My initial experience with the Samsung S25 hasn’t been what I’d define as smooth.
On a hardware front I cannot fault it. The battery life is relentless and even with performance mode on light, and power saver on the phone is far faster than I actually require. The camera produces nice results, especially with the AI enhancements minimized too.
My problem is with the software. When OneUI 6 was the latest version of Samsung’s mobile OS I would’ve told anyone that asked that it was, in my opinion the best Android skin on the market. The level of refinement, while still giving lots of room for flexibility and customization was unmatched.
The flexibility and customization points still stand true, but I feel the refinement has taken a knock. Unfortunately the whole OS is starting to feel like one big advertisement platform, not far from how Facebook felt the last time I used it.
I must’ve factory reset the device 3 or 4 times before I felt like I had the device setup properly. Immediately from the first power on you are absolutely bombarded with requests to give permission for anything and everything. The phone then takes it upon itself to install 10-15 bloatware apps, whether you agree to it or not. Previously this was a quirk only reserved for budget phones, but it seems to have made it’s way into Flagships! Once you get past that the phone will pester you to turn on multiple AI features, each with a disclaimer that this will be in exchange for your personal data. If you don’t agree with this you’re just locked out of entire menu items, when tapped you’re brought right back to the request again.
The telemetry and data collection has just got out of control, and due to EU regulations that permission must be granted to do this, Samsung just absolutely bombard you with requests, hoping that you’ll cave in.
This has left me feeling very uncomfortable using the device. On my initial setup attempts I tried using the “Universal Android Debloater” to remove the majority of this, hoping I’d feel more comfortable using the device knowing these apps were gone. Where I’ve had success with this on other devices, this one was a disaster. The device simply refused to work. A couple of times this even soft bricked the device, just showing a black screen until I factory reset it from recovery. Bear in mind I wasn’t disabling anything important like knox or the dialler, just random 3rd party apps that should never have been on the device in the first place.
I made a journal entry yesterday, stating that I had a strange urge to go back to using a dumbphone for a while. I didn’t really understand why though, my screen time is low, and I haven’t been excessively browsing the web or playing games on the device. It was a persistent feeling though, so I obliged, popping my SIM into my Nokia 110 4G. I used it for the remainder of yesterday and the entirety of today, relegating the S25 to being switched off in my bag.
Honestly it felt like a weight had lifted, and I still wasn’t sure why. It was only after journalling again this evening that I realized the subconscious motivation for wanting to do this. It’s the S25, more so OneUI 7.
I deleted all of my social media accounts a long time ago, for the simple reason that their blatant data collection, and the fact you feel like a product made me uncomfortable, a strange unclean feeling that’s hard to describe. That’s exactly the feeling I get when I use the S25. The data collection, and desperation to be given permission to harvest that data is so blatant and relentless it completely tarnishes the experience of using the device.
I imagine that for someone that simply doesn’t care about this the experience of using the device would be excellent. The AI features are so baked into the operating system that it’s near impossible to avoid using them, each of the notices you agree to would surely add some convenience to the user experience. But knowing how valuable this data is, the sheer amount that is being collected and the number of companies it’s being sold too makes the device feel like an enemy rather than an ally.
Just a week into owning the device I already dread when I have to turn it on for a task I can’t accomplish on the Nokia. I know the second it connects to a network it will be contacting an eye watering amount of servers, relaying whatever it’s managed to scrape from my usage, be that location, usage patterns, interests, search history, nearby devices or even microphone and camera data. We already know that Samsung send themselves actual screenshots of your display on their smart TV’s at an average of 1 FPS, so is that such a stretch?
I knew Samsung were greedy when it came to user data in the past, but this really has reached new levels. I see average users raving about their new Samsung devices, showing off the features they’ve happily agreed to, completely oblivious to what they’ve signed away in exchange. In some ways I’m jealous of them, ignorance is bliss as they say. Unfortunately I can’t just turn a blind eye to it.
I’m going to cross my fingers, and just hold out for a Lineage release for the device. After all the bootloader is still unlockable, which is the only redeeming feature for this device at the moment in my mind. In the meantime I may even just reset the device and put it back in it’s box, it really does creep me out that much.
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