Ignoring the fact that it's ugly as sin and they bundle hundreds of useless apps which are cannot be removed which can cause weird breakages when disabled, the problem is that despite the fact that on paper their hardware should crush every other phone on the market they somehow manage to make the phones UI slower than a budget phone running stock (or near stock) Android.

To be fair, that hardware shines when Android fades away and you want to play graphically intensive phone games but it's terrible for everything else.

Just curious, when was the last time you used a Samsung device ?

A couple of points as I used to share your opinion, but I recently purchase a Edge Plus which changed my views (which while not as extreme were aligned with yours.

1.) For the most part, I do prefer stock android in terms of aesthetics and some key apps (dialer, etc).

2.) Samsung has really toned down their over the top "colourful" aesthetic on phones. They are increasingly following Material design guidelines.

3.) Depending on the carrier variant (and this could be killer), Samsung bundle apps are not as critical anymore and they definitely do not cause weird breakages when disabled.

4.) Having used both a Nexus 6P (considered the cream of the crop when it comes to stock Android experience) and there is very little performance difference between the two.

5.) Samsung (and other OEMs) have always been ahead of the curve of stock android when it comes to features that were co-opted into later versions on Android. They were the first to have quick access toggles in the notification bar, lock screen notifications, etc. So there were always some trade-offs.

6.) Even without getting into third party launchers, etc that can completely ape stock android in looks - Samsung has finally included proper theming support for their devices - so even a novice user can download a "Material Dark / Material Light" theme.

One perfect example that is still relevant to this day is the multi-window option that I use daily on my Edge Plus, which would not be possible on a Nexus device (just yet).

Samsung's software has also had security problems in the past. Only the bare minimum was done to avoid exploitation. Issues are likely to remain.

Their modifications are also a large source of their delay to update to new Android versions. It's somewhat ironic that many users buy their hardware despite their software modifications.

The most annoying things for me:

- a shitload of unwanted stuff (Samsung Services, Samsung Applications) that randomly update themselves

- The 'resize window' feature. If you've seen people using a Note you might've noticed that they had two apps open at the same time for example. The rather small (this is a 'pro', btw) S6E has the same feature, but it is pointless. Worse, I constantly, daily, activate it in error. Right handed, swipe with the thumb to open the notifications. This always ends up (try it) being a diagonal swipe for me, from top-right to bottom-left. Diagonal swipes like that activate the 'shrink current window' feature.

See http://imgur.com/SROLT6M for the result.

On my Note 4 you can disable 'Multi-Window' entirely, have you looked into this?

I haven't found that and - embarrassed by this comment, thinking that I missed something obvious - failed again just now. Online guides (always trying to _enable_ that for some reason) don't match what I see at all.

If you have a pointer I'd be very, very glad about it.

I have come to quite like the split pane and app resize features that others talked about. As per the bloatware that came with my s6 edge, I disabled most of those apps the very first day and haven't run into any problems because of that. My phone's battery life is very much comparable to my girlfriend's iPhone 6s, both of which last us through a full day with average use. The only difference being that because I have the s6, I get the Ultra power saving mode though which if turned on at 3% charge or so let's me make/receive calls, text/whatsapp my friends, browse the interwebs, Facebook and Twitter for another 8-10 hours.

I have a note 4, which constantly insists on a "Device Health Alert" after the last upgrade, which requires a Samsung account, and I can't disable.

This is not the first.

The S3 browser had an undelatable bookmark for Pizza Hut

Are you sure that wasn't a carrier thing? I had an S3 and don't recall that bookmark.

I am sure it was. The point is that Samsung didn't stop them.