Samsung has extended the ad campaign slamming the iPhone X that it began earlier in July, and has released a trio of new videos that take aim at the iPhone X's notch, storage, and app presentation.
Samsung, which of late has been ramping up its attacks on the iPhone and other Apple products in TV commercials and other advertising, on Thursday released three videos on its YouTube channel that attack various aspects of the iPhone X. The campaign is titled "Ingenious," which is presumably some type of play on Apple's Genius Bar concept.
In the first video, titled "Notch," a customer is in an Apple Store, asking the employee, "Pat," whether the iPhone X's notch covers up a portion of the screen when watching a movie in full screen mode. The two argue over whether or not it actually does, until the employee admits "it takes time to get used to it." Then, the employee notices in horror that an entire family -- with haircuts that resemble the notch -- is standing in the store glaring at him in disapproval.
The second video, titled "Storage," focuses on mocking Apple for the iPhone X's lack of a MicroSD slot. Still in the same Apple Store, a female customer tells the beleaguered Apple employee that she can't find the MicroSD card slot. When Pat mentions that the X in fact doesn't have such a slot, the woman points out that the Galaxy S9 has one. When she asks how to get more storage, he replies "the cloud." She says "oh yea, I don't want my stuff up there."
Samsung omitted the SD card slot on the Galaxy S6. Presumably, since the company is talking about it, it will be a feature of the forthcoming Galaxy Note, and the 2019 Galaxy S flagship.
In the third video, called "Multitasking," a female customer asks Pat if she can "do the split screen," because she saw her sister doing it on the S9. Pat suggests opening up the App Store, but she cuts him off. "I want to use two apps, on the screen, at the same time. I don't want another app." When Pat tries to change the subject to complement the customer's nails, she says "thank you, they change color- they multitask too.
Split-screen multitasking is on the iPad, but not on the iPhone.
It's unclear whether Samsung will be running these videos as TV commercials, although previous versions of the campaign have done so -- including during the baseball All Star Game this month, when players were actually given Galaxy S9 phones to use in the dugout during the game as part of a sponsorship.
How effective the arguments are is another story. It doesn't appear that the advent of the notch has affected the iPhone X's popularity in any significant way, while Samsung uses bezels instead of a notch. Meanwhile, past Samsung models have gone without an SD card slot, and we had thought complaints about a lack of iPhone multitasking had gone away around the time of iOS 4.