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Anyone went from an s6 to a53?

  • Thread starter Thread starter godlovingman
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godlovingman

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Sorry I know I'm posting a lot of questions one's related to the same thing. But like I said in a previous post I like to research a lot beforehand. Anyway just wondering if anyone here was in my situation went from an s6 to an a53? I was wondering how much different they are and how much better or worse the a53 was/is compared to the s6. I'm just trying to get an idea of what I hopefully have to look forward to when I get my a53 hopefully by Wednesday.
 
I didn't jump directly from those two models but I did try an S20 FE 5G and A13 5G from a Thunderbolt and S4 Mini for a time, so there's a lot of differences there.

There's tons more notifications and many of them insignificant but ALL of them make sound. ALL of them, from 'configuration update' to 'Bixby'. Bixby is another, if your phone has it. I am not sure which A-Series support Bixby Voice but it's Samsung's alternative to Google Assistant. It is quite handy as it can do some things Google Assistant can't do (such as display recent apps, reboot the phone by voice, and automate tasks similar to Tasker) and it also does some things WORSE than Assistant as well (pretty much in the same vein as S-Voice when asking it for online facts)


You'll probably spend a good few days of muting individual services and turning off notifications unless you actually like the cacophony of sounds going off every hour or so. Get used to hearing whatever default sound they use for notifications (some variant of Over the Horizon). until you turn those off. It'll be like pulling weeds--soon as you think you got 'em all, another shows up.

The software is called One UI (the S6 used TouchWiz at first then got its last update with the 'Samsung Experience UX' aka Android 8.0) and is currently on version 5.1, and it's a lot different from what you're probably used to. It's quite flat in its default look but there is a theme store that offers alternatives, icon packs, complete themes and so on.

There's also USB-C, which I don't recall if the S6 had it or not. It's been awhile (I charged mine wirelessly) but USB-C can get weird. Often times the phone wouldn't charge unless I plugged in the cable twice and sometimes I'd wake up and see it showing '18% charging, unknown time remaining' when I put it on charge before bed at 65%. USB-C has this bad habit of making the phone think it's charging when it's still draining. Never did figure that one out. I had to either use my S20 FE on a wireless charger stand to work around that or use my A13 5G on the cable with the power off since it never finished charging with it on.

They don't include an offline music player out of the box. The Samsung Music app is available on Play Store or Galaxy Store whichever is your preference. If you're a streamer you can install whatever service you want as well.

The Samsung Internet browser on these modern phones also supports extensions like adblock, and their messaging app supports wallpaper and custom themes (three dot menu-->customize chat room) and supports RCS chat features if you use those.

I hope you like gestures since Samsung sees those as the future. For now they come out the box with on-screen navigation buttons, but I wouldn't be one bit surprised if later an update forces the gestures so I'd get used to them now while you still have the choice. I couldn't get used to them since my dexterity is awful and need buttons, but your mileage may vary.

Battery life is average, not perfect but you should get a day or two out of it. My A13 did better than my S20 FE did, and could go two-three days of charge.


Overall those are the major differences I dealt with.
 
I don't hate them, they're just not for me. But those differences are there; you might prefer them but I just kept it objective as much as possible. The jump from an S6 to an A-series is still quite large. But anything is an upgrade from the S6.
 
Yes I agree I liked the s3 I had before the 6 a lot better wish I'd never gotten the 6 really it's getting slower and slower responding to touching the screen to type etc.
 
Also worth mentioning, if software updates are something you crave, the A-series is supposed to get at least two major Android version upgrades while flagships (S-series, Notes if they still exist) get three-four. Even the Galaxy A01 got Android 12 despite having 2GB RAM and a pathetic CPU.
 
nickdalzell said:
Also worth mentioning, if software updates are something you crave, the A-series is supposed to get at least two major Android version upgrades while flagships (S-series, Notes if they still exist) get three-four. Even the Galaxy A01 got Android 12 despite having 2GB RAM and a pathetic CPU.
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That's one of the reasons I went with the a53 so I know I'll have support for apps I use years since the 6 firmware was too old to support a lot of apps. I know that's not your thing but I like being able to use certain apps. Plus the price of the a53 brand new was WAY less than most people wanted for "flagship" model phones even one's 4+ years old I'm not paying more for an older used phone than a brand new phone.
 
The battery would likely die long before app support would. Sadly the batteries in both the S6 and A-series ain't replaceable so they're designed to be disposed of. That's the real dealbreaker for me. However, they can be capable of lasting a decade if you treat them well enough (avoid heat, overcharging, keeping the charge at between 25%-85%, there is a 'protect battery' setting in 'device care' you can turn on for the latter)
 
nickdalzell said:
The battery would likely die long before app support would. Sadly the batteries in both the S6 and A-series ain't replaceable so they're designed to be disposed of. That's the real dealbreaker for me. However, they can be capable of lasting a decade if you treat them well enough (avoid heat, overcharging, keeping the charge at between 25%-85%, there is a 'protect battery' setting in 'device care' you can turn on for the latter)
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I replaced the battery in the 6 at least 4 times since I got it in around August 2017. Not bad to replace once you heat adhesive up enough to remove the back covers.
 
Just be mindful the A-series are all plastic (some use 'glasstic' which is plastic that feels like glass/metal) so a heat gun will likely melt it.
 
I'm sure by the time it needs a battery someone will have a video tutorial on how to replace the battery making it a pretty easy job.
 
i am not so sure that you will get a lot of responses here. your situation is quite unique in that there are probably not that many who still own a s6 phone at this point in time. but there should be quite a few here who can chime in who have owned a much older phone and jumped to any of the most current phones out now.

just going from android os alone will be quite a difference. and then you factor in samsung's own skin(launcher). i believe in the s6 you start out with Touchwiz to now its called OneUI. cell manufacturers like to add their own "skin" to lie on top of the android os so that it can set itself apart from other phone manufacturers. so just getting used to OneUI is going to be a big leap.

just keep in mind that as with any new device, there is going to be a learning curve. it will take sometime to learn where things are at and how to maneuver the phone. also you have us folks here in AF. keep those questions coming.
 
ocnbrze said:
i am not so sure that you will get a lot of responses here. your situation is quite unique in that there are probably not that many who still own a s6 phone at this point in time. but there should be quite a few here who can chime in who have owned a much older phone and jumped to any of the most current phones out now.

just going from android os alone will be quite a difference. and then you factor in samsung's own skin(launcher). i believe in the s6 you start out with Touchwiz to now its called OneUI. cell manufacturers like to add their own "skin" to lie on top of the android os so that it can set itself apart from other phone manufacturers. so just getting used to OneUI is going to be a big leap.

just keep in mind that as with any new device, there is going to be a learning curve. it will take sometime to learn where things are at and how to maneuver the phone. also you have us folks here in AF. keep those questions coming.
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I haven't saw any posts about the a53 why I've asked so much about it.
 
I only knew one other who had a S6 that was last active in 2020. It was shattered all to heck but still going. The owner had the GSM (AT&T/T-mobile) variant which had none of the performance and battery issues that the CDMA/LTE variant had. The LTE/CDMA variants had exynos processors that didn't take too kindly to CDMA style network connectivity without eating the battery and crapping on performance. Mine was an LTE/CDMA variant and I returned it weeks later as it was awful. One charge would last 4 hours STANDBY doing nothing because I was still in a 3G area. (we still don't have full LTE coverage here, so any 3G spots died and are now no service)

One big difference is how you unlock the phone in One UI vs. S6 TouchWiz/Experience. On your S6 it was swipe left to right, but on modern Samsung it's swipe up. That minor thing drove me batty as I've done left to right forever, since Android 2.1 Eclair. There are also no lock screen effects (S6 had a sort of water effect) or sounds. You swipe up and hope it works, and there is zero visual cues. You can, however, install a third party lockscreen and many exist, including ones that mimic the Galaxy SIII to the S4 to so on. I was using an HTC ring locker for my A13 to attempt a modern take on my Thunderbolt.
 
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godlovingman said:
I haven't saw any posts about the a53 why I've asked so much about it.
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yeah i have not seen much on the a53 here. going from touchwiz to oneui will be a huge learning curve. they are two really different skins. for me though i never like samsung's skins. i have always used the Nova prime launcher. been using it since the HTC hero days. the nice thing with Nova is that you can save how you set the phone up and then when you get a new phone you can just restore your setup. it will be like you never left.
 
ocnbrze said:
yeah i have not seen much on the a53 here. going from touchwiz to oneui will be a huge learning curve. they are two really different skins. for me though i never like samsung's skins. i have always used the Nova prime launcher. been using it since the HTC hero days. the nice thing with Nova is that you can save how you set the phone up and then when you get a new phone you can just restore your setup. it will be like you never left.
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I like android based phones because contacts etc are saved to your Google account making it easy to just sign into your Google account and have everything back from replaced phone.
 
also i would get smart switched setup so that when you get the new phone you can easily transfer your content from the s6 to your a53.
 
ocnbrze said:
also i would get smart switched setup so that when you get the new phone you can easily transfer your content from the s6 to your a53.
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I don't have any pictures to transfer everything is on my laptop so I can transfer anything like that there and then transfer back to the phone. Everything else is saved on my Google account so I don't really need the smart switch app.
 
I never got smart switch to work. It's like Wifi direct transferring files. when it works, it's excellent. But often it fails for seemingly no reason.

I always save my contacts locally myself, but then I only have like 5, work contacts, my girlfriend, my family. I still know their numbers by heart too. Adding them as contacts just gets rid of the 'NPC icon' that shows for an unknown which bugs me otherwise. Kinda prefer their photo.

When you login to your Google account on a modern phone, it should give you an option to transfer/install apps and data from a backup of the same account on the S6.
 
nickdalzell said:
I never got smart switch to work. It's like Wifi direct transferring files. when it works, it's excellent. But often it fails for seemingly no reason.

I always save my contacts locally myself, but then I only have like 5, work contacts, my girlfriend, my family. I still know their numbers by heart too. Adding them as contacts just gets rid of the 'NPC icon' that shows for an unknown which bugs me otherwise. Kinda prefer their photo.
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I don't need the app my contacts and everything are all saved to my Google account so when I sign into the account with new phone everything I need will be on the phone from my Google account.
 
ocnbrze said:
also i would get smart switched setup so that when you get the new phone you can easily transfer your content from the s6 to your a53.
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I prefer the less intrusive Syncios Data Transfer. Samsung's Switch seems very noisy. Samsung doesn't need to collect the personal/device info.
 
AppleUser said:
I prefer the less intrusive Syncios Data Transfer. Samsung's Switch seems very noisy. Samsung doesn't need to collect the personal/device info.
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where does it say that it collects personal info? been using switch for all of my samsung devices and never had any issues.
 
More like anti-privacy policy. We're constantly EULA-roofied and suddenly everyone thinks anyone who prefers to have privacy is some tinfoil hat wearing nut. Being concerned about data collection ain't a conspiracy theory. It's a legit concern and one everyone should be angry about. Why we allow corporations to walk all over us just turns my stomach. This is the very thing Richard Stallman warned us about back in the '90s
 
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