Here's why One UI 7 (Android 15) is Samsung's real star in 2025

Without being a surprise, this is not necessarily obvious. However, after discovering the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra, there is reason to wonder if One UI 7 would not in reality be the biggest new thing announced by Samsung.

The new phones from the Korean brand benefit from the Samsung One UI 7 update based on Android 15. This is deployed several months after the manufacturer's usual schedule. And for good reason, he needed time to concoct this significant overhaul of his software experience.

Here are some notable takeaways from this update. Note that we will not focus here on the functions linked to Galaxy AI (we have a dedicated file), but rather on the aesthetic and ergonomic developments of One UI 7 which caught our attention.

Rounder and revisited icons

Yes, the first change we mention is purely a makeover. It's a detail, certainly, but an omnipresent detail throughout the software experience. Particularly for those who don't bother to deeply customize their interfaces. Thus, One UI 7 opts for more rounded application icons than the six previous versions.

We notice it on the photo gallery or settings icon. The appearance is much less flat than before. Samsung is thus moving away from a minimalist trend which has long been popular, but which was beginning to lack flavor and be too cold. This transformation is also accompanied by new colors to give a fresh look.

Transformation of the shortcuts panel

The shortcuts panel is home to one of the most notable new features of Samsung One UI 7. While until now we had a single pane for quick settings (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, airplane mode, etc.) and notifications, the interface is in turn inspired by iOS by separating the two types of information.

Swiping down from the upper right of the screen takes you to Quick Settings. Like application icons, these also benefit from a little makeover. Above all, you can arrange the panel as you wish by arranging the different sections where it suits you. For example, do you want to move the brightness bar? Go for it, it's possible.

For its part, the notifications pane is accessible by swiping down on any part of the screen.

New in the app drawer

Small noticeable change in the app drawer. By default, you always have a list scrolling horizontally in a “custom order” defined by what the system judges to be most relevant.

With One UI 7, you now have access to an option to activate alphabetical sorting and which also has the effect of organizing apps in a vertical list.

Another important change: the search bar in the application drawer moves to the bottom to become easier to access with the thumb.

Quick view from locked screen

Take the Dynamic Island of iPhones and imagine similar software functions but positioned at the bottom of the screen and only on the lock screen. And bam! This makes a nice One UI 7 feature.

Samsung indeed offers to display contextual information in a sort of pill at the bottom of the lock screen. This could be live monitoring of the score of a match, a stopwatch or an audio recording or even access to the briefing of your day powered by AI.

Depending on the case, it is possible to slightly enlarge the pill in question to display a few more elements. Otherwise, whatever happens, you will have to press it and unlock the phone to directly access the relevant application.

Widespread deployment in sight

The good news with One UI 7 is obviously also the fact that this update will be deployed on other older models. We don't have any information on this yet, but we hope it will happen soon enough.