The one purpose I do not purchase Samsung telephones is bloatware

As you recognize, Samsung is a juggernaut of the smartphone trade. 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 if you happen to’re searching for an Android gadget as an alternative 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 just a few Android telephones previously. I generally take into account making the change again, notably after I see the digicam specs on some newer gadgets. However whereas Samsung is likely one of the firms main within the specs race, I am steering away from the model for one main purpose: bloatware. And sadly, I do not suppose it should change course anytime quickly.

The bloatware dilemma

A novel proposition is not all the time a superb one

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

The disadvantage of One UI is that if you need the most recent model of Android, it is an impediment. In the mean time, as an example, the one Samsung gadgets 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 gadgets in September, however if you happen to’ve acquired a Galaxy S25 Extremely, all you are able to do till then is envy your buddy with the Pixel 9, who acquired 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 gadgets, the slower updates are prone to roll out, and plenty of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I would a lot slightly have “naked” Android 16 as quickly as potential than one thing personalized a number of months later. Certainly, if I ever do soar again into Android, it is in all probability going to be with a Pixel, since I have been spoiled by Apple’s capacity to replace all its appropriate gadgets 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 appropriate {hardware}.

One UI could be straightforward to forgive if Samsung averted loading every cellphone with an arsenal of apps which are redundant with Google’s, or simply plain pointless. There’s little purpose to make use of SmartThings in your good residence when Amazon Alexa and Google Dwelling 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 potential to disregard these apps, however utilizing a Samsung cellphone all the time seems 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, nevertheless — iOS is its personal working system. With out first-party software program, key features would both be lacking or susceptible to being taken away at any second. Likewise, Android is already well-stocked with all the things it wants — which is one thing most cellphone makers appear to have accepted. The Nothing Telephone 3, as an example, 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 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 purpose is that it could 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 regarded quite a bit like a Google or OnePlus cellphone, some customers could be extra inclined to see these different merchandise as equal alternate options (gasp). To be constant, Samsung may additionally have to revamp the interfaces of non-Android merchandise. That kind of shake-up is commonly a non-starter for smaller companies, not to mention megacorporations price a whole lot of billions.

The decoupling difficulty carries over to some key apps. The Galaxy Watch presently requires Samsung Well being, and dropping SmartThings for Alexa or Google Dwelling would wreak havoc with the corporate’s good home equipment. Transitioning to different apps is doable, although, so the overriding issue is sort of actually the push for ecosystem management. In the event you’ve acquired a watch that will not work with out a Samsung cellphone, you are in all probability going to stay with Samsung typically for some time. In the event you’ve acquired a Samsung equipment, you may safely ignore SmartThings, however it creates the temptation to speculate extra in that platform to get essentially the most out of it. One factor I take pleasure in about my Google TV is the flexibility to set a film evening scene for the complete room with a single voice command.

I truly do not begrudge Samsung an excessive amount of for what it is doing. That will 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 incorrect path.