The One UI 7 beta arrived on the Galaxy S24 lineup on December 5, two months after Samsung officially teased the update. We already knew what to expect from One UI 7 thanks to a short hands-on session with the new software at Samsung’s developer conference and a bounty of leaks leading up to the launch of the beta program, but we were still impressed when we finally got to use it on our personal phones.
One UI 7 (based on Android 15) feels refreshing to use because of some substantial UI changes, such as the redesigned quick settings panel and notification shade and new icons for almost every Samsung app. Samsung has also implemented features that fans have been requesting for many years, such as a vertical app drawer.
But Samsung's implementation of some of the changes has disappointed me. To be more precise, I don't like how it’s not totally clear how you enable a new feature or go back to the way things were before One UI 7.0.
Samsung needs to better explain new features and how to revert to pre-One UI 7 settings
Take the vertical app drawer. After installing the One UI 7 beta, I was surprised that the app drawer had switched to a vertical layout. But I was also shocked that there was no option to go back to a horizontal layout.
Well, the option is there, but the layout is decided by how you sort the apps in the drawer. If you set apps to be sorted alphabetically, you get a vertical layout. If you switch to custom sorting, you get a horizontal layout.
More on this topic after the video…
Samsung doesn’t offer any pop-up notification explaining this the first time you boot the phone with One UI 7. So, since the layout is decided by how apps are sorted in the drawer, those who didn't have apps sorted alphabetically before installing One UI 7 may not even know that a vertical app drawer is now an option!
It's a similar story for the redesigned quick panel. On One UI 7.0, Samsung has separated the quick panel and the notifications area. The official changelog mentions you can go back to the previous layout, but it doesn't explain how (but we do). You also won't get an explanation or a tip the first time you access the notifications or quick panel after installing the update.
Samsung will hopefully take my criticism as feedback and implement the necessary changes. That is, if it wasn't already planning to address the issues I mention here. This is beta software after all, and just because something isn't included right now doesn't mean it isn't on Samsung's to-do list.
That's something everyone who is testing the One UI 7 beta has to keep in mind. The stable update isn't due for release until at least two months from now, so there's plenty of time for Samsung to fix everything that needs fixing.
