Introduction
Samsung releases a new iteration of its custom Android skin with every new flagship smartphone. The Galaxy S20 lineup brought One UI 2.1 in early 2020 and further refined the improvements that Samsung had introduced with One UI a couple of years ago.
Therefore, when it does arrive later this year, One UI 2.5 will also be an exercise in refinement. It will debut with the Galaxy Note 20 lineup, and the Galaxy Fold 2 will likely run on this version of Samsung’s custom Android skin.
These will be the first devices with One UI 2.5 out of the box. Samsung will eventually bring the iteration to compatible devices, and it will take a few months to complete the process.
One UI 2.5 features
One UI 2.1 was light on features, but the few it introduced, like Music Share and Quick Share, were very meaningful. It was evident that Samsung wasn’t stuffing the update with features to offer a certain number of new features.
This meant that users could get some real value out of the features introduced with the update, not just use them once and forget that they existed. That’s likely to be the case for One UI 2.5 as well.
Samsung hasn’t dropped any hints about the One UI 2.5 features. Still, a moderator on its official community forum for South Korea did mention that the update will bring Google’s UI navigation gestures to third-party app launchers. This has not been possible on Galaxy phones on One UI 2.0 or 2.1.
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One UI 2.5 release
One UI 2.5 debuted with the Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Z Fold 2, and Galaxy Z Flip 5G and has since then been released for numerous other Galaxy devices, including the Galaxy S20series, the original Galaxy Fold, the Galaxy A71, and the Galaxy M21, one of Samsung’s most affordable mid-range phones. More devices will get the update to One UI 2.5 soon, although many Galaxy phones and tablets will likely skip directly to One UI 3.0, based on Android 11.
What’s new in One UI 2.5?
The latest version of Samsung’s One UI 2.5 software is still based on top of Google’s Android 10. We’ve already detailed how the update supports Android 10s gesture navigation with third-party launches. We’ve also discussed the software features in our Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review. Some of the highlights you can expect with the update include improved camera features, Audio Bookmark, the ability to write on PDF files, and improvements to Samsung DeX.
Here’s a summary of the main features in the update, all of which are present on the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 20 but may not be available on other devices:
- Camera
- Pro Video mode, with the ability to control the smartphone mic’s direction. It can be paired with the Galaxy Buds to use them as a “pro-style lavalier microphone.”
- 8K@24fps video recording.
- 21:9 aspect ratio video recording
- Samsung Notes
- Audio Bookmarks in Samsung Notes. This lets you synchronize your notes with audio recordings of lectures or meetings.
- Import and write on PDF files
- Autosave & sync between your phone, tablet, and PC
- New template and background color options
- Add handwritten text to typed documents.
- Samsung DeX
- You can now connect to your smart TV wirelessly if the TV supports Phone Screen mirroring.
- You can use multi-finger gestures on your phone to control DeX on your TV or monitor. Swipe up with three fingers to see recent apps, down to return to the home screen, or left or right to switch between apps.
- Connectivity
- Quickly share the password of the Wi-Fi you’re connected to with nearby Galaxy devices in your contact list.
- See the speeds of the Wi-Fi connections in your surroundings before connecting to them.
- Samsung Reminders
- You can preset time and location information for upcoming meetings and tasks.
