iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

iFixit was Samsung's upcycling partner in 2017 but says Samsung never delivered.

Read the whole story

 

[Granadico]

I had a Samsung S4 that lasted me until i think the S8 or S9 was around just because i was able to buy a replacement battery for it, with a charging case so i could charge the battery to replace subs it got so old it'd burn through 2 batteries a day. This new phone i got looks like it'll barely make 3 years, but would probably be able to last another year or 2 if i could replace the battery ( Moto G6).

The government should follow the carbon tax template with e-waste: every phone left to rot by being kept closed and only supported for 2 years should get them taxed, with the taxes going towards something to help reduce e waste.

 

[fknuckles]

I have an old ATT-branded S5 that I can't unlock. Replace the battery and give it security fixes and it'd still be a perfectly great phone, or even just an internet-connected device.

Why can't you unlock it?

I'm assuming that it's just not worth the $30 to unlock the phone now that the phone itself is worth only like $50, or that you don't want to spend the time calling AT&T and unlocking it for free....

For a long-term Ars reader, this is an unexpected gap in your knowledge (or comprehension).

This is a bootloader unlock, not network unlock. You need the OEM for this, or maybe an enterprising (and lucky) hacker.

 

[firsttimecaller]

A hit piece on Samsung? I wonder who on Earth could have written that!


Hah, nah, not really. Didn't even need to check the byline...

Samsung fully deserves to get hit.

not much of a hit in my opinion, i get their reasoning. no clear revenue.

 

[killerhurtalot]

I had a Samsung S4 that lasted me until i think the S8 or S9 was around just because i was able to buy a replacement battery for it, with a charging case so i could charge the battery to replace subs it got so old it'd burn through 2 batteries a day. This new phone i got looks like it'll barely make 3 years, but would probably be able to last another year or 2 if i could replace the battery ( Moto G6).

The government should follow the carbon tax template with e-waste: every phone left to rot by being kept closed and only supported for 2 years should get them taxed, with the taxes going towards something to help reduce e waste.

I used to basically upgrade every 2 years since the performance and hardware requirements for the new OS updates were so substantial...

But I just don't see the point anymore since even 3-4 year old phones still perform damn well even when fully updated.

Batteries are also performs vastly better than what they used to with less wear degradation as well. Got my S10+ at launch, still basically just as snappy as new. And that's with the battery draining down to 0-20% every single day too. I still got a all day battery (which is unthinkable even as recently as the S6/S7...)

I just can't see myself upgrading in the next year or two at this point and probably just replace the battery if it gets to that point...

2 year upgrade cycles is now basically 3-4+ at a minimum...

 

[killerhurtalot]

I have an old ATT-branded S5 that I can't unlock. Replace the battery and give it security fixes and it'd still be a perfectly great phone, or even just an internet-connected device.

Why can't you unlock it?

I'm assuming that it's just not worth the $30 to unlock the phone now that the phone itself is worth only like $50, or that you don't want to spend the time calling AT&T and unlocking it for free....

For a long-term Ars reader, this is an unexpected gap in your knowledge (or comprehension).

This is a bootloader unlock, not network unlock. You need the OEM for this, or maybe an enterprising (and lucky) hacker.

As a ars reader, he should have known that the AT&T S5 is the only version of that phone that hasn't had the bootloader cracked or shipped with a unlocked bootloader...
most of the galaxy S5 phones didn't have a locked bootloader in the first place.

 

[Stochastic]

Environmentally: The "cat" is out of the bag and electronics are consumerism's problem. Want to pass laws to force companies, especially TRILLION dollar, global behemoths, to have responsible products and repurpose to last 20 years? Good luck. Companies will not allow it, unless it benefits the shareholders.

I'm almost as cynical as you are, and I agree that, in the near future, the probability of federal legislation getting passed that results in a meaningful reduction in e-waste is low (at least in the US, Europe is another matter). But times are changing. There is greater awareness of environmental issues than in the past, and a large contingent of younger consumers are willing to pay a premium to help fulfill their social values. Heck, MKBHD made a video about the right to repair movement a couple weeks ago. And investment firms are finally waking up to the risks of ignoring environmental issues. Boomers aren't going to rule the world forever, and when they start to retire in droves, Millenials and Gen Z will be ready to take their place.

In the long run, an environmentally blind corporate strategy is going to be bad business. I'm pessimistic about the near-term future (2020s) but more optimistic about our long-term future (2030s and beyond).

 

[PrionDX]

A Galaxy S9, say, is still a pretty damn viable competitor to contemporary phones; minus the little "June 2019" next to "Android security patch level", which is not good but is something that the cost sensitive might well ignore given that it's still a Snapdragon 845 with 4GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage; and pretty decent screen and camera.

Would be a viable competitor if not for the 2+ year old non-replaceable battery and internal flash storage nearing its engineered obsolescence.

 

[Chemical Tribe]

I have an old ATT-branded S5 that I can't unlock. Replace the battery and give it security fixes and it'd still be a perfectly great phone, or even just an internet-connected device.

Why can't you unlock it?

I'm assuming that it's just not worth the $30 to unlock the phone now that the phone itself is worth only like $50, or that you don't want to spend the time calling AT&T and unlocking it for free....

Unlocking a carrier is not the same as unlocking the bootloader. Additionally, eFuses also play a part in this and once those are blown that can't be undone.

For the S5, it just seems like a AT&T variant issue. The international and t mobile version has a unlocked bootloader already, only the Verizon and AT&T variant had locked bootloaders (upon the request of the carriers themselves) with the Verizon cracked and unlocked already...

Samsung's Exynos based galaxy devices seem to almost never ship with a bootloader, only the Qualcomm versions do, which seems to be more of a Qualcomm request than anything else.

No, only the US bound bootloaders of Samsung phones are locked. South Korea ones aren't. Qualcomm couldn't care less about that.

 

[noodz]

Can't we ask: Is iFixit really innocent here? Isn't their agenda to really sell tools and anything to promote Right to repair, because they want to make money off other's product support?

What a steaming pile of whataboutism. ifixit is almost incidental in this whole conumdrum

This is about owning the hardware you paid for even years after their "viable" engineered lifespan. Locked bootloaders are little more than DRM: You might "own" your galaxy S9, and it might still be in perfect condition, but you better buy our latest offering because that S9 is vulnerable to widely available exploits. Even if you are a rom wizard capable of patching unsupported roms, you're still screwed because a locked bootloader won't let you flash anything in there.

I'm sure ifixit have their motivations, but so do inkjet cartridge repair shops and tractor hackers. And you'll have a hard time convincing me of their evil ways when Hewlett Packard and John Deere are out there screwing their customers.

Do companies like Samsung really need to support products past their "viable" engineered lifespan?

This is the most misleading part of your post. No, Samsung does not need to support products past their "lifespan", nor is anyone asking for that. All we want is for Samsung to stop hard coding planned obsolescence into their products.

That said, I'm sure it will be business as usual for Samsung and their lobbyists. Their interests will likely prevail and we will keep consuming smartphones like candy. What's important here is to not let Samsung get away as calling itself "consumer friendly" and "eco friendly". They're just as bad as every other corporation.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Oh poor ifixit, it took you so long to whine and complain? If it was that bad, you would've complained earlier, and with a much more fanfare. Shut it and Go back complaining about Apple instead.

Yes, just keep ignoring Samsung lying about their upcycling program. They love it when you do that.

> "Samsung's original upcycling video. None of this actually shipped."

 

[Jägs1]

Samsung "phoning" it in on something like this is very on brand.

 

[Legatum_of_Kain]

"Samsung, like every manufacturer, should set their old phones free. Open up their bootloaders. Let people use their cameras, sensors, antennas, and screens for all kinds of purposes, using whatever software people can dream up."

They should, but they won't. I can just see the response from the corporate boardroom: "What's the ROI for this work? Good will? Pah, that doesn't pay our shareholders. Or us."

That’s crazy talk. With a subscription model ($12 a year for example) they can hire developers to backport their android to older drivers and still make money.

They can also charge a yearly fee to security developers to use their maintained drivers and allow people to boot that version.

They just wanted to make more money by selling new devices mire often, like you said, but that’s just unsustainable in the end.

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

As a ars reader, he should have known that the AT&T S5 is the only version of that phone that hasn't had the bootloader cracked or shipped with a unlocked bootloader...
most of the galaxy S5 phones didn't have a locked bootloader in the first place.

The extent of the lockdown wasn't clear when I bought it, and it was a damn good phone. I'm still tempted to replace the battery (because you can do that on this phone!) but the complete lack of security patches makes it non-viable.

 

[Umma2gumma]

"Samsung, like every manufacturer, should set their old phones free. Open up their bootloaders. Let people use their cameras, sensors, antennas, and screens for all kinds of purposes, using whatever software people can dream up."

They should, but they won't. I can just see the response from the corporate boardroom: "What's the ROI for this work? Good will? Pah, that doesn't pay our shareholders. Or us."

The big problem is the direct negatives for them:

- the extended secondary market eating their primary sales
- the open sourced images getting pwned (or being made backdoored) biting their PR
- the open bootloaders being turned into 3rd party root kit attacks biting their PR

How dare you bring common sense to this.

 

[shrekk]

A Galaxy S9, say, is still a pretty damn viable competitor to contemporary phones; minus the little "June 2019" next to "Android security patch level", which is not good but is something that the cost sensitive might well ignore given that it's still a Snapdragon 845 with 4GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage; and pretty decent screen and camera.

Would be a viable competitor if not for the 2+ year old non-replaceable battery and internal flash storage nearing its engineered obsolescence.

As it happens, I'm writing this on a Galaxy S9+, which is on the April 2021 security patch, is pretty snappy and it still has an all-day battery after nearly 3 years (and a few surprise tests of it's IP rating). It's sad that Samsung deems their 3 year old flagship useless other than as a $10 home automation sensor.

Also, flash storage doesn't degrade with time, but with the number of write/erase cycles. Note all the aforementioned Blackberrys and Android 5 phones that can still run their original software just fine.

 

[TVPaulD]

I have an old ATT-branded S5 that I can't unlock. Replace the battery and give it security fixes and it'd still be a perfectly great phone, or even just an internet-connected device.

Why can't you unlock it?

I'm assuming that it's just not worth the $30 to unlock the phone now that the phone itself is worth only like $50, or that you don't want to spend the time calling AT&T and unlocking it for free....

For a long-term Ars reader, this is an unexpected gap in your knowledge (or comprehension).

This is a bootloader unlock, not network unlock. You need the OEM for this, or maybe an enterprising (and lucky) hacker.

As a ars reader, he should have known that the AT&T S5 is the only version of that phone that hasn't had the bootloader cracked or shipped with a unlocked bootloader...
most of the galaxy S5 phones didn't have a locked bootloader in the first place.

Do you...Do you imagine that all Ars readers ought to know the same exact details of every phone line-up that you do? That's not how this works, my dude.

 

[dave23]

I have an old ATT-branded S5 that I can't unlock. Replace the battery and give it security fixes and it'd still be a perfectly great phone, or even just an internet-connected device.

Why can't you unlock it?

I'm assuming that it's just not worth the $30 to unlock the phone now that the phone itself is worth only like $50, or that you don't want to spend the time calling AT&T and unlocking it for free....

Unlocking a carrier is not the same as unlocking the bootloader. Additionally, eFuses also play a part in this and once those are blown that can't be undone.

For the S5, it just seems like a AT&T variant issue. The international and t mobile version has a unlocked bootloader already, only the Verizon and AT&T variant had locked bootloaders (upon the request of the carriers themselves) with the Verizon cracked and unlocked already...

Samsung's Exynos based galaxy devices seem to almost never ship with a bootloader, only the Qualcomm versions do, which seems to be more of a Qualcomm request than anything else.

No, only the US bound bootloaders of Samsung phones are locked. South Korea ones aren't. Qualcomm couldn't care less about that.

You're mistaken. Tmobile and Sprint S5's have unlocked bootloaders while the Verizon and ATT models have locked down bootloaders. If all US S5's had locked bootloaders then you wouldn't be able to custom rom them.

 

[Romulus968]

Eh, maybe they should have called it a "recycling" program, as that what it was.

"Upcycling" is such a stupid, pointless, yuppie word. That's my opinion, and I'm stickin' to it.

 

[brian.schaefer]

I have an old ATT-branded S5 that I can't unlock. Replace the battery and give it security fixes and it'd still be a perfectly great phone, or even just an internet-connected device.

I rocked mine for years but it took hard-bricking two of them before I was able successfully flash it. I still miss the IR blaster it had, which was useful to have at work for our equipment.

 

[Chemical Tribe]

I have an old ATT-branded S5 that I can't unlock. Replace the battery and give it security fixes and it'd still be a perfectly great phone, or even just an internet-connected device.

Why can't you unlock it?

I'm assuming that it's just not worth the $30 to unlock the phone now that the phone itself is worth only like $50, or that you don't want to spend the time calling AT&T and unlocking it for free....

Unlocking a carrier is not the same as unlocking the bootloader. Additionally, eFuses also play a part in this and once those are blown that can't be undone.

For the S5, it just seems like a AT&T variant issue. The international and t mobile version has a unlocked bootloader already, only the Verizon and AT&T variant had locked bootloaders (upon the request of the carriers themselves) with the Verizon cracked and unlocked already...

Samsung's Exynos based galaxy devices seem to almost never ship with a bootloader, only the Qualcomm versions do, which seems to be more of a Qualcomm request than anything else.

No, only the US bound bootloaders of Samsung phones are locked. South Korea ones aren't. Qualcomm couldn't care less about that.

You're mistaken. Tmobile and Sprint S5's have unlocked bootloaders while the Verizon and ATT models have locked down bootloaders. If all US S5's had locked bootloaders then you wouldn't be able to custom rom them.

That's no longer the case. All of them are locked regardless of carrier.

 

[killerhurtalot]

I have an old ATT-branded S5 that I can't unlock. Replace the battery and give it security fixes and it'd still be a perfectly great phone, or even just an internet-connected device.

Why can't you unlock it?

I'm assuming that it's just not worth the $30 to unlock the phone now that the phone itself is worth only like $50, or that you don't want to spend the time calling AT&T and unlocking it for free....

For a long-term Ars reader, this is an unexpected gap in your knowledge (or comprehension).

This is a bootloader unlock, not network unlock. You need the OEM for this, or maybe an enterprising (and lucky) hacker.

As a ars reader, he should have known that the AT&T S5 is the only version of that phone that hasn't had the bootloader cracked or shipped with a unlocked bootloader...
most of the galaxy S5 phones didn't have a locked bootloader in the first place.

Do you...Do you imagine that all Ars readers ought to know the same exact details of every phone line-up that you do? That's not how this works, my dude.

Considering he owned the phone for years, he should know about the phone line up he owns...

 

[OptimusP83]

A hit piece on Samsung? I wonder who on Earth could have written that!


Hah, nah, not really. Didn't even need to check the byline...

Samsung fully deserves to get hit.

No kidding. I mean clearly Ron is unfairly treating Samsung for....checks notes....gutting a well intentioned pro-environment, pro-consumer program because it wasn't profitable.

Top tip to the troll OP, if a company continually engages in anti-consumer, anti-environmental practices, don't be shocked when a pro-consumer, pro-environmental news site posts negative editorials about them.

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

I have an old ATT-branded S5 that I can't unlock. Replace the battery and give it security fixes and it'd still be a perfectly great phone, or even just an internet-connected device.

Why can't you unlock it?

I'm assuming that it's just not worth the $30 to unlock the phone now that the phone itself is worth only like $50, or that you don't want to spend the time calling AT&T and unlocking it for free....

For a long-term Ars reader, this is an unexpected gap in your knowledge (or comprehension).

This is a bootloader unlock, not network unlock. You need the OEM for this, or maybe an enterprising (and lucky) hacker.

As a ars reader, he should have known that the AT&T S5 is the only version of that phone that hasn't had the bootloader cracked or shipped with a unlocked bootloader...
most of the galaxy S5 phones didn't have a locked bootloader in the first place.

Do you...Do you imagine that all Ars readers ought to know the same exact details of every phone line-up that you do? That's not how this works, my dude.

Considering he owned the phone for years, he should know about the phone line up he owns...

Right. It's my fault for not having a time machine so I could have owned the phone for years before buying it. What Arsian doesn't have a time machine? Honestly...

 

[kerbaldroptest]

Honestly, this seems like legislation is needed to force this. But I 100% agree, open hardware leads to so many cool things, it's a ridiculous waste of old devices, as well as opportunity for countless individuals who might learn some skills playing around and tinkering with things (instead of just having to mindlessly dispose last year's product to consume this year's product)

 

[waldo22]

Why can't companies see the benefits that "doing the right thing" or even "doing something cool and benevolent" can do for their brand?

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

"...Friends inside the company told us that leadership wasn’t excited about a project that didn’t have a clear product tie-in or revenue plan..."

Except it might have enticed customers to continue their loyalty to the brand, by giving their old devices value as they also bought new devices...

 

[Faxmachinen]

Just get a Fairphone. They have bootloader unlock code generator on their website even for their brand new phones.

 

[dave23]

That's no longer the case. All of them are locked regardless of carrier.[/quote]
You're completely mistaken. S7 and up have locked bootloaders in the US while S6 and below have unlocked bootloaders if you have Sprint and Tmobile.

 

[the-unknown]

Actually if they allow people to reuse old devices with no more official support, it would be one more plus point for me when I am purchasing a new device, cos I will know that I can possibly get a use from it even in the far future, as long as the hardware lasts.

And I don't think it will cost them much, if anything, to release unlocked bootloaders, full specs, etc at the end of the official support periods.

Unless they getting into selling cheap stand alone sensors, PI class devices, etc. Do they?

 

[Chemical Tribe]

You're completely mistaken. S7 and up have locked bootloaders in the US while S6 and below have unlocked bootloaders if you have Sprint and Tmobile.

Like I said....

 

[DakLak]

I have a Samsung Note 3 but the On/Off switch broke and the Samsung Repair Centre would NOT fix unless I also replaced the screen as 2 - YES TWO - pixels had failed.

So I took it to ShenZhen on a trip there and the technicians in a mall-like technical centre changed the switch assembly, ignored the screen but upgraded the OS and I am good for ANOTHER 8 YEARS.

Keep up the fight iFixit and Rossmann Repair Group!

 

[Starouscz]

I think its dumb... they could have gotten some cash via upcycle store to sell some unlocked bootloaders or ready to use solutions... would love that idea