Falling in love with Samsung again

After months of leaks and delays, Samsung’s One UI 7 beta is lastly obtainable for the Galaxy S24 collection. These early leaks confirmed a controversial departure for Samsung, because of redesigned UI parts that seemed uncomfortably much like iOS. However now that I’ve One UI 7 on my Galaxy S24 Extremely, I can confidently say that is essentially the most important replace since One UI first launched alongside the S10, and I like what I’ve seen to date.

The problematic stuff is all right here, however lots of it has been toned down in comparison with the leaked screenshots we noticed over the previous couple of months. And when you handle to look previous any similarities with different working techniques, One UI 7 has quite a bit going for it.

Samsung’s One UI has all the time been fairly clean, however some animations, particularly for opening and shutting apps, have struggled with stuttering and body drops. That’s all modified in One UI 7, which makes use of non-linear app animations that reply higher to your finger actions and rival the Pixel or iPhone when it comes to smoothness.

One UI 7 feels zippier though it’s a beta. Opening apps and scrolling by way of lists really feel extra fluid than One UI 6 ever did, and all these minor enhancements mix into one thing noticeable. This can be one of the important however underrated modifications on this new model.

This one is large. For years, fanatics have been begging Samsung to change to a vertical app drawer as an alternative of the paginated horizontal drawer Samsung telephones have had. One UI 7 has lastly accomplished that, transferring the search bar to the underside and decluttering the app checklist general. Plus, I imagine Samsung’s new app drawer is superior to what Google presents on the Pixel as a result of it remembers your place. When you open an app from the drawer, swipe to go dwelling, after which open the drawer once more, it’ll open within the final place you have been in.

When you appreciated the outdated format, and I do know many individuals do, you may get it again by altering the type order to customized as an alternative of alphabetical. The problem is that whilst you’ll get the horizontal pages again, your apps will likely be in a random order and virtually unimaginable to kind by way of. Hopefully, Samsung will tackle that in future builds.

This function could seem insignificant to some, nevertheless it’s certainly one of my favourite additions to One UI 7. The clock app allows you to group a number of alarms, making it simple to search out alarms associated to one another and switch all of them on or off with one button. Within the morning, I wish to take my remedy half an hour earlier than I have to rise up, so I’ve separate remedy and wake-up alarms. Seeing them in a single place and shortly turning them off collectively if I’ve a time off is a pleasant quality-of-life replace.

Simply as Google is rumored to be doing with Android 16, Samsung has separated the notification shade from the short settings panel, and the brand new format works the identical means because the management middle on the iPhone. Swiping down from the left or center of the display screen shows your notification panel, which now lacks the brightness slider and toggles on the prime. Swiping down from the correct facet, nevertheless, summons the short settings panel, which has had an overhaul of its personal.  The part containing customizable toggles solely exhibits two rows of controls, hiding the remaining in a vertical checklist while you swipe down on them.

The brightness slider shares house with a quantity slider, and subsequent to those are sound profile and darkish mode buttons. On One UI 6, the brightness slider had a three-dot menu that housed the toggles for auto-brightness, adaptive shade tone, and additional brightness. With the brand new format, you long-press the brightness slider to entry these controls. Lengthy-pressing the quantity slider when Galaxy Buds 3 or 3 Professional are linked will provide you with choices for transparency mode and noise canceling.

I actually hate the separated notification shade and fast settings. Fortunately, Samsung allows you to swap again to the outdated configuration, which isn’t troublesome. When you return to the mixed model, the short settings panel stays the identical, whereas the notifications shade regains your major six toggles, brightness slider, gadget controls, and media output. After I used an iPhone for the primary time lately, the entire notification system was a ache level for me, and I’m glad Samsung isn’t forcing us to make use of the separate format.

I’m additionally not a fan of the place the media controls have moved. Whether or not you employ the mixed or separate format, you’ll be able to’t management your music from the notification shade anymore, solely the short settings panel.

This wouldn’t be a 2024 product/OS launch with out having to speak about AI. Fortunately, many of the AI options in One UI 7 are enhancements to among the greatest elements of Galaxy AI because it already exists in One UI 6.1.1, so I’m extra excited than I might normally be. Writing Instruments was bundled into the hateful Samsung Keyboard, however now it’s been damaged out into the OS itself. Spotlight any textual content, and the toolbar will present the Galaxy AI emblem on the facet. As soon as tapped, you’ll be able to examine spelling and grammar, change writing model, summarize the textual content, make bullet factors, or enter the composer. My favourite a part of the improved Writing Instruments is that it really works with any selectable textual content and isn’t restricted to your writing. You possibly can spotlight one thing on a webpage or elsewhere and get bullet factors or a abstract.

You can even use Galaxy AI to generate transcripts of calls recorded within the telephone app. I haven’t tried this but, however based mostly on my expertise with AI transcriptions inside Samsung’s voice recorder, I count on this to have some points. It must be usable, however count on some typos.

The house display screen has seen some modifications in One UI 7, and I’m a fan. The leaked app icon redesigns seemed garish, however what we actually obtained within the first beta appears to be like nice. The icons are vibrant and pleasing to the attention, and it’s simple to determine what every app does. My solely criticism is that the digital camera and Knowledgeable RAW app icons appear like they have been pulled proper out of the iPhone.

Massive folders have been fashionable on lots of Chinese language smartphones currently, and Motorola even added them to its gadgets operating Android 14. I’m happy to say they’re additionally right here in One UI 7. When you faucet one of many app icons within the folder preview, it’ll open that app straight, whereas tapping the three dots within the backside proper nook will broaden your entire folder.

Samsung’s first-party widgets have been overhauled and are extra constant than ever. The widgets adapt to no matter measurement you set them to, and you’ll even change the form of the background for a lot of of them. I’ve liked Samsung’s widgets for a couple of years, and One UI 7 solely makes them higher.

Like many others, I mocked Apple’s Dynamic Island when it debuted, however that modified as soon as I used it for a bit. The knowledge it exhibits whereas staying out of the way in which is useful, as are the short controls you’ll be able to entry. With One UI 7, Samsung is introducing the Now Bar — an identical function to Apple’s Dynamic Island that considerably manages to keep away from wanting like a direct copy.

The Now Bar sits between your chosen lock display screen shortcuts on the backside of the lock display screen. The charging animation that performs while you first plug in your gadget seems right here, as do different ongoing notifications like timers and voice recordings. That is additionally the place the media controls stay on the lock display screen, and tapping on it expands it right into a full-screen participant. When you flip off your display screen with the expanded participant open, it’ll present on the AOD and stay open the subsequent time you get up your telephone till you collapse it.

For timers, stopwatches, and ongoing voice recordings, the Now Bar shrinks itself as much as the left of the standing bar, subsequent to the selfie digital camera. Tapping on it expands that exercise and allows you to carry out sure actions, like pausing a recording, resetting a timer, or stopping the stopwatch. If in case you have a number of issues operating concurrently, solely the latest will present right here. Whereas on the lock display screen, they are going to be stacked on the backside, letting you swipe by way of them.

I’m stunned name controls don’t seem right here but; in One UI 6, when you’re on a name, it exhibits a inexperienced chip with the decision length in the identical place as the place the Now Bar lives. I’d additionally like to see music controls subsequent to the selfie digital camera, particularly as they’ll’t be accessed from the notification shade anymore.

I like what I’m seeing with the Now Bar, however its usefulness will likely be restricted even when Samsung provides help for calls and media playback. Apple had the identical drawback when Dynamic Island was first launched, however since then, lots of app builders have gotten behind it. Samsung will battle to do the identical except one thing like that is baked into Android. Fortunately, that would occur in Android 16.

The digital camera app doesn’t have many new options, nevertheless it has been cleaned up. I’ve all the time appreciated One UI’s viewfinder as a result of it makes all of the choices you want accessible. It grew to become cluttered over time, although. Now, Samsung has neatened up the interface, transferring all the secondary controls to a collapsible menu that’s summoned by tapping the button to the correct of the zoom controls. It’s a very good middle-ground, making the app cleaner whereas nonetheless being simpler to navigate, no less than to me, than the Pixel’s digital camera app. The Knowledgeable RAW app has acquired the identical makeover.

Professional Video mode did get a pleasant quality-of-life replace with a zoom bar that allows you to easily zoom out and in at completely different speeds, dictated by how far you pull the zoom management. If you wish to leap straight to a particular lens, faucet the button to the correct on the zoom bar, and the standard zoom shortcuts will present.

I used to be frightened about One UI 7. I didn’t just like the look of any of the leaks, particularly the redesigned notifications and fast settings. That, mixed with the truth that I don’t love my S24 Extremely as a lot as I liked my S23 Extremely, made me really feel prefer it was time to change again to a Pixel.

Now that I’ve tried One UI 7, there may be nothing to fret about. This beta isn’t good; the battery life has been terrible to date, and there have been occasional crashes, however that’s anticipated in a beta construct. I like virtually all the modifications Samsung has made right here, primarily the little quality-of-life tweaks like alarm teams and the improved system animations. One UI 7 feels just like the Samsung of outdated, which was by no means afraid to attempt new issues, to throw concepts on the wall to see what sticks. This replace does that with out turning into the cluttered mess that was TouchWiz.

When you’ve obtained a Galaxy S24 and the beta is obtainable in your nation, you shouldn’t replace but. As a lot as I like One UI 7, it isn’t prepared to be used on a major smartphone but. I get pleasure from placing myself by way of the wringer by operating unstable software program on my telephone, however most individuals don’t. Battery life is horrible; there’s the occasional app crash; and possibly extra bugs than what I’ve encountered within the 24 hours I’ve spent with it. When you can’t wait till subsequent 12 months for the secure launch, no less than wait till beta two or beta three arrives and begins to squash these pesky bugs.