One UI 7 is great and all but its rollout disappointed millions

One UI 7 might be the most ambitious update in recent years, and many of us who can now explore its new features and refreshed design are generally happy with the results. However, until recently, One UI 7 has been the source of frustration for millions of Galaxy device users worldwide. And for some Samsung fans, the nightmare isn't over yet.

We're hearing you loud and clear on our social media channels. “Tell Samsung to release One UI 7 already!” Trust us, we would do something about it if we could. But it's all in Samsung's hands now.

One UI 7 is a fantastic update with very few flaws and shortcomings — that we know of so far. Nevertheless, Samsung dropped the ball with the One UI 7 update and disappointed millions of Galaxy device users in one regard: availability.

The first One UI 7 beta build for the Galaxy S24 went live on December 5, and it took Samsung a little more than four months to bring out the stable update.

Comparatively, One UI 6 entered the beta phase in August 2023 and was released two and a half months later, near the end of October 2023.

Not only did Samsung release the first One UI 7 beta later than usual, but it also took a lot longer to wrap up its testing phase and release the first stable build. Furthermore, once the stable build went live for the Galaxy S24, Z Fold 6, and Z Flip 6, some markets got it ahead of others. Some markets are still waiting.

We can think of multiple theories as to why this happened:

Which of these theories is true? Only Samsung knows, and maybe all the reasons mentioned had some part to play in the disappointing release of One UI 7.

And yet, the struggle is not over. Some Galaxy device users expect to receive the One UI 7 update as late as June. The question now is whether or not Samsung has learned anything from this experience. And the good news is that it might have.

Samsung might be aware that the delayed One UI 7 launch has caused unhappiness for many unsatisfied Galaxy device users. In fact, some reports suggest that Samsung will skip One UI 7.1 and jump straight to One UI 8 in just a few months.

We recently confirmed that the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 will ship with Android 16 and One UI 8 out of the box. This could mean that the One UI 8 beta for select devices — like the Galaxy S25 series — will begin relatively early this year.

Samsung has messed up with the slow release of One UI 7, but there is hope that the company may have learned from this experience and will do what it takes not to disappoint millions of Galaxy fans again anytime soon.

In the meantime, we can only hope that the One UI 7 rollout for more devices won't suffer any other delays and will go live according to the schedule, late as it may already be.