I have been carrying a pixel as a daily smartphone for years now because, often, it simply offers the experience I want the most. That said, I always had a weakness for the foldables of Samsung, and the Galaxy Z Fold 7 was finally sufficient to replace my pixel as my main smartphone thanks to its radically improved hardware and its constant improvement software. But there is a broken Android functionality which continues to upset me.
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The differences between the Android experience on a pixel and a Galaxy device have always been, and will probably always be numerous. But, in recent years, this has been more and more like each covered base, no matter what you choose – at least the most important. With Pixel, the things you always hear on the main points include the call screen, its own experience and faster updates. And yes, these are all things I appreciate from my phone. But, by examining the Galaxy Z Fold 7 last month, I realized that I lacked these things much less than usual.
The work of Samsung in the past year on a user interface has really carried out the gap. Where I used to feel constantly feeling a user interface was too crowded and almost overwhelming, the subtle design and layout changes in an IU 7 and an 8 user interface did a lot to make the experience feel better.
Combined with the always stellar equipment of high -end galaxy phones, that makes a convincing experience!
I was quite tempted to continue using the Galaxy S25 Ultra after my examination earlier this year, but my love for foldables kept the Pixel 9 Pro as my daily pilot. But improvements in Galaxy Z Fold 7 equipment are really what pushed me through the finish line. Overall, I haven’t really missed my pixel yet. Things that seemed to be foreign in the years spent on Galaxy such as the paginated application drawer, the incoherent performance of the camera, and more have been resolved. Without a lot of changes, I can just use a Galaxy phone as I use my pixel.
That said, there is an almost constant frustration that I cannot go around – the history of notifications.
I have already talked about how Samsung, OnePlus and other brands buried the Android notification history functionality, but it remains frustrating – exasperating, even – that Samsung has published two other Android updates since without resolving it. Not only is the history of notification behind four layers of the parameter menu, but that does not work technically. You can see All your past notifications, of course, but you can’t do anything with them. The tapping on a notification simply opens the application, not the content of this notification.
I am sure that for many, it is not that relatable. Notification history is not the most popular Android functionality, but I think it is because Samsung ruined it. The usefulness of notifications history is in easy access. On Pixel, Google has made the functionality more accessible than ever, making it a fairly essential part of the rebuilded notification tank of Android 16. But Samsung continues to ignore it. As I have already said, it is a feature that distinguishes Android, it is something that iOS simply does not have. And this is something that, once you know, it exists and how to use it, becomes invaluable. We all slipped a notification by mistake, or we hit “erase everything” by accident, or we simply wanted to refer to a notification earlier. It just kills me that Samsung continues to ruin it.
Likewise, Samsung still deactivates the default categories / channels, which is only a ridiculous decision. For Android skin that gives you “all the features”, taking some of the best by default is simply wild.
Again, it probably seems minor, but it was by far my biggest headache to abandon my pixel for the Galaxy Z Fold 7. On the one hand, it is enormous progress on the part of Samsung, because it is the first time in years, I actively wanted to use a Samsung phone on a pixel. But, at the same time, these are things like that that frustrate me with Galaxy phones. Again, this is not the first time that Samsung refuses to give customers a functionality simply because they did not know how to ask.
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