The one motive 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 just below 1 / 4 of the market, relegating manufacturers like Google and Motorola to also-ran standing. Simply based mostly on the percentages, it is protected to say that when you’re purchasing for an Android system as a substitute of an iPhone 16, you are in all probability 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 couple of Android telephones previously. I typically take into account making the swap again, significantly once I see the digicam specs on some newer units. However whereas Samsung is without doubt one of the firms main within the specs race, I am steering away from the model for one main motive: bloatware. And sadly, I do not assume it should change course anytime quickly.

The bloatware dilemma

A singular proposition is not at all times a very good one

For me, the main drawback is One UI, Samsung’s Android pores and skin. There are literally a whole lot 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 offers each Samsung system 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 downside of One UI is that if you’d like the newest model of Android, it is an impediment. In the meanwhile, as an illustration, the one Samsung units 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 deliver the software program to extra units in September, however when you’ve obtained a Galaxy S25 Extremely, all you are able to do till then is envy your pal with the Pixel 9, who obtained Android 16 earlier this summer time.

Comparable delays are current with different Android manufacturers, to be honest. However the extra software program you layer on prime of units, the slower updates are more likely to roll out, and a whole lot of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I might a lot quite 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 in all probability going to be with a Pixel, since I have been spoiled by Apple’s capability to replace all its appropriate units on day one. iPhone 14 homeowners 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 appropriate {hardware}.

One UI can be simple to forgive if Samsung averted loading every telephone with an arsenal of apps which are redundant with Google’s, or simply plain pointless. There’s little motive to make use of SmartThings on your sensible 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 a substitute of Google Pockets, and do not even get me began on fluff like Samsung Free and Samsung TV Plus.

In some circumstances at the very least, it is potential to disregard these apps, however utilizing a Samsung telephone at all times looks like I am indulging in a CEO’s deep want to repeat Apple’s walled backyard. Apple has an excuse to fill its telephones with proprietary apps, nevertheless — iOS is its personal working system. With out first-party software program, key features would both be lacking or prone to being taken away at any second. Likewise, Android is already well-stocked with the whole lot it wants — which is one thing most telephone makers appear to have accepted. The Nothing Telephone 3, as an illustration, has little or no bloatware. The worst offenders are Nothing X and Important Area, which nonetheless have no direct analogues in Google’s library. If you are going to add to an OS, there needs 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 could take an amazing quantity of effort and time to decouple the options Galaxy homeowners genuinely need, and a few of them won’t survive the transition to unbiased apps, regardless of the flexibleness of Android. Furthermore, Samsung has tied its company identification to the software program — if the Galaxy S26 abruptly seemed lots like a Google or OnePlus telephone, some buyers may 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 price a whole lot of billions.

The decoupling concern carries over to some 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 sensible home equipment. Transitioning to different apps is doable, although, so the overriding issue is sort of definitely the push for ecosystem management. In case you’ve obtained a watch that will not work with no Samsung telephone, you are in all probability going to stay with Samsung typically for some time. In case you’ve obtained a Samsung equipment, you may safely ignore SmartThings, however it creates the temptation to speculate extra in that platform to get probably the most out of it. One factor I take pleasure in about my Google TV is the flexibility to set a film night time scene for all the room with a single voice command.

I really 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 exhausting within the improper path.