Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
Sorry, Samsung, but I’ve always been a Pixel fan. Although I’ve appreciated a Galaxy device here and there and had a soft spot for Samsung’s hardware ever since I brought home the Galaxy S10 at the end of college, I’ve always been happiest with a Google device in my pocket.
For a while, I wasn’t quite sure why I felt so strongly about preferring Google’s experience over Samsung’s, but after a few recent updates, I’ve come around to a simple fact: Google’s Pixel software is just so much better than One UI, and here’s why.
Which Android experience do you prefer? 75 votes Pixel UI 61 % One UI 39 %
Give me Google’s camera app any day
It’s no secret that I love Google’s approach to image processing. If we’ve written about it once, we’ve done it a hundred times. I’ve hyped it up in Pixel reviews across all price points, and it’s been a consistent through line ever since I upgraded to the Pixel 5. What got me in the door, though, was the fact that I never had to think twice about using Google’s camera app.
The Pixel camera app has been a fire-and-forget way to capture my life for as long as I can remember. Yes, long-overdue manual controls were added along the way, but they never felt quite as essential to the overall experience as Samsung’s controls. See, although I’ll fiddle with the manual settings on my beloved Fujifilm mirrorless cameras until I get things right, I’d much rather snap a quick photo with my phone and have it back in my pocket. I view my mirrorless options as intentional, while my phone takes on an everyday role.
When that’s my goal, Google’s Pixel software beats Samsung’s One UI any day. Google’s approach to everything from panoramas to motion is more straightforward, and I know that the image I open in Photos will probably look much closer to what I had in mind. Samsung, on the other hand, tends to add motion blur when I don’t want it, and its approach to astrophotography is to make me set a timer and hope for the best, which isn’t my forte. I respect that Samsung probably offers a better experience for photographers who want granular control over their shots, but that’s not usually me.
I only need one of everything, thanks
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
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