Samsung One UI 4.0 First Impressions: Should You Install It?

• Right off the bat the One UI 4.0 feels lighter and a bit more responsive with smoother animations and quicker touch interactions.
• Some Android 12 customization touches come in the form of a 'Color Palette' that lets you customize the phone screen (Menus, buttons, backgrounds, apps, etc.) with unique colors based on the applied wallpaper. However, we would have preferred some more intuitive widgets and icon customization features on the new skin.
• You might mistake some behavioral changes to upgrades as some of the default settings such as vibration intensity, font size, icons size will go back to their default state when you update the handset to the One UI 4.0. The vibration intensity felt softer after the update so make sure you change the settings back to your preferred liking.

 

Nifty Security Features

• One very useful addition is the 'Clipboard Protection'. You can set the device to alert you whenever an app accesses content copied to the clipboard in another app.
• Another useful security feature is 'Approximate Location'. You can keep your exact location private and can set apps to access the location of the general area.
• Similarly, another useful security feature is 'camera & microphone indicators'. It indicates when any app (WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc.) is using your device's camera or microphone by lighting up a green dot in the upper right corner of the display.
• You must try out the 'Permission info at a glance' feature as it allows you to see when any app accesses your sensitive permissions such as location, camera, microphone, etc.

Useful Utilities

• The lock screen widgets- Music player, Calendar, Alarms, Bixby Routines, Voice recorder, etc. works without unlocking the device and come very handy in the day-to-day routine.
• Lock screen widgets now give more information at a glance and come with useful widget recommendations.
• A very handy addition is the 'Writing Assistant' in the Samsung Keyboard that improves your writing by keeping an eye on spelling and grammar. Backed by the well-known Grammarly, the feature can be of great use if you prefer writing documents on your handset. You can find the feature in 'Suggest text corrections' in keyboard settings.

Intuitive Add-Ons

• Always-On-Display can be enabled only when you receive a notification.
• The quick settings panel has also been redesigned with some new additions such as the 'Extra Dim' feature that dims the screen to prevent eye strain.
• Dark mode now feels more uniform with tinted app icons and a slight dark tone to the overall UI. It's just more pleasing to use than the previous version.

• The camera app now has a redesigned manual mode, better scanning features, and a portrait mode for pets at home.
• I am fond of Samsung's 'Remaster Pictures' tool in the gallery app but it didn't allow the revert feature. Thankfully, it does now and let you revert remastered pictures to their original version at any time.
• You can now remove the date, time, and location information of your pictures (one or multiple pictures simultaneously) to hide them or correct them.
• We have barely scratched the surface of the One UI 4.0 as we have used the handset for just about a day. The overall experience has been fairly positive so far; however, we will give our final verdict on the new skin in the coming week in our comprehensive review. That said, you must install the Android 12-based One UI 4.0 on your eligible Samsung devices.

List Of Eligible Samsung Devices To Get Stable One UI 4.0 Update

• Samsung S21 series devices- S21, S21+, S21 Ultra
• Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G, Z Fold 2, Z Flip 3 5G, Z Flip 2, Z Flip, Fold 5G, and the Fold
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, S20 Ultra, S20+ 5G, S20+, S20 5G, S20 and S10 5G, S10+, S10, S10e and S10 Lite
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G, Note20 Ultra, Note20 5G, Note20, Note10+ 5G, Note10+, Note10 5G, Note10 and Note10 Lite
• Galaxy A71 5G, A71, A51 5G, A51, and the A90 5G
• Samsung Tablets- Galaxy Tab S7+ 5G, Tab S7+, Tab S7 5G3, Tab S7, Tab S6 5G4, Tab S6, Tab S6 Lite