Falling in love with Samsung once more

After months of leaks and delays, Samsung’s One UI 7 beta is lastly out there for the Galaxy S24 collection. These early leaks confirmed a controversial departure for Samsung, because of redesigned UI components that seemed uncomfortably just 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 loads of it has been toned down in comparison with the leaked screenshots we noticed over the previous few months. And when you handle to look previous any similarities with different working programs, One UI 7 has lots 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 regardless that 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 some of the important however underrated adjustments on this new model.

This one is large. For years, fans 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 record general. Plus, I imagine Samsung’s new app drawer is superior to what Google affords on the Pixel as a result of it remembers your place. In the event you open an app from the drawer, swipe to go residence, after which open the drawer once more, it is going to open within the final place you have been in.

In the event you favored the outdated structure, and I do know many individuals do, you may get it again by altering the kind order to customized as an alternative of alphabetical. The difficulty is that when you’ll get the horizontal pages again, your apps might be in a random order and nearly unattainable to type by way of. Hopefully, Samsung will deal with that in future builds.

This characteristic could appear insignificant to some, nevertheless it’s considered one of my favourite additions to One UI 7. The clock app permits you to group a number of alarms, making it simple to seek out alarms associated to one another and switch all of them on or off with one button. Within the morning, I prefer to take my treatment half an hour earlier than I must rise up, so I’ve separate treatment and wake-up alarms. Seeing them in a single place and rapidly 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 structure works the identical approach 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 best aspect, nonetheless, summons the short settings panel, which has had an overhaul of its personal.  The part containing customizable toggles solely reveals two rows of controls, hiding the remainder in a vertical record whenever 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 coloration tone, and additional brightness. With the brand new structure, you long-press the brightness slider to entry these controls. Lengthy-pressing the amount slider when Galaxy Buds 3 or 3 Professional are linked provides you with choices for transparency mode and noise canceling.

I actually hate the separated notification shade and fast settings. Fortunately, Samsung permits you to change again to the outdated configuration, which isn’t tough. In the event you return to the mixed fashion, the short settings panel stays the identical, whereas the notifications shade regains your major six toggles, brightness slider, system controls, and media output. Once I used an iPhone for the primary time not too long ago, 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 structure.

I’m additionally not a fan of the place the media controls have moved. Whether or not you employ the mixed or separate structure, 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 a few of the greatest elements of Galaxy AI because it already exists in One UI 6.1.1, so I’m extra excited than I’d often 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 brand on the aspect. As soon as tapped, you’ll be able to examine spelling and grammar, change writing fashion, 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 may also use Galaxy AI to generate transcripts of calls recorded within the telephone app. I haven’t tried this but, however primarily based 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 adjustments in One UI 7, and I’m a fan. The leaked app icon redesigns seemed garish, however what we actually bought within the first beta appears 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 Professional RAW app icons appear to be they have been pulled proper out of the iPhone.

Huge folders have been well-liked on loads of Chinese language smartphones currently, and Motorola even added them to its units operating Android 14. I’m happy to say they’re additionally right here in One UI 7. In the event 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 develop the whole 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 cherished Samsung’s widgets for just a few 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 data it reveals whereas staying out of the best way is useful, as are the short controls you’ll be able to entry. With One UI 7, Samsung is introducing the Now Bar — the same characteristic 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 whenever you first plug in your system 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. In the event you flip off your display screen with the expanded participant open, it’ll present on the AOD and stay open the following 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. You probably 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 shocked name controls don’t seem right here but; in One UI 6, in the event you’re on a name, it reveals a inexperienced chip with the decision period 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 will’t be accessed from the notification shade anymore.

I like what I’m seeing with the Now Bar, however its usefulness might be restricted even when Samsung provides assist for calls and media playback. Apple had the identical drawback when Dynamic Island was first launched, however since then, loads of app builders have gotten behind it. Samsung will battle to do the identical until one thing like that is baked into Android. Fortunately, that may 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 favored One UI’s viewfinder as a result of it makes all of the choices you want accessible. It turned cluttered over time, although. Now, Samsung has neatened up the interface, transferring the entire secondary controls to a collapsible menu that’s summoned by tapping the button to the best of the zoom controls. It’s a superb middle-ground, making the app cleaner whereas nonetheless being simpler to navigate, at the very least to me, than the Pixel’s digital camera app. The Professional RAW app has obtained the identical makeover.

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

I used to be apprehensive 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 cherished 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 nearly the entire adjustments 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.

In the event you’ve bought 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 take pleasure in 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. In the event you can’t wait till subsequent yr for the steady launch, at the very least wait till beta two or beta three arrives and begins to squash these pesky bugs.