Abstract
- Samsung’s One UI has its benefits, however slows down the adoption of recent variations of Android should you’re not able to purchase the corporate’s newest merchandise.
- Lots of the apps on Samsung telephones are both fully pointless or redundant with the apps Google offers to each Android machine maker. Generally, 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 might take loads of effort and time to decouple options.
As you recognize, Samsung is a juggernaut of the smartphone trade. Even in North America, the place Apple’s iPhone reigns supreme, it controls slightly below 1 / 4 of the market, relegating manufacturers like Google and Motorola to also-ran standing. Simply based mostly on the percentages, it is secure to say that should you’re purchasing for an Android machine as an alternative of an iPhone 16, you are most likely going to decide on a Galaxy S25 over a Pixel 9.
Whereas my every day driver is an iPhone 16 Professional, I’ve owned a number of Android telephones previously. I generally think about making the change again, notably once I see the digital camera specs on some newer gadgets. However whereas Samsung is without doubt one of the corporations main within the specs race, I am steering away from the model for one main motive: bloatware. And sadly, I do not suppose it’ll change course anytime quickly.
The bloatware dilemma
A singular proposition is not at all times a superb one
For me, the main downside is One UI, Samsung’s Android pores and skin. There are literally loads of sensible benefits to it — it permits a number of issues that are not but constructed into Android, such because the Now Bar, which mimics Apple’s Sensible Stack. On some gadgets, it is important for Samsung’s multitasking and AI capabilities. And naturally, it offers each Samsung machine a novel look, stuffed with rounded icons and signature fonts. I am largely onboard, irrespective of my complaints about particular person options just like the Now Temporary.
The disadvantage of One UI is that if you’d like the newest model of Android, it is an impediment. In the meanwhile, as an example, the one Samsung gadgets 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 gadgets in September, however should you’ve acquired a Galaxy S25 Extremely, all you are able to do till then is envy your buddy with the Pixel 9, who acquired Android 16 earlier this summer season.
Utilizing a Samsung cellphone at all times seems like I am indulging in a CEO’s deep need to repeat Apple’s walled backyard.
Comparable delays are current with different Android manufacturers, to be honest. However the extra software program you layer on high of gadgets, the slower updates are prone to roll out, and loads of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I might a lot moderately have “naked” Android 16 as quickly as potential than one thing personalized a number of months later. Certainly, if I ever do bounce again into Android, it is most likely going to be with a Pixel, since I have been spoiled by Apple’s capability to replace all its appropriate gadgets on day one. iPhone 14 house owners 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 could be straightforward to forgive if Samsung averted loading every cellphone with an arsenal of apps which are redundant with Google’s, or simply plain pointless. There’s little motive to make use of SmartThings in your good dwelling when Amazon Alexa and Google Residence 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 an alternative of Google Pockets, and do not even get me began on fluff like Samsung Free and Samsung TV Plus.
In some circumstances no less than, it is potential to disregard these apps, however utilizing a Samsung cellphone at all times seems like I am indulging in a CEO’s deep need to repeat Apple’s walled backyard. Apple has an excuse to fill its telephones with proprietary apps, nonetheless — iOS is its personal working system. With out first-party software program, key capabilities would both be lacking or vulnerable to being taken away at any second. Likewise, Android is already well-stocked with all the things it wants — which is one thing most cellphone makers appear to have accepted. The Nothing Telephone 3, as an example, has little or no bloatware. The worst offenders are Nothing X and Important House, which nonetheless haven’t any direct analogues in Google’s library. If you are going to add to an OS, there ought 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 motive is that it might take an amazing quantity of effort and time to decouple the options Galaxy house owners genuinely need, and a few of them won’t survive the transition to impartial apps, despite the flexibleness of Android. Furthermore, Samsung has tied its company id to the software program — if the Galaxy S26 instantly regarded so much like a Google or OnePlus cellphone, some customers could be extra inclined to see these different merchandise as equal options (gasp). To be constant, Samsung may additionally have to revamp the interfaces of non-Android merchandise. That kind of shake-up is usually a non-starter for smaller companies, not to mention megacorporations value a whole lot of billions.
One of many strengths of Android is meant to be the liberty from lock-in, and Samsung continues to lean too arduous within the mistaken course.
The decoupling difficulty carries over to a couple key apps. The Galaxy Watch at present requires Samsung Well being, and dropping SmartThings for Alexa or Google Residence would wreak havoc with the corporate’s good home equipment. Transitioning to different apps is doable, although, so the overriding issue is nearly actually the push for ecosystem management. When you’ve acquired a watch that will not work with no Samsung cellphone, you are most likely going to stay with Samsung normally for some time. When you’ve acquired a Samsung equipment, you may safely ignore SmartThings, but it surely creates the temptation to speculate extra in that platform to get essentially the most out of it. One factor I get pleasure from about my Google TV is the power to set a film night time scene for your entire 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 arduous within the mistaken course.
