The one cause I do not purchase Samsung telephones is bloatware

As you realize, Samsung is a juggernaut of the smartphone business. 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 primarily based on the percentages, it is secure to say that in case you’re purchasing for an Android gadget as a substitute of an iPhone 16, you are most likely 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 couple of Android telephones previously. I typically contemplate making the swap again, notably after I see the digicam specs on some newer units. However whereas Samsung is among the corporations main within the specs race, I am steering away from the model for one main cause: bloatware. And sadly, I do not suppose it should change course anytime quickly.

The bloatware dilemma

A novel proposition is not at all times a superb one

For me, the main drawback is One UI, Samsung’s Android pores and skin. There are literally plenty of sensible benefits to it — it allows a couple of issues that are not but constructed into Android, such because the Now Bar, which mimics Apple’s Smart Stack. On some units, it is important for Samsung’s multitasking and AI capabilities. And naturally, it provides each Samsung gadget a singular look, stuffed with rounded icons and signature fonts. I am largely onboard, irrespective of my complaints about particular person options just like the Now Transient.

The disadvantage of One UI is that if you would like the most recent model of Android, it is an impediment. In the mean time, as an illustration, the one Samsung units with the non-beta model of One UI 8 — primarily based on Android 16 — are the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7. Samsung is planning to deliver the software program to extra units in September, however in case you’ve received a Galaxy S25 Extremely, all you are able to do till then is envy your pal with the Pixel 9, who received Android 16 earlier this summer time.

Comparable delays are current with different Android manufacturers, to be truthful. However the extra software program you layer on prime of units, the slower updates are more likely to roll out, and plenty of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I might a lot slightly have “naked” Android 16 as quickly as attainable 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 suitable units on day one. iPhone 14 house owners would naturally be irritated in the event that they needed to wait till subsequent 12 months to improve to iOS 26, regardless of having completely suitable {hardware}.

One UI can be simple 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 cause to make use of SmartThings on your good house when Amazon Alexa and Google House 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 instances at the very least, it is attainable to disregard these apps, however utilizing a Samsung telephone at all times appears 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 prone to being taken away at any second. Likewise, Android is already well-stocked with every part it wants — which is one thing most telephone makers appear to have accepted. The Nothing Cellphone 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 ought to be some simple worth to doing it.

Will Samsung ever ditch the bloat?

By no means say by no means, however…

Wanting a disaster, Samsung is unlikely to jettison One UI. The obvious cause 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, regardless of the pliability of Android. Furthermore, Samsung has tied its company id to the software program — if the Galaxy S26 instantly appeared rather a lot like a Google or OnePlus telephone, some buyers is perhaps extra inclined to see these different merchandise as equal options (gasp). To be constant, Samsung may also have to revamp the interfaces of non-Android merchandise. That type of shake-up is usually a non-starter for smaller companies, not to mention megacorporations value tons of of billions.

The decoupling problem carries over to a couple key apps. The Galaxy Watch at present requires Samsung Well being, and dropping SmartThings for Alexa or Google House 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. In the event you’ve received a watch that will not work and not using a Samsung telephone, you are most likely going to stay with Samsung usually for some time. In the event you’ve received a Samsung equipment, you’ll be able to safely ignore SmartThings, but it surely creates the temptation to take a position extra in that platform to get essentially the most out of it. One factor I get pleasure from about my Google TV is the flexibility to set a film night time scene for the whole room with a single voice command.

I truly do not begrudge Samsung an excessive amount of for what it is doing. That might 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 laborious within the flawed course.