Two weeks ago, a massive One UI 7.0 leak revealed numerous design details about Samsung's upcoming firmware update. But promising as that leak seemed, One UI 7.0 is still early enough in development that many things remain subject to change.
Will the final One UI 7.0 version look just as it did in that short leaked presentation video? It may, but Samsung can always change its mind about a UI element or another. That possibility still exists.
For what it's worth, leaker @UniverseIce appears to be confident in at least one of those UI changes proposed by the earlier leak. In a recent X post with no caption, @UniverseIce shared the following screen crop.
We seem to be looking at a crop of the One UI 7.0 quick panel. This X post could be interpreted at the poster's confirmation that One UI 7.0 will indeed sport new audio and brightness sliders in the quick panel area. The sliders also appear to be accompanied by mute and Dark mode buttons.
Right now, in One UI 6.1.1, the quick panel accommodates only a brightness slider atop the Eye comfort shield and Dark mode toggles — as you can see below.
If these recent leaks are accurate, One UI 7.0 will feature the usual brightness slider and make it easier for users to adjust the audio volume without using the physical volume buttons on their phones.
Does this mean Samsung may intend to get people used to controlling the audio volume through the touchscreen more often? Are we slowly moving one step closer to a buttonless smartphone design?
That could be the case, and maybe One UI 7.0 is starting to reflect a hidden desire from Samsung to design a buttonless phone. Samsung had a patent for a phone with a pressure-based control system patented mere days ago.
Then again, the inclusion of more slider controls in the next software update is more likely coincidental — a result of Samsung trying to improve usability through One UI 7.0.
Editor's Note: Over the years, many wild rumors and even patents emerged, suggesting that Samsung will eventually transition to a buttonless Galaxy smartphone design.
While that idea still sounds far-fetched or at least far into the future, the addition of a volume slider to the quick panel area does seem to at least coincidentally support a higher focus on software / touch-based controls than hardware buttons.
