by People looking for Black Friday phone deals ask us what the best samsung phones worth buying, it is easy to show you. Look at the design innovation on the foldable Galaxy Z Flip 4. Check out the infinite features on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. It’s easy to like Samsung phones, but Samsung also gets criticized, especially when it comes to the look and feel of the software.
Suddenly, recent leaks from Google have us wondering if Samsung will finally earn appreciation where it’s usually ridiculed. We’ve seen leaks from Google Pixel fold hardware, and we wonder what Google can achieve with its first foldable. A first-generation Pixel Fold could do the impossible: it could finally prove that Samsung knows what it’s doing with software.
At first, Samsung’s interface designs felt silly and too colorful, while phones got serious and the interface reflected the real textures. Today, Samsung software simply adds layer upon layer of features on top of Google’s already robust Android operating system. The Samsung One user interface has been so removed from Android that it has its own version numbers and user beta program.
Throughout Samsung’s Android history, the company has endured complaints that its “software improvements” slow down the phones, slow down the upgrade cycle for new system upgrades, and generally create more confusion than improvement.
Why does the phone still have two web browsers?
Take the web browser for example. Samsung makes a great web browser – the eponymous Samsung Internet. It’s actually a good browser, tied closely to your phone’s security features. It’s also one of two browsers on your new Galaxy phone, as Google insists on loading its Chrome browser as well.
This confusion persists throughout the phone. Samsung phones have at least two messaging apps. They often have dual apps for the photo gallery, or note-taking, or even basics like the calendar. One comes from Samsung, the other is included at Google’s insistence.
even though Samsung is Google’s largest Android partner, it seems that the phone is in conflict with the operating system
Apps aren’t the only problem. While iPhone users are rarely confused about whose service they’re using, a Samsung owner might be using an app that’s backed up to Samsung’s own cloud, Google’s servers, or even Microsoft OneDrive, depending on recent partnerships .
While Samsung is Google’s largest Android partner, the phone appears to be in conflict with the operating system. If Samsung had its way, the phone would certainly be more streamlined.
Sometimes Samsung’s stuff is superior
Why does Samsung bother to fight Google and create its own thing? Believe it or not, sometimes the Samsung thing is better. We often turn to Samsung Internet on our Galaxy phones over Google Chrome because it performs better on the company’s own devices and syncs our website passwords just like Chrome.
Samsung even brought multitasking to Android before Google. When Samsung blew up its phone screens with the giant Galaxy Note series, it created a multi-window feature that allows users to open multiple app windows on the phone at once. Galaxy Note 2. Google didn’t add multi-window to Android until Android 7, five years later.
Samsung is not good at creating a new design from scratch. It has long been accused of copying Apple’s iPhone hardware design and much of the look and feel of iOS. What Samsung does well is solve problems step-by-step until a feature is refined into something great.
Using multi-window apps on Samsung phone is much better than other mobile devices. Once you’re familiar with the right buttons and dragging techniques, you can arrange windows, drag elements between windows, and create shortcuts that open multiple apps at once in your preferred on-screen configuration.
This is because Samsung has been building multi-window features on its phones for a decade and is constantly improving them. When Google launches its first foldable phone, it won’t start from scratch, as Samsung did, but it also won’t have Samsung’s years of experience and fixes to build on.
Google just started taking tablets seriously
Google started preparing for a world with foldable screens last year Android 12La version of Android 12 made to handle both larger screens and foldable devices that can switch between smaller and larger screens.
The improvements Google has added with Android 12L are table stakes compared to the game Samsung is playing with its high-end devices. Google has added simplified versions of features, such as multi-window support, that Samsung has been perfecting for years. Even with the demise of the Galaxy Note, Samsung foldables have had four generations of improvements to build on.
We suspect that the first Google Pixel Fold will be a very basic device compared to the advanced foldables that Samsung offers. We expect multi-window and fast screen switching features, but we doubt we’ll see robust features like the interesting trackpad controls Samsung gives you with the phone folded in half, or even the overall stability of the Samsung device when it comes to to switch between screens.
Why is a foldable Pixel a better Pixel?
A foldable phone is a huge risk for Google because the device has to justify its own existence. Google needs to come up with a reason why buyers should pay exorbitant prices for a phone that only folds in half. It has to be special, but also work perfectly.
Samsung has been trying to make its phones special for years, and whether they succeeded is up for debate. We love using foldable phones, especially the Galaxy Z Flip 4, but we may be in the minority. Foldable phones have not sold very well.
Regardless of their popularity, the Samsung foldables work perfectly. The phones smoothly transition from the outer screen to the internal screen whether we open a larger map on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 or taking selfies with the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s front panel.
The Google Pixel 7 phones come with Google’s own chips ready to best run Google software. Google says only the Tensor G2 is powerful enough to handle features like Photo Unblur. Hopefully we’ll see the same commitment to improving the experience on foldable phones, giving us a reason why a foldable phone is better than a flat phone.
Samsung has worked for years to fix every problem in its foldable phone software. If Google wants to sell us a better foldable, a Pixel Fold, it can’t take a step backwards with a device that’s simpler and simpler than Samsung’s innovation. It should identify new problems we didn’t know we had, then give us a foldable solution to solve them.
