I’ve been using Android phones for over a decade now, back when a new phone really did provide a big upgrade. While I started out with HTC, I’ve been rocking a Samsung phone in recent years, and for me, Samsung’s One UI user interface is exactly how I want Android to be.
Yes, I know—this is going to be controversial, but I’m sticking with it, so strap in and let me explain why.
One UI Offers More Customization
From my own experience, it’s taken Samsung years of development to turn the One UI interface into something really usable. After all, One UI hasn’t just appeared overnight. It’s been a process, developing over the last few years into something that users like me would actually want to use.
For me, one of the biggest wins for One UI over the experience you’d see on a device like the Pixel is the customization. It’s hugely configurable, whether it’s basic settings like changing your wallpaper or your lock screen or more hardcore power settings like configuring the order of your scanned Wi-Fi networks.
The end result is that while One UI looks good by default, you can really make it your own. Most of these settings are built into One UI, but there’s even an app called Samsung Good Lock that lets you take the customization further.
If You Want Good Photos, One UI is Best
I’m not a great photographer—just ask my girlfriend. She likes to pretend that the camera quality on my Samsung Galaxy S23 isn’t as good as her iPhone, but most of the time, it’s because I just need to tweak a setting or two.
Thankfully, Samsung’s camera app is great for this, offering a huge number of easily accessible features and settings, along with plenty of presets. I can quickly enable a timer, change picture or video quality, switch the flash on, add filters, use a burst mode—the list goes on.
A photo taken in Cornwall, UK on a Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphone using custom settings that shows that, even on a dark day, the Samsung Galaxy camera app can take a great photo.
That isn’t the same for everyone. When I played around with a Pixel 9, the camera app felt lacking compared to my S23. It looks similar and has some of the same features, and while it’s certainly an improvement over recent years, it doesn’t feel as snap-ready as my S23.
Coming from a Samsung, and as someone who isn’t a professional photographer, I think I’d be disappointed owning a Pixel for that very reason. Given that our Pixel 9 review specifically calls out how good the Pixel 9’s camera is, it’s a shame that, for me, at least, the camera app on the Pixel isn’t as good. It’s good to see plenty of presets and filters, but it just doesn’t feel as intuitive to use as Samsung’s own.
Stock Android Has Been Left Behind
I’ve been referring to Google Pixel phones as if it were the stock Android experience, but that’s misleading. The Google Pixel interface isn’t actually the ‘stock’ or default experience for Android as you might have thought about it when you considered Android smartphones five or ten years ago. Pixel phones actually use Pixel UI, which is simply Google’s own take on how Android should look on its own-brand phones.
Pixel UI isn’t the default Android experience, as several of its features are only available on Pixel phones, even if Google is behind much of Android’s development. Stock Android just isn’t really a thing you’ll see much of these days because most manufacturers want to stamp their own mark on Android. Or, to put it more succinctly, stock Android is dead, and each Android smartphone will look slightly (or very) different.
What that leads you to is a few top manufacturers, like Samsung and Google, providing the benchmark for what Android looks like to most people. You might see something close to a stock experience on budget phones from Motorola, for example, but it isn’t quite the same. Google still has the strongest influence on Android’s overall design, but I just happen to think that One UI wins the battle.
Now Samsung Is Using Google Apps, The Experience Is a Lot Better
Let me straighten out what you might be thinking right now. I’m not a die-hard Samsung fan. I’ve found some of Samsung’s design decisions to be hugely frustrating over the years, but nothing annoyed me quite as much as Samsung’s attempts to supplant Google apps on its phone.
While some apps, like the Health app, are almost a necessity, Samsung spent too long trying to force most of these apps down our collective throats. No one wanted Bixby. No one wanted Samsung Messages, Samsung Wallet, or Samsung Internet.
Thankfully, Samsung has (mostly) listened or at least accepted defeat. Google Messages is now the default SMS app, for instance, and Samsung has even made it easy to switch to Google Messages. Other apps, like Wallet and Samsung Internet, still exist, but you aren’t as relentlessly hassled to use them as you used to be.
Google’s apps feel much more accessible and integrated into Samsung’s phones, but you still aren’t tied in, leaving the end user with the choice to switch to something better, should they wish to.
I know I’m going against the grain here. If nothing else, there’s plenty of commentary out there that will tell you that Pixel UI looks better and is easier to use than One UI. I’m not discounting that entirely. There are plenty of reasons to choose other Android smartphones, whether it’s a Pixel or something else.
I think the Pixel UI interface looks great, but it’s minimal. Some would say lacking, not in polish, but in functionality. Samsung gives users more choices to use Galaxy phones the way they want, which in itself is ironic because one of the things I’ve pointed out is just how much I prefer using Google’s own apps.
Still, this is all a work in progress. One UI isn’t finished, and neither is Pixel UI. Google will keep pushing out newer, better updates, and with Android 15 now released, the next releases for Pixel phones might change my mind. But, until Google catches up, then as far as I’m concerned, Samsung’s One UI is Android how it should be.
