It’s one of the oldest rivalries in the consumer world: Coke vs Pepsi. If I told you I prefer Coke, would you then assume I hate Pepsi? Any sane person would answer “no” to that question. “It’s just a preference,” they’d say. For some reason, though, that same logic doesn’t always seem to apply in the tech world, especially when it comes to smartphones.
After working at Android Authority for many years, I’ve learned that lots of people out there think that if you’re on one side of a coin, you must hate the other side. This is extremely apparent with the battle between Android vs iOS, for example. It seems that once you commit to an Android phone or an iPhone, that must mean that you can’t even associate with anyone on the other side. I’ve also seen this when discussing Pixel vs Samsung. In fact, I’ve been accused of hating Samsung on numerous occasions because I’m very obviously a Pixel guy, which people then assume to mean that I’m an anti-Samsung guy.
I have been accused of being anti-Samsung because I am pro-Pixel. This upsets me because I love both brands for different reasons.
But this is not true. For well over a year, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra was my daily driver, and even today, I’ve got the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with me in my backpack wherever I go so I can use all the features in One UI that my Pixel 9 Pro doesn’t have. In other words, not only is it false to say that I hate Samsung, but I actually really, really like Samsung.
What I want to do today is talk about this problem as a whole. First, I want to talk frankly about why Pixel users don’t own Samsung phones. After that, I’ll touch on the flip side and talk about why Samsung fans don’t own Pixel phones. Hopefully, by the end, we’ll all understand each other a bit more.
Pixel vs Samsung: What sums you up best? 24 votes I am a Pixel user, and I hate Samsung 8 % I am a Pixel user, and I like Samsung 46 % I am a Samsung user, and I hate Pixel 0 % I am a Samsung user, and I like Pixel 42 % I am neither a Samsung or Pixel user 4 %
Why Pixel fans aren’t always fans of Galaxy phones
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
If there’s one thing that unites people who love Pixel phones, it’s the software: Pixel UI. It’s fast and lean, gets updated at a steady clip, and is very close in both look and feel to stock Android. It’s also free of bloatware, and I’m not just talking about pre-loaded Netflix or whatever. Unlike Samsung phones, Pixel phones come with one version of each core app: one browser (Chrome); one photos app (Google Photos); one app store (Google Play); one payment app (Google Wallet); and on and on. The idea that Galaxy phones come with two versions of many apps — one made by Samsung and one by Google — just annoys Pixel users. It’s especially annoying that a lot of the Samsung versions can’t be uninstalled.
Bloatware, the lack of a stock look and feel, and feature creep are the major reasons why Pixel users don't love Samsung's One UI.
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