With Android Pie beta now available for the Galaxy S9 and S9+, Samsung is well on its way to catching up to major competitors like the Google Pixel 3 in terms of giving its users the latest and greatest software Android has to offer. Of course, Samsung has added its own touches to the software to make Android Pie its own and set it apart from the rest of the crowd.
As with any significant updates, Android 9.0 brought a slew of new features and improvements to the Galaxy platform, such as new navigation gestures, the addition of a system-wide dark theme, and more. One UI — formerly known as Samsung Experience — got a much needed makeover with Android Pie, which you'll instantly notice once you get to your Galaxy's home screen.
The most significant change is a set of completely redesigned icons for native apps like the Phone, Email, Camera, and Game Launcher, just to name a few. The new icons are visually appealing, and add a whole lot of color and life into the home screen, which is sure to complement your favorite wallpapers much more than the old icons ever could.
Besides the revamped icons, Android Pie has further refined the apps shortcuts feature introduced back in Android Oreo with the addition of a new "App info" option. Though minor, the new option is still very useful, as it gives you the ability to instantly go to the app's information and settings page for more options like performing a force stop or tweaking permissions, without having to dig through the Settings app.
The TouchWiz app drawer was also slightly revamped with Android Pie, and primarily redesigned the search function to a more modern and aesthetically pleasing enclosed box that also got rid of the voice input option. Apart from that, however, the app drawer has remained largely the same, and still utilizes the same semi-translucent background we've grown accustomed to.
In all, Samsung's new home screen appearance looks great overall, and will undoubtedly look even better on the upcoming S10 series of flagships once they're released next year. What do you think of the Galaxy's new look? As always, share your thoughts by posting on the comment section below.
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2 Comments
Who paid you for this review?? The new icons are shit. Make my phone look like a child's toy. All icons in single colours. Simple design, nothing beautiful. All the setting menus look like for people with bad eyesight. The recent app management looks like on an iPhone and is completely counterproductive. The always on display doesn't work anymore. Overall I will flash my Note 9 back to 8.1 and it will be the last Samsung I bought. I bought it because of the great quality and the great looks. But now any other android or even apple device looks better. Thank you Samsung and goodbye. We had some nice years but it's over. Remember that big design update on apple OS back in the days? That what made me leave apple cos the UI was looking like it was made for kids. Now this?? Goodbye
I have a note 8. Like the previous user, after the update I was a little angry when I logged into my phone. At first, I kept redoing my screen swipe because I thought I wasnt doing it correctly. Unlike before, screenswipe now disappears as your doing it. Then when i got to my home screen i did something i dont normally do. I uttered a curse word. All my icons had changed. Felt like i had to relearn my phone, even though all the app icons were in the same spot. Icons were oversimplified and unintuitive. I've now got a high definition screen with icons that would look okay on an old 90's commodore computer. At least give us a choice so we can go back to the icons I liked at first sight. Graphically, this update is a huge disappointment. I cant believe it passed quality testing. Someone high up at Samsung must have had some creative input and inhouse testers were afraid to say how they really felt about the new icons.
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