Samsung keeps it fresh with Android 14

After loads of beta releases, Samsung has lastly begun rolling out One UI 6 to the secure department, beginning with the Galaxy S23 collection. One UI 6 is an iterative replace that builds upon the huge changelog of earlier One UI options. However is it a superb replace? Are there sufficient significant adjustments in One UI 6 to maintain followers joyful? And maybe most significantly, must you replace to One UI 6 in your Galaxy smartphone? I’ve been utilizing One UI 6 for the previous few weeks on my Galaxy S23 Extremely, and I can reply these questions for you.

In case you have been hoping to see a large, ground-up visible overhaul when upgrading from One UI 5.1 primarily based on Android 13 to One UI 6 primarily based on Android 14, you may be disenchanted.

Most UX parts typically look the identical, and for my part, that’s really good. Customers have spent plenty of time familiarizing themselves with the UI and the way all of the visible parts work and work together with one another. It doesn’t make sense to anticipate Samsung to go towards the built-up muscle reminiscence only for the sake of change.

Essentially the most important visible adjustments are current within the Fast Settings panel, the Lockscreen, and the Notification panel.

Samsung has performed round with the colours, transparency, button positioning, and format on the Fast Settings panel. A facet impact of this variation is that the panel does lose out on its beforehand superior one-handed attain. The buttons for essentially the most generally used toggles like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are fairly excessive up, they usually require extra finger gymnastics to achieve. You possibly can’t reposition them to the underside row of buttons both.

On the brilliant facet, the toggles for Sensible View and Gadget Management at the moment are simpler to achieve. Samsung has additionally added a Fast Settings On the spot Entry setting, letting you swipe from the highest proper edge to entry Fast Settings rapidly. We’ve seen this habits beforehand in customized ROMs and different skins like MIUI, and a few folks actually prefer it.

The Notification panel now will get particular person notifications as separate playing cards. This creates extra space between notifications and provides them individuality, but it surely additionally takes up extra display screen house, and you find yourself needing a scroll or three when you have many unread notifications.

Now you can additionally kind your notifications by time as a substitute of precedence for chronological sorting. There’s nonetheless notification grouping, so if an app will get a brand new notification, the notification group will leap to the highest with all of its older notifications.

The music participant has a really good visible change. The album artwork now covers your complete background of the notification, and the progress bar leaves behind a visualizer path. Whereas it does look barely misplaced from its bland environment, it’s a pleasant contact that provides colour and life to the boring notification panel.

For the Lockscreen, we now have a number of customizations out there. You may as well place the lock display screen clock widget extra freely and alter it round. However that’s not the numerous change right here.

The Lockscreen now will get tied to Modes, very like iOS’s Focus Modes, but it surely misses the mark

One UI 5 launched Modes and Routines, whereas One UI 5.1 launched the flexibility to set a distinct wallpaper primarily based in your routine. With One UI 6, Samsung is trying to iOS 17 for inspiration.

Now you can set uniquely totally different lock screens for every mode, similar to you possibly can on iOS 17. If you edit a lock display screen when a mode is on, you edit that mode’s model of the lock display screen. This may be useful if you could edit totally different parameters, like your shortcuts, relying on what you’re doing. As an example, you possibly can floor a shortcut to a exercise app when your Train mode will get toggled, which in flip may be set to toggle robotically if you attain your health club location.

Whereas it’s clear the place Samsung is on the lookout for inspiration, your complete expertise with lock screens and modes is fairly complicated.

For one, Samsung doesn’t do a superb job promoting this as a characteristic. There is no such thing as a instant indication within the UX which you could edit the lock display screen inside a mode and have the edits caught to that mode solely. It does say “Change look” from throughout the mode setting, however most customers will not be going to understand the correlation between modes and lock screens till they attain this display screen. On iOS, Apple makes it way more obvious which you could model your lock display screen per Focus Mode.

On iOS, you too can toggle between Focus Modes by long-pressing the lock display screen and swapping it into the following lock display screen. This does set off by chance usually, however additionally it is fairly easy to start out totally different Focus Modes when wanted manually. However on One UI 6, you possibly can’t change the mode from the lock display screen.

Talking of larger adjustments, One UI now has a devoted video editor app. Beforehand, video edits have been executed throughout the default Gallery app. The brand new Studio video editor is first accessed if you click on the three-line hamburger menu within the backside proper of the Gallery app, after which Samsung prompts you so as to add the app icon to the house display screen.

Why Samsung didn’t give Studio its personal app icon by default is one thing that confuses me as a lot as it might you. Due to this perplexing resolution, most customers wouldn’t know that an amateur-friendly video enhancing app already exists on their telephones.

What units Studio aside from the default Gallery’s video enhancing expertise is Samsung’s video ambitions. Previous Galaxy S-flagships have targeted rather a lot on video recording, however that’s just one a part of what makes a superb video. Tight enhancing is equally essential, and that requires a video enhancing app that may allow you to work on initiatives, view a number of clips in timeline view, after which edit accordingly. Studio achieves this, although there’s plenty of room for enchancment when in comparison with different established video enhancing apps on Android. For its first launch, it’s a superb begin because it retains issues easy for enthusiastic learners.

There’s a new Auto Blocker characteristic current in Settings > Safety and Privateness, however Samsung has left it disabled by default. When enabled, this characteristic blocks the set up of apps from unauthorized app shops. To most customers, I’d suggest turning this on, as your app wants will possible be met totally with the Google Play Retailer and the Galaxy Retailer. It’s a superb approach to make sure that different apps can’t social-engineer their approach into putting in random apps in your telephone.

Auto Blocker additionally activates app safety checks and blocks USB cables from sending instructions to your telephone for juice-jacking makes an attempt. My gripe with these is which you could’t individually toggle them on. For instance, if you don’t thoughts app installations from third events however would nonetheless prefer to be protected from potential juice-jacking assaults, there isn’t a approach to do this.

Fortunately, Samsung homes two superior choices beneath their very own toggles. I’d suggest turning Auto Blocker on and turning on the opposite two choices housed throughout the characteristic except you could have purpose to maintain these three off.

Then, there are the smaller adjustments

Every thing else in One UI 6 may be known as a extra minor change. Most individuals is not going to discover them except they’re actively on the lookout for them. However these adjustments cumulatively add as much as a greater One UI expertise.

As an example, the Digital camera largely seems to be the identical. However Samsung has moved the photograph decision switcher to the floor, making it simpler to swap round resolutions as wanted rapidly.

Watermarks on pictures have additionally exploded in reputation, pushed primarily by Chinese language manufacturers. Whereas Samsung doesn’t have an iconic watermark, One UI 6 helps you to customise the date and time watermark somewhat extra.

Equally, the Gallery app seems to be and features largely the identical. However a brand new particulars button helps you to not solely pull up the main points on the picture but additionally contact it up with choices like portrait results, remaster, and object eraser.

There are two new widgets, and I fairly like each of them. The Climate Insights widget showcases the present climate and temperature at your location and likewise mentions the following climate occasion, like a forecast or an upcoming sundown.

The digital camera widget is a shortcut that pulls you straight into a particular digital camera mode. For gadgets just like the Galaxy S23 Extremely that may shoot all kinds of content material, a devoted shortcut for a particular mode is a godsend.

One UI 6 comes with a brand new default font that’s fairly much like the outgoing. In case you didn’t discover it immediately, I received’t blame you. Samsung has additionally shortened the title of a few of its apps, eradicating the phrase “Galaxy” from the app icon label. For instance, the Galaxy Retailer is now simply known as “Retailer.” Mixed, it’s a refined option to obtain a cleaner look within the busy app drawer.

Emojis inside Samsung Keyboard now have a brand new look. Subjectively, I dislike them, however your opinion on the identical can rightfully range.

One other small change that most individuals would miss is the truth that toggling the Airplane mode will now retain the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth states. This variation was launched in Android 13 QPR1, so Samsung has caught up with the platform.

Full One UI 6 Changelog

Samsung has plenty of different adjustments littered all through One UI 6. You possibly can learn the entire changelog under:

One UI has been rightfully applauded for strolling the tightrope between packing in lots of options and making the expertise overwhelming. With One UI 6, Samsung maintains the stability and will get plenty of the little issues proper, and Samsung followers are certain to love this launch general.

In my time utilizing the secure launch, my solely actual criticism has been the gradual transfer away from one-handed reachability that Samsung had targeted on so strongly some years in the past. A couple of questionable UX selections require juggling the big Galaxy S23 Extremely in my hand, and I most popular when Samsung obsessively stored every thing inside thumb attain. A bug I proceed to face is Widevine L3 in Netflix and dropping HDR playback, which isn’t very nice. Good Lock modules are additionally wonky on One UI 6, however I’m assured it will get ironed out with updates.

Past that, I’m fairly happy. Efficiency has been wonderful on my flagship Android telephone, as anticipated. There haven’t been any larger-than-average battery drain for me, both. Bugs and hiccups have been current within the beta releases, and fortunately, I haven’t confronted any dealbreakers within the secure rollout. I’m glad Samsung took time with the betas and ironed out most bugs, and I hope the remainder get rapidly sorted out, too.

Total, if you’re a Samsung Galaxy smartphone person, you need to be enthusiastic about One UI 6. When the replace is launched in your Galaxy smartphone, we suggest updating to it instantly. Give the replace a number of days to settle, and proceed having fun with your smartphone.

How have you ever been liking the One UI 6 replace thus far? Tell us within the feedback under!