These minor features also require special setup, turning on certain types of Wi-Fi, or only work with other Samsung products, he said.   Instead, Mossberg suggested, Samsung should have focused on two major things in terms of special features and really gone all out on them.

Another potential drawback to the smartphone involves the broader Android issue of operating system fragmentation.   While Apple products are generally updated seamlessly and the phone company isn't really involved, with Android, the carriers have a lot of say, which leads to different rates of OS upgrades on the handhelds, so very few Android owners are on the current OS version, he explained.  According to Mossberg, Samsung said it couldn't guarantee the phone would run the next version of Android because it can't test it.