The one cause I do not purchase Samsung telephones is bloatware

As you realize, Samsung is a juggernaut of the smartphone business. Even in North America, the place Apple’s iPhone reigns supreme, it controls slightly 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 searching for an Android machine as a substitute 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 just a few Android telephones previously. I generally think about making the swap again, notably once I see the digicam specs on some newer gadgets. 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 cause: bloatware. And sadly, I do not assume it should change course anytime quickly.

The bloatware dilemma

A singular proposition is not at all times a very good one

For me, the main downside is One UI, Samsung’s Android pores and skin. There are literally a variety 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 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, irrespective of my complaints about particular person options just like the Now Transient.

The disadvantage of One UI is that if you’d like the newest 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 — primarily based 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 if you happen to’ve bought a Galaxy S25 Extremely, all you are able to do till then is envy your good friend with the Pixel 9, who bought Android 16 earlier this summer season.

Comparable 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 more likely to roll out, and a variety of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I might a lot quite 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 potential 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 yr to improve to iOS 26, regardless of having completely appropriate {hardware}.

One UI could be simple 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 cause to make use of SmartThings in your good residence 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 a substitute of Google Pockets, and do not even get me began on fluff like Samsung Free and Samsung TV Plus.

In some instances no less than, it is doable to disregard these apps, however utilizing a Samsung cellphone at all times appears 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 prone to being taken away at any second. Likewise, Android is already well-stocked with the whole lot it wants — which is one thing most cellphone makers appear to have accepted. The Nothing Cellphone 3, for example, has little or no bloatware. The worst offenders are Nothing X and Important House, which nonetheless have no direct analogues in Google’s library. If you are going to add to an OS, there must 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 cause is that it might 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 unbiased apps, regardless of the pliability of Android. Furthermore, Samsung has tied its company identification to the software program — if the Galaxy S26 all of the sudden seemed lots like a Google or OnePlus cellphone, 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 usually a non-starter for smaller companies, not to mention megacorporations value a whole lot 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 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. For those who’ve bought a watch that will not work with no Samsung cellphone, you are in all probability going to stay with Samsung basically for some time. For those who’ve bought a Samsung equipment, you’ll be able to safely ignore SmartThings, but it surely creates the temptation to take a position 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 night time scene for your complete room with a single voice command.

I really 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 arduous within the unsuitable route.