The one purpose I do not purchase Samsung telephones is bloatware

As you already know, 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 chances, it is secure to say that should you’re searching for an Android gadget as a substitute of an iPhone 16, you are most likely going to decide on a Galaxy S25 over a Pixel 9.

Whereas my each day driver is an iPhone 16 Professional, I’ve owned a couple of Android telephones up to now. I typically contemplate making the swap again, notably once I see the digicam 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 purpose: bloatware. And sadly, I do not suppose it will change course anytime quickly.

The bloatware dilemma

A novel proposition is not at all times a great one

For me, the main drawback is One UI, Samsung’s Android pores and skin. There are literally quite a lot 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 provides each Samsung gadget a singular 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 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 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 should you’ve obtained a Galaxy S25 Extremely, all you are able to do till then is envy your good friend with the Pixel 9, who obtained Android 16 earlier this summer time.

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 prone to roll out, and quite a lot of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I might a lot reasonably have “naked” Android 16 as quickly as attainable than one thing custom-made a number of months later. Certainly, if I ever do bounce again into Android, it is most likely going to be with a Pixel, since I have been spoiled by Apple’s means 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 can be simple to forgive if Samsung averted loading every telephone with an arsenal of apps which can be redundant with Google’s, or simply plain pointless. There’s little purpose to make use of SmartThings on your sensible dwelling 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 a substitute of Google Pockets, and do not even get me began on fluff like Samsung Free and Samsung TV Plus.

In some instances at the least, it is attainable to disregard these apps, however utilizing a Samsung telephone at all times 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, nonetheless — iOS is its personal working system. With out first-party software program, key capabilities would both be lacking or prone to being taken away at any second. Likewise, Android is already well-stocked with all the things it wants — which is one thing most telephone makers appear to have accepted. The Nothing Cellphone 3, as an illustration, 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 needs to be some plain 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 amazing 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 lots 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 also 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 price lots of of billions.

The decoupling problem 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 sensible home equipment. Transitioning to different apps is doable, although, so the overriding issue is sort of definitely the push for ecosystem management. In case you’ve obtained a watch that will not work and not using a Samsung telephone, you are most likely going to stay with Samsung basically for some time. In case you’ve obtained a Samsung equipment, you possibly can safely ignore SmartThings, however it 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 the whole 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 arduous within the mistaken path.