During its annual Developer Conference in San Francisco last week, Samsung announced its next-generation One UI software and teased its upcoming foldable smartphone. The Korean manufacturer is now rolling out beta version of the One UI to the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus phones, the first devices to feature the latest Samsung firmware.
Samsung has started rolling out a beta version of the One UI update to this year’s early flagship devices. The update brings with it a redesigned UI built on top of Google’s latest Android 9.0 Pie interface and is currently being rolled out to Galaxy S9/S9+ units in South Korea and the US. India, China, France, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom will get the Beta programme in the second phase.
One UI comes loaded with a host of interesting features and the brand claims it to be “more natural and comfortable for one-handed use.” The latest UI features newly designed controls at the bottom with larger search box or text at the first half, which it claims will be easier to navigate as compared to its predecessor. Samsung has built this UI to work seamlessly and be used across its upcoming foldable and non-foldable Galaxy smartphones. The memory management is so sleek that Samsung says three apps can be actively engaged with at the same time.
The latest One UI beta weighs in at around 1.6GB and features new gesture controls, new clock styles, latest emojis based on Unicode 11.0 and a new charging info layout when showing the Always On display. The update also allows users to access Samsung DeX without the dock by simply connecting it to a display through a USB-C to HDMI adapter. DeX will also support dual-display, meaning users will be able to use their phones even when connected as a DeX device.
Samsung’s One UI beta will be rolled out as an OTA update, only for testers who submitted their interest in the beta programme. The company plans to roll out the final version sometime in January, which will give ample time to wait for the Galaxy S10 and foldable Galaxy F.