Samsung is the world’s largest mobile phone seller and sells some of the best phones you can buy. And for all needs and budgets, because the Samsung Galaxy range covers any range of the market, from the entry level to the top range, through the balanced mid-range and even the foldable ones, where the South Korean firm simply sweeps away with its Fold and Flip series.

But not everything in mobile is hardwareas Apple demonstrated with its iOS-based ecosystem. Samsung is aware of this and over the years has invested in improving its own interface (One UI) and in general all software support. Aside from Google itself (for obvious reasons), Samsung is the one that offers the most complete software ecosystem among the many manufacturers that use Android. One Ui 7 built on top of Android 15 will launch in the coming weeks and it looks very, very good. But it’s not perfect.

Changes in the new Samsung Galaxy

After charging its battery, installing a SIM, updating the operating system and checking all the options of your brand new mobile (which are not few), it’s time to manage the sections that best suit your preferences. Some are quite basic, some are explicit, and the rest are usually a bit more hidden. We will leave you with some of them that we usually do from the beginning and that will surely improve your experience.

Navigation gestures

Google abandoned the typical three-button navigation bar with the release of Android 10. For reasons unknown, Samsung continues to ship its phones with the navigation bar enabled by default, and you don’t even have the option to change it during the initial setup process. .

It’s one of the first things you’ll want to adjust, as Gesture Mode is a more intuitive and elegant solution. To change them:

• Open the Settings app on your Galaxy and go to Display.
• Scroll down and tap on Navigation Bar. On the page that opens, select Swipe Gestures.
• Select multiple options to adjust gesture sensitivity. Drag the Gesture Sensitivity slider left or right depending on your preference.
• If you are using the latest version of One UI, you can activate the digital assistant and the “search circle” feature in the same section.

Information on the screen

The information density on the screens of Samsung Galaxy phones is usually quite low. And this despite the fact that it has high-quality AMOLED screens, large dimensions and resolution. This limits the information displayed on the screen. Fortunately, changing the zoom level of the display greatly alleviates this problem:

• Go to Settings > Display.
• Select ‘Screen Zoom’ and move the slider all the way to the left. This will reduce the size and display more content on the screen.
• Within this feature, you can also go to a related feature called “Font Size and Style” which allows you to change the size of the text.

Normally, these slider levels are usually enough, but if you want even more (and your eyesight is good), you can take it to another level by first enabling the hidden developer options menu in Settings > Developer options and “width” screen. In general, choose a size between 435 and 449. Exceeding this value may cause problems with interface scaling. Try the one that best suits your preferences.

Enable Good Lock

It is a suite of apps created by Samsung that allows you to give your Galaxy device a makeover. You can use it to personalize all sorts of things on branded phones, tablets or watches. What sets Good Lock apart from other customization apps is the number of options it has and how well they work. Changes you make in the app are instantly reproduced across devices and it feels almost like the original One UI.

To use it, you need to install a generic application that enables the remaining options, and then download the module you need. If you don’t know it, it’s time for you to use it, because it will take your experience to another level, especially when it comes to the personalization and behavior of your mobile phone.

camera shutter

It’s one of the best examples of the Good Lock module we’ve seen above. And the Samsung Galaxy Camera app might surprise you with its shutter lag. This is because these phones take pictures when you lift your finger from the shutter button, not when you press it. If you don’t quite like this behavior, there are apps that allow you to improve it, such as Camera Assistant, which is available for free in the Galaxy Store.

Once installed (enabled after Good Lock), it is available in the settings menu of the existing camera app. You can access it by opening the Camera app, tapping the settings icon, and scrolling down to Camera Assistant. Here you can activate the ‘Quick Touch Shutter’ function. Also, enable “prioritize focus over speed” if your camera shots are blurry or out of focus.

Notification category

Notification channels are one component where Android is unbeatable, even for competitors like Apple and its iOS. Also known as notification categories, they allow you to limit specific types of notifications from apps. For example, you can use them to block unwanted marketing notifications from the app while receiving others that you consider important.

For reasons that escape us, this is another feature that is disabled by default on new Samsung phones. In our opinion, they are very useful. If you want to try it:

• Open Settings > Notifications > Advanced settings.
• Enable “Manage notification categories for each app”.
• From there, you can manage an app’s notification channels by long-pressing its notification, tapping Settings, and selecting Notification Category. On the page that opens, disable unwanted notifications.

Adaptive battery protection

Samsung Galaxy phones usually have high-end components, including batteries. Along with high capacity (in general), the management of one user interface enables significantly longer autonomy. Considering that starting with the Galaxy S24, Samsung will offer seven years of security and operating system updates, we will be able to extend its life cycle for quite a long time.

The battery is a consumable and it will be important to keep it in the best possible condition. Many users leave it charging overnight and there is a way to extend its life. Adaptive mode offers battery protection. In this mode, the Galaxy will automatically stop charging when the battery level reaches 80%, then return to basic mode and fully charge the battery. To enable it:

• Go to Settings > Battery > Battery protection.
• Activate the feature switch and select Adaptive mode.
• You will need to accept the customization service

Phone link

We are a legion of users who use Windows on PC and Android on mobile devices. Back in the day, Microsoft threw in the towel with Windows Mobile and adopted Google’s system as its own. It has made all kinds of Android apps, a custom launcher, and would just need a complete ROM.

“Link to Windows” aims to bridge the gap between mobile phones and computers. It is pre-installed on Samsung Galaxy and can link many features between them and they even have exclusive access to features such as high range. Instant hotspot. Use it because it works really well, both from Android and Windows.

Let’s say here that if you want to take it a step further but otherwise, you can use Samsung DeX to get the best desktop experience from your phone. You can stream content to your TV or monitor using an HDMI cable and even wirelessly.