Is Samsung’s One UI now better than Stock Android?

Back then, Samsung’s mobile user interface called “TouchWiz” used to be a con for those considering a Samsung phone. While Samsung provided top-notch hardware, their software experience left a lot to be desired.

Filled with a ton of bloatware, goofy animations and sounds, and lacking long-term software support, many wished Samsung phones had a cleaner and smoother software experience to match their hardware. To be blunt, many wished Samsung phones had Stock Android instead.

At the time, Stock Android was the Android skin to have. It represented what Google wanted (or wants) Android to be, after all. It was simple, intuitive, and bloat-free — making the overall phone experience smooth and stutter-free (which was still hard to find on many Android phones back then, to be fair).

Fast forward almost 10+ years later, TouchWiz is no more, and we now have a completely revamped Samsung skin called One UI.

With an emphasis on one-hand-ability, One UI was a drastic overhaul of Samsung’s mobile software experience introduced in November 2018 on top of Android 9 Pie. It was released on the Galaxy S8, Note 8, S9, and Note 9 as an update and came preinstalled on the Galaxy S10 series, Galaxy A series, and the OG Galaxy Fold as One UI 1.1.

One UI brought a more streamlined, more consistent, and arguably much smoother user experience that made us all forget about Samsung’s TouchWiz woes. And now, OneUI has brought with it the long-term software support that has even bested Google itself.

This begs the question: Has Samsung’s OneUI now surpassed Stock Android, which is currently Android 13?

In this article, we’ll look into the different aspects of both user experiences and determine if One UI is the best Android skin out right now, even against Stock Android itself. Specifically, we’ll be matching up OneUI 5.1 vs Android 13 — the latest versions for both skins as of today.

Is Samsung’s One UI now better than Stock Android?

Design

While all Android skins, like OneUI, are based on Stock Android — there are key differences in terms of design that make One UI stand out from Android 13. The main difference between the two is that in Android 13, we find Google’s Material You design language that they introduced back in Android 12.

Material You themes the whole OS according to the colors of the wallpaper you choose and subsequently change system colors, accent colors, and other parts of the OS to either serve in contrast to or complement the main colors of your wallpaper. The Material You design language users a very personal UI that you can’t find on other phones.

Meanwhile, One UI’s design has an emphasis on large, clickable elements that are colorful and easy to distinguish. There’s also a “frosted glass” look to many of One UI’s user interface elements, which adds a classy feel to the phone.

One UI does come with a whole library of downloadable themes that you can choose from. Here you’ll find themes that customize your wallpaper, icons, always-on-display, and more.

In One UI, icons are also generally shaped into larger, rounded squares as part of Samsung’s emphasis on one-hand ability. Meanwhile, Stock Android’s icons are shaped as circles and are slightly more cramped together in the grid.

For this category, we have to score it a tie. While design language is very subjective, we can’t deny that Material You is an amazingly unique design language that feels very intentional and personal. On the same token, One UI’s user-friendly and mature design, as well as its extensive theming library, do enough to match up against Android 13’s Material You.

User Interface (UI)

For UI and the overall experience of navigating the software, we have to give it to One UI. While Android 13’s simple and intuitive UI is more than serviceable for daily use, Samsung has to be commended for making One UI a “One-hand” friendly UI (Now we get why it’s named One UI).

As screen sizes for smartphones have drastically become larger over the years, with many phones now having displays that are 6.3 inches and above, the move to focus on one-handed use is appreciated and amazingly useful.

UI elements, buttons, menus, and other parts of One UI are smartly shifted at the bottom half of the screen to be easily accessible with one hand. This lessens finger gymnastics and makes for an overall more pleasant experience in navigating the OS.

On Stock Android’s side, there are some good things too. We like how animations are fun and more “lively.” We also can’t deny that Stock Android’s simple approach is easy to learn and a definite “pick-up-and-go” type of experience.

However, I do have one gripe with Android 13 and that’s the notification quick settings. In Android 13, you now need at least two taps for you to activate Wi-Fi or Mobile Data. In One UI, you can activate each with just one tap, as it should be.

I hope Google brings us back to one-tap quick settings in its next update.  They are called “quick” settings for a reason.

Customization

Now onto one of Android’s pillar features, customization. We’ve already talked about Android 13’s Material You and One UI’s extensive theming library. What else is there?

For Android 13, not much. You can change the grid size of your home screen, your font size, and a few variants of Android’s stock widgets.  You can also change the Material You accent the color you want the OS to have.

Aside from that, it seems like Google wants to provide a more consistent and coherent user interface, and they have done that, just with fewer options for customization.

For One UI, there are a bit more options. While you can switch to navigation buttons in both skins, One UI allows you to switch the back button to the left or right. You can also switch to a Home screen-only experience in One UI, as well as have the option of downloading new font styles and Always-On-Displays (which you can’t do in Stock Android).

The Galaxy Theme Store in One UIThere’s also a new Wallpaper and Lockscreen changer within One UI, reminiscent of the one in Apple’s iOS 16, that provides even more options for customizability.

We also have to mention Samsung’s downloadable Good Lock app that unlocks a whole ton of other customization features that we don’t think can fit in this article.

For customization, One UI gets another point.

Stock Android Smart Features vs. Samsung Dex

While we can get into checking out each specific feature in both Android skins, we thought it best to match up the two most notable features that both skins have. For Android 13, it’s all the smart artificial intelligence (AI) features that come with Stock Android; for One UI, it’s their one-of-a-kind Samsung DeX mode feature.

For Android 13, we’ve got Live Caption — which automatically provides closed captioning to any media being played on your device.

Stock Android also has Now Playing, a song detection feature that gives you the song name and artist of any song that’s playing in your area, even without an internet connection. There are also the new Per-App Language preferences which allow you to pick a language for specific apps, which is great for multi-lingual users out there.

Meanwhile, One UI has its trademark Samsung DeX feature which allows you to connect your phone to a monitor or television and transform it into a dedicated desktop experience.

By simply plugging in your phone via a USB cable, you can give a presentation or present slides, showcase photos and videos, and browse the web on a bigger screen all through your phone. We do have to note though that not all Samsung phones can use DeX.

Anyways, this one will be determined by the type of features that you want out of a phone. Do you want smart, quality-of-life features from Google’s Android 13, or are you more of a power user who needs your phone to be easily convertible into a desktop experience with one switch?

Another tie, if you ask us.

Bloatware

This one’s going to be an easy win for Stock Android. Given that Android 13 is THE Stock Android experience, you won’t find any bloat or unnecessary applications here.

Samsung’s One UI has definitely gotten much better in terms of bloat compared to its TouchWiz counterparts. We even like some of Samsung’s stock system apps like its Clock or Calculator app. However, there are still a few duplicate applications and built-in Microsoft apps that One UI comes with which gives Stock Android a slight edge in terms of bloatware.

Still, props to Samsung for cleaning up all the bloat that its previous Android skins came with.

Updates

Last, but certainly not least, is software updates. Back then, getting Stock Android meant you had the best and the fastest software support in the whole Android landscape. And back then, Samsung was the worst.

In 2023, times have changed. As of today, Google offers its flagship Pixel devices with 3 Major OS updates and up to 5 years of security patches. Good but not amazing.

On the other hand, Samsung will provide its flagship devices with 4 Major OS updates and 5 years of security patches. That, my friends, is class-leading.

In terms of updates and long-term software support, One UI is our clear winner.

Conclusion

In our final tally, One UI wins it with 5 points to Stock Android’s 3. Don’t get us wrong, Stock Android is still an amazing user experience and any user will have a great time using Android 13.

One UI is just the more fleshed-out, more customizable, and more viable Android skin option for longer. We can’t believe we’re saying this but yes, Samsung’s One UI is now better than Stock Android.

Well done, Samsung.