The one cause I do not purchase Samsung telephones is bloatware

As you understand, 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 primarily based on the chances, it is protected to say that if you happen to’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 number of Android telephones up to now. I typically contemplate making the change again, significantly after I see the digital camera specs on some newer gadgets. However whereas Samsung is likely one of the corporations main within the specs race, I am steering away from the model for one main cause: bloatware. And sadly, I do not suppose it’ll change course anytime quickly.

The bloatware dilemma

A singular 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 permits a number 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 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 Transient.

The disadvantage of One UI is that if you need the most recent model of Android, it is an impediment. For the time being, as an illustration, the one Samsung gadgets with the non-beta model of One UI 8 — primarily based 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 received a Galaxy S25 Extremely, all you are able to do till then is envy your good friend with the Pixel 9, who received Android 16 earlier this summer time.

Comparable 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 plenty of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I might a lot somewhat have “naked” Android 16 as quickly as doable than one thing personalized a number of months later. Certainly, if I ever do leap again into Android, it is in all probability going to be with a Pixel, since I have been spoiled by Apple’s skill 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 can be straightforward to forgive if Samsung prevented loading every telephone with an arsenal of apps which can be redundant with Google’s, or simply plain pointless. There’s little cause to make use of SmartThings to your good residence 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 circumstances a minimum of, it is doable to disregard these apps, however utilizing a Samsung telephone all the time 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 liable to being taken away at any second. Likewise, Android is already well-stocked with every part 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 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…

Wanting a disaster, Samsung is unlikely to jettison One UI. The obvious cause is that it might take an incredible 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 out of the blue appeared so much like a Google or OnePlus telephone, some consumers is perhaps 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 type of shake-up is commonly a non-starter for smaller companies, not to mention megacorporations value a whole bunch of billions.

The decoupling concern carries over to some 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. When you’ve received a watch that will not work and not using a Samsung telephone, you are in all probability going to stay with Samsung typically for some time. When you’ve received 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 get pleasure from about my Google TV is the flexibility to set a film evening scene for your entire room with a single voice command.

I really 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 onerous within the mistaken route.