The one cause I do not purchase Samsung telephones is bloatware

As you already know, 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 based mostly on the percentages, it is protected to say that when you’re purchasing for an Android system 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 every day driver is an iPhone 16 Professional, I’ve owned a number of Android telephones prior to now. I typically contemplate making the swap again, significantly after I see the digicam specs on some newer units. However whereas Samsung is likely one of the firms main within the specs race, I am steering away from the model for one main cause: bloatware. And sadly, I do not suppose it will change course anytime quickly.

The bloatware dilemma

A novel proposition is not all the time a very good one

For me, the main downside is One UI, Samsung’s Android pores and skin. There are literally lots of sensible benefits to it — it allows a number of issues that are not but constructed into Android, such because the Now Bar, which mimics Apple’s Smart Stack. On some units, it is important for Samsung’s multitasking and AI capabilities. And naturally, it offers each Samsung system 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 Temporary.

The disadvantage of One UI is that if you would like the newest model of Android, it is an impediment. In the intervening time, as an example, the one Samsung units 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 convey the software program to extra units in September, however when 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 season.

Related delays are current with different Android manufacturers, to be truthful. However the extra software program you layer on prime of units, the slower updates are prone to roll out, and lots of what Samsung does feels extraneous. I would a lot moderately have “naked” Android 16 as quickly as attainable than one thing custom-made 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 means to replace all its suitable units 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 suitable {hardware}.

One UI can be straightforward to forgive if Samsung averted loading every telephone with an arsenal of apps which are redundant with Google’s, or simply plain pointless. There’s little cause to make use of SmartThings on your good house 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 a substitute of Google Pockets, and do not even get me began on fluff like Samsung Free and Samsung TV Plus.

In some circumstances no less than, it is attainable 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 features would both be lacking or liable 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 Telephone 3, as an 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 ought 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 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 id to the software program — if the Galaxy S26 abruptly seemed loads like a Google or OnePlus telephone, some consumers is perhaps extra inclined to see these different merchandise as equal options (gasp). To be constant, Samsung may also 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 value a whole lot of billions.

The decoupling subject 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 nearly actually the push for ecosystem management. In case you’ve obtained a watch that will not work with out a Samsung telephone, you are in all probability going to stay with Samsung on the whole for some time. In case you’ve obtained a Samsung equipment, you may 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 flexibility to set a film evening scene for your 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 onerous within the incorrect path.