Samsung’s smartest switch with One UI 7 is determining what to ‘steal’

The One UI 7 beta has lastly started, and whole, it’s been a lovely shock. Even I, a staunch Samsung fan who has used its merchandise for years, didn’t like what I seen inside the leaks. It appeared like nothing better than a rip-off of iOS, and I was able to hate all of the issues about it. Now that I’ve One UI 7 on my Galaxy S24 Extraordinarily, my opinion has modified. One UI 7 isn’t an iOS clone, and I adore it.

One UI 7 is constructed on Android 15, nonetheless that shouldn’t fool you. Android 15 was a tiny, iterative change for Pixels, nonetheless the modifications Samsung has made to One UI better than make up for that. That’s most likely a very powerful change Samsung’s software program program pores and pores and skin has seen since One UI debuted on the Galaxy S10.

Above are among the many first photos of an official assemble of One UI 7, taken at Samsung’s SDC developer conference. There was fairly a bit to unpack from these images: bubble-shaped notifications that hardly confirmed any data, a quick settings panel that appeared want it had been pulled from an iPhone 16, and worst of all, the two panels had been separated, just like iOS and presumably Android 16.

The reality of One UI 7 is sort of completely totally different. The redesigned notifications are very spherical, nonetheless in distinction to what we seen at SDC, they current a great deal of data and are as helpful to me as sooner than. The quick settings panel has modified, too, combining the particular person brightness and sound panels into one. It nonetheless resembles iOS nonetheless doesn’t actually really feel like Apple’s administration center after I take advantage of it. It’s the equivalent quick settings panel I’m used to nonetheless with a recent coat of paint and some useful new buttons.

As for separating notifications from quick settings, that is inside the One UI 7 beta and is even the default habits now. I’m presently holding it enabled to see if I can get used to it, nonetheless there’s good news if I don’t develop to adore it: You presumably can merely flip it off and return to the unified notification shade everyone knows and love.

The icons and widgets inform an equivalent story. The model new icons are shiny and daring, and they also all look larger other than the digital digicam icon, which bears an eerie resemblance to the iPhone’s digital digicam. Apart from the digital digicam, the icons don’t appear as if they arrive from iOS. Samsung has had this pleasant, bouncy aesthetic for a while now, and that’s an evolution of that. The model new widgets are even larger than they’d been sooner than, and the massive folders are a welcome addition.

I can’t current you methods straightforward One UI 7 is in screenshots or show recordings. A beta is usually stuffed with bugs and stutters, nonetheless the one place I’ve felt that is after I long-press on the lock show to edit it. All over else, that’s the smoothest a Samsung phone has ever felt. The reality is, I’m holding my S24 Extraordinarily subsequent to my iPhone 16 Skilled, and I can’t inform any distinction in smoothness or reactivity. The S24 Extraordinarily has caught up, and the animations for unlocking, opening apps, switching apps, and returning to the home show are slick. If any of you keep in mind how straightforward Android felt when Problem Butter arrived in 4.1 Jellybean, that’s how drastic a distinction there’s between One UI 6 and One UI 7.

Minor quality-of-life enhancements are laborious to grasp until you’ve used them, and of all the massive modifications Samsung has made, my favorite is relatively tiny. The clock app now allows you to group related alarms and change them on and off with a single button. I make the most of an entire lot of alarms, notably as regards to waking up at completely totally different events so I can take my drugs and return to sleep for a while. Now, I don’t should scroll by the use of the guidelines of alarms to check on them; they’re correct on the prime and linked collectively.

These are the modifications that make the most of distinction every day, and watching screenshots or watching motion pictures of One UI 7 in movement is not any substitute for using it your self and experiencing it firsthand.

There are clearly some indicators of iOS in One UI 7. Nonetheless that’s okay on account of iOS 18 has a great deal of Android in it, too. Copying has change right into a dirty phrase, nonetheless it shouldn’t be. Merchandise have been borrowing from each other as a result of the dawn of time, and that gained’t stop anytime shortly. Android or One UI borrowing from iOS isn’t harmful — iOS is a mature working system with a great deal of choices I’d want to see on Android. Likewise, there’s an entire lot of Android goodness I’d want to have on my iPad.

What’s important is giving the operate you implement a character of its private fairly than a soulless cut back and paste from the competitor’s product. I really feel Samsung’s Now Bar has accomplished merely that, notably as compared with some Dynamic Island copies from totally different Android OEMs. OnePlus added an equivalent operate to Oxygen OS 15, and whereas OnePlus’ implementation has an entire lot of useful choices, one of the simplest ways it surrounds the selfie digital digicam is a bit too close to the Dynamic Island for my liking, notably as a result of it’s a good way to get fingerprints in your selfie digital digicam.

Samsung’s Now Bar is shifted to the left of the selfie digital digicam, which I want. It makes use of 1 factor Android has had for a while, “chips” identical to the inexperienced chip that reveals up inside the notification shade whilst you’re on a phone title to indicate the size. Samsung has that exact same operate and launched it to further apps in One UI 7, identical to the stopwatch and voice recorder. It moreover made it obtainable on the bottom of the lock show as a result of the Now Bar.

I really feel the first One UI 7 beta is an achievement that Samsung builders must be pleased with. We depend on betas to be buggy, and I anticipated One UI 7 to be notably harmful after the fairly just a few delays to the beta. These delays have paid off, though. Apart from my phone getting warmth at events and the aforementioned lag when trying to edit the lock show, the first One UI 7 beta is just about flawless. Each half appears to be and feels want it has the extent of polish I’d depend on from a gentle launch, and all the brand new choices work as supposed.

Quite a lot of us check out companies like Samsung as faceless, soulless megacorporations and nothing further. Most of the time, we must always all the time. I’m beneath no delusion that Samsung is come what may my buddy. It is a agency that needs to extract money from my pockets.

We shouldn’t ignore the individuals who work behind the scenes, though. From the second One UI 7 boots up, it’s clear that those who made it have labored laborious to make it the right mannequin of One UI it could be, and folks people deserve some credit score rating and appreciation.

One UI 7 isn’t an iOS clone, just like iOS isn’t an Android clone for lastly together with a T9 dialer, icon theming, and widgets. It’s the pure evolution of a mature working system, and I actually just like the route it’s taking.

Samsung’s smartest switch with One UI 7 was to have a look at iOS and totally different Android skins and resolve what to undertake. It has given my Galaxy S24 Extraordinarily a model new lease on life correct after I started to develop bored of Android and One UI. I really feel plenty of individuals will actually really feel the equivalent as soon as they use it.