The one motive I do not purchase Samsung telephone...

As you recognize, 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 should you’re looking for an Android system as an alternative of an iPhone 16, you are most likely going to decide on a Galaxy S25 over a Pixel 9.

Whereas my every day driver is an iPhone 16 Professional, I’ve owned just a few Android telephones up to now. I generally think about making the swap again, significantly after I see the digital camera specs on some newer units. However whereas Samsung is without doubt one of the corporations main within the specs race, I am steering away from the model for one main motive: bloatware. And sadly, I do not suppose it should change course anytime quickly.

The bloatware dilemma

A singular proposition is not at all times an excellent one

For me, the main downside is One UI, Samsung’s Android pores and skin. There are literally quite a lot of sensible benefits to it — it permits just a few 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 system a singular look, filled with rounded icons and signature fonts. I am largely onboard, irrespective of my complaints about particular person options just like the Now Transient.

The downside of One UI is that in order for you the newest model of Android, it is an impediment. For the time being, 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 carry the software program to extra units in September, however should you’ve received a Galaxy S25 Extremely, all you are able to do till then is envy your buddy with the Pixel 9, who received Android 16 earlier this summer season.

Related 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 quite a lot of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I might a lot relatively have “naked” Android 16 as quickly as attainable than one thing custom-made a number of months later. Certainly, if I ever do leap 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 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 could be simple to forgive if Samsung prevented loading every cellphone with an arsenal of apps which are redundant with Google’s, or simply plain pointless. There’s little motive to make use of SmartThings to your good 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 an alternative of Google Pockets, and do not even get me began on fluff like Samsung Free and Samsung TV Plus.

In some instances a minimum of, it is attainable to disregard these apps, however utilizing a Samsung cellphone at all times appears 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 capabilities would both be lacking or susceptible to being taken away at any second. Likewise, Android is already well-stocked with every part it wants — which is one thing most cellphone 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 House, 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…

In need of a disaster, Samsung is unlikely to jettison One UI. The obvious motive is that it will 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 impartial apps, despite the flexibleness of Android. Furthermore, Samsung has tied its company id to the software program — if the Galaxy S26 immediately appeared loads like a Google or OnePlus cellphone, some customers is likely to be extra inclined to see these different merchandise as equal alternate options (gasp). To be constant, Samsung may also have to revamp the interfaces of non-Android merchandise. That form of shake-up is usually a non-starter for smaller companies, not to mention megacorporations price lots of of billions.

The decoupling problem carries over to a couple key apps. The Galaxy Watch at the moment requires Samsung Well being, and dropping SmartThings for Alexa or Google Residence would wreak havoc with the corporate’s good home equipment. Transitioning to different apps is doable, although, so the overriding issue is sort of definitely the push for ecosystem management. If you happen to’ve received a watch that will not work with no Samsung cellphone, you are most likely going to stay with Samsung usually for some time. If you happen to’ve received a Samsung equipment, you possibly can safely ignore SmartThings, nevertheless it creates the temptation to take a position extra in that platform to get probably the most out of it. One factor I get pleasure from about my Google TV is the flexibility to set a film evening scene for your complete room with a single voice command.

I truly 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 mistaken route.