Is Samsung Now a Gateway to Apple?

[Tech_Master]

After being with the S25U & OneUI 7 for a bit over a month now, I constantly have this thought in mind while using it which I would like to share.

The reason I went with Android since the beginning of the modern smartphones, is that I always disagreed as a matter of principle with the Apple UX philosophy, having a forced one size fits all experience, where the manufacturer decided for the user how a product is to be used.

Now with the S25U, OneUI 7, Buds3 Pro, Fit3 as my daily setup, I can't stop thinking, why is Samsung lately trying so hard to be Apple? If I want Apple products, I would just get Apple products, but if I choose Samsung, it means I am looking for something different, so why is Samsung differentiating less and less over time?

One of my closest friends is an Apple person, he has all Apple products, and sometimes we debate, up until last year I was putting arguments like,

- Why do I need to reach to the top of the screen to pull the control shade?

- Why does the home screen indicator always showing at the bottom taking up space?

- Why do headphones have stems hanging out of the ear?

- Why can't you have the gestures you want instead of them being forced?

- etc etc etc

However, now with my current Samsung setup, I see me doing more and more of the things I used to criticize, also the way these ecosystem devices interact with each other is very "Applish", if Samsung keeps going in that direction, why wouldn't I just get the original Apple experience, instead of the mimicked Samsung one?

Any reflections on that?

[Glenntech]

I'm not sure you are getting the best out of your phone.
Android phones can be customised.
Have you installed Samsung Goodlock and it's various plugins.
You can change gestures and the look of your phone.
There's so much that is different.
AI assistant is far and away better on the S25 Ultra, in fact everything AI. Apple AI doesn't even come close.

Cameras you have far more options as well.
In fact theres nothing the same at all

[Joeeye]

I've never cared for Apple and it's products or designs. I choose Samsung for it's compatibility with my likes and needs in the tech mobile space. From it's phones and Tablets, both have been my favourite go to. Comparing every aspect and OS design feature as if it's a signature Apple tells more about your mindset than of a satisfied customer. Perhaps you should consider buying Apple as it clearly plays on your mind. Me personally, if I dislike a function or feature, I won't care for it, or ever find myself using it. The buds for example, I agree the design choice is not to my liking, why I don't particularly feel inclined to buying their latest design. There's plenty of other choices out there though, so it's not like I feel trapped into doing so.

[TheObserver]

I second the comment mentioning GoodLock. With it you can do virtually any customisation you want. Pair that with a different launcher and you have more customisation. I had the 12 Mini and liked it as a phone, just not the lack of customisation.

[smiley]

Well although I search in my head for an argument to your statement, in some ways I HAVE TO AGREE with you with the OneUI7 changes and overall look.

I guess ui7 on the S25 ultra instantly looked to me like it was closer to the look of IOS and Apple than it ever has ! The icon packs... vertical drawer and separated quick access left and right pull down actions are very similar.

However I think this copying goes both ways... in many ways Apple look at the innovation from Samsung for inspiration. All of these companies (includinh Ziaomi and Oneplus) do their market research, gain pros and cons from customers, and try and give what they want.

In another opinion, it could be seen as a clever move... gain some ex-Apple customers by making the transition between the software less of a change.

HOWEVER the one thing that stops me from ever buying Apple again is their locked down ecosystem. Their inability to offer customers to make their own choices of which developer app to use. Their lack of customisation options like the android developer launchers offer, even coming down to the large quantity of homescreen widgets.

I owned an iPhone once... many years ago. But as an engineer I like to 'tinker'. Although the S25u and oneUI7 are beginning to look very similar... they are still very different beasts !!

Smiley

[arianwen27]

I love samsung for the fact they don't set up solid walls. Yes they make the experience work and be nice like apple does, but they allow you to change things where apple doesn't.

Good lock and good guardians are a great example of this. So is being able to sideload apps and use developer settings. It's the idea of, if I want to break my phone or change how things work, I should be warned not to, but it shouldn't fully stop me. My phone is my phone, and I can change how things operate even if it's not what samsung intended

[Tech_Master]

I think I am referring to the default out-of-the-box experience that is morphing more and more towards Apple, I have in fact been debating with myself for a week now to install Good Lock, which I never used before, just because up until OneUi 6.0, all the customizations I ever wanted were part of the OS by default, with the exception of Sound Assistant, which I installed to get two apps to play sound at the same time.

Now with OneUI 7, a lot of these small customizations have been removed, or moved into Good Lock, the idea of installing an extreme customization package with 100s of options that I don't care about, just to get back the few options that I cared about feels strange, in the sense that Good Lock now feels like a "Jailbreak" to a new default rigid experience, to get back the default flexibility.

Maybe I am thinking about it wrong, if I get Good Lock, play around and end up messing stuff up, will I need to factory reset the phone to get back to default, or can all Good Lock changes be easily reversed?

[Obsydian]

They all copy each other, I guess the OS is more Google not Samsung, but then Samsung provide screens, chips to Apple.

[johnz237]

The good thing about Android is that you can pretty much do what you want—download Good Lock, watch some tutorials, and have fun!

In terms of design, I did prefer the older Buds' design, tbh…but whatever style sells more, I guess. Alongside customer service, all companies are there to make money.

[Tech_Master]

@Joeeye I got the Buds3 Pro because it was a good deal together with the S25U and the sound quality and features are impressive, however, I dislike the stems to the point of finding myself using the Buds FE most of the time, despite the much limited features and average sound, I wish to have a Buds3 without stems.

@smiley just like you I like to "tinker", therefore I am concerned with the direction Samsung is going, last year I was furious when Samsung released the S24U with the tuned down display "vividness" just to look like the "natural" Apple phones, it took a massive fuss and more than one month to get back the "vividness" slider, this year OneUI 7 is going in a similar direction, I HATE to reach out to the top right to pull down the control shade, I HATE that I need to press the physical action button to open Gemini, instead of the side bottom gesture which they removed, I HATE that I can't by default disabled the home screen indicator taking part of my screen without installing an extra app, the direction Samsung is going makes me wonder, what's next? And more importantly why provide an Apple experience to those who have not chosen Apple? It works both ways, some Apple user will come to Samsung, but also existing Samsung users will get used to this and find the Apple experience less cumbersome, thus I call it a "gateway"!