Believe it or not, Samsung has done something many of us didn’t think was feasible: it has made first-rate software. Tomorrow, it will unveil a pile of recent phones — the thoroughly leaked Galaxy S10 lineup — and all they must be strolling the brand new “One UI” software, which is constructed on top of Android 9 Pie. I’ve been trying out One UI on a Galaxy S9 for a week, and I like it. In a few approaches, I like it better than what Google itself is transported on Pixel Three. If it weren’t for the truth that I believe Samsung supplies predominant software program updates fast, I might be shouting about One UI from the rooftops. As it is, I want to point out that it’s time for us to prevent instinctively turning our noses up at Samsung’s version of Android.
There are still some traumatic components of One UI. However, they don’t destroy what is otherwise a full-featured, coherent, and (dare I say) considerate model of Android. This is not a conventional understanding of approximately Samsung software. If you haven’t been paying close attention to the world of Android in the past few years, you might have overlooked something: we don’t speak about “skins” much anymore. We used to think that there was this type of component as “pure” Android, which changed into then sullied using pointless and annoying layers of software slathered on top of it.
Nowadays, “pure” Android does much less than it used to. The basic Android Open Source Project (AOSP) version isn’t always something you’d need to use on its own anymore — too many critical pieces were pulled out of the open-source and are dispensed via both Google and the producer instead. So, to speak about “pure” Android and “skins” means to miss the factor. Most telephones constructed on Android have custom software that goes way deeper than the pores and skin, whether made by Samsung, with the aid of Xiaomi or — yes — even by Google.
All of that is the context I experience. I want to lie down because Samsung’s software customizations have a protracted and nicely earned recognition for being buggy, tasteless, and burdened with gimmicks. I’m talking about TouchWiz of the route. It became important in the early days, while Android (and Windows Mobile, in which TouchWiz was born) wasn’t appropriate enough for the common person. However, Samsung couldn’t assist itself; it blended extra capabilities to make the UI more iPhone-like. All those capabilities had been confusing and bogged the whole lot down.
On the pinnacle of everything else, TouchWiz just lacked taste. A model of TouchWiz made a water-droplet noise each time you touched the telephone. By default, it went “bloop” with each tap. Eventually, Samsung discovered that the emblem was tainted and renamed it the “Samsung Experience.” As Vlad Savov pointed out, it became probable because Samsung was already beginning to enhance the software that was revealed when it did. But I think it didn’t cross quite far enough — a more profound redesign became wanted.
Now, we have One UI. I can’t go far enough to mention that the whole lot has always changed regarding Samsung’s customizations. There are still multiple versions of some apps because both Google and Samsung insist on having their software program gift. Samsung phones have a reputation for being a touch laggy (the technical term is cruft) through the years, and I don’t know yet whether One UI and Android 9 will go through the same destiny. But I do recognize that one week in, this OS truly feels intentional and designed instead of simply having a gaggle of capabilities tacked on.
Historically, we have considered all the customizations useless add-ons. But that’s not pretty right anymore — customizing AOSP is essential nowadays. Instead, we ought to choose a Samsung smartphone on its own merits as a telephone, not as stuff bolted on to a few idealized “natural” models of the phone that can’t, in reality, exist anymore. One UI includes four key parts. One is the simple update to Android nine Pie, which means you’ll get many small capabilities without spending a dime. Second, there’s a generalized update to the appearance and feel — the entirety is only a little cleaner and more tasteful than before.
Samsung has discovered that neon is the most effective coolant in small doses. Third, because it is Samsung, just a million features are hidden in each OS nook. Some of them — like a darkish mode — are, without a doubt, useful. Others will remind human beings of the awful antique days of TouchWiz. However, standard Samsung is doing a higher process of surfacing them gradually as you operate the smartphone instead of asking you to wade through arcane and opaquely named settings screens within the first 15 minutes of using the telephone.
