily put-together — to my eyes, at least — bit of salesmanship features clips of online reviews that offer untrammeled enthusiasm for the face of Samsung Galaxy phones.
It ends with two reviewers saying, “It’s a beautiful thing” and “I’m pretty impressed.” Voluntarily. These are genuine reviews.
The fact that Samsung has co-opted them can only mean it sees its phones as superior. As it gently snickers behind a cupped hand, of course.
Neither Google nor Samsung responded immediately to a request for comment.
My own experience, at least in one Verizon store, is in harmony with Samsung’s confidence. A salesman steered me away from a Pixel 2 and towards a Galaxy S8.
This may have been his honest personal judgment. Or it may have had something to do with commission.
Samsung can’t, though, laugh too loud. It’s not as if the company hasn’t endured its own quality issues. After all, the debacle of the Note 7 caused even President Barack Obama to joke about its explosive qualities.
Samsung seems to have decided to attack Pixel 2 while it can.
The mischievous might wonder what it would choose to do if, say, Apple began to have issues with its iPhone X screen or its much-hyped and slightly controversial Face ID feature, which reports suggest — and Apple has denied — won’t be quite as accurate as Cupertino first envisioned.
Oh, that might be entertaining.
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