I hear you but think you are 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater". As I said, I bumped into this issue also - with the 'economy priced' Samsung J2 Prime. However, I no no such issues in any way with my (top of the line 4 years ago) Samsung Galaxy S5. It isn't a "Samsung issue", it is a product line selection choice. I wanted the new J2 to be at least as good as my 'old' S5 but... I got what I payed for. You might say I wished in one hand and bought what was in the other hand LMAO
In my case I made the always poor choice of buying what the salesman sold me on rather than doing enough research in advance. I knew I wanted Samsung for brand name reliability. I wanted good reception for phone and wifi. I wanted more than 1 GB Ram that the cheapest phones had. I wanted min 8GB storage expandable with an SD card. I got ALL that but they neglected to say the SD storage is only good for songs and videos and I did not ask.
I did the same kind of thing. I was always happy with my S5, couldn't think of any reason to upgrade at all. When the wife needed a phone I wanted to stay Samaung then bought the cheapest, current model, 4G phone they had. With the way technology moves I incorrectly assumed my 4 year old phone would be matched by even low end current models. hahaha, thinking about it, in a way, it had been so long since I bought minimum instead of maximum performance, I forgot how to shop.
You can still easily find phones with less than 1GB of RAM in the Philippines. A very cheap phone still means you get a very sh*t phone.
Just a warning I recently bought a brand new VIVO smartphone and after using it to download various apps found it was Rooted (jail broken). How I found out was on using the app for my HSBC bank in Australia it immediately flashed on the screen words to the effect "This phone is Rooted and if you use it for transactions and there is fraudulent activity we will not reimburse you" Maybe it is just the HSBC but Rooting a phone raises hacking issues affecting not just the warranty it seems.
So your new phone was in fact a refurbished Phone? I have received new phones in the past when we use to get a free phone each year with our Telstra Contract, and have found stored pictures, text conversations etc from previous owners of said NEW Phone. I Once bought a new PC and found Blueprints etc of F111 Fighter Planes and other info I never understood, turned out they were ex-RAAF PC's refurbished and sold as 'NEW'
This happens much more than we can believe. This occurs a lot also in Europe. Imagine you buy a new computer and when you check it, it is full with pornographic pictures.
Seems that way Brian but it was from a Vivo dealer in Cebu and in a cellophane sealed box not that means much here haha - but nothing on the phone to suggest it had been used before. Maybe VIVO are Rooting some of their models to get faster performances!
In Cebu City from a Vivo agent just before we moved to Dumaguete. Happy with the phone in all other respects