Moving from Pixel to Samsung - will I hate it?

[Funk]

Been a Pixel user for years (and Nexus prior to that). Currently on an 8 Pro. The phone's starting to become a little glitchy (apps often need to be Force Stopped etc) and the battery is at a point where it's not lasting as long throughout the day.

It's always been a love/hate relationship with Pixel - every phone has been slow evolution rather than anything revelatory and every single one has a pretty major flaw (always different each year!). I've held off upgrading to the 9, 10 and obviously the 11 has just launched. Fair to say I'm underwhelmed by the 11 - Google have reduced the RAM and upped the price, now asking the same or more for the 11 Pro XL than Apple and Samsung are asking for their premium devices such as the S26 Ultra. Their phones just aren't worth that money - it seems that Google think substandard hardware can rely on software to try and cover the shortcomings. Suffice to say I'm on the point of Duncan Bannatyne-ing on Google.

The one thing I really do like is (mostly) uncorrupted Android when compared with other handsets - I've had a play with older Samsung handsets (S21/22/23) when helping others out and wasn't keen on Samsung's changes to the OS. However I understand that OneUI has improved somewhat on the newer handsets. Samsung do seem hell-bent on duplicating apps and trying to get you to do everything in their ecosystem (as with all things these days, it's about controlling users' data and being able to monetise that). I've accepted that being on Android means I'm already sacrificing privacy and would prefer to limit how many Global Megacorps I have to give my data to...

Can most of the Samsung stuff be scrapped/binned/hidden? I'd appreciate views from anyone who's made the move from a Pixel to something like an S26U and how they found it - it's a chunk of money to spend and it's one of those things where you'll not really know whether you like it or not until you've lived with it for a while.

After years of Pixel, will I hate OneUI?

[Mr Pointy]

A Pixel 10 Pro XL would be £704 but they are selling out. Only 1 generation back so not too much difference to the 11.

[Bonefish Blues]

I did. I hated it.

Yours, back on pure Android.

[_Rodders_]

Samsung seem to have gone off the boil since around the S20. I get a distinct feeling they've been phoning it in since then.

I went to RedMagic, loved that phone but it got damaged and I couldn't get another as it was a limited edition. Currently got an Oppo X9 Pro, which is ok but I don't love it. Still miles better than anything Samsung make though.

[Funk]

Mr Pointy said:

A Pixel 10 Pro XL would be £704 but they are selling out. Only 1 generation back so not too much difference to the 11.

I think I'm kinda done with compromising on Pixels to be honest...

Bonefish Blues said:

I did. I hated it.

Yours, back on pure Android.

Oh arse. Not what I was hoping to hear... What did you hate so much?

_Rodders_ said:

Samsung seem to have gone off the boil since around the S20. I get a distinct feeling they've been phoning it in since then.

I went to RedMagic, loved that phone but it got damaged and I couldn't get another as it was a limited edition. Currently got an Oppo X9 Pro, which is ok but I don't love it. Still miles better than anything Samsung make though.

Thanks but I won't have any of the Chinese phones for security and privacy reasons. I appreciate that components of other phones such as Samsung and Google come from Chinese suppliers, however I'm 99.99% certain that those companies are in control of what those components do (or don't do) within their phones.

[Bonefish Blues]

In a word, bloatware. With a passion.

[Super Sonic]

Bonefish Blues said:

In a word, bloatware. With a passion.

This. Last Samsung I had came preloaded with four pages of apps. These will be constantly running in the background using your battery, memory and data . My current Motorola has one.

[Funk]

Bonefish Blues said:

In a word, bloatware. With a passion.

If it's just apps, I'm pretty sure they can be hidden/disabled from running...? I'd also heard that recent iterations of OneUI were better in that regard.

[sbk1972]

Comes down to money to me. I refuse to pay such high prices on these phones whether its Apple, Google or Samsung.

Im 50+ so I go for the cheapest usable phone. I tried out the chinese brands Honor etc were ok but I eventually went back to Samsung A55 due to play store and Os qwerks,

Samsung A55, everyting on it is..... okay. Quality of Pics are ok, speed is ok. 5g is ok. nothing exciting. Cost me £300 a few years ago.

Paying £1K+ for a phone, in my mind, is crazy.

I thought / looked at Pixel phones as being one of the best, so reading your review is interesting.

[Bonefish Blues]

Funk said:

Bonefish Blues said:

In a word, bloatware. With a passion.

If it's just apps, I'm pretty sure they can be hidden/disabled from running...? I'd also heard that recent iterations of OneUI were better in that regard.

It may well have improved - I traded mine in vs a Pixel 2 and a bit years ago, but have resolved to stay pure Android.

[RizzoTheRat]

No experience of Pixel but I recently replaced my S22 with an S26. I was pleasantly surprised that I can uninstall any Samsung apps I don't want, and that they conveniently put all thier own apps in a folder on the homepage so I could easily find them to remove them. So bye bye to thier email/browser/calendar and my Gmail/chrome/calendar apps transferred over from my old phone automatically.

My only slight complaint is is seems you can't just have a screen of all your apps in alphabetical order, and leave the home page for ones I use regularly, like I could on my old phone, they all have to be on the homepage or in a folder on the homepage

[Funk]

RizzoTheRat said:

No experience of Pixel but I recently replaced my S22 with an S26. I was pleasantly surprised that I can uninstall any Samsung apps I don't want, and that they conveniently put all thier own apps in a folder on the homepage so I could easily find them to remove them. So bye bye to thier email/browser/calendar and my Gmail/chrome/calendar apps transferred over from my old phone automatically.

My only slight complaint is is seems you can't just have a screen of all your apps in alphabetical order, and leave the home page for ones I use regularly, like I could on my old phone, they all have to be on the homepage or in a folder on the homepage

This sounds more encouraging, especially as it's probably an S26 Ultra I'd be looking at.... Regarding alphabetical apps, surely this is what you get in the app drawer when you swipe up?

Perhaps I need to go into a store somewhere and actually have a play with one before committing.

[Hoofy]

Bonefish Blues said:

In a word, bloatware. With a passion.

This was the first thing I thought when I read Samsung.

My cheap Motorola does everything I need (including editing videos) and it doesn't have so much crap on it. There are crap games that it keeps installing because of some Moto app and some news app but that's it.

[TikTak]

I went the other way from S22U (previously been on multiple Note series) to a Pixel 10 XL at release.

I was shocked how different it is and quite frankly, I really dislike the Pixel.

There's such a divide these days and all of them work so differently now that it can be a gamble. Good luck in all honesty.

[triggerhappy21]

Bonefish Blues said:

In a word, bloatware. With a passion.

Every Samsung I've had, first job, remove/disable any apps i don't want. Takes less than 5 mins.

I do exactly the same on any Windows OS I use.

I never quite understand the annoyance of bloatware when it's so straightforward to remove.

[heisthegaffer]

I went from a Pixel 7a which was a lovely phone but terrible battery life and being only 128gb storage drove me bananas as filled up quick. Also the screen fingerprint reader barely worked.

I then opted for a 256gb storage Samsung S24FE which has been excellent. Fantastic camera.

I do find the battrry life is severly impacted by life360 as I was using power saving mode with little discernible difference to performance but live 360 doesnt work woth power saving on and keeps telling me!

[stevoknevo]

Bonefish Blues said:

Funk said:

Bonefish Blues said:

In a word, bloatware. With a passion.

If it's just apps, I'm pretty sure they can be hidden/disabled from running...? I'd also heard that recent iterations of OneUI were better in that regard.

It may well have improved - I traded mine in vs a Pixel 2 and a bit years ago, but have resolved to stay pure Android.

The Pixel launcher isn't "pure Android", that would be AOSP (Android Open Source Project - that's what all the manufacturers 'skin' and put their own launcher on top) The Pixel launcher is Google's interpretation of how they envisage Android to work with their services - TBF, if you Google apps or Workspace it really is slick in operation and easy for sharing within apps/with others (as a family we've had OG xl/2xl/3/4xl/5 and currently in use are a 6/2 x 8 Pro/8a so definitely fans of Pixels despite their issues, but then I buy lightly used and haven't paid more than £260 per handset (bar the 6 which was brand new for £300)

@Funk I'd factory reset the 8 Pro and do a clean install, don't reinstall from a backup - unless there's something going on hardware wise I'd expect that to sort out your app force closing issues and give you a bit of battery life back.

If you go the Samsung route there'll be debloater guides online and you'll likely need to use ADB (Android Debug Bridge) from a computer to remove the crapware from it - Samsung majors on customability via things like Good Lock so it'll be a very different experience to a Pixel which is pretty barebones as Google expects you to use apps for additional functionality/customisation. One thing you will get is better hardware/more horsepower, how that translates in day-to-day use...

[98elise]

Bonefish Blues said:

In a word, bloatware. With a passion.

This. I had to change my last Samsung phone because it ran out of space and I'd done everything I could to free some up.

There were many many applications I simply didn't want yet Samsung made sure I couldn't remove them. Its what made me move to Pixel.

[RizzoTheRat]

Funk said:

RizzoTheRat said:

No experience of Pixel but I recently replaced my S22 with an S26. I was pleasantly surprised that I can uninstall any Samsung apps I don't want, and that they conveniently put all thier own apps in a folder on the homepage so I could easily find them to remove them. So bye bye to thier email/browser/calendar and my Gmail/chrome/calendar apps transferred over from my old phone automatically.

My only slight complaint is is seems you can't just have a screen of all your apps in alphabetical order, and leave the home page for ones I use regularly, like I could on my old phone, they all have to be on the homepage or in a folder on the homepage

This sounds more encouraging, especially as it's probably an S26 Ultra I'd be looking at.... Regarding alphabetical apps, surely this is what you get in the app drawer when you swipe up?

Perhaps I need to go into a store somewhere and actually have a play with one before committing.

That swipe up app drawer was exactly what my S22 used to do, with the S26 it gives me my most recently used apps and a rather useful search box where I can type in an app name rather than having to find it. Just googled it and it appears there is an option in a menu somewhere to turn it on so I'll have to hunt that down this evening. I'm still at the stage of getting various apps logged in rather than using everything yet

98elise said:

There were many many applications I simply didn't want yet Samsung made sure I couldn't remove them. Its what made me move to Pixel.

My S22 had various apps that I only had the option to disable, not to uninstall. So far on my S26 I've been able to uninstall everything I've tried to get rid of, and can do it by pressing and holding the icon on the home screen rather than having to go in to an uninstall apps menu.

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Tuesday 8th September 13:48

[98elise]

RizzoTheRat said:

Funk said:

RizzoTheRat said:

No experience of Pixel but I recently replaced my S22 with an S26. I was pleasantly surprised that I can uninstall any Samsung apps I don't want, and that they conveniently put all thier own apps in a folder on the homepage so I could easily find them to remove them. So bye bye to thier email/browser/calendar and my Gmail/chrome/calendar apps transferred over from my old phone automatically.

My only slight complaint is is seems you can't just have a screen of all your apps in alphabetical order, and leave the home page for ones I use regularly, like I could on my old phone, they all have to be on the homepage or in a folder on the homepage

This sounds more encouraging, especially as it's probably an S26 Ultra I'd be looking at.... Regarding alphabetical apps, surely this is what you get in the app drawer when you swipe up?

Perhaps I need to go into a store somewhere and actually have a play with one before committing.

That swipe up app drawer was exactly what my S22 used to do, with the S26 it gives me my most recently used apps and a rather useful search box where I can type in an app name rather than having to find it. Just googled it and it appears there is an option in a menu somewhere to turn it on so I'll have to hunt that down this evening. I'm still at the stage of getting various apps logged in rather than using everything yet

98elise said:

There were many many applications I simply didn't want yet Samsung made sure I couldn't remove them. Its what made me move to Pixel.

My S22 had various apps that I only had the option to disable, not to uninstall. So far on my S26 I've been able to uninstall everything I've tried to get rid of, and can do it by pressing and holding the icon on the home screen rather than having to go in to an uninstall apps menu.

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Tuesday 8th September 13:48

Thanks, if I can delete unwanted stuff I may well go back to Samsung for my next phone. I find some stuff on Pixel frustrating.