DENVER—Most smart TV operating system (OS) owners are in the ad sales business now. Software providers for budget and premium TVs are honing their ad skills, which requires advancing their ability to collect user data. This is creating an “inherent conflict” within the industry, Takashi Nakano, VP of content and programming at Samsung TV Plus, said at the StreamTV Show in Denver last week.
During a panel at StreamTV Insider’s conference entitled “CTV OS Leader Roundtable: From Drivers to Engagement and Content Strategy,” Nakano acknowledged the opposing needs of advertisers and smart TV users, who are calling for a reasonable amount of data privacy.
“Do you want your data sold out there and everyone to know exactly what you’ve been watching … the answer is generally no,” the Samsung executive said. “Yet, advertisers want all of this data. They wanna know exactly what you ate for breakfast.”
Select Samsung Smart TVs and monitors are getting a free new app starting today: GameBreaks. It’s a new gaming app which will feature an array of original titles that will be expanded over time. The app is launching with a brand new puzzle game today called Ripplash.
GameBreaks is the next step in an ongoing gaming push for Samsung. In 2022, the company rolled out a Samsung Gaming Hub app to select TVs that pulled together cloud streaming services like GeForce Now. It has built on that strategy over the past three years, adding Xbox Game Pass to the mix, creating its own controller, and launching original games in the form ofThe Six and Rivals Arena.
GameBreaks takes that push one step further by giving Samsung TVs its own original game hub that’s not so dissimilar from the New York Times’ daily puzzle model. The feature is rolling out on Samsung Smart TVs and monitors, from 2022 models onwards, starting today. Samsung’s Global Head of Product for Gaming and Emerging Technologies Kevin Beatty tells Digital Trends that the goal of the app is to deliver easy to play, social experiences to Samsung TV owners.
“We feel now is the right time to broaden the horizons and create approachable gameplay experiences for everyone,” Beatty tells Digital Trends. “It is gaming for all, directly on their Samsung Smart TV, using just a remote or smartphone as a controller. It is also about bringing people back to the TV to share experiences. Samsung is making games an integral part of the living room. While Samsung GameBreaks can be enjoyed solo, we are focused on making sure they encourage playing together, because we know how powerful shared moments can be. Samsung wants to ensure its Smart TVs offer more opportunities to build those core memories with friends and family.”
The first new game to join the app, alongside existing quiz game The Six, is Ripplash. It’s a visual puzzle game in which players identify a ripped up image and unscramble letters. The app will add three new puzzles each day and can be played with either a Samsung TV remote or a smartphone.
Samsung
More games are set to arrive later this year, though they don’t have exact release dates quite yet. Pop Off twists Mad Libs into a trivia game, Finish Line has players filling in blanks to complete iconic phrases, and Eye-Q is a memory game where players watch a short video and then are asked questions about it. Those games are largely being developed internally at Samsung, Beatty says.
“At Samsung, our approach to game development is truly a collaborative effort,” Beatty says. “We have a talented internal team with deep roots in the gaming industry, spanning from AAA console games to casual experiences. We also partner with some of the best external studios and developers to bring fresh perspectives, ideas, and expertise to our portfolio approach to these games.”
Samsung will continue to support its Gaming Hub as it builds out GameBreaks. Beatty calls Samsung’s approach “experimental,” as it dreams up different ways it can connect to the broader gaming landscape outside of its apps. He points to a recent collaboration with Activision onCall of Duty: Black Ops 6as an example and notes that Samsung sees potential in tapping into more popular IP.
“Just like Samsung Gaming Hub continues to evolve, Samsung GameBreaks will also grow over time, offering more unique experiences for players,” Beatty says. “Beyond adding more games over time, we see a big opportunity in how our partners can integrate into these experiences. For example, Samsung partnered with Xbox for the most recent Call of Duty launch to feature themed questions in The Six, our fast-paced daily trivia game where players race to answer six questions correctly. Custom trivia tied to big cultural moments like this is fun, but it’s really just scratching the surface of where we think the future can go.”
GameBreaks is available on 2022 to 2025 Samsung Smart TVs and monitors starting today.
If you’ve been looking forward to the follow-up of the Galaxy Watch 7 then good news, as Samsung has revealed some of the new features coming to its next generation smartwatch.
Expected to be called the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, the South Korean firm has published a post on its site detailing new features for “the upcoming Galaxy Watch”.
The new features are geared towards improving “sleep, heart health, fitness, and nutrition”, so let’s take a look at what the next Galaxy Watch will be packing.
Bedtime guidance
Samsung
Samsung is improving its sleep tracking with new tools which will suggest the best time for you to go to bed based on your lifestyle. Your watch will also send your reminders to encourage to you follow the optimal routine for your bedtime.
Vascular Load
Samsung
The new Galaxy Watch will measure your vascular load – the stress on your vascular system – while you’re sleeping.
Being able to track the stress on your system while asleep with allow your Galaxy Watch to monitor heart health. When asleep, stress on your vascular system should decrease as your body rests, but if it doesn’t it could be a sign you need to see a medical professional.
Samsung says this data can be analyzed alongside other metrics collected by the watch, to help create and maintain positive habits for a healthier lifestyle.
Running Coach
Samsung
The new Running Coach feature sounds a little bit like Apple’s Workout Buddy it announced for watchOS 26 at WWDC 2025 just last week.
Samsung’s implementation, as the name suggests, is focused on running (where as Apple’s version covers a wider set of workouts). It’ll provide you with encouragement and motivation to get running and hit your goals,
To get started, you’ll need to go for a 12 minute run wearing your Galaxy Watch. From that short session, the system will give you a running level between one and 10.
From there, Samsung says your watch will be able to deliver detailed training plans – such as training for a 5K, 10K, half marathon or full marathon. You’ll be set a series of challenges to help hit your end goal, unlocking the next challenge on the competition of the previous one.
Running Coach will be able to provide your with intense, yet injury-preventive training, which could be a great feature of beginners.
Antioxidant Index
Samsung
And finally, the last new feature in Samsung’s teaser announcement is Antioxidant Index.
The new Galaxy Watch will be able to measure carotenoids (antioxidants found in green and orange vegetables and fruits) in your skin, using a light-activated BioActive sensor.
Antioxidants can help promote healthy aging, as they neutralize harmful ‘free radicals’ which can build up from specific lifestyle choices, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, sun bathing and a lack of sleep.
By being able to monitor your antioxidant levels, you’ll be able to make changes to your lifestyle to improve or maintain your index reading.
Will my current Galaxy Watch get the new features?
Looking at the small print of Samsung’s post, it all depends on which Galaxy Watch you own. If you have the high-end Galaxy Watch Ultra it looks like you’ll be treated to all the new features, while Galaxy Watch 7 users will get access to the Running Coach.
You’ll need the “later released Galaxy Watch Series”, or the Galaxy Watch Ultra, if you want to take advantage of the Vascular Load and Antioxidant Index features.
For existing Watch owners, supported new features will arrive via the One UI 8 Watch software update.
When will the Galaxy Watch 8 launch?
Reports currently suggest the Galaxy Watch 8 will be revealed alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7, with rumors pointing towards a possible July launch event.
This would make sense, as the Z Fold 6, Flip 6 and Galaxy Watch 7 were launching on July 10, 2024, and we regularly see manufacturers repeat annual launch cycles.
Samsung has already been teasing the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and with the Galaxy Watch 8 teasers now appearing, all signs point to an imminent launch.
Samsung is expected to announce its next generation of foldable devices in the coming months, and while we await confirmation from the South Korean brand on when exactly it plans on revealing the phones it’s continuing to tease the upcoming releases.
Samsung’s remaining coy on exact specs, but with each teaser it publishes we get a clearer picture of what we can expect when the Galaxy Z Fold 7 launch finally happens.
Galazy Z Fold 7 teaser timeline
June 3: An ‘Ultra’ foldable is teased, Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 names inadvertently revealed
June 9: “The newest Galaxy Z series is the thinnest, lightest and most advanced foldable yet”
June 11: Samsung teases triple cameras with AI-powered features on a foldable
An ‘Ultra’ foldable
Hey look, a foldable phoneSamsung
Samsung’s June 3 teaser invited us to “meet the next chapter of Ultra” with an animation of a foldable phone which could be the Galaxy Z Fold 7 Ultra.
Samsung looks set to apply the ‘Ultra’ moniker to an upcoming foldable phone, which would suggest the device will be the best foldable phone the firm will be offering. It’s likely to be pretty expensive too, but my colleague Gareth Beavis doesn’t see that as an issue.
This teaser also gave us a second reveal – whether Samsung meant it or not. I spotted the image used in the release appeared to confirm both the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 as it had the file name “Galaxy-Z-Fold7-Z-Flip7-Pre-tease-Bartype_1920x1080.gif”.
This release, and all subsequent releases, ends with the tag line “The Ultra experience is ready to unfold” – a Z Fold Ultra device looks almost nailed on to arrive this year.
Super slim, but is it the thinnest?
Samsung is readying its slimmest ever Z series foldableSamsung
Six days later, on June 9, Samsung was back with another Z series teaser, declaring “the newest Galaxy Z series is the thinnest, lightest and most advanced foldable yet”.
An animated GIF in the post appears to show the outline of a supremely slender foldable, but it comes with a disclaimer which reads “Image simulated for illustrative purposes”, so it’s not clear how accurate it is.
Samsung certainly has its work cut out if it wants the Z Fold 7 to be the thinnest around, with the Honor Magic V3 measuring 9.3mm folded / 4.4mm unfolded, while the Oppo Find N5 is an even more svelte 8.9mm/4.2mm. Honor has itself teased that its upcoming Magic V5 foldable will be even thinner. Last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 by comparison comes in at a portly 12.1mm/5.6mm.
Three cameras, with AI at the heart
That looks like three cameras to meSamsung
Samsung waited just two more days before unleashing the third Z Fold 7 teaser on June 11, this time focusing on cameras and AI. Another animated GIF was included, this time giving us a hint of a triple camera setup.
This isn’t huge news considering the Z Fold 6 also comes with three rear cameras, but Samsung pushes the AI-powered features angle by saying “the Galaxy camera is now part of the intuitive interface that turns what users see into understanding and action.
“When paired with the flexible, expansive screen of a foldable, this experience becomes even more powerful, dynamic and immersive.”
This sounds like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 could have Google’s Gemini Live feature built in (or a similar feature with Samsung’s own branding), allowing you to open up the camera for the AI assistant to view the world around you and provide contextual information on what it ‘sees’.
Recent reports point to a Galaxy Unpacked event happening sometime in July, so we may be only a few weeks away from finding out exactly what Samsung has in store for us.
On an average day, you might unlock or look at your phone dozens of times, which makes the lock screen a hot property for advertising. Ad tech company Glance has been taking advantage of that for years with its ad-laden lock screen experiences, but it’s going further in the age of AI. Samsung and Glance have teamed up to deliver a new “AI shopping” experience that uses a selfie to create custom fashion ads. This feature is rolling out to numerous Samsung phones in the next month.
Glance has been around for a while—its non-AI lock screen experience has been bundled on various phones from Samsung, Motorola, and others. Before the AI era, Glance lured people in with promises of pretty pictures and news alerts, which came with a side of ads and tracking. The new Glance AI feature has all that, but it adds an unsettling face-stealing layer to the experience.
The AI-infused Glance will arrive on Samsung phones as both a standalone app and a fully integrated lock screen. Thankfully, this is a fully opt-in experience. If you never open or set up Glance, you can keep using the normal lock screen on your phone.
Samsung’s recent press release got me more excited about its forthcoming phones than I have been in a long time: we could see the Galaxy Z Fold 7 Ultra appearing in a month or so, and it could bring to a close my 20-year odyssey for a good foldable device.
The Ultra part of this moniker is what’s getting me juiced up, as it would mean that Samsung is finally doing what it should have been years ago: making its Fold series the very best of all its tech.
Because while this phone clearly will be more expensive than any handset Samsung has ever made – potentially even cresting $2,500 – it’s worth it if the Z Fold 7 Ultra frees the brand from the glacial evolution of its recent foldable devices.
Waiting to unfold
The Galaxy Z Fold 2 was too bulky and heavyDigital Trends
I’ll admit, my use of foldable phones has been pretty limited, but only because they were so expensive. I know that sounds like I’m arguing against my point here, but the issue was that they were costly and, well, not very good.
I used the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 for a while, and while I loved the larger screen (as anyone would), all I can remember is the heft of the thing in the pocket, the huge crease down the middle and the overall lack of sparkle that it offered.
It was a true early adopter’s device, and Samsung hasn’t really shed that feeling with its phones since.
I’ve been covering foldable devices since the early 2000s, when they were just rollable e-ink displays that promised to set the world alight – but never managing it.
I gawped at LG’s ‘rollable paper’ display at CES in 2016, as that’s what we should be having now. A rollable tablet that can act as a futuristic newspaper – and yet we’re still not living that future.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 Ultra could be one of the the first mainstream, useful foldable devices – it’s been rumored that the Z Fold 7 will show off a a crease-less display ever since Samsung Display, the screen manufacturing arm of the South Korean tech giant, showed one at MWC this year.
That would solve a big barrier for me not wanting to adopt this technology, and while I’d have to sell a kidney… or three… to afford it, I’d be open to that discussion.
What might Ultra mean?
The S Pen has been a staple of Samsung’s Galaxy S Ultra seriesAndy Boxall / Digital Trends
A quick scoot around the forums shows that there’s so much desire for an upgraded Galaxy Fold to emerge this year, and it’s widely expected Samsung will need to do something pretty drastic to keep up with the competition.
The brand is behind the curve in the foldable game, as the likes of Google, Honor and Oppo have surged ahead with thinner, more powerful and capable foldable devices.
But Samsung has stayed firmly in the foldable limelight, thanks in part to the popularity of its Galaxy Z Flip series, so a move to make one of the most attractive foldable phones out there makes a lot of sense.
A lot of the rumors around the Galaxy Z Fold 7 have promised a device that really evolves the design of Samsung’s larger folding phone, and they make far more sense if they’re given the ‘Ultra’ moniker.
A phone that’s under 9mm thick when folded is a must – under 1cm is fine for slipping into the pocket, but anything over that feels archaic in 2025. That seems to be the consensus for the new foldable from Samsung – along with an unfolded thickness of around 4mm – and that’s got me excited.
Combine that with the rumored titanium chassis – another recent hallmark of the Ultra range – and you can almost feel the premium device nestled in the hands.
The crease-less display would really pull me onboard, especially with Samsung’s OneUI 8 – I’ve not used that operating system extensively, but I see very good things about its evolution, especially as it’ll be based on Android 16.
The only other thing I really care about is the battery – there’s no word that Samsung might be boosting things up from the 4400mAh we’ve seen on its previous Fold phones, which would be a shame.
The fact that Samsung is finally going to give in and put larger screens on the new Fold 7 – rumored to be over 8 inches – means that there’s more space to put a larger battery in. So the fact it’s not set to happen suggests the brand could be thinking about putting the S Pen slot in.
That would please a lot of fans who like to have it embedded, and that would tally with the Ultra name – the Galaxy S25 Ultra also has the slot for the stylus on the side. But for me, I still just can’t care.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a stylus (I’m a die-hard fan of the ReMarkable tablet) but the feeling of stylus-on-smartphone-screen just feels wrong. Give me more battery power please, and let me decide whether I want to clip a small digital pen to the outside.
Get ready for war
Foldables are increasing in popularityAndy Boxall / Digital Trends
But it’s clear that the foldable market is really taking off – Statista predicts 70 million foldables will be shipped in 2027, a significant increase on the 18 million in 2024 – and we want to see the biggest brands pushing the envelope so a wider pool of users can get excited about the technology too.
By having a two tier system, potential customers can get excited by the high end tech, but opt for a ‘cheaper’ version if the Z Fold 7 gets an Ultra sibling.
And while we’re still talking about phones costing thousands of dollars, Apple will surely enter the fray in the next 18 months with an iPhone Fold – and having a robust foldable ecosystem will be pivotal to its competitors.
So I’m keeping a slot free in the calendar for early July, and I’ll be hoping to see a more powerful foldable phone – sure, it’ll be expensive, but if it’s a smartphone that delivers on all the promise that rollable phones offer, I’ll be sorely tempted.
Samsung’s recently released Galaxy S25 Edge is thin. Very thin. In fact, with a thickness of just 5.8mm, it’s the slimmest Galaxy S series smartphone to date.
The handset’s leanness had popular tech YouTuber Zack Nelson — he of JerryRigEverything — wondering: “Is it going to turn into a Flip 6 if I put it into my back pocket?”
Nelson’s phone durability test famously involves lots of scraping and scratching on a phone’s display and frame. A naked flame is also deployed to see how the screen stands up against extreme heat. And then, at the end, he bends the phone using his bare hands to see … well … if it manages to stay intact, or, in the case of some of the handsets he’s tested, if it snaps in two.
“My understanding of this physical world we live in makes me think that this should be a very easy snap, with some glorious carnage and sparks and battery juice seeping out of the cracks of our newly obliterated S25 Edge,” Nelson says as begins applying pressure to the phone’s back panel.
And, impressively, it remains intact.
When he bends it from the front, however, you can see the back panel slightly separating from the frame, at a point just above the power button. But that’s it. The Galaxy S25 Edge stays in one piece and continues to function in the usual way.
“The Galaxy S25 will not bend or break even under very extreme circumstances,” Nelson concludes.
In an upcoming video, he’s going to look under the hood to find out precisely how Samsung constructed the phone to make it so strong.
Now that the Galaxy S25 Edge has been shown to have a sturdy build, attention will switch to Apple’s rumored rival handset, the iPhone Air, which should drop this fall. No doubt Apple engineers have been bending the Air every which way to test its structural integrity. After all, they desperately want it to avoid a wince-inducing disintegration in Nelson’s, or anyone else’s, durability test.
The next version of Android is expected to hit Pixel phones in June, but it’ll take longer for devices from other manufacturers to see the new OS. However, Samsung is making unusually good time this cycle. Owners of the company’s Galaxy S25 phones can get an early look at One UI 8 (based on Android 16) in the new open beta program. Samsung promises a lot of upgrades, but it may not feel that way.
Signing up for the beta is a snap—just open the Samsung Members app, and the beta signup should be right on the main landing page. From there, the OTA update should appear on your device within a few minutes. It’s pretty hefty at 3.4GB, but the installation is quick, and none of your data should be affected. That said, backups are always advisable when using beta software.
You must be in the US, Germany, Korea, or the UK to join the beta, and US phones must be unlocked or the T-Mobile variants. The software is compatible with the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra—the new S25 Edge need not apply (for now).
The Galaxy S25 Edge’s camera is confusing, and I understand if it’s putting you off buying one. After all, the specification includes the big 200-megapixel main camera from the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but it doesn’t have a telephoto like the Galaxy S25 Plus, making it an odd in-between model.
I was concerned the lack of a telephoto would hurt the S25 Edge’s versatility, so have been busy taking zoom photos with the phone to find out if you can live with it, or if it’s a serious downside to the coolest, thinnest smartphone we’ve seen in a while.
Optical vs optical quality
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Samsung hasn’t put a telephoto camera alongside the S25 Edge’s 200MP main camera and 12MP wide-angle camera, but it does say you’ve got a 2x “optical quality” zoom, enabled by the 200MP camera. It means the camera takes a full resolution photo and crops it in the sensor itself, without resorting to the pixel enhancement and digital cropping it may use when you snap photos at 4x or 10x zoom in the app. The result should be a purer, natural-looking zoom photo.
Regardless of Samsung’s technical efforts to convince us otherwise, optical quality zoom shots will almost always, in our heads, sound like a compromise. Camera fans will hanker after the true optical quality telephoto camera on the back of the Galaxy S25 Plus or the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and considering the S25 Edge’s $1,100 price, think the phone deserved one anyway.
Space is probably the main reason it doesn’t have one. Samsung had to reduce the size of the 200MP camera module by 18% in order to fit it in the S25 Edge, which was likely no easy task, and also evidence there’s very little spare room inside the phone at all. Massive sensors and engineering flair don’t matter to camera fans when they’re faced with “optical quality” telephoto images though. But is this stance backed up by the photos it takes?
First S25 Edge zoom photos
2x zoomAndy Boxall / Digital Trends
I’ve been out shooting photos with the Galaxy S25 Edge for the last week, and have paid special attention to the 2x optical quality zoom shortcut in the camera app. While it’s not quite as versatile as a 3x telephoto, zooming in at 2x does still help frame photos in an interesting way, introduce more depth of field, and concentrate on specific details which can get lost in a standard 1x photo.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
I spent a day with the Hyundai Kona Electric, and captured some of the striking details on this unusual-looking car with the S25 Edge’s 2x zoom. The main 2x shot of the car is excellent, with accurate white balance and just enough depth of field to make the subject pop. Crucially, there’s almost no noise at all when you crop the image again, although there is some haloing when you look very closely.
2x zoomAndy Boxall / Digital Trends
Haloing is the main concern, and while it does show up in some 2x photos, it’s not always there and may depend on the lighting conditions. It’s also possible it’ll be fixed in future software updates. The shot of the dashboard taken between the sweeping door frame shows masses of detail, with text on the buttons and screen staying sharp and clear, and with little noise in the dark footwell. The close-up of the front light and wing demonstrate the great white balance again, without any haloing this time, and excellent detail levels on the tire and inside the light unit.
More close-up shots
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Now spring has arrived, bees are gathering on blooms. How does the Galaxy S25 Edge’s camera cope taking photos here, as it has to focus on small subjects, quite close up. I like to use telephoto cameras for shots like these, and have been pleasantly surprised by the S25 Edge’s performance.
I took dozens of photos, and you can see one of the better images here. It’s not a fault of the camera I took so many, but more of an issue with the bees not staying still for long. The focus on the flower is sharp, but it has also captured the bee in flight effectively. There’s some motion blur, but this is to be expected, and it doesn’t ruin the photo. Factor in this is not an optical zoom, and was taken handheld with the camera in auto mode, it’s decent.
3x zoomAndy Boxall / Digital Trends
But what about outside the optical quality 2x mode? The good news here, and where I also underestimated the camera, is the 3x zoom is very usable, despite Samsung not promoting it as optical quality. The second photo of the bee was taken at 3x, so a digital zoom, and the quality is excellent. There’s a lot of detail, strong colors, and a pleasing depth of field. The 3x mode is far better than I expected it to be, perhaps even more so than the 2x mode.
Underestimating the Galaxy S25 Edge’s camera
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
This isn’t a complete review of the Galaxy S25 Edge’s camera, but as the decision to not include a true telephoto camera caused some controversy, even if it wasn’t that unexpected given the phone’s design, it was far more likely to be a barrier for purchase than anything else.
I underestimated the Galaxy S25 Edge’s zoom camera mode, and in doing so also underestimated just how good Samsung’s optical quality zoom has become. I should have had more faith, given I has the same concerns about the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 10x hybrid zoom, after the switch over from the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 10x optical telephoto. It also turned out to be very good.
It doesn’t deserve to put you off the phone, or to feel shortchanged compared to the Galaxy S25+ if you choose it instead. It’s very capable, even at 3x zoom, and a brilliant example of how to use technology to solve the problem of simply not being able to squeeze another camera into the body. I’ve really enjoyed the Galaxy S25 Edge so far, and adore the wonderful portability and superb ergonomics of the 5.8mm thick case. If you’re tempted by it, but worried about it having only two cameras on the back, you can tick that concern off your list.
The first time I used a Samsung phone with One UI 7, I wondered if I’d stopped receiving notifications. I tend to glance over at the lock screen on my phone to see if anything is new, and after not seeing anything at all for some time, I had a feeling something wasn’t working. It was actually working fine, and my confusion was caused by Samsung changing a key default notification setting. Now, after using a host of phones with One UI 7, it’s a setting I immediately change during setup, and if you rely on the lock screen for information, it’s one you need to know about too.
What’s the setting?
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Samsung has slightly altered the way it shows notification indicators on the lock screen in One UI 7. Previously, icons were displayed below the clock in the center of the lock screen, making it quite easy to spot when something was new, along with cards showing more detail. In One UI 7, the notification icons have been moved to the top right of the lock screen, where they are smaller and far less noticeable, particularly if you’re used to looking for them in the middle of the screen.
By default, no further notification information is shown on the screen either. It actually took me a minute to work out what was different about the lock screen, but once I spotted the new icons in the corner, I set about trying to change the notification display on the lock screen back to something more useful. Thankfully, Samsung gives you a choice on how the lock screen appears, meaning its odd design decision isn’t fixed.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
To make things right again, you visit Settings, Notifications, and then Lock Screen Notifications. Here, there are three choices available — Dot, Icons, Cards — and it’s the Icons mode which is selected by default. Those who want to see notifications at a glance on the lock screen should select Cards. This moves the notification icons back under the clock, and when you press the power key to light up the screen, cards with information appear.
Best of all, these cards can be expanded to show more detail, and most include some level of interaction too. It’s surprising Samsung decided to make the least useful notification mode the default, but it’s great to see plenty of customization when you do figure out why the lock screen appears so bare when you first use the phone.
More One UI 7 changes to make
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The notification settings change has been added to an ever-growing list of alterations I make every time I set up a Samsung phone, but most aren’t unique to One UI 7. They are Samsung defaults that have been standard for years but don’t work for me, and stop the phone working in the ideal way from my perspective.
In no particular order, I make sure the always-on screen is set to Scheduled (Settings, Lock Screen and AOD, Always-on Display) rather than the tap-to-show option selected by default. This is a good example of a useful feature hobbled out of the box, presumably to vaguely help extend battery life. I change the default browser from Samsung’s app to Chrome, and the Samsung keyboard to Google’s Gboard. These fit better with my general use across multiple devices.
The notification settings change has been added to an ever-growing list of alterations I make
I always change the default Samsung ringtone and notification sound too. There’s nothing wrong with either, but if I want to hear the phone ring, I don’t like it to sound the same as all the many other Samsung phones, where people never bother to change the ringtone. I change the 4×4 home screen grid to 5×6 (long press the home screen, select Settings, then Home Screen Grid), and sort the app drawer alphabetically (open the app drawer, tap the menu button in the search bar, then Sort) to get one long list instead of multiple pages.
Wi-Fi Calling is necessary and not enabled by default, so it’s imperative I remember to turn it on in the Quick Settings menu. I will say I appreciate Samsung making the button to activate Wi-Fi Calling easy to find, something a lot of other manufacturers do not. Samsung still enables Android buttons as the default navigation mode too, so you have to change it to swipe gestures in Settings, Display, Navigation Bar.
After all this my Samsung phone is ready for everyday use, and One UI 7 settles down into a very easy to use, fast, and reliable operating system. I’m still adjusting to the bizarre decision to keep the Search icon at the top of the Settings screen, only to make the search bar appear in the middle of the screen above the keyboard after you tap it though. But as some of these settings alterations prove, Samsung enjoys keeping us on our toes with its ergonomic decisions.
