I stopped using the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and I blame One UI

A couple of months ago, I stopped using my Galaxy S25 Ultra and switched to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 as my daily driver.

The reason was simple. Early One UI 8.5 firmware builds for the Galaxy S25 Ultra had leaked, and I wanted to test them out. But as expected, those early builds were nowhere near stable enough for daily use, so I moved to the Fold 7.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been against using Fold phones as daily drivers for one specific reason: they lack the advanced zoom camera capabilities Samsung reserves for its Galaxy S Ultra flagships. That limitation has always mattered to me.

This time around, that limitation was becoming easier to live with. Then Samsung released the official One UI 8.5 beta for the Galaxy S25 series.

That’s when another Galaxy Z Fold 7 limitation became clear, and it had nothing to do with hardware. Once the beta reached a point where it was stable enough to use daily, I made my decision. I wanted One UI 8.5, and Samsung made it available only on the Galaxy S25 lineup.

Eight years after Samsung launched its very first One UI beta program, the company has failed to make meaningful progress in how these betas are rolled out. The number of devices that get access on day one hasn’t improved, and the beta program is still limited to just seven markets.

In a little over a week, it will be two months since the One UI 8.5 beta launched for the Galaxy S25 series. There’s still no sign of it expanding to other devices.

It’s incredibly frustrating that Samsung can’t launch One UI betas for more than one flagship lineup at a time. I understand the logic. Foldables don’t sell in the same numbers as Samsung’s regular flagships. From a business perspective, prioritizing the Galaxy S series makes sense.

But that logic starts to fall apart when you consider just how expensive Samsung’s flagship phones are, especially the Galaxy Z Fold line.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is one of Samsung’s newest and most expensive phones. When a device costs $2,000, Samsung is sending a clear message by excluding it from a major beta. Galaxy S buyers are still the priority, and if you want early access to the next version of One UI, you’re expected to spend your money on a Galaxy S phone.

But Samsung doesn’t need to treat Fold owners as a niche experiment anymore. If Samsung truly considers the Fold part of its flagship lineup, it needs to treat it like one. At the very least, One UI betas should roll out to all current-generation flagships at the same time.

That's not the case, sadly, so I stopped using the Fold 7 because of One UI. Not because One UI is bad, but because it’s so good, and constantly getting better, that it’s impossible to ignore.

And while I have the option to switch between two top-tier flagships because of the nature of my job, most people don’t. That makes Samsung’s habit of prioritizing one subset of buyers while treating others like second-class citizens even more frustrating. Samsung needs to do better, but at this point, it’s hard to believe the company cares.