Samsung unveiled its new user interface for Galaxy smartphones at its developer conference in early November. One UI is built to make actionable elements of the interface easier to reach and to highlight important information within apps while letting everything else recede into the background. It's also designed to be pretty, and after a few days of using it on a Galaxy S9 and then a Galaxy Note 9, I have to say I am in love with One UI.
Samsung has clearly put a lot of thought and work into One UI. First off, that system night mode/dark theme is great to have. I'm surprised Samsung never attempted this before given the company has always been so serious about AMOLED displays. It did bring us themes support, but it's still slightly disappointing we didn't have already have something like night mode.
An even bigger standout of One UI are the new animations. If you have a Galaxy S9 or Note 9 running the Pie beta, just take a screenshot and see the animation that comes up right after to see what I mean (or watch the video embedded at the bottom of the article). Samsung has built in an easily accessible option to reduce UI animations, but the animations on Pie are so good that I haven't kept that option enabled.
Of course, it helps that both the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 seem to be smoother with Android Pie compared to Android Oreo. I also like how the Android Pie beta is so stable despite having seen only two releases on the Galaxy S9 and one for the Galaxy Note 9. I haven't run into any device breaking bugs, and apps seem to run just fine without any compatibility issues. And did I mention it's all extremely pretty?
This is the best visual overhaul Samsung has ever brought to its Android smartphones in my opinion. Even those funny-looking app icons don't get in the way. One can only hope Samsung doesn't delay the release of the stable Pie update and that no major bugs or issues get through. Because, well, no one would want a repeat of the troubles that plagued the Android One update.
What's your opinion of Samsung One UI?
