Actually you don’t need a Samsung account. You have access to update everything but one by one. Full access to the galaxy store to update and install anything.

Google is actually worse. If you don’t sign in they block you from the playstore.

The way i see it, if you managed with a s8+ for so long, you probably don’t need an s23 ultra. Even currently budget phones could run circles around your old s8. A $400 s23 fe is decent if you feel like saving some money

I measured the output of the TA800 25w samsung charger on my phone and it read 9V@ 2.x amps throughout the entire cycle

It didn’t vary the voltage from 3.3V to 11V but acted like regular PD instead

So its like samsung wants you to use pps to trigger 25W but then doesn’t use the pps lol

And if you dont use pps bricks you usually get demoted to 9v 1.67A 15W regular fast charging.

But in this case the phone allowed the PD apple and tesla to super fast charge which i have never seen before in non pps sources

i would pick the iPad 10 over the s9 fe but ipad 9 is kinda 50/50.

I prefer the s9 fe hardware - aspect ratio, usb c, display quality but the iPad 9 is also just $220 and much more powerful. So the answer is completely subjective based on what the user needs

Leaning towards the s21 fe or s22. Battery might not be as good as a54 but the performance will always be smooth and i have the option to use dex on a monitor

As a person who used had 3 samsung 1440p phones previously, the screen downgrade to 1080p was a deal breaker. It was so noticeable to my eyes from 2 ft away. I can tolerate the camera difference but not losing half the pixels. I got fed up and have an ultra now. Everyone has different eyes so it might not matter to you. Even if you use the ultra on 1080p mode it still has double the red and blue pixels of a native 1080p s23. The screen is just that good.

The gap between the s9 fe and s9 is massive. 50% more is cheap to get a high resolution oled panel with far better speakers.

The exynos 1380 can barely keep up with the performance of an old tab s6, much less the Snapdragon 8G2 in the s9. Then factor in the faster storage and ram speeds. Then consider the usb 3 port with video out and faster transfer speeds. Try coping 100gb files and you will be waiting forever.

People who game would rather hold a small tablet in their hands plus the controls are closer together. And the people who use it for work can just plug it into their monitor at their desk if they want a bigger screen. Then the people who want a media consumption device can finally get oled without paying extra for the bigger tabs.

I would argue that only reason to get the FE is if you don’t care about gaming, not fussy about picture quality, don’t need a laptop replacement and just want a notepad to write and draw. In that case the s6 lite 2022 is a better buy.