In this weeks show, David talks about his experiences with the Samsung Galaxy Phone (S10) and Galaxy Watch (46MM)

A Few Weeks In With Using The Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy Watch

Galaxy S10

Well, I’m actually enjoying the experience.

All the apps I need to use work more or less fine such as Microsoft Outlook. Twitter, Audible, Kindle, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Tripview Sydney, ABC Listen.

Apple Music, Google Play music, and Amazon Music  all work well.  Spotify has a few unlabelled buttons.

Face ID for unlocking the phone almost seems easier to locate my face and unlock to that of the iPhone X.

I know this is my bugbear, but the S10 still has a physical 3.5mm head phone jack which means if I BT head phones run out of power, I can still use old traditional head phone that don’t need power to operate.

Great feature of Samsung, I’ve assigned the volume up button to answer a call and the Power button to end a call.  Not possible on the iPhone.

The Weather icon on the home screen actually gives me the weather without having to go in to the app.

Seems to be a heck of more life in the S10 battery than my iPhone X, I can get a good day and a half out of the S10.  With the iPhone X, usually flat after about 12 hours.

UsB C charging for the S10 which does make things a bit easier.

Plugging in and using the S10 as an external drive from my clmputer  is great.

I have the choice of a PIN number, finger print or Face ID to unlock the phone.  However, since the finger print sensor is under the screen where the Home button would be on an iPhone before the iPhone X, I had to get my son to let me know where it was and setting it up was a bit hit and miss: certainly not as easy on the iPhone 7 or 8.  Mainly use Face ID or PIN number.

I can use my favourite speech synthesiser of all time on the S10, Eloquence as the Samsung/Android system has lots of Text To Speech TTS synthesisers to choose from.

I can choose to use either Samsung’s default screen reader Voice Assistant or Android’s generic screen reader Talk Back which still annoys me from time to time.

You still have the magic two finger double tap for starting/stopping music, at least when running Voice Assistant.

One thing that I actually turn off for Voice Assistant are the navigation sounds, drives me crazy although not to bad with Talkback these days.

With Voice Assistant you have dark screen same as Screen Curtain for VoiceOver, so nice blank screen for privacy.

Braille is still not that good on Samsung/Adnroid, but its there via BrailleBack which you need to download from the Google Play Store.

Bluetooth keyboard is supported for navigation, but no screen reader extra commands, just navigating and activating controls.

Bixby (which you can invoke by saying Hey Bixby) doesn’t seem to be as powerful as Ok Google (or Siri) so I use both on the S10: i.e. Hey Bixby or Ok Google.

Its nice that I can ask Bixby how many steps have I taken for the day, something which Siri doesn’t really do.

Excited About the Wireless Power Sharing Option on the Samsung Galaxy S10

Works very well, literally turns the back of the S10 in to a Qi wireless charger.

Comparing the Galaxy Watch to the Apple Watch

Both smart watch’s offer phone connectivity and cellular connectivity.

Two sizes - Galaxy Watch 42MM and 46MM, and Apple Watch 40MM and 44MM.

Galaxy Watch band pins need to be removed to change the band. Apple Watch bands can be slid off to change by holding in spring loaded button for each side of band.

Galaxy Watch battery 2 days.  Apple Watch 18 hours.

Both smart watch’s charge by their own wireless charger.

Physical controls on Galaxy Watch, clicking bezel, touch screen, Back and a Home button.

Physical controls on Apple Watch touch screen, Digital Crown, and Side button.

Galaxy Watch can be used with Samsung, and iPhone (less functionality on iPhone via the Samsung Gear app)

Apple Watch works with the iPhone.

Step count on the Samsung Galaxy Watch seems to be no where as sensitive on the Apple Watch.

Ability to toggle Voice Assistant on the Galaxy Watch, same on the Apple Watch.

With Voice Assistant running, you can get haptic time from the watch face on the Galaxy Watch, similar as with VoiceOver on then Apple Watch.

Watch faces (i.e. the controls on the watch face screen) on the Galaxy Watch seem to not be accessible with Voice Assistant.  Fully accessible on the Apple Watch.

Most internal apps on the Galaxy Watch work with Voice Assistant besides the Samsung Flow (work outs), and the stop watch app.  All internal apps work with VoiceOver on the Apple Watch.

Samsung decides which apps work with Voice Assistant on the Galaxy Watch stopping an app from launching.  Apple Watch use any app you like with VoiceOver and decide yourself whether you can use it.