Galaxy S9 Three years later and Samsung either doesn't care about building aligned products from the ground (or board) up, or doesn't know how. The Galaxy S9:

And here's how it compares to Apple's latest, the iPhone X.

Galaxy S8 Two years later and Samsung has to have finally gotten the ports and buttons aligned, right? Not so much. The just-announced Galaxy S8, sadly:

Galaxy S7 So, a year later, did Samsung get their ports and buttons in order? From the looks of the just-announced Galaxy S7, not so much.

The ports, microphones, speakers, jacks, and other elements still don't line up. Not even close. Galaxy S6 It's a quote from the late Steve Jobs' father intended to help instill pride in craft. Jony Ive, Apple's senior vice president of design, has spoken numerous times about the importance and inevitability of great design as well, about the care and consideration it takes, and how people notice it even when they don't notice themselves noticing it. Get an iPhone SE with Mint Mobile service for $30/mo Recently there was a brouhaha about a Qualcomm sticker junking up the Samsung Galaxy S6 on Verizon. You don't see a sticker like that on the iPhone 6 or any other iPhone, of course, because Apple cares more about the look of their product than the licensing fees or other considerations refusing it entails. Same with Intel Inside stickers on the Mac. But when I looked at the picture of Samsung's product, it wasn't the sticker that bothered me so much. That, I assume, can be peeled off. It was something else I saw that bothered me, and something I can now never un-see. It's the lack of basic alignment.

Here's the top image again, this time with lines drawn through the center points. The sticker isn't even put on straight, which seems unimaginable given modern production equipment. I thought maybe it had something to do with the "edge" design, so I checked out the non-edge version as well.

Same thing. Since the iPhone 6 is in the same photo, the lack of basic alignment is even more noticeable. In case it was just the bottom, I took a look at the top as well.

And the side.