You've seen Samsung pitted against Apple (and Motorola) in US smartphone shipments, pretty much every recent (and semi-recent) iPhone model eclipsing the latest Galaxy high-enders in global popularity, and the top three wireless service providers stateside ranked (and ranked again) from 5G speed and availability perspectives.
But now it's time to check out a comprehensive new report assessing all the heavyweights of the mobile industry from a different yet equally as important (if not moreso) standpoint. After all, you can't secure a company's long-term financial well-being without customer loyalty, and you definitely can't have customer loyalty without customer satisfaction.
Enter the 25-year-old American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which is a pretty self-explanatory and widely respected national economic indicator based in its latest edition on interviews with more than 23,000 randomly selected people across the country, contacted via email between April 2021 and March 2022.
Samsung, Apple, and... LG (?!?) are the smartphone brand winners
We're not talking about mere participation trophies here, mind you, but genuine victories that can be claimed by all three of those companies, one of which isn't even in the business of making and selling phones anymore.
While Samsung and Apple share the lead in the cell phone manufacturer hierarchy, with an identical ACSI average of 80 points out of a maximum of 100, LG ranks second in the handset model chart with a low-end device from three years ago.
Believe it or not, the Aristo 3's faithful owners remain more satisfied with their purchase than those using considerably newer and/or higher-end phones like the iPhone 11 Pro Max (!), Galaxy S20 (!!), or second-gen iPhone SE (!!!).
That almost makes this silver medal more valuable than the actual trophy in that category, awarded to the Galaxy S20 Ultra after Samsung's Galaxy Note 10+, S10+, and S20+ took over the entire podium this time last year.
Shockingly, no Galaxy S21 family members made this year's top 15 list, although it's definitely worth pointing out that the same goes for Apple's iPhone 12 lineup as well. Instead of what are conventionally considered the best phones out there, the ACSI chart includes ancient underdogs like the HTC U12+ and... newer underdogs like the Galaxy A20 or A21.
That might seem bizarre until you consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe "regular" people don't care as much as you think about the latest processors, greatest cameras, and smoothest screens.
Of course, LG can't really compete with joint brand winners Apple and Samsung when it comes to overall customer satisfaction, and the same goes for Motorola and "other" smartphone vendors.
The carrier champion is... who?!
If you're not familiar with Consumer Cellular, its latest ACSI score of 78 suggests you may want to change that, especially if you're not very pleased with your current "big three" mobile network operator of choice.
Of those three, T-Mobile has managed to move back in front of both Verizon and AT&T, which are now tied at a 73 customer satisfaction score that pales in comparison with the averages of everyone from Consumer Cellular to Straight Talk Wireless, Tracfone, Cricket Wireless, and Xfinity Mobile.
For pretty obvious reasons, it's not entirely fair to compare all these big and small wireless industry players, which is why they are actually split in three distinct categories, dominated by Consumer Cellular, Optimum Mobile (who?), and T-Mobile, the latter of which stands at a not-very-impressive total of 74 points that has nonetheless soared from 71 last year.
Perhaps even more interestingly, the aforementioned 23,000+ surveys are also used to evaluate overall "network quality" based on how users view things like call clarity, call reliability, network coverage, and data speeds.
Surprisingly or not, Verizon comes out on top in this appraisal, edging out AT&T by a single point while T-Mobile lags behind in third place, only surpassing US Cellular.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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