Hello everyone. This year is coming to an end. But to start a new year and go forward, it is essential to look at our past to understand what the future has for us. To do so, I present the Galaxy Retrospect! Today, let's look at Nougat by Samsung and how TouchWiz became a better version of itself by becoming Samsung Experience.
7.0/UX8
You guys remember the Note 7. Even though some problems prevented this device from living the time it deserved, it's legacy lived on with the UI (and in the Note FE). The Note 7 introduced Grace UX. A nice and new UI that gave us a flatter Touchwiz with a more consistent iconography and enhanced features from Nougat on Marshmallow. It was released "as-is" for the A 2017 line-up, but was reworked for the S7 Nougat Beta. The new icons were kept, but now much more was redone. We can cite the new way "floating windows" work. Instead of downscaled replicas of the full-size app, the floating apps are resized much like you can resize them on Windows. Neat! AOD was boosted, the Settings were reorganized and we got "Force-Touch-Like" actions on the lock screen. It is also about then that Samsung began putting more preinstalled apps on the Play and Galaxy App Stores to give us new features independently of the major updates. The way we interact with notifications was reworked too, allowing you to reply a text from social apps within any other app. Now, it was a TW feature since the S6, but the Nougat implementation supports more than just texting. Oh, and we get Quick Settings actions without accessing the Settings app. We also got Screen Resolution options and Screen color manual settings. Let's not forget a Blue-light filter. You can now get rid of all these poorly coded fliters that destroys your phones without your consent!
The magnificent S8 do not only bring fancy hardware, but also a new UX. The most obvious change was the new and very cool "Outline Iconography". Even though the name is now Samsung Experience, the home screen is still TouchWiz and got a new update. You can now swipe up and down to access your app drawer and notification panel. So long, App Drawer button! There was also the new Samsung Connect app. See it as Quick Connect v2. It let's you control all your smart appliances, and even your whole house from It! Samsung DeX is new, just as a more competent version of Continuum. It is just the perfect way to use your S8 or Note8's raw power abilities to replace a PC (requires an external display, power adapter and external HID). Oh, and my personal favourite feature: FaceWidgets. They give you info and functions in a quick and intuitive way. And FP unlock can now work without waking the device.
Do note that some of these features were backported, in full or partially. Samsung Connect is available for most phones running MM or more recent (Including Note 4, A5, S5). The new TouchWiz home can be installed by APK.
These devices got UX8.1
Galaxy S5 Neo (only in Canada, lucky!) Galaxy Tab A 10.1 Galaxy S8, S8+ Galaxy A5 2017
7.1.1/UX8.5
The Note8 did not only bring the new Live Focus function, but also a new UI. As people complained of some performance issues with UX8.1, UX8.5 fixed these issues. We can also note the new Android version, and new settings too, like including "SoundAssistant" features directly into the UX. Some UI elements were tweaked too. Bixby was updated, but so did the version on the S8.
These devices got UX8.5
Galaxy Note 8 Galaxy A8 2018 (to be released soon) Galaxy J3 2016 (yes, 2016) Galaxy Tab A 2017 (Tab A2 S) Galaxy Tab A 8.0 2015 (Tab A S, not the T357W model) Galaxy Tab A 9.7, Tab A with S-Pen Galaxy Tab E 9.6 (T560NU), Tab E 8.0 (T377W)
If there are any errors, please let me know so I can make appropriate corrections.
Hum, you should contact your carrier, as you're still under warranty. Or find an official Samsung Repair Center using the world's favourite search engine
