One UI 6 Review: Samsung Keeps It Fresh With Android 14

After many betas, Samsung has finally started rolling out One UI 6 to the stable industry, starting with the Galaxy S23 series. One UI 6 is an iterative update that builds on the extensive changelog of previous One UI features. But is this a good update? Are there any major changes in One UI 6 to please fans? And perhaps more importantly, should you upgrade to One UI 6 on your Galaxy smartphone? I've been using One UI 6 on my Galaxy S23 Ultra for a few weeks and can answer these questions for you.

If you were hoping for a major visual overhaul when you upgraded from Android 13-based One UI 5.1 to Android 14-based One UI 6, you'll be disappointed.

Most UX elements tend to look the same, and I think that's actually a good thing. Users spent a lot of time getting used to the interface and how all the visual elements work and interact. It's not reasonable to expect Samsung to fight the accumulated muscle memory just for the sake of change.

Major visual changes to the quick settings section, lock screen, and notification panel.

Samsung experimented with color, transparency, button placement and layout in the quick settings panel. A side effect of this change is that the panel loses its previously excellent one-handed accessibility. The keys for the most frequently used buttons, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, are located quite high and require more finger movements to reach them. You can't change its position on the bottom row of keys either.

On the plus side, Smart View and device control buttons are now easier to reach. Samsung has also added a quick access setting to quick settings, so you can swipe up from the top right to quickly access quick settings. We've already seen this behavior on custom ROMs and other skins like MIUI, and some people really like it.

The notification panel now receives individual notifications as individual cards. This creates more space between notifications and gives them personality, but it also takes up more screen space, and if you have a lot of unread notifications, you'll have to scroll through one or three.

For chronological sorting, you can now also sort notifications by time instead of priority. There are more notification groups. So when an app receives a new notification, the notification group containing all the old notifications is moved up.

The music player has a very nice visual overhaul. The album art now covers the entire notification background and the playbar leaves track marks. While it looks a bit out of place in a normal environment, it's a nice touch that adds color and life to an otherwise dull notification bar.

Some settings are now available for Lockscreen. You can also place and customize the clock widgets on the lock screen more freely. But this is not the essential change that is happening here.

The lock screen is now tied to a mode like iOS Focus mode, but that doesn't make sense

One UI 5 introduced modes and routines, and One UI 5.1 introduced the ability to set different backgrounds depending on your routine. In One UI 6, Samsung takes inspiration from iOS 17.

You can now set a different lock screen for each mode, just like in iOS 17. If you change the lock screen while a mode is active, you change the lock screen version of that mode. This can be useful if you need different settings depending on your activity, e.g. B. Links must change. For example, you can show shortcuts to training programs when you change the training mode and set it to change automatically when you come to the gym.

While it's clear where Samsung is looking for inspiration, the overall impression of the lock screen and modes is a bit confusing.

First, Samsung doesn't promote this feature very well. There is no direct indication in the UX that you can change the lock screen in any mode, and the change only happens in that mode. Even though you see "Change display" in the mode settings, most users don't understand the connection between the mode and the lock screen until they go to that screen. In iOS, Apple has made it clear that you can stylize your lock screen through Focus Mode.

On iOS, you can also switch between focus modes by long-pressing on the lock screen and moving to the next lock screen. It's often activated by accident, but it's also quite easy to manually trigger a different focus mode if needed. However, in One UI 6, you cannot change the mode from the lock screen.

Speaking of major changes, One UI now has a dedicated video editing app. Previously, video editing was done in the standard gallery application. The new Studio video editor can be accessed just by clicking the three-line hamburger menu in the lower-right corner of the Gallery app. Samsung will then ask you to add an app icon to your home screen.

Why Samsung Studio doesn't provide its own default app icon baffles me and you. Because of this confusing solution, most users don't know that they already have a hobbyist video editing app on their phone.

What sets Studio apart from the standard video editing experience in Gallery is Samsung's video ambitions. Galaxy S flagships have historically focused on video recording, but that's only part of what makes good video. Just as important, precise editing requires a video editing program that allows you to work on a project, view multiple clips in a timeline view, and then edit them as needed. Studio achieves this, although it still has a long way to go compared to other popular Android video editing apps. For a first version, this is a good starting point as it simplifies things for avid beginners.

There's a new auto-lock feature in Settings > Security & privacy , but Samsung is leaving it at default. When enabled, this feature blocks the installation of apps from unauthorized app stores. For most users, I recommend turning it on, as your app's needs will most likely be fully met by the Google Play Store and the Galaxy Store. This is the best way to make sure that other apps can't use social engineering to install random apps on your phone.

Automatic blocker also allows you to control app security and prevents USB cables from sending commands to your phone to allow app hacking attempts. My problem is that you can't turn them on individually. For example, if you don't mind installing third-party apps, but still want to be protected from potential hacking attacks, there's no way to do that.

Fortunately, Samsung offers two advanced options below the buttons themselves. I recommend enabling the auto-blocker and enabling the other two options for this feature, unless you have a reason to disable all three options.

Then there was a small change

Everything else in One UI 6 can be called minor changes. Most people won't notice it unless they actively look for it. But these changes make One UI better.

For example, most cameras look the same. But Samsung has moved the photo resolution switch to the surface, making it easier to quickly adjust the resolution to suit your needs.

Image watermarks are also growing in popularity, thanks in large part to Chinese brands. While Samsung doesn't have the iconic watermark, One UI 6 lets you customize more date and time watermarks.

Likewise, the Gallery app looks and functions largely identically. But with the new "Details" button, you can not only view the details of the image, but also enhance it with options such as portrait effects, remastering and object eraser.

There are two new widgets and I really like them both. The Weather Insights widget displays the current weather and temperature in your location, and mentions upcoming weather events, such as the weather forecast or upcoming sunsets.

Camera widgets are shortcuts that take you directly to specific camera modes. For a device like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which can record a wide range of content, dedicated shortcuts for certain modes are a godsend.

One UI 6 has a new default font, very similar to the previous one. If you don't notice it right away, I wouldn't blame you. Samsung also shortened the names of some of its apps and removed the word "Galaxy" from app icon labels. For example, the Galaxy Store is now simply called "The Store". Together, it's a subtle way to make your cluttered app drawer cleaner.

Emojis on the Samsung keyboard now have a new look. Subjectively, I don't like it, but your opinion on this may differ.

Another small change that most people might miss is that going into airplane mode now saves Wi-Fi and Bluetooth status. This change was introduced in Android 13 QPR1, so Samsung managed to catch up with the platform.

Complete the One UI 6 changelog

Samsung has made a number of other changes in One UI 6. You can read the full list of changes below:

One UI has been praised for balancing many features with a great experience. With One UI 6, Samsung finds a balance and does a lot of small things right, and Samsung fans are sure to love this release.

While using the stable version, my only complaint was how slow Samsung was to push for one-handed use a few years ago. Some questionable UX decisions have me juggling the bulky Galaxy S23 Ultra in my hand, and I wish Samsung would obsessively keep everything within reach of my thumb. The bugs I run into regularly are Widevine L3 on Netflix and loss of HDR playback, which is very annoying. The Good Lock module is also not very good in One UI 6, but I'm sure that will be fixed with an update.

Otherwise, I'm very happy. The performance of my flagship Android phone was excellent, as expected. I also didn't notice more than average battery drain. Beta versions are prone to bugs and crashes, and luckily I've had no issues with a stable deployment. I'm glad Samsung took their time with the beta and fixed most of the bugs, and I hope the rest can be fixed soon as well.

All in all, if you are using a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, you must be interested in One UI 6. When the update is released for your Galaxy smartphone, we recommend you to update it immediately. Wait a few days for the update to complete and continue using your smartphone.

What do you think of the One UI 6 update so far? Let us know in the comments below!