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'Samsung's One UI Is the Best Software It's Ever Put On a Smartphone' (theverge.com)
In preparation for the Galaxy S10 launch event tomorrow, The Verge's Dieter Bohn writes about the new "One UI" software that will run on these new phones. After testing the software on a Galaxy S9 for the past week, Bohn says he really likes it, adding that it's better in some ways than the software found on Google's Pixel 3. "If it weren't for the fact that I don't yet trust Samsung to deliver major software updates quickly, I would be shouting about One UI from the rooftops," writes Bohn. "As it is, I just want to point out that it's time for us to stop instinctively turning our noses up at Samsung's version of Android." From the report: I can't go quite so far as to say that everything has changed forever when it comes to Samsung's customizations. There are still multiple versions of some apps because both Google and Samsung insist on having their software present. Samsung phones also have a reputation for getting a little laggy (the technical term is cruft) over time, and I don't know yet whether One UI and Android 9 will suffer the same fate. But I do know that one week in, this OS actually feels intentional and designed instead of just having a bunch of features tacked on. Historically, we've thought of all those customizations as unnecessary add-ons. But that's not quite right anymore -- customizing AOSP is necessary these days. Instead, we should judge a Samsung phone on its own merits as a phone, not as stuff bolted on to some idealized "pure" version of the phone that can't really exist anymore.
One UI consists of four key parts. One is the basic update to Android 9 Pie, which means you'll get a ton of small features for free. Second, there is a generalized update to the look and feel -- everything is just a little cleaner and more tasteful than before. Samsung has realized that neon is only cool in small doses. Third, because this is Samsung, there are just a million features hidden in every corner of the OS. Some of them -- like a dark mode -- are genuinely useful. Others will remind people of the bad old days of TouchWiz. But overall Samsung is doing a better job of surfacing them progressively as you use the phone, instead of asking you to wade though arcane and opaquely named settings screens in the first 15 minutes of using the phone. The last big feature to talk about in One UI is the first one most people will notice: big, giant header text inside apps. When you open up an app like Messages or Settings you'll see the name of the app in a field of white (or black, in dark mode) that takes up the entire top half of the screen. When you scroll, though, the giant header shrinks down and you have a full screen of content. The last big feature to talk about in One UI is the first one most people will notice: big, giant header text inside apps. When you open up an app like Messages or Settings you'll see the name of the app in a field of white (or black, in dark mode) that takes up the entire top half of the screen. When you scroll, though, the giant header shrinks down and you have a full screen of content.
One UI consists of four key parts. One is the basic update to Android 9 Pie, which means you'll get a ton of small features for free. Second, there is a generalized update to the look and feel -- everything is just a little cleaner and more tasteful than before. Samsung has realized that neon is only cool in small doses. Third, because this is Samsung, there are just a million features hidden in every corner of the OS. Some of them -- like a dark mode -- are genuinely useful. Others will remind people of the bad old days of TouchWiz. But overall Samsung is doing a better job of surfacing them progressively as you use the phone, instead of asking you to wade though arcane and opaquely named settings screens in the first 15 minutes of using the phone. The last big feature to talk about in One UI is the first one most people will notice: big, giant header text inside apps. When you open up an app like Messages or Settings you'll see the name of the app in a field of white (or black, in dark mode) that takes up the entire top half of the screen. When you scroll, though, the giant header shrinks down and you have a full screen of content. The last big feature to talk about in One UI is the first one most people will notice: big, giant header text inside apps. When you open up an app like Messages or Settings you'll see the name of the app in a field of white (or black, in dark mode) that takes up the entire top half of the screen. When you scroll, though, the giant header shrinks down and you have a full screen of content.
How should I feel about this Bohn guy? Usually these type of sites have a few good writers, a lot of mediocre ones, and more awful writers.
It would be nice for Samsung to allow a few things, before their phones are really usable:
1: Unlockable bootloader without tripping Knox.
2: Ability to have root in some legit manner, similar to LineageOS.
3: A root-based firewall, so rogue apps can't phone home.
4: A real backup system which can backup/restore/archive/retrieve apps singly, or by the whole device.
Of course, blue sky stuff can't hurt:
1: Built in apps that handle the main needs to have root, like a firewall, a privacy monitor which returns bogus data to apps that want stuff they shouldn't, a backup system, and the ability to run server services, as sometimes people may use oddball protocols like SMB for file transfers.
2: A backup system that works, and allows a dump/restore locally.
3: No bloatware/adware.
Sounds pretty good indeed! Wait, why would half the screen show the name of the app I just clicked on? I know what's loading, I fucking opened it!
...to permanently uninstall "Bixby", it will remain the worst UI and UX in the world, because that should be one of the simplest things to do.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
Just updated to Samsung's One UI this morning, after several days of prompting.... it's an ordeal. Short of pulling out the battery, there's no way to stop it once it begins, and the update takes three quarters of an hour.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I notice he dodged that. So it looks nice, doesn't have too much bling, but you still can't set an audio alert to tell you when the battery charge has reached one hundred percent, or, in fact, change many of the default audio alerts at all without rooting it.
dude why don't you just root your phone lolol
Because I shouldn't bloody have to.
I had a Galaxy S7 and loved it, but I will not buy another Samsung phone until they ship a flagship that does not include Facebook Services as an uninstallable app. At the price one pays for a Samsung flagship, one should not be subjected to the constant location tracking and who the hell knows what else that app is doing. You can disable (but not remove) the Facebook mobile app, but the "Facebook Services" app continues to run --and update itself-- in the background, like it or not. The only way to get Facebook Services off a Samsung phone is to jailbreak it, which is not a reasonable solution in my opinion.
I think Facebook is an evil organization, one that has weakened democracy in the United States. Zuckerberg is an evil genius who has figured out how to turn our basic human need for connection into something that can be approximated via software and then heavily monetized with no regard for the impact their service has on the brains or the lives of their users.
Obviously, nobody forces you to use Facebook. I used it for a while and then gave it four years ago. As a result of this choice, I will not spend $1000+ dollars for a high-end Samsung phone if it's going to serve as an attack vector for Facebook to reenter my life. No thanks.
So... I don't care how amazing "One UI" is... if Facebook Services ships on the S10 then that phone is dead to me.
I have no idea what was in that summary but damn that was a long scroll.
So... they've realised that the bigger and bigger screens they're putting on phones are less usable.
When you use the phone with one hand, you can't comfortably reach the top half anymore, so no point putting interactive controls up there.
the verge is just pure advertisements don't cha know.
also a copyright striker for criticizing them. so there you have it. you cannot trust them with any tech news.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
"When you open up an app like Messages or Settings you'll see the name of the app in a field of white (or black, in dark mode) that takes up the entire top half of the screen. When you scroll, though, the giant header shrinks down and you have a full screen of content."
So the entire top half of the screen will show the name of the app that I just clicked on? Every time I open the app? WTF is the purpose of that? I know the app is Messages because I just tapped on the icon that says "Messages". I really don't need half the screen wasted until I scroll down every time I open an app. Sounds like a horrible design to me.
If that's the kind of stuff they baked into "Samsung's version of Android" then I'll just stick to the Pixel.
Better yet, the last big feature is so good then talked about it twice. Again. Lol.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Historically, we've thought of all those customizations as unnecessary add-ons. But that's not quite right anymore -- customizing AOSP is necessary these days. Instead, we should judge a Samsung phone on its own merits as a phone, not as stuff bolted on to some idealized "pure" version of the phone that can't really exist anymore.
In other words, he's saying, "You may not like Bixby and Facebook, etc, but suck it, bitches!"
Oy! The things we have to put up with to get a headphone jack!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
so.
well. you know how the same site can praise some phone for not having any extra stuff and then post something about oneui being a necessity.
and of course not talk about stuff like how samsung actually has firewall functions built into the phone but inaccessible without paying samsung for the api rights.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Best UI? well it would be fucking hard for it to be any worse than their recent efforts. the s9 blows chunks, especially bixby and unless bixby is gone from the new one I am calling BS on it being their best.
When the presenter seems to be doing his best to deep throat Samsung's cock.
Kind of ridiculous that these phones won't let you uninstall apps. I'd kind of like to remove stuff from the "Swipe from top" menu, too.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Recent coverage of The Verge has certainly reduced any trust I had in them. Not that I had any.
My note 9 just updated and the fonts changed and everything looks like it was done in crayon, icons included. Is that what this is about?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
If you want LineageOS, get LineageOS...
Samsung is not the most developer friendly manufacturer but it far from the worst. They still provide an easy way to unlock the bootloader, at least for the off-carrier versions.
Tripping Knox is a small price to pay. I did it without a second thought. Knox is a corporate feature, so that you can use your work phone as a personal phone without breaking corporate network policies. For personal use, Knox is useless. And in cases where Knox is justified, then you probably shouldn't mess with your phone anyways. Note that "Knox warranty void" doesn't mean your warranty is void, at least not in Europe.
The privacy features you mention are most likely against the Play Store terms of service, for good reasons. Apps expect the Android API to act the way it is documented, and it includes returning correct values or well defined errors. It is Google's responsibility to make sure that it is indeed the case, and it is not possible if they allow third parties to hijack the API. It is the reason why when Samsung introduced multi-window, they only allowed it to their own apps and those with a special, proprietary flag set. That's because multi-window wasn't an officially supported feature and even though most apps worked fine with it, they weren't expected to do so.
Finally, how do you define "bloatware"? What you call bloatware may be another person's essential feature. And what you suggest as builtin features like backup, servers, etc... may be another person's bloatware, after all, these are available in third party apps.
Samsung has earned a reputation for coming up with pretty good hardware - and with the worst software in the business. It will take far more than just this ad to change the general perception.
Maybe the ui is fine, but Samsung bloatware is notorious for killing the performance. Their phones have amazing specs that fail to deliver.
I'd like to think that most Slashdot users are smart enough to see through crap like this.
Most of us have had to deal with an Android phone from Samsung/HTC/Motorola/etc that has had a custom UI on top of Android by now, and should know that they only cause problems. Even if the features seem cool on the initial phone release, you always end up with the following:
1) Additional added bugs caused by software incompatibilities between the UI changes and various Android applications
2) Slowdowns caused by the additional software bloat adding memory and CPU usage on the phone.
3) Delays with Android updates caused compatibility issues between the OS updates and the UI changes.
This is why I wouldn't touch an Android phone that doesn't have anything other than the stock OS.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It has *plenty* of options.
My favorite is the detonation option for the battery.
Taking a cue from variable nukes, the battery can now be set to detonate over the entire range from 5 microtons to 1 milliton . . . :)
hawk
Right up there with a previous article "... the 4g/5g Solution We've Been Waiting For."