Abstract
- Samsung’s One UI has its benefits, however slows down the adoption of latest variations of Android should you’re not able to purchase the corporate’s newest merchandise.
- Most of the apps on Samsung telephones are both utterly pointless or redundant with the apps Google offers to each Android system maker. Typically, they lock you into Samsung merchandise, flying within the face of Android’s advantages.
- The corporate is unlikely to ditch One UI or these proprietary apps anytime quickly, because it needs that ecosystem lock-in, and it will take quite a lot of effort and time to decouple options.
As , Samsung is a juggernaut of the smartphone trade. Even in North America, the place Apple’s iPhone reigns supreme, it controls just below 1 / 4 of the market, relegating manufacturers like Google and Motorola to also-ran standing. Simply based mostly on the chances, it is secure to say that should you’re looking for an Android system as a substitute of an iPhone 16, you are in all probability going to decide on a Galaxy S25 over a Pixel 9.
Whereas my each day driver is an iPhone 16 Professional, I’ve owned a number of Android telephones up to now. I typically take into account making the change again, notably after I see the digicam specs on some newer units. However whereas Samsung is without doubt one of the firms main within the specs race, I am steering away from the model for one main purpose: bloatware. And sadly, I do not suppose it may change course anytime quickly.
The bloatware dilemma
A novel proposition is not at all times one
For me, the main drawback is One UI, Samsung’s Android pores and skin. There are literally quite a lot of sensible benefits to it — it allows a number of issues that are not but constructed into Android, such because the Now Bar, which mimics Apple’s Sensible Stack. On some units, it is important for Samsung’s multitasking and AI capabilities. And naturally, it provides each Samsung system a novel look, stuffed with rounded icons and signature fonts. I am largely onboard, regardless of my complaints about particular person options just like the Now Transient.
The downside of One UI is that if you’d like the newest model of Android, it is an impediment. For the time being, as an illustration, the one Samsung units with the non-beta model of One UI 8 — based mostly on Android 16 — are the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7. Samsung is planning to convey the software program to extra units in September, however should you’ve obtained a Galaxy S25 Extremely, all you are able to do till then is envy your good friend with the Pixel 9, who obtained Android 16 earlier this summer season.
Utilizing a Samsung telephone at all times seems like I am indulging in a CEO’s deep want to repeat Apple’s walled backyard.
Related delays are current with different Android manufacturers, to be honest. However the extra software program you layer on prime of units, the slower updates are more likely to roll out, and quite a lot of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I would a lot slightly have “naked” Android 16 as quickly as doable than one thing custom-made a number of months later. Certainly, if I ever do bounce again into Android, it is in all probability going to be with a Pixel, since I have been spoiled by Apple’s capability to replace all its appropriate units on day one. iPhone 14 homeowners would naturally be irritated in the event that they needed to wait till subsequent yr to improve to iOS 26, regardless of having completely appropriate {hardware}.
One UI can be straightforward to forgive if Samsung averted loading every telephone with an arsenal of apps which might be redundant with Google’s, or simply plain pointless. There’s little purpose to make use of SmartThings to your good house when Amazon Alexa and Google Dwelling are much better supported. For well being and health, Google Match and Well being Join cowl sufficient of the identical floor as Samsung Well being. You get Samsung Pockets as a substitute of Google Pockets, and do not even get me began on fluff like Samsung Free and Samsung TV Plus.
In some circumstances not less than, it is doable to disregard these apps, however utilizing a Samsung telephone at all times seems like I am indulging in a CEO’s deep want to repeat Apple’s walled backyard. Apple has an excuse to fill its telephones with proprietary apps, nevertheless — iOS is its personal working system. With out first-party software program, key features would both be lacking or prone to being taken away at any second. Likewise, Android is already well-stocked with all the things it wants — which is one thing most telephone makers appear to have accepted. The Nothing Telephone 3, as an illustration, has little or no bloatware. The worst offenders are Nothing X and Important Area, which nonetheless haven’t any direct analogues in Google’s library. If you are going to add to an OS, there needs to be some simple worth to doing it.
Will Samsung ever ditch the bloat?
By no means say by no means, however…
In need of a disaster, Samsung is unlikely to jettison One UI. The obvious purpose is that it will take an incredible quantity of effort and time to decouple the options Galaxy homeowners genuinely need, and a few of them may not survive the transition to unbiased apps, despite the pliability of Android. Furthermore, Samsung has tied its company id to the software program — if the Galaxy S26 all of the sudden appeared so much like a Google or OnePlus telephone, some customers is likely to be extra inclined to see these different merchandise as equal alternate options (gasp). To be constant, Samsung may also have to revamp the interfaces of non-Android merchandise. That kind of shake-up is commonly a non-starter for smaller companies, not to mention megacorporations value tons of of billions.
One of many strengths of Android is meant to be the liberty from lock-in, and Samsung continues to lean too onerous within the improper route.
The decoupling problem carries over to some key apps. The Galaxy Watch presently requires Samsung Well being, and dropping SmartThings for Alexa or Google Dwelling would wreak havoc with the corporate’s good home equipment. Transitioning to different apps is doable, although, so the overriding issue is nearly definitely the push for ecosystem management. Should you’ve obtained a watch that will not work with no Samsung telephone, you are in all probability going to stay with Samsung typically for some time. Should you’ve obtained a Samsung equipment, you’ll be able to safely ignore SmartThings, nevertheless it creates the temptation to speculate extra in that platform to get essentially the most out of it. One factor I take pleasure in about my Google TV is the power to set a film night time scene for your complete room with a single voice command.
I truly do not begrudge Samsung an excessive amount of for what it is doing. That may be hypocritical, given the variety of Apple merchandise I personal that successfully demand an iPhone or an iPad. However one of many strengths of Android is meant to be the liberty from lock-in, and Samsung continues to lean too onerous within the improper route.
