The one purpose I do not purchase Samsung telephones is bloatware

As you realize, 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 for those who’re looking for an Android machine 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 day by day driver is an iPhone 16 Professional, I’ve owned a couple of Android telephones prior to now. I generally contemplate making the swap again, notably once I see the digital camera 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 assume it will change course anytime quickly.

The bloatware dilemma

A singular proposition is not all the time a great one

For me, the main drawback is One UI, Samsung’s Android pores and skin. There are literally a variety of sensible benefits to it — it permits a couple of 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 machine a singular look, stuffed with rounded icons and signature fonts. I am largely onboard, regardless of my complaints about particular person options just like the Now Transient.

The downside of One UI is that if you need the most recent model of Android, it is an impediment. In the meanwhile, for 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 carry the software program to extra gadgets in September, however for those who’ve bought a Galaxy S25 Extremely, all you are able to do till then is envy your buddy with the Pixel 9, who bought Android 16 earlier this summer season.

Related delays are current with different Android manufacturers, to be truthful. However the extra software program you layer on prime of gadgets, the slower updates are more likely to roll out, and a variety of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I would a lot quite have “naked” Android 16 as quickly as potential than one thing custom-made 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 capacity to replace all its suitable gadgets on day one. iPhone 14 homeowners would naturally be irritated in the event that they needed to wait till subsequent yr to improve to iOS 26, regardless of having completely suitable {hardware}.

One UI could be simple to forgive if Samsung prevented loading every telephone with an arsenal of apps which might be redundant with Google’s, or simply plain pointless. There’s little purpose to make use of SmartThings in 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 an alternative of Google Pockets, and do not even get me began on fluff like Samsung Free and Samsung TV Plus.

In some instances not less than, it is potential to disregard these apps, however utilizing a Samsung telephone all the time 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 susceptible to being taken away at any second. Likewise, Android is already well-stocked with every thing it wants — which is one thing most telephone makers appear to have accepted. The Nothing Telephone 3, for example, 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 needs 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 purpose is that it might take an incredible quantity of effort and time to decouple the options Galaxy homeowners genuinely need, and a few of them may not survive the transition to impartial apps, despite the flexibleness of Android. Furthermore, Samsung has tied its company identification to the software program — if the Galaxy S26 all of the sudden appeared so much like a Google or OnePlus telephone, some consumers 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 lots of of billions.

The decoupling difficulty carries over to a couple key apps. The Galaxy Watch presently 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. For those who’ve bought a watch that will not work and not using a Samsung telephone, you are in all probability going to stay with Samsung on the whole for some time. For those who’ve bought a Samsung equipment, you’ll be able to safely ignore SmartThings, nevertheless 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 power to set a film evening scene for your entire 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 path.