Beta only in name: One UI 6 already works great on Galaxy Z Fold 5

Last week, Samsung finally opened up the One UI 6.0 beta program for its foldable devices. It started with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 but Samsung soon followed it up with a beta for the Galaxy Z Flip 5, and we will no doubt see Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 owners getting the chance to test out the new software in the coming weeks.

Or Samsung could just directly release the final version of Android 14 and One UI 6.0 for its foldables, because in my short experience with One UI 6.0 on a Galaxy Z Fold 5, I have seen nothing to suggest this is beta software, except for the pop-up notice that shows up when the device is rebooted to remind you that you're running a test version and unexpected errors may occur.

Galaxy Z Fold 5's first One UI 6 beta is solid

But nothing unexpected has happened so far, at least not in my experience. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 was already quite fast and fluid, but it feels smoother on One UI 6.0, likely because of the touched up animations. No apps have crashed, and battery life seems to be pretty similar to what it was on Android 13 and One UI 5.1.1.

I can only assume the Z Fold 5's first beta build is this good because Samsung has already done most of the legwork needed to make One UI 6.0 run on its devices with the Galaxy S23 series. The Galaxy S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra, which were the first to be added to the beta program, have received six proper updates with bug fixes and a couple of minor hotfix updates, and it wouldn't surprise us if the stable Android 14 update is released to the Galaxy S23 lineup in the next few days.

It helps that Samsung doesn't use major Android/One UI updates to add new features to foldables and instead does it through the minor x.1.1 updates, which allows it to more quickly adapt the major updates to a lot of its devices without having to spend resources on porting specific features to specific devices.

I also love some of the features that have been introduced to Galaxy devices through One UI 6.0. One UI 6.0 is more exciting than the One UI upgrades from the last couple of years thanks to features and improvements that you can actually notice in day-to-day life, like the enhanced functionality in the Camera and Gallery apps or the redesigned quick panel and the more stylish default font.

Do I recommend Galaxy Z Fold 5 owners try Android 14 and One UI 6.0 through the beta program if it's available in their country? I would say yes based on my experience, though there's always a possibility of issues and errors cropping up in the newer beta builds so you may want to make sure all your data is properly backed up both when installing the beta for the first time and every time a newer version is released.